Scott Hogan was not supposed to be included in Stoke City’s squad for their trip to Wales to face Swansea City last weekend. An unlikely promise to manager Nathan Jones before the game, though, earned him a place on the bench.

The Villa loanee looked to have fallen out of favour under Jones after having been left out of the matchday squad for their crucial mid-week clash with Huddersfield Town.

And it was to remain that way too, with the Stoke Sentinel reporting that Hogan was set to be left out of the squad for the second consecutive match until he approached Jones's trusted sports scientist Jared Roberts-Smith.

The Republic of Ireland international promised Jones that if he included him in the 18-man squad, he would go on to score the winning goal.

Jones explained: “Scott Hogan wasn’t in the squad, but he went to see my sports scientist on Friday and said, ‘If he just gets me in the squad, I’ll score the winning goal tomorrow.’

“So, I pulled him into the office and asked him what he’d said, and he said, ‘Yes, I will, I will.’

“So, in no uncertain terms I said, ‘Get your gear, get on the bus.’”

Incredibly, Hogan did exactly what he predicted he would do. Jones’ side trailed to the former league leaders inside the first minute through Andre Ayew. Sam Clucas levelled the score and that looked to be that for Jones and the travelling supporters.

That was until Hogan popped up with an instinctive finish from close range in the dying embers of the match to hand Stoke their first league win of the season under the most unlikely of circumstances.

He was playing for just over 25 minutes before he fulfilled his own prophecy after Jones had given both him and Sam Vokes an animated coaching session before sending them out into the firing line.

“I toyed with it but came to the conclusion,” continued Jones. “All right, that kind of thing doesn’t happen often, so I did, I put him in, put him on and he did. Bosh!”

Jones and Hogan embraced after the match in celebration and had another little chat. Though, Jones has declared that this chat will remain between the two of them.

“Yes, I did… but that will remain between me and him,” concluded the Stoke City manager.

The verdict

Jones has an incredible amount of fire power at his disposal.

A lot of their supposed match winners seem to be out of touch and short of confidence.

However, it doesn’t get much more confident than promising your manager a match-winning goal.

Perhaps Hogan’s confidence will rub off on a few other players in the squad. A confident striker of his quality will be a very dangerous weapon in the Championship.