Preview
One of the main points of interest tonight is the probable inclusion of Sunderland old boys Sorensen, Higginbotham and Delap, though Liam Lawrence’s dog-tripping escapades continue to rule him out. I’m sure Kenwyne will make an appearance and if Gordon isn’t available, I’m happy to have Fulop instead. By all accounts Stoke are a battling, physical side but they’ve conceded an average of two goals per home game, while winning two and losing two, and I can see us getting a couple tonight. We’re still looking vulnerable at the back as the goal last Saturday showed all too clearly and so I’m going for a score of 2-1 to us. I’ve just received my ticket for the Chelsea game and this has added to my confident mood as I get ready to tune into Century Radio.

The Match
Fulop retained his place and the only change was Bardsley in for Chimbonda but Nos had reappeared on the bench. We started off very brightly with Cisse getting a shot in during the first minute but Stoke slowly took control and after ten minutes we were lucky to escape when Ferdinand blocked on the line. Shortly afterwards Bardsley nearly put it into his own net but it went out for a corner. Stoke continued to pressurize but we had to wait twenty-five minutes for one of Delap’s trademark long throws, though thankfully Diouf intercepted it easily. We didn’t get our first corner till around the half hour mark and after that we picked up a little, at last, with Bardsley crossing well for Cisse to head just over. Our midfield were being quiet and Cisse was ploughing a lone furrow up front so as the half-time whistle went I was hoping we’d move up a gear or two after the break. Still 0-0 at half-time was okay.

At the start of the second half it was great to hear that Kenwyne had replaced Yorkie and that we’d switched to 4-4-2. We were certainly pushing up a lot more and the Stoke pressure was eased for a while but around the hour-mark we escaped again when Sidibe, under pressure from Bardsley, failed to make contact when he seemed certain to score. Cisse was replaced by Chopra just after that and so he’d only had fifteen minutes up front with Kenwyne. In fact the latter was mostly getting mentioned for his work in defence. The Stoke fans were certainly making a hell of a racket, especially when they got a throw-in. Speaking of which, in the seventy-third another Delap throw was met by Fuller and he put them one-up with a free header. Reid then replaced Malbranque and we started to have a greater sense of urgency. Six minutes from time Kenwyne shot just wide with our best effort so far and I began to hope for an equalizer. Sadly it wasn’t to be, despite us upping our game towards the end. Stoke had sounded a lot more up for this match than us and our passing had been poor.

Chelsea limbered up for our match on Saturday by beating in-form side Hull 3-0 away and I’d rather not dwell too much on our prospects against them at this point. Still, I’ll be at the Charlie Hurley evening on Friday and at Stamford Bridge so maybe I’ll see you there.

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