Stoke teaches Man City a lesson of heart with 1-0 win

By: j | January 31st, 2009

A hearty crowd of over 27,000 at Britannia witnessed Stoke City provide the Citizens a brilliant lesson of playing with heart in route to a 1-0 victory. With the Potters faithful sang out Delilah with gusto it was obvious through grit and determination the club with all the odds stacked against it wasn’t about to take relegation easy and fought off Manchester City with a curmudgeonly defensive stance.

Mark Hughes side opened the match with more than a morsel of resolve and controlled ball possession. Whether the Citizens lacked the inspiration or creativity to break throughStoke’s defending wall is a point of debate yet there is no questioning the heart of Tony Pulis’ side. The back four of Abdoulaye Faye, Danny Pugh, Andy Wilkinson and Ryan Shawcross drew the line that City dare not cross and young Mr. Shawcross proved once again why many see a bright future for him.

That being said, Man City had its opportunities and quite obviously with the scoreline wasted each. Just shy of the twenty minute mark an electrifying counter-act saw Wales international draw the ball to Robinho but the resulting strike from the top of the box was a woeful schoolyard mess as it dribbled to Stoke keeper Thomas Sorensen.

That encounter seemed to wake the hosts up and as their confidence grew they began to launch a series of menacing challenges towards the City goalmouth. However eight minutes before the half the match took a decided turn and oddly seemed to hinder the Citizens effort as it spurred a siege mentality by Stoke. Following a series of dangerous challenges, first by Shaun Wright-Phillips and a retaliation by Rory Delap , the Stoke man was shown an immediate red-card by referee Martin Atkinson. While the card was just unfortunately an additional lash Shaun Wright-Phillips, deserving of expulsion was missed and Stoke were forced to play a man down. Yet that did not stop the hearty lot as four minutes into added time Matthew Etherington sent a perfect cross that Micah Richards seemed not worthy of defending across, to a soaring James Beattie with the Sheffield United nodding to the near post. Britannia erupted and it was very clear the tactical play that Tony Pulis would use at the restart. Playing well behind the ball the Potters held strong with impenetrable defending. While Robinho made a number of noble attempts in providing the ball, the play-making vision of his teammates was lacking and the match concluded with Stoke winning 1-0.

Naturally a loss is difficult but as the squad builds these are valuable lessons. Through matches as these it is obvious that the pedigree of Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong is of the highest quality and even in woeful match Craig Bellamy and Robinho showed tempo and intent. However what precisely happened to Micah Richards is another matter as his performance was terribly sub-par and needed to be substituted sometime after the first photos. While unconfirmed I question the match fitness of Stephen Ireland and Shaun Wright-Phillips and suspect City is up to their old tricks of throwing players on the pitch who are best left in rehab. With that in mind as City readies to spend £50m this weekend, it needs to allocate funds towards professional services within medical personnel.

City returns to action next Saturday against Middlesbrough.