A game under the floodlights

Last updated : 12 March 2010 By Phil Ashton
Steven Thompson
Steven Thompson - a good choice up front
Given the timing of the game and my evening commute from work, my normal routine of getting to my seat 45 minutes before the start, went out of the window. Instead I found myself walking down Brunshaw Road and past the club shop at 7:30pm, weaving through the mass hoards who seemingly also had left it very late to get into the ground (Why do people leave it so late?).

There were plenty of people milling around but it surprised me just how quiet everybody was before the game. It's fair to say that there weren't many outward signs of confidence on show, so it was clear that we needed a performance and a result to get the belief flowing back.

Finally in my seat to be told that Bikey, Elliott and McDonald had made way, for Cork, Alexander and Thompson. These changes felt understandable following some poor individual performances in the Pompey game, however it seemed that we would again be persisting with a 4 man midfield. In the absence of Fletcher, Thommo felt like a sensible choice to give the team a bit of muscle upfront an additional body to help defend against the anticipated aerial bombardment.

The white marks left on the perimeter in front of the Longside showed just how far forward the advertising hoardings had been moved and it was clear that the preparation for the game had been done in order to prevent Stoke. If we could do this successfully, the question was then whether we'd then have enough ourselves to overcome one of the league's meanest defences.

The game started brightly there were only 3 minutes on the clock before Delap's first long throw for the evening from which I was relieved to see the resulting header flash past the post. The change to the hoardings seemed to have had limited impact however as Delap's sideways run up allowed him to reach the penalty area with ease - a pattern largely repeated for the rest of the evening.

It was pleasing to see us give as good as we got in the first period, with Stoke stretching the Burnley defence (notable last ditch defending from Cort), but we also caused problems with Eagles given an opportunity to run into the Stoke box following a foul on Mears as he bombed down the wing. It was clear early on that the key battle was in the air, with both teams using the long ball. Our best moment was when Cork received the ball well on the edge of the box but opted to play the ball to Paterson on the right when it seemed to everyone that the shot was the better option.

"This is the best we've played for a while…my blood pressure is beginning to rise a bit", was the pleased view from one of the fans in front. My immediate concern that these would prove to be 'famous last words' were unfortunately justified when Stoke scored a trade mark goal from a Delap throw. (it's only Heskey…he never scores", was another such 'foot in mouth' moment we've had this season). To be fair to Stoke this was quite a slick move and clearly well rehearsed, with the flick on, leaving Tuncay with the simple task of nodding the ball beyond Jensen. "We only score from a throw in" was the Stoke fan's jubilant celebration. I didn't know whether I'd be embarrassed if we adopted and then profited from these tactics. As we've seen many times this year, whilst it's not pure football, it's certainly effective and at the moment with low confidence and a need for points, I'd take a goal from anywhere. I didn't think we deserved to have gone one behind, so was hopeful that we'd return to the positive play that had been commended barely minutes before.

In all honesty we never really recovered and the play was largely scrappy from then until half time, with a series of misplaced passes and fouls not helping proceedings. The only other play of note before the break was when Mears had a clear run on goal, cutting in from the right, but opted to float a cross rather than drill the ball across the box. This felt like another case of poor decision making given the aerial strength of the Stoke defenders.

We were all hoping for better after the break and so it turned out. With McDonald replacing Cork, who had faded in the first half from a promising start to the game, we started to play better football again. The early signs were promising with good link up play between Thompson and Eagles, and our equaliser wasn't too far behind, coming when Paterson put in a perfect cross for Nugent to head home. There were big parallels between this goal and the one which Nugent scored against Sunderland, both came from great crosses from the right wing and both were finished emphatically by Nugent.

This gave the crowd a big lift and thoughts immediately turned to whether we could keep the momentum going and take the 3 points. Another great ball into the box from Paterson was spilled by Sorensen but in the ensuing scramble we just couldn't turn it home. Eagles had three long range shots from outside the box, with only one of these troubling Stoke's keeper when it bounced in front of him. Again the decision has to be questioned as we didn't prosper from the good positions we got into. At the other end some nervy defending was a concern as it looked like we might give away another soft goal but largely Stoke's attacking threats were nullified. With the last few minutes drifting away, McDonald had our final chance but smashed his shot wide from the edge of the box.

In summary we coped well with Stoke's threats and our defending from set plays was much better than in previous games. To battle back from a goal down showed good character but I was disappointed by the lack of urgency, from both the crowd and the players, as the chance of the 3 points drifted away. I'm not suggesting that we should have been too cavalier in our attitude as we have been punished for this tactic in previous games, but with 10 minutes to go I was left hoping for a bit more. It was certainly better than the Portsmouth game however and we need to take confidence from this into Saturday's massive game against Wolves.