Stalemate as Stoke and Sunderland fail to impress

In a game of very few chances, neither Stoke City nor Sunderland were able to break the deadlock following a feisty yet dour encounter at a Baltic Britannia Stadium that eventually finished.

Going into the match you could have been forgiven for predicting a draw with the two teams collectively sharing 10 draws in the last 15 games between them. And the game began true to form, starting slowly with both teams struggling to connect their passes. Stoke had a couple of early corners delivered by Charlie Adam that tested the Sunderland defence, but it took until the 28^th minute for the first real chance of the game to transpire. Following a Sunderland attack, Stoke cleared the ball and Michael Kightly found himself on the edge of the area cutting inside from the left and curling his right footed effort at goal over a couple of defenders, but unfortunately Carlos Cuellar was on hand to head the ball off the line. An uninspiring first half display allowed Asmir Begovic and Simon Mignolet to become keen spectators at both ends but a couple of keen tackles flew in between Danny Rose and Jon Walters with Rose picking up a yellow for a challenge on Geoff Cameron. Eventually a lacklustre first half came to an end with little or no talking points arising from the less than warm Costa Del Stoke-On-Trent.

Unfortunately however, on 52 minutes we given our first talking point when Republic of Ireland international Marc Wilson glided in with force to intercept a pass to Steven Fletcher but came out poorly as he lingered on the floor injured. Initial reaction from Fletcher showed concern as the striker hurried to get the ball out of play in an act of good sportsmanship whilst current signs suggest that Marc has severely injured his left leg so fingers crossed for a good recovery and best wishes to the player.

Soon after this, a petulant challenge from Dean Whitehead brought down Sebastian Larsson and the game became a scrappy affair as both teams began to commit needless fouls here and there. Andy Wilkinson then epitomised the ‘hardman’ nature of his play after a string of tumbles from Sunderland players resulted in Wilkinson showing his opponents up as the defender immediately stood up after a rash challenge from Craig Gardner, shaking the defenders hand in the process. A Steven Fletcher shot brought about a second talking point as the ball appeared to strike Robert Huth on the arm, with replays showing that it did strike his arm. The referee waved play on however and from then on, the game sprung to life following the introduction of Matthew Etherington but barring a couple of counter attacks involving the winger, the match eventually petered out with Sunderland on the back foot from a couple of half chances from Huth & Crouch with Mignolet easily equal to both.

Overall, a draw was definitely a fair result and neither side placed enough impetus on attack to warrant victory in the end. A resolute defensive display from both teams nullified any threat from both strikers on opposite teams despite Crouch making a bigger impression on the game than the undetectable Steven Fletcher but I doubt Tony Pulis or Martin O’Neill will be feeling like they should have walked away with all 3 points. The draw meant that the two sides have now accumulated 6 draws each this season and whilst statistics can be manipulated in any number of ways, but there are two ways in which you can look at Stoke’s current form. You could say how great it is that we’re now enjoying a streak of 11 Premier League home games without losing, but alternatively you could say that we are frustratingly looking for our next win after collecting just 1 victory in 15 Premier League games. Worryingly also, our 4 home games this season have amassed just 3 goals, all coming from Peter Crouch. The teams we have faced so far have been tough though so hopefully the next few weeks will give us a chance to show the world the new look Stoke team. Next weekend’s trip to Norwich will again be again be a tough test but a game I feel we stand a chance in too. A win next week would give us the confidence boost we need to show that our performances have warranted more and finally kick start our season.

Stoke: Begovic, Cameron, Shawcross, Huth, Wilson (Wilkinson 53), Walters (Etherington 72), Whitehead, N’Zonzi, Adam (Owen 79), Kightly, Crouch

Sunderland: Mignolet, Gardner, O’Shea, Cuellar, Rose (Bardsley 83), McClean, Cattermole, Larsson (Sessegnon 61), Colback, Johnson (Saha 89), Fletcher

 Report written by Ross Hancock

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