Tuesday 5 January 2010

Aston Villa (a) Sat 19th December / Man City (a) Sat 26th December / Birmingham (h) Mon 28th December - A festive programme to forget

With the festive season now a distant memory and the drudgery of normal life back upon us once again, it occurred to me that I'd been rather sloppy of late and had missed entries for the past three league games. I would come up with some big excuse, but in all honesty it was down purely to a Christmas bout of extreme laziness.


These three games involved three defeats, four goals conceded and none scored by the boys in red and white. Ahhhh the joys of a packed Christmas programme.


With the Premier League season now over half way through, this poor run of results doesn't bode well, and whilst far from being a disaster, certainly leaves Stoke staring nervously at the wrong end of the table.


Prior to the Fulham game, we sit in 12th position with 21 points and a game in hand over most other teams. This in itself is not a bad record by any means, but a record of two draws and four losses in our last six Premiership games doesn't fill you with confidence.


Last year it was the stunning late fightback against Aston Villa which kick started our brilliant end of season run and came to epitomise our dogged never-say-die mentality. This season however, it was an excruciating let down and was typical of the poor luck and woeful finishing that has thus far epitomised our current campaign.



It really was a disappointing game, the type that it takes a few days to come to terms with, the type where I couldn't watch the Match of the Day highlights for around 5 days afterwards out of fear of smashing the TV into pieces with nothing but a sky remote. We really deserved something from this game with Etherington and Tuncay running the Villa defence ragged. Both missed good chances to give us a much needed goal with Tuncay in particular tormenting the Villa defence. Unfortunately it finished 1-0 to the home side as we rued missing several good hances.


Villa just about edged the first half but created very little in the second. Far from looking like a top 4 side, they looked sluggish and lightweight going forward and England starlets Milner and Young struggled to make an impact. Overall Villa looked tired, but after games against Man United and Sunderland in close succession, I suppose a bit of tiredness was to be expected. They celebrated this win as though it was one of the biggest games of the season, and it was undeniably a hard fought and precious victory for Villa as they push for a coveted Champions League spot.


What left a slightly bitter taste in Stoke mouth's however was the controversial disallowing of Mama Sidibe's perfectly legitimate goal. When decisions like this one go against you it's hard to keep perspective and not feel like you faced a great injustice the likes of which no other team ever has to suffer. Mama ran onto a superb Etherington cross and out muscling his defender (with arms barely raised mind), he nodded the ball firmly into the net. The defender Warnock went over rather easily, but to his credit didn't seem to be claiming a foul himself. The ref however managed to see an infraction and ruled out the goal. As one pundit noted after the game, if that was a foul, then Alan Shearer would barely of scored a goal in his career. A terrible, costly decision.


That goal would have put us in the lead and completely altered the course of the game. Once Villa scored however we were always up against it. In football, lightning very rarely strikes twice in the same place and there was to be no repeat of last season's heroics. Throughout the game we were guilty of missing several good chances, but we were definitely worthy of at least a point. On another day, and with a different referee, we could have produced another shock result, but alas it wasn't to be.

The Man City away game on Boxing Day was unfortunately not to be attended by yours truly due to family commitments. Whilst me and Keeling senior were far from averse to spending the day away from a house full of family in chilly Manchester, the fear of repercussions from respective better halves ensured that this match was one followed on the TV with Jeff and the boys.


Luckily, our decision paid off after all as we sank to a bland 2-0 defeat. By all accounts Stoke were never really in the game and posed little or no threat going forward.
Last season we faced City at Eastlands early on in our campaign and were taken to school by a certain Mr Robinho. That day we were outclassed and woefully ill-prepared. Today, while far from being as dominated as last season, we still showed no real sign of breaking City down.


The game came and went with little fanfare, and once it was over it was straight back to the leftovers, Roses and general over indulgence. This was definitely the easiest defeat of the season so far to get over. It's almost liked the memory of the Villa game numbed me to away-day pain. It's the games where you come so close to getting a result that really smart. This away day was never really within our grasp and the result was fairly predictable.

To complete the festive programme there was a Christmas home game against local rivals Birmingham City. Here was a great chance to get back on track and bring some much needed seasonal cheer to Potters fans. Unfortunately Brum were on a spectacular run and hadn't lost in ten games coming into this encounter. They were hot off a well earned draw against Chelsea at home and were always going to be a tough team to break down.


Earlier this season Stoke travelled to St. Andrews and came away with a draw themselves. We were the better team that day and Brum looked particularly lacklustre. I commented then that they would struggle this season and would get torn apart unless they changed something pronto. Thus proving that even yours truly is capable of Merson like football knowledge at times.


Somehow this rag-tag Brum team has pulled together and defied the odds to become a true force to be reckoned with. At a freezing Britannia Stadium they gritted their teeth and thanks to a commanding performance from Joe Hart in goal and resolute defending from their back four, they kept Stoke at bay. (A rugged and unattractive side pulling together and getting by on guts and teamwork....sounds oddly familiar.) They stuck away their one half chance and then defended stubbornly to leave with a memorable 'smash and grab' point.

These are the type of home games we were winning last season and we really can't afford to lose too many more matches against our mid-table rivals.

Stoke haven't scored in three Premier League games now, and only managed 4 in the last 8 outings. We also have the lowest amount of total goals scored in the league. Tone has given all four strikers a chance in the first team and none of them has gone on a goal scoring run. Beattie has looked worryingly unfit, Mama is as lethal as ever, Fuller and Tuncay both work hard but aren't taking their chances.

With the transfer window now open again, Tone may have one eye on a proven goalscorer to lead the line. I wouldn't give up on our forwards yet, as 3 out of the 4 of them are proven goalscorers in their own right, but how long can Tone give them before he seeks reinforcements?
A hugely disappointing festive period for Stoke, and a poor run that we need to put an end to sooner rather than later.

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