Stoke City 3-2 Aston Villa

    

 Mamady Sidibe’s late, late strike earned Stoke a first ever Premier League win, and the fact that he seemed to know very little about it made it all the sweeter.

  A Stoke side that looked much stronger than the one that had faced up against Bolton a week before kicked off against Villa, who many expect to achieve highly this year, especially after their emphatic victory over Manchester City six days earlier. From the kick-off, the Stoke side that featured debutantes Amdy and Abdoulaye Faye as well as returning favourites Liam Lawrence and Ricardo Fuller put Villa under pressure.

  Less than a minute into The Potters’ first home match back in the top flight Stoke could have been ahead. A trademark Rory Delap long throw, a tool that proved decisive late on, evaded the Villa defence and was met my Senegalese midfielder Amdy Faye who was unable to make clean contact with the ball and guided his free header well wide.

  Seconds later, Stoke hearts were in mouths as Villa’s Norweigan striker John Carew burst into the Stoke area and seemed to have a clear path to goal. Leon Cort’s well timed challenge, however, denied the visitors of the chance to shoot. The early passages of the match were played at a high tempo, but neither side succeeded in creating a clear scoring chance in the first half hour. It was Carew that came closest to breaking the deadlock, sending a curling effort just wide of Thomas Sorensen’s left hand post from the edge of the penalty area after 20 minutes.

  Aston Villa could easily have been awarded a penalty on 28 minutes, Gabriel Agbonlahor taking a tumble following Seyi Olofinjana’s heavy challenge. Referee Mark Halsey looked set to award the spot-kick, placing his whistle to his mouth, but deciding against blowing it, to the relief of the 25,000 stoke fans packed into the stadium. Relief turned to delight in a matter of seconds, as Stoke were awarded a penalty, Halsey turning away the initial claim after Ricado Fuller went down, but not hesitating to give Stoke the penalty when Martin Laursen appeared to trip Rory Delap seconds later.

  Stoke have not missed a league penalty for more than two and a half years, and Liam Lawrence was handed the responsibility to continue this run, which he did with aplomb, sending the ball powerfully into the bottom left corner of Brad Friedel’s net, despite the American’s despairing dive.

  Friedel had a mad moment eight minutes later, haring out of goal in an attempt to intercept a through ball, but missing it completely. Fuller latched onto the loose ball but could not keep his effort down after engineering shooting space between Friedel and defender Curtis Davis. A little more composure from the Jamaican may well have resulted in Stoke going into the break with double the advantage.

  It was though 1-0 at half time, and a well earned lead for Stoke, and 1-0 it remained until the 63rd minute. Stoke should have had another penalty early on in the half, but an obvious handball by Laursen, then another from davis went unpunished.

  Stoke seemed to be settling nicely on the lead, and with a string of passes being greeted with cheers, it would have been fair to say that neither side looked like scoring. Villa did though, restore parity, Carew stealing possession from Carl Dickinson 25 yards out, before playing a smart one-two with Ashley Young before darting between Abdoulaye Faye and Leon Cort and clinically firing past Sorensen from a tight angle. It was an arguably undeserved goal, and most certainly unwelcome one, but no-one can deny that it was a very good one.

  After the goal, Villa looked the more likely team to go on and win it, and I for one, would have happily taken the draw. Stoke survived the ensuing pressure, with the greedy Gareth Barry just failing to divert the ball goalwards from Ashley Young’s quality delivery. Stoke attempted to steady the ship by making changes, the impressive Amdy Faye being replaced by compatriot Salif Diao and Dave Kitson making way for eventual matchwinner Mamady Sidibe with just over ten minutes left to play.

  These ten minutes proved to be by far the most eventful of the match. Seyi Olofinjana intercepted Barry’s poorly placed pass and slid the ball to Lawrence. Last year’s top Championship assist provider got his first of the season, threading the ball to Ricardo fuller, who displayed excellent skill to flick the ball over the foot of Laursen, before turning and accelerating away from him. From the tight angle produced, the goalkeeper would always be the favourite, but Fuller produced an excellent finish across the goal, travelling powerfully into the bottom corner and sending the Stoke fans wild.

 

It looked likely that Villa would not have enough time to respond, but again the odds were overturned. Martin Laursen made amends for an overall poor showing, by tucking the ball home just four minutes later after pin-ball in the Stoke box following Barry’s low free-kick delivery.

  Again, any Stoke fan would have been forgiven for gratefully accepting the draw as an excellent result against a very strong side, but the Stoke players had other ideas. Deep into the four minutes of injury time added by Halsey, The Potters won one last throw in inside the Villa final third, Rory Delap slinging it in over 37 metres. Sidibe rose highest but his body twisted under pressure from defenders, leaving him facing away from goal. The ball struck him on the back of the head, he may have flicked it goalwards, but I believe his first goal of the season came more through luck than judgement as it sailed into the goal in front of the Boothen End, sending the supporters into raptures.

Villa barely had time to kick off before the whistle was blown and the game was over. The first Premier League win was always going to be special, but the dramatic manner in which it arrived makes it all the more magical to Stoke fans. Long may the wins continue.

Stoke team (4:4:2):

                           Sorensen

Griffin  Cort  Abdoulaye Faye  Dickinson

Lawrence  Amdy Faye  Olofinjana  Delap

                       Kitson  Fuller

Subs: Diao for Amdy Faye (72), Sidibe for Kitson (76), Cresswell for Fuller (87)

Subs not used: Simonsen, Shawcross, Whelan, Wilkinson

Attendance: 27,500