This was a deserved win in a closely-fought game played in very bad conditions. All credit to Watson for getting his first league goals for us. We’re back to winning ways at last.
BEFORE
Burnley and Boro both dropped two points last night and that was a great preamble to our match. We certainly didn't disgrace ourselves against Sheffield United and with better finishing could well have won it. We've definitely lost our cutting edge but no doubt our players will have had plenty of shooting practice during the week. Stoke are in mid-table and haven't won in their last four matches (their form’s better than ours actually) but I think that we’ll turn the tide and get the three points so my match prediction is 3-1 to us.
I got the team-news around 12.15 and Alese was starting in place of the suspended Mepham while Cirkin was on the bench. I didn’t recognise any of the Stoke side but their striker Cannon sounded ominous. I couldn’t manage to get the match on SAFSEE for some reason so I had to resort for a while to a combination of reports on BBC 5 Live and also texts on BBC Sport.
THE MATCH
Storm Darragh was lashing the stadium as we kicked off and it was likely to have an effect on the game. We started with the wind behind us at any rate. In the second minute a Roberts shot from the right of the box went narrowly wide. I hoped I wouldn’t have to keep writing ‘narrowly wide’ in this report. In the sixth a shot from Koumas was parried by Patto but Koumas was there to hit the rebound into the bottom left corner to put them ahead. My heart sank but from the kick-off we were level when Jobe fed Watson and his shot from outside the box also went into the bottom left corner. I was very pleased as Watson seems to be improving game by game. Stoke weren’t sitting back and we had to block a couple of shots by Bocat before we had chances ourselves from Jobe and Alese and then a Watson shot was blocked by Johansson in goal. Next we won two corners in a row and a goal seemed on the cards. A Roberts shot was blocked in the twentieth and at least we were getting plenty of efforts on target.
Three minutes later Hume conceded a corner and there was a repeat of this not long afterwards as the game ebbed and flowed. Rose went close with a header following the second corner. Elsewhere Leeds and Derby were drawing 0-0 so I hoped that wouldn’t change. A Derby win was maybe too much to hope for. In the thirty-third a long range Isidor shot was saved in the bottom left corner and soon a Rigg effort was also saved. Stoke were committing a fair number of fouls so we needed to make more of the resultant free-kicks as well as corners. Leeds went 1-0 up while in our game we kept plugging away with Isidor having another shot saved before putting another one wide. In the dying minutes a Watson shot from outside the box came off the right post following a free-kick and then Stoke won a corner. Leeds went 2-0 up and I couldn’t see Derby getting anything from that game. There was only a minute of added-time and it remained 1-1 as the half-time whistle went. It had sounded a humdinger of a match and I felt sure that there’d be at least another goal especially if Cirkin came on.
There’d been no changes by either side as the second period began. There’d also been no yellow cards yet which was unusual. We did most of the attacking in the early stages of the half. In the forty-ninth a Rigg shot was blocked and then a Jobe header was also blocked. A little later a close-range Hume effort hit the side-netting. The chances kept coming but were we going to be frustrated again? Stoke hadn’t come up with much in the way of attacking for a while. Jobe was down injured for a while but was able to continue. SAFSEE finally decided to work. Some subs were warming up just after the hour-mark and I hoped to see Mayenda and Cirkin on before long just to freshen things up as the game was sounding flat.
With twenty minutes to go a Rigg shot was saved by Johansson but there was plenty of time for us to get a winner. Watson scooped a good chance over the bar and we soon had another corner as we upped the pace again. Fifteen minutes to go and we still hadn’t made any changes but we finally did in the seventy-ninth when we brought on Cirkin and Mayenda for Alese and Rigg, switching to 4-4-2 in the process. We very soon had the ball in their net but it was ruled out for Isidor being offside. Stoke made another substitution and switched to a back five so it was looking like a draw as we entered the final stages. As soon as I typed that we went 2-1 up and it was Watson again, shooting into the bottom right corner from a Roberts pass. We’d deserved it for all the pressure we’d been putting on. Four minutes of added-time were announced and I could have done without that. Stoke were going for the equalizer but we were standing firm and then Hjelde replaced Isidor as we shored up at the back ourselves. Hjelde had a good first touch when he intercepted a Stoke pass and we had to weather a tense minute or so till the whistle finally went and we’d won 2-1.
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