Stoke City 1-0 Middlesbrough – My View

  Here’s what I see as the key talking points from yesterday’s vitally important home victory over fellow relegation candidates Middlesbrough.

A season-defining win?
I feel that yesterday’s result could be the one we look back on at the end of the season as the most important in our bid for survival. The three points is crucial and makes our position a lot stronger with eight games to go, but the fact it came over fellow strugglers, and made their relegation more likely, makes it all the more important.

No wonder Shawcross was so happy with his goal

Winning ugly
I planned to comment here on how good it is to see that we have found the ability to grind out an ugly win from a game that looked like being a draw and we could have lost, but then I realised that almost everything we’ve done all season has been ugly. Who cares.

A tactical masterstroke?
All game Middlesbrough’s five tall defenders had coped extremely well with all we had thrown at them in the air, until Tony Pulis brought on 6’4” Mamady Sidibe in the 83rd minute. A minute later, we get a throw-in, Boro’s best markers concentrate on the imposing Sidibe, leaving the actually more proficcient attacking header of the ball Shawcross free to head home. Genius.

Destined for great things
Aged just 21, Ryan Shawcross has had an excellent first season at Premier League level. With many commanding defensive performances, as well as his new-found goalscoring touch, he may run Abdoulaye Faye close for our player of the season award. Already capped at Under 21 level, at this rate it can’t be too long before he gets his full England call. Alex Ferguson must be gutted at letting him go to us. Maybe there’s some rule he can make up to force him back?

The opposition
Though Middlesbrough have a reasonable defence and talented midfielders, passing the ball well, they lack any sort of attacking sharpness, and this was apparent yesterday as they failed to create a single really good chance despite having more than 60% of the possession. They’re the Premier League’s lowest scorers, with just 21 goals, and this is why I believe they will go down. If they do stay up, it’ll take something special over the next few weeks, as they are beginning to get cut off from most of the bottom half pack.

Tuncay and Middlesbrough lacked a cutting edge

Fit to referee?
Referee Lee Mason had a poor game yesterday. He booked Emmanuel Pogatetz of Boro and Glenn Whelan of Stoke quite early on for first fouls, and from there had set a dangerous precedent, meaning a lot of yellow cards were shown for fouls that you would like to see let go, as Mason lost control of the game. He’s refereed us four times this season, against Tottenham, West Brom, Liverpool as well as Middlesbrough, and on most occasions I’ve been quite impressed with him. We’ve taken ten point’s from those four games, so he must be doing something right.

Player Ratings:

Thomas Sorensen (gk): The Danish ‘keeper had another solid game at the Britannia Stadium, saving the few shots Middlesbrough had well. He was slightly hesitant at times on crosses though, causing some unnecessary confusion at the back. 7

Andy Wilkinson (rb): Before he was substituted at half-time with a back injury, I though Wilkinson was our best player in a poor first half showing, winning all his tackles and most in the air. 7

Ryan Shawcross (cb): Shawcross had another sound game defensively, despite a couple of early errors, and took his goal very well when the chance came in highly pressured circumstances. 7

Abdoulaye Faye (cb): Stoke’s captain was not quite at his brilliant best, but still played reasonably well as part of a defence that earned themselves a good clean sheet. 6

Danny Higginbotham (lb): Higginbotham had a quiet game, as Middlesbrough attacked little down their right, but dealt solidly with all he had to. 6

Liam Lawrence (rm): Last season’s player of the year had his best game since his return from injury, causing some problem’s for Boro, and almost earning a terrific assist after James Beattie headed his cross over the bar after an excellent winding run. 7

Glenn Whelan (cm): Whelan was another who had a quiet game, with little of note done either positive of negative. 6

Salif Diao (cm): After impressing earlier in the season, Diao has been a passanger in recent games, and looked uncomfortable again yesterday, being bypassed for large periods of the game, before rightly being substituted five minutes into the second half. 5

Rory Delap (lm): Delap made a nuisance of himself all game, and produced another fine assist for Shawcross’s goal. 7

James Beattie (cf): Beattie had arguably his worst game in Stoke colours, struggling to get involved and squandering his chances when he did. He was unlucky not to score early on though, when he was denied by a fine save from Middlesbrough’s Brad Jones. 5

Ricardo Fuller (cf): The Jamaican was a handfull on his return to the starting line up, but in truth got little out of the Boro denfence despite his best efforts. 6

Substitutes:

Stephen Kelly (rb): Replacing Wilkinson at half-time, I was apprehensive for Kelly after his dreadful debut at Sunderland, but he played a lot better yesterday, defensively sound and getting forward well. 7

Matthew Etherington (lm): Etherington did inject a degree of pace and life into the Stoke performance after his introduction, but struggled to make a huge impact on the game. 6

Mamady Sidibe (cf): Coming on with just seven minutes left, Sidibe had little time to make a great contribution, but he definitely caused havoc in the box for our goal shortly after coming on, freeing up space for Shawcross. 6

 My Man of the Match: Ryan Shawcross