There's something especially pleasurable about a 1-0 win at Stoke, and we thoroughly deserved it today, despite only producing fleeting moments of the crisp, slick-passing football we've been treated to lately. Roscos goal, late in the first half as he ran onto a lovely ball through by Clarke, was enough to win it, although we had a couple of chances to make it safe in the second - but I'm not moaning about the final score. Stoke were muscular, as we've come to expect, but Javgelka's immobility was exposed by the movement and strength our front two - dare I say our best front pairing since Quinn and Phillips? I dare - different, but it could be close to as effective in this division.
A lovely stop off in Uttoxeter set us up nicely for the match, as we lined up:
Patterson
Gooch (c) Batth O'Nien Cirkin
Embo Matete
Clarke Pritchard
Simms Stewart
...and a bench of Bass, Roberts, Hume, Wright, Alese, Diamond, & Evans.
In our nice blue away gear, we attacked the far end and Stoke kicked off. Once again, we looked at least as good as our "established" championship opponents as we took the game to the Potters from the off. Some call it "the high press" but I just call it "doing their job". Stewart and Simms were into Stoke's 2022 version of Huth and co, while Pritchard snapped at everything that got further away from their keeper. The home side did have the better of possession in the first few minutes, but when Patto didn't get his clearance quite right, it stotted off an attacker and went wide - which was probably a prediction for how their afternoon would pan out.
Look, I know Stoke aren't the most inspiring of sides, but their fans seem to be suffering from the same post-prem depression as Sheffield Utd, and there was a distinct lack of noise. Not one rendition of Delilah, not one song, and one moment of "rahh" in 90-ofd minutes is a sad indictment of how they view their club. In stark contrast, there was an almost constant wall of sound from our end, (2,629, they say) which must do a lot to lift those on the field. If your fans don't care, it must be hard for you to.
With Stoke being afforded a lot of possession, we had O9 to thank for buzzing about, as he does, and getting in some vital blocks and headers, although it wasn't much of a surprise when he was booked for a trip that more experienced defenders (Jagielka?) would have disguised better. Almost immediately, a Potter did the same to Luke and went unpunished, allowing Rory Delap's bairn to try his inaccurate luck. Patto had to be on his toes a few times in the first 20 minutes but wasn't required to be more than solid. Which he was.
Gooch was sticking to his new mantra of winning the ball and getting shot quickly and usually accurately, giving the left side of the home defence a few jitters, and he did well to tee up Simms - but the big fella shot wide. We could have done with a goal to match our increasing presence in the game, but all we got was a handful of corners that we didn't profit from. There were a couple of moments when a greedier forward would have had a penk, but but we persisted in trying to find the perfect chance. Just whack it, man!
Simms and a defender went for a high one on the left edge of their box, resulting a rearranged nose for the Stokie and a drinks break for the other 21 players. Plenty of instructions were given by Neil, which our Lads nodded in agreement to, and when four added minutes were announced we fans were sort of happy but thought we should have made more of our attacking opportunities as Stoke had nullified most stuff after 35 minutes. 0-0 would have satisfied most of us, but it was not to be.
Four added? Enough for Clarke to pick up the ball near halfway, cut past his man in a seemingly harmless position, and clip a beaut over the top to Stewart in the inside right channel. LND simply controlled it and picked his spot inside the far post. What a good goal.
Happy at halftime? Too right we were, and we weren't that surprised when Wright replaced O9 for the second half - with the attitude of this season's ref's, another yellow was always on the horizon with Luke's enthusiasm. Also on was Evans for Matete - see comments immediately above.
Wright, after his blood and guts performance on Wednesday, was visibly relishing the physical battle with the Stoke attack and was in amongst immediately. He was harshly booked just after Delap's yellow as the ref went for bonus Football Manager points, and we began to wonder if there'd be 22 players on the field at the final whistle.
We were racking up the yellows, making us pray for a bigger squad, and they brought on ex-mag Gayle, who nearly capitalised on a rotten clearance by Patto - but thankfully his control was somewhere west of Rade Prica coming out of the Wheatsheaf after a crate of Maxim, and it bounced wide. The home support didn't even have the heart to go "awww" as we hooted our appreciation.
With a few minutes to go, Pritch - absolutely knackered by then - made way for Hume, allowing the already impressive Gooch to move forward - much to the dismay of the home left back. Five added minutes were announced, Patto produced a good save then sensibly had a lie down to give us the chance to catch our breath. We really should have doubled our advantage when Simms took a pass central and set Stewart away down the left, but when he turned inside, the LND chose to curl one towards the back post rather than roll it back to Simms on the edge - but it didn't curl enough
That meant a nervous last couple of minutes as the clock ticked down, but we really shouldn't have worried. A 1-0 victory without playing that well was another piece of evidence in the argument that we can more than hold our own in this division. The substitutions were spot on, the application was superb, and the spirit was just what we fans want.
On the down side, six yellows (09, Wright, Matete, Embo, Pritchard, and Clarke) might come back to bite us at some stage - unless the refs start to give the opposition the same treatment. Which I doubt will happen.
On the plus side, we won a game in which we only really clicked in patches, but that was more than good enough against a dreadfully unimaginative Stoke side.
Man of the Match? Gooch was once again top notch as Captain, but I think I'll give it to Stewart for leading the line really well, developing his SAS partnership with Simms -another real handful for a rather static defence - and taking his best chance really well.
Nice one, Ross.
