2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Peter Smith)
Stoke City reached the 50-point mark and moved seven points clear of the relegation zone with three games remaining thanks to a 2-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday. Here are the talking points from a packed bet365 Stadium. Two big ticks and three big points It is such a relief to go to a Stoke City game when the stands are full of supporters actually looking forward to the match.
This was the biggest crowd here since Stoke’s last home game in the Premier League back in May 2018 and the highest for a game at this level since May 1963. A ticket offer helped but ticket offers alone don’t generate a buzz. It has felt like there has been a galvanising effect pretty much since the defeat to Middlesbrough on February 25.
Key players have returned, a consistent team has collectively rolled up their sleeves and got the job done. Gradually, doing things sensibly has helped confidence grow, performances have been kept at a standard and it’s no coincidence that results follow. If there were slip-ups or cursed luck at Coventry and Millwall, Stoke have also made their own luck by getting the ball and bodies into the right areas.
The foul for the penalty at Preston, the deflected goal against Luton, the bounce off Ashley Phillips’ hand at Cardiff and Ben Wilmot’s glorious backside finish here were reward for doing the right things. So a full house and a big win to go with it. Lovely jubbly.
Stoke flagging in a good way We liked the huge Vis Unita Fortior banner that was unrolled at the front of the South Stand before kick-off. It was ginormous, greeting the players as they came out. Well done all concerned.
Two wins on the bounce and two clean sheets in a row This was only the second time this season that Stoke have picked up back to back wins and it’s back-to-back clean sheets too. We’ve spoken to Mark Robins about the importance of this before but he was keen to change the subject now he’s actually done it. “We go to Elland Road next,” he said.
“That is a tough game. There’s no doubt about it. It’s a tough game.
We are going to have to be really good, have a bit of luck and be really good. We can go there and really enjoy it and then get ready for our final home game on Friday after that. In the meantime we can enjoy this tonight and then get back to work tomorrow.
” Not another left-back problem Eric Bocat was nursing a problem with the same calf that kept him out for two months, Jordan Thompson was stretchered off in an ankle brace, Josh Wilson-Esbrand is “fit but not really fit” and Enda Stevens is probably out for the season. Stoke don’t do left-back problems like anyone else. Lynden Gooch will be on standby to play at Leeds.
Fingers crossed that Thompson is not as bad as feared even if the medical team were not taking any chances until he had been scanned. Backside upside Souleymane Oulare has a place in Stoke City folklore thanks to the goal off his bottom in a play-off semi-final second leg against-the-odds win at Cardiff in 2002. Ben Wilmot can take a seat, ahem, next to him with Stoke’s second here, rocketing in off his rear end as 19-year-old Wednesday keeper Pierce Charles had a howler.
Danny Rohl refused to moan about Wilmot jumping in the way, as his players were trying to convince referee Stephen Martin, and Robins added “without being funny” when he described as comical, although he was smiling. Charles, one of Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland boys, actually did well to cope with the noise in the ground whenever the ball came near him again but he will want to forget that moment. Robins said: “I'd have been disappointed with the goalkeeper to be honest.
He's a young keeper. What he's done is he's seen a run and he's tried to release the ball really quickly ahead of him and he's not brought the vision back and seen him in front of him and he's kicked it against his backside and it's gone in. It can happen.
.. although I've never seen it before in nearly 40 years.
“To be honest there was the Hull game last week when a player kicked it into his own player's face and it goes into the back of the net. These things do happen.” While you're here, we have launched a new WhatsApp group to deliver the latest Stoke news directly to your phone.
Click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in. If for some reason you decide you no longer want to be in our community, you can leave at any time by clicking on the name at the top of your screen and clicking 'Exit Group', simple as that..
