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Stoke City 1-1 Newcastle United – My View

Here’s my reaction following yesterday’s 1-1 home draw with Newcastle.

Not a bad result, but a very disappointing one
A draw against Newcastle is a reasonable result, and, given the other results on the day, the point makes our position stronger in our bid for survival, with one bookmaker now giving odds of 11/1 for us to go down, but I can’t help but be disappointed. We bossed the game for the most part, and the three points would have made survival very likely. The fact that we ended up sitting too deep on a one goal lead and paying the price makes it even harder to take.

One win from survival
That being said, it now seems likely that one more win will be enough to keep us up, putting us on 39 points, with next week’s home game against struggling Blackburn the perfect chance to get it.

Pressure on
The pressure is now on us to perform in the Blackburn game though. With many people expecting two wins from the games against Newcastle and Blackburn. After yesterday, the players will feel they have to secure one, adding that bit more scope for nerves and mistakes to start coming into the game.

Sitting back
Countless times in Tony Pulis’s early years as Stoke manager, we were punished for sitting back on a lead after we had had the better of the game. This hasn’t been the case so much over the last two seasons, so it was very disappointing to see yesterday. Newcastle were there for the beating, so why did we take off our two most threatening attacking players in James Beattie and Matthew Etherington with fifteen minutes to go and allow them onto us? I’m a believer in attack being the best form of defence, and while we attacked Newcastle for the best part fo the second half, they never looked like scoring, the moment we sat back, they did.

A Stoke City fan in fancy dress, in the stands prior to kick off.
One Stoke fan – unfortunately wrong

Costly misses
We did have plenty of chances to put the game beyond Newcastle in the second half, with at least three that you’d hope Premier League quality players would put away. They didn’t however, and paid for it, as Newcastle forced a rare couple of chances, and took one. This season as a whole, our finishing has been good, but if it had been more like it was yesterday, I doubt we’d be in as high a league position as we are now.

Abdelight
How much money could Abdoulaye Faye have cost his former club Newcastle this year? Not only have they taken a £8 million hit on letting him go and replacing him with the far less reliable Fabricio Coloccini, he has now scored twice against them this season. If he hadn’t scored those two goals, they would be four points better off and looking likely to survive. Instead, they are right in the thick of a battle against relegation to the championship that would cost them ten of millions of pounds.

 
Abdoulaye has swapped despair at Newcastle for delight at Stoke, and I couldn’t be happier

A matter of temperament
I’d like to criticise Newcastle’s Ryan Taylor for his actions in the game yesterday. Firstly, having been caught admittedly late by Etherington, he writhed around like an upended beetle, making the challenge seem worse than in was. Then, later in the game, he launched into a very bad tackle on Etherington, which was, in my opinion, later than Etherington’s, higher than Etherington’s, harder than Etherington’s, and an act of premeditated revenge. Yet, both players received a yellow card for their tackles. How’s that fair? In contrast to this is the on-pitch temperament of Beattie, who I must say gets on with the game extremely well. To his credit, despite being felled several times, once sustaining a severe blow to the head, he was always up quickly, making the referee’s job a lot easier.

The opposition
I didn’t think Newcastle played very well yesterday, and I think they were lucky to get a point, but it is to their credit that they were able to dig in and get the goal. With so many expensive foreign players in their squad, which in my opinion contributes to their lack of fighting spirit, it is telling that their crucial goal was scored by a young, homegrown player. They were also extremely susceptible to fast breaks and counter-attacks, it’s just a shame we didn’t make any of them count. I feel a faster, more naturally attacking team could have scored a great many against Newcastle yesterday. I think they could stay up, with Shearer giving them a boost that will help their chances, but I am sure they will be right in the relegation mix at the end of the season.

Player Ratings

Thomas Sorensen (gk): The Dane didn’t have a great deal to do, with Newcastle only managing two attempts on target all match. On the whole he had a reasonably solid game, dealing well with many crosses, and may consider himself unlucky not to claim a third straight clean sheet after he was beaten by a very good header that he cannot be blamed for conceding to. 6

Andy Wilkinson (rb): Wilko had another good game, as ever he was strong int he tackle and good in the air. his passing, without doubt the weakest area of his game, also seems to have improved. He did make an extremely rash tackle in the second half though, and was lucky he didn’t make contact with the player, as if he had done, the outcome would probably have been more severe than the yellow card he did receive. 7

Ryan Shawcross (cb): A mediocre showing from March’s player of the month. He was beaten a fair bit in the air by Ameobi, but on the whole shouldn’t be too disappointed with his contribution. 6

Abdoulaye Faye (cb): Defensively, Faye had an excellent game, keeping Michael Owen very quiet. He also took his chance well when it came (though he would have been very disappointed to miss). The one negative point from his performance was that he often tried to do too much, lingering on the ball in an attempt to mock his former club, rather than ensuring defensive security. 8

Danny Higginbotham (lb): Higginbotham was carrying a back injury going into the game and it showed as he struggled to make an impact on it, and was importantly beaten to the header by Carroll for Newcastle’s goal. 5

Liam Lawrence (rm): Lawrence was another to have a mediocre game, not seeing as much of the ball as usual from his right-wing position. His delivery was good all day though, and he claimed an assist for our goal from the corner that wasn’t. 6

Rory Delap (cm): In a game in which midfielders didn’t play a huge role, Delap was moderately effective. His shooting though was woeful as he blazed two half-chances over the bar. 6

Glenn Whelan (cm): Much like Delap, Whelan did little wrong. He too missed his chances when they came though, seeing a header cleared off the line and a shot saved by Steve Harper when he could wel; have done better. 6

Matthew Etherington (lm): Etherington was lively and saw a lot of the ball, but was perhaps the worst culprit of not taking his chances, twice failing to convert promising situations after breaks from defence. 6

James Beattie (cf): It is just a shame that none of our best chances fell to Beattie, as I am sure he would have tucked one away. He worked hard in a game that was not the easiest for him after he sustained a cut to the head early on and caused a few problems for the Newcastle defence. 6

Ricardo Fuller (cf): Fuller had a pretty bad game. He struggled to get much change out of the Newcastle defenders and wasted a couple of good chances, like almost everyone else in the Stoke team. 4

Substitutes:

Richard Cresswell (cf): After coming on for Beattie, Cresswell did very little ion his twenty minutes on the pitch, possessing neither the skill or guile to trouble the Newcastle backline. He is simply not good enough at this level any more, and it is worrying that he was our first port of call as an attacking substitute. 4

Danny Pugh (lm): Only on the pitch for a short time, it would be unfair to pass judgment on Pugh’s performance. NA

Stephen Kelly (rb): As with Pugh. NA

My Man of the Match: Abdoulaye Faye

Picture of Abdoulaye Faye

 

 

 

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