Stoke City 2-2 Portsmouth

 

  Stoke shared the points with fellow strugglers Portsmouth after a 2-2 draw at the Britannia Stadium this afternoon. All the goals came in the final fifteen minutes of the game, with Croatian winger Niko Kranjcar giving Portsmouth the lead before a quick-fire brace from striker James Beattie turned the game in Stoke’s favour, the first coming from a dubious penalty and the second when Beattie was arguably offside. Portsmouth dramatically snatched a point though in injury time, with Stoke centre-back Ryan Shawcross scoring an unfortunate own-goal, diverting Hermann Hreidarsson’s cross-shot into the net.

The giant flag travels round the stadium before kick-off

  Stoke manager Tony Pulis opted to make five changes to the side that lost 2-0 at Sunderland two weeks ago, with Danny Higginbotham, Danny Pugh and former Portsmouth player Amdy Faye coming into the side, while Mamady Sidibe and Liam Lawrence made their first league starts since December and October respectively, both having recovered from knee injuries.

  Portsmouth caretaker boss Paul Hart named an unchanged side for his second game in charge, naming the same eleven players that triumphed 2-0 at home to Manchester City last week, a result that was their first win in ten games.

  The first half of the game was a dour affair, with both sides limited to half chances, the only shot on target coming mid-way through the half when Lawrence hit a tame free-kick straight at Portsmouth ‘keeper David James, who recently became the Premier League’s highest appearance maker.

Kranjcar’s scrap for the ball with former Portsmouth loanee Salif Diao was typical of the scrappy first half

  The visitors’ best moment of the half came in the very last minute of it, with 6’7” England forward Peter Crouch, who was, unsurprisingly, a constant aerial threat, bringing the ball down behind the Stoke defence. he was denied a fourteenth goal of the season, however, by a fantastic last-ditch tackle by Stoke captain Abdoulaye Faye, who once again excellent in the heart of defence.

  The performance by the band of the Staffordshire Regiment of the army, who were paraded on the pitch at half-time, seemed to do little to rouse the players of either side, with the game continuing in lacklustre fashion. With shots on target rarer that Mancunian Manchester United fans, Higginbotham had a rare chance for Stoke, the ball dropping for him fifteen yards out on his favoured left foot. The former Southampton man wasted the opportunity though, firing his half-volleyed effort well over James’s crossbar.

Higginbotham fires over

  With fifteen minutes remaining, it seemed inevitable that the game would end goalless, with neither side looking anything like scoring, though Portsmouth were beginning to enjoy the better of the possession of the ball. While the game to this point had been dull, what happened thereafter, however, was anything but, with the match exploding into life in dramatic fashion with three goals in the space of five minutes. Kranjcar, who had been largely quiet in the match, played a neat one-two with Pompey forward David Nugent to get in behind the Stoke backline, before cooling dispatching the chance, sliding the ball under the onrushing Stoke goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen.

  It seemed like the single goal would be enough to give the visitors a crucial three points, but just three minutes later Stoke were level. Under no pressure after a long ball into the Portsmouth box, full-back Glen Johnson controlled the ball, to see referee Mike Jones, who sent off Stoke’s Ricardo Fuller for slapping teammate Andy Griffin at West Ham in January, immediately awarding Stoke a penalty, indicating that Johnson had handled the ball, despite being positioned a long way from the incident. The decision appears to be a poor one, as replays show that Johnson took the ball down with his chest.

  Lucky breaks have been few and far between for Stoke this season, and Beattie was never going to let this one pass us by, stepping up to power the spot-kick hard and high to James’s left to level the scores. With the game suddenly alive, Stoke pushed forward in search of another, and were rewarded just two minutes after the penalty had been scored, Andy Wilkinson putting the ball into the box after an excellent run down the right flank and Danny Pugh scuffing the resulting volley. Poacher extraordinaire Beattie was, as he has been for his whole career, in the right place at the right time, diverting Pugh’s strike into the open goal with a simple header at the back post.

  The Portsmouth players were incensed, claiming Beattie had strayed offside, though I would suggest he wasn’t, as it would just be too much for Stoke to get two favourable refereeing decisions in the same match.

 
Beattie scores his first goal and celebrates his second, his third and fourth for Stoke

  After seeing elation turn to despair in two short minutes, it is a credit to Portsmouth that they continued to attack Stoke in the games final minutes, and were able to earn the draw they deserved in the first of four minutes of injury time. With Stoke sitting deep, the ball broke to Portsmouth full-back Hreidarsson on the left edge of the Stoke box, the Icelander hitting a powerful cross-shot across the area. The ball struck Shawcross, and bounced past the wrong-footed Sorensen and into the Stoke net, a goal that must cruelly go down as a Shawcross own goal as Hreidarsson’s effort was drifting wide of the target.

Portsmouth jubilantly celebrate their equaliser

  All being considered, a draw was a fair result, though one that suits Portsmouth more and sees them climb the Premier League table to fourteenth. Stoke stay seventeenth, one place clear of the relegation zone, though results elsewhere mean our cushion over the bottom three is extended to two points, though it was so close to being more.

  Next up for Stoke is a tricky away trip to Aston Villa, though Martin O’Neil’s side have gone slightly off the boil recently. before a home game against Bolton continues our run of winnable home fixtures. One one from these two games would come in very handy, as we look to remain clear of the bottom three as the season draws towards its finish.

Stoke side: (4:4:1:1)

                                    Sorensen

Wilkinson  Shawcross  Abdoulaye Faye  Higginbotham

                    Lawrence  Amdy Faye  Diao  Pugh

                                    Sidibe  Beattie

Substitutions: Tonge for Lawrence (66), Cresswell for Sidibe (84)

Subs not used: Simonsen, Sonko, Whelan, Kitson, Camara

Attendance: Not available