The regular need for late goals is either the sign of a poor team scraping out a result or a good team that has battered the opposition into submission so much they can’t hold on much longer. I think up until tonight’s game it’s been the latter but reflecting on tonight’s last minute equaliser, I think it’s a mixture of the two. We played poorly and didn’t deserve the goal but it’s our confidence and the games in the past (Derby most recently) where we’ve kept the belief that we can always get something however late on. It’s a quality the sets the best from the rest I believe.
After the dramas of the ‘bus 3’ escapades at the weekend, Hysen and Fulop were back involved. Stokes, presumably still in the doghouse for it not being his first wrongdoing, sat out again. Yorke was a welcome return to the side too.
Stoke have a load of massive blokes in their team, and Liam Lawrence. To say they are just physical and lump the ball forward all the time is a little unfair though. The can play decent stuff and do have some fairly talented players. But if you not let them bully you, you stand a good chance of beating them.
The game took a fairly predictable pattern of being scrappy with no team getting a foothold, early on though it was evident when they got the ball up front quickly they won most of the balls in the air and Evans and Nosworthy weren’t their most comfortable.
They were coping though and weathering it until Darren Ward decided to throw a Darel Russell shot from the edge of the box into his own net. It was a decent strike but it was straight at him and you’d back him to snap it up every time. This time however, it squirmed underneath his body and over the line.
It’s a long time since we’ve been a goal down in game. How would we react? Very well as it happens. Leadbitter had the ball on the right just after the restart, crossed to Connolly who chested it down to Whitehead who hit a great shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. Back on level terms.
You felt now that there was only one team going to win it, they’d had their chance. Hysen and John both found themselves through on goal but a good save and poor finish respectively kept Stoke in it. All the while they were a threat on the break, and they got men forward quickly.
On the stroke of half time a free kick was given to Stoke and after more uncertainty in clearing from the box, the ball fell to Hoefkens who lashed in Stokes 2nd at the worst possible time.
It was clear words would be said at half time, this was a poor display by recent standards and we’d given away 2 poor goals. Nosworthy was having his worst game for several months and Evans looked like a 19 year old, inexperienced defender for once.
Second half and Evans failed to appear, presumably for the injury he picked up in the first half. Wallace replaced him with Collins moving across to partner Nosworthy. Stoke used every usual trick in the book to slow the game down and succeeded. They did their jobs very well and their game plan was spot on. They marked up tight and got men behind the ball. Murphy and Miller came on but there was no great siege on the Stoke goal. Plenty of crosses came in but so often they went near post and the keeper snapped them up, either that or it was Murphy or Connolly crossing with no-one in the box. You felt if we got a goal we’d go on to get the winner but with full time looming it was clear any result would do.
On the stroke on 90 minutes, a Hysen corner came over, after a bit frantic action the ball came back to Leadbitter who fed the ball back in. It went over everybody and fell nicely to an unmarked Murphy at the back post who smacked in the equaliser. It was a very welcome goal and as the game restarted the fourth official stuck 4 minutes up on the board. Surely a winner was too much to ask for? Well yes. But given the performance and the goal so late, it was a good result. Tinged with disappointment that we didn’t get all 3 but you can’t win them all. The rest of the results tonight prove that.
I think the late goal tonight is just as important as the one against Derby. It keeps our unbeaten run going, it’s not lost us ground on anyone and it’s kept the belief in the squad that anything is possible. Expect a return to form against Hull on Saturday.
Man of the Match – Grant Leadbitter
Report by marcopaul