Stoke 4 Rochdale 0: Captain marvel Joe Allen’s double leads first-half romp as Potters stroll into the Carabao Cup third round

JOE Allen was Stoke’s captain marvel - and showed just why boss Mark Hughes does not want to sell him.

Allen ran the show before the break as he scored twice and made another for Peter Crouch before Ramadan Sobhi bagged a superb late solo goal.

The Wales midfielder has been a target for Swansea City who were ready to take Allen back to his former club in a £20million deal.

But Hughes insisted Allen is staying put only a year after his £13million move from Liverpool.

Allen was handed the captain’s armband for first time since arriving in the Potteries.

And he led from the front to stun League One Rochdale who were three down before the break as Stoke eased into the next round.

Hughes made eight changes but Stoke still looked strong and they took the lead after 16 minutes.

Erik Pieters attacked down the right and crossed for Allen to score with a deflected header - his first goal since February.

Ramadan almost made it two before setting up Allen who crossed for Crouch to turn the ball in from close range.

Allen claimed his second of the night three minutes before the break after Bojan and Pieters combined.

But there was to be no hat-trick as Hughes replaced Allen with Darren Fletcher at half-time.

Josh Tymon - a summer signing from Hull - went close to opening the scoring on his debut after 67 minutes he chipped on to the bar after spotting he keeper off his line and Bojan was inches wide of making it four.

Egypt start Ramadan completed the rout with his first goal for Stoke after rounding keeper Brendan Moore and scoring from the tightest of angles with 10 minutes left.

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