By Jack Watson
Every aspect of this game was incredible from City today: the chemistry; teamwork; determination and even the changes made by Rosenior in the second half. I am gutted that my brother and I did not make the trip to the Bet365 Stadium, however, I did not fancy waking up very early and setting off at 7am. If it was a 3pm kick-off, we probably would have made the trip. Nonetheless, we watched it on Sky Sports at home and it was an entertaining 90 minutes of football to watch.
The Potters have had a mediocre start to the new season with two solid wins, one draw and four defeats, sitting 20th in the table on 7 points. Despite their poor performance today, I think that they will have no trouble with picking themselves up and developing as the season goes on. Also, they need their fans behind them; it was a very sparse attendance today. For us, we have picked up 9 points from five games, winning two and drawing three. We could have stolen three points from Leeds earlier in the week, but the post prevented us. Also, we have not beaten Stoke since 2019 and have not won at their ground in 17 years. Could we put an end to this drought and extend our unbeaten run to seven?
Rosenior made three changes to the starting eleven–clearly still endeavouring to find a team that he can consistently start with–with Adama Traore, looking to resurrect himself from his miss in mid-week, Tyler Morton and Ruben Vinagre came in for Lewie Coyle, out with concussion, Scott Twine and Liam Delap. That meant our squad was as follows: Ryan Allsop, in goal; Ruben Vinagre, Alfie Jones, Jacob Greaves and Cyrus Christie, making up the back line; Regan Slater, Jean Seri, Tyler Morton and Jaden Philogene, in the middle and Adama Traore was distributed above Aaron Connolly, who was up-front on his own. New summer signing James Furlong made his name on the bench, alongside: Matt Ingram; Sean McLoughlin; Ozan Tufan; Allahyar Sayyadmanesh; Liam Delap; Jason Lokilo; Andy Smith and Scott Twine.
At the beginning of the first period both sides looked very sloppy and exhausted, however, it was Stoke who were able to settle quicker than us and caught us out in the 20th minute, by having the first opportunity of the game; Johnson received the ball, drove towards the box, but he dragged his effort wide in what was a costly miss.
Stoke never looked threatening on the attack after this and made some very sloppy mistakes, however, fortunately for Stoke, we were unable to capitalise, which was quite frustrating. They had a 10 minute period of giving the ball away to us near the halfway line–sometimes in their own box–but we were not quick enough to counter.
Notwithstanding our shaky start, we were able to turn things around in quick succession and take the lead. At the half hour mark, Christie played the ball over the top for Philogene on the right-wing, who outmanoeuvred Ben Wilmot, squared it to Connolly and he was able to easily slide it into the back of the net. Another goal for the Irishman, who is now our top goal scorer (5), but we were not finished yet.
Two minutes after this, Ryan Allsop booted the ball towards the right, which landed perfectly for Connolly, who was able to chest it down and run into a large pocket of space in the box. He took a few steps across the box before shooting, but it was a poor effort, however, it landed into Traore’s feet, who smartly turned and shot first time, which made the net bulge. He can certainly put that miss against Leeds to the back of his head, as he doubled our advantage. That was more like it; we are starting to take our chances in front of goal and it is paying off quite well. Also, Allsop is making a huge impact and fitting into our style of play.
We dominated the game after this and even had a chance at increasing our advantage to three. Towards the end of the half, a corner was swung in from the left and a downward header from Connolly forced a clearance from Johnson on the line. The only opportunity the hosts had were two free-kicks, but they were both stopped by Allsop, who had an exquisite half.
I have to say we started the second half quite poorly and we were giving away a lot of pointless free-kicks. One challenge resulted in Greaves receiving a yellow card, which means he will have to miss the next game against Plymouth. That could be quite costly as he is a clinical defender, who we desperately need at the back. Nevertheless all was forgotten when a stage of pure dominance resulted in our lead being increased to three. In the 73rd minute, Morton passed to Slater on the D, who was able to turn and shoot and with the help of a slight deflection, it smashed the top right corner of the net. I always used to complain that we never took shots from outside the box, but most of them this season have come from that position.
The game was out of Stoke’s hands now, however, their resilience and determination to get something out of the game, despite being three nil down, resulted in a mere consultation for those Stoke fans. In the 76th minute, Vidigal received the ball and after easily skipping beyond Greaves, the forward finished accurately low into Allsop’s far corner. He could do nothing about this, however, our back four should have dealt with it better. They felt a smidgen of hope after this and kept knocking on our door, however, fortunately, we kept tight at the back and kept them away from the goal to secure our first win at The Potteries since 2006. Also, we have won three away matches in a row, which we have not done since 2013.
We did not put a foot wrong in this game, except when we conceded, and it was another strong performance on the road. Provided Sunderland do not win, we will remain 4th in the table and even if they do leapfrog us, we will sit comfortably in 5th on 15 points. What a time to be a Tiger’s supporter. It’s only the start of the season as well; we have plenty more games to play, in which we will only develop.
Next up for us is Plymouth at home next week on Saturday. Then we have back-to-back away matches against Ipswich and Millwall, which I will be travelling to. Argyle did batter Norwich 6-2 this week, however, football can be a strange game sometimes and anything can happen. For our sake it was just a one-off and we are able to grab all three points from them and push further up the league.
