Oh dear!! Russell Vernon @RussVernonSport according to my stream possession in the second half at The Etihad Stadium is Man City 95 % Stoke City 5 % WOW #MCFC #SCFC #BPL
I said before the game I would take a 3-0 defeat and that's what happened. Not too bothered with the result. It was expected.
Yep, we can write this one off as expected, and we restricted them to just 3. Let's focus on trying to get 6pts against Villa and Wigan now.
sgt We we're never given a chance.. Let's give praise where and when it's due. I've posted a thread on the Citeh board too! Only fault I have is.. we could have given it more of a go. But, maybe we would have then got hammered(goal diff) so we'll move on and bring on the Villa game.
We did ok for the first half hour and their first goal clearly was off side but it was coming anyway. No one would have stopped Johnson's strike but it was anooying in the first place that Whitehead passed it in the danger area to Walters and Johnson robbed it off him. Thought Palicio's passing tonight was of a player that looked rusty. Jones was a spectator and may as well gone sit in the stand. Jerome lots of running and effort but 30 prem games without a goal speaks for itself. Floodgate was his usual ropey self and missing for their 3rd goal. We did ok on the whole though and did well to keep it down to 3. Fulham got hit for 5 at home against Man U so it could have been a lot worse. We sat way to way to deep again and didn't have a go until we were trailing. Same old story too deep nothing up front to take the pressure off and it was the Stoke away day ping pong game again!
Waddo Thanks for the brilliant commentary Better than Nigel Johnson's .. what gets me is I'm just listening to Charlie Nicholas on S S News.. Fine we lost, we were NEVER going to beat Citeh without a shed load of luck, they get 3 player's sent off and our lads play their socks off! He's just said Stoke were terrible? From what I heard Waddo, you described it spot on. WHAT did Charlie N EXPECT us to do? Thoughts cos I'm well happy we didn't get totally battered. I look at Fulhams result and wonder What the hell Charlie N is on about. Newcaslte lost at home.. Q.P.R. ditto it ain't all bad being a Stokie is it! Even Liverpool didn't beat Wigan... A game Which I expected then to win easily.
Watched the whole game potts and I don't think we did too bad to be honest. Playing too deep again cost us dearly but Man City can score for fun. I'm sure I heard the commentator say that all three of their strikers are on over 10 goals so again that speaks for itself. Man City may as well enjoy it whilst the money lasts but I fear very soon the bubble will burst and they will be broke, how many million did they lose this season I'm sure I read it was 125 million. How long can anyone sustain that or even want to?
Cheers Waddo Just about how Nigel Johnson described it. Sometimes I wonder though? is it Tony Pulis who is "Scared to have a go away from home" or "The player's" That is the one thing that always nag's away at me. N.J. did say this.. attack is the best form of defence we were never going to keep them out for 90mins IMO but I guess it could have been a whole lot worse. 8th isn't a bad effort in fact it's fantastic IMO. Given the games we've had to play this month especially. Have a fantastic Christmas Waddo will post a few more times before then, IF the Grandson gives me enough spare time that is.. baby sitting an 8yr old is brilliant but sometimes you get a wee bit frustrated. Just like being a Stoke fan!
what a disgrace your players were to the club and your fans against man city, the clostest you will see to a team rolling over and accepting defeat from the first whistle to the last, sitting 10 men behind the ball but not closing city players down, lethargic in possession, i felt compelled to come on here to say it on here it was that bad. seriously, a shocking, shocking performance, and all pulis said in the interview was that he doesnt have the money city have, well effort and commitment cost nothing and there was none from stoke today..
I'd actually be more embarrassed coming on here bleating about how good Man City are when you have spent over 400 million and cheated the FIFA fair play rules by changing your grounds name in a legal loop hole in order to justify your clubs losses. Enjoy it whilst it lasts swamp as once you have won the prem the Arab will pull the plug!
Waddos legend Swamp is a cardiff city fan As for the game last night,it was strange tactics by Pulis to be honest,weve shown we have a vulnerability in defence when teams come at us and for stoke this was a game where they couldve come and had a go with the anything we get is a bonus philosophy.Stoke are 10 points away from the relegation area so that shouldnt be a concern so it was a bit odd that you never had a go even when you were 2 down,it just seemed like damage limitation to me.As for the condemnation of Kenwyne Jones earlier in the thread,i thought he did pretty well with the extremely limited service,he held the ball up well and gave lescott a hard time which is as much as you could have asked for but i thought cameron jerome was wretched,half hearted throughout until he was subbed. Good luck for the rest of the season and hope you do yourselves justice against valencia
Swampy The CARDIFF FAN come back when you get promotion and you will see how hard it really is to even compete against the likes of Man City. IF you had bothered to read my comment.. I did say WHY don't we have a GO? But, goal diff isn't too bad and WHY should we go there and do a West Ham, Baggie's, Blackpool, Hull City... I could go on but... pft WE are EIGTH in this League, Cardiff are where exactly?
You have changed ONB. A free shot to have a go at TP and you don't. Well played sir Here's Pulis' thoughts on the game from The Sentinel: Pulis admitted Stoke were second best at the Etihad Stadium last night and defended his decision to rest key players carrying knocks. "We haven't punched our weight," he acknowledged, "but sometimes you have to accept that the opposition are better. "We had to make some changes. The fact we were missing Ryan Shawcross (suspended), Glenn Whelan (injured) and Crouchy, who have been solid down the middle of the team, makes it even more difficult. "Man City have been the better team. They are a great football club and have great players. They must be so distraught they are not in the Champions League because they could push anyone in Europe close. "Although we haven't created much, we have worked hard, but we did lose the ball in bad areas and they have so much quality." He also admitted: "No disrespect to us, but we are on the back foot when we come to the bigger clubs. I don't know why." Pulis explained Matthew Etherington was rested because of a knock to ensure both he and Jermaine Pennant can be unleashed on Aston Villa on Monday. "It's important Matty plays the home games," he continued, "and I like playing with two wingers at home. "I just wanted to be more solid through the middle against City." He praised Jonathan Woodgate's performance last night after seeing him bounce back from the ignominy of being substituted after only 20 minutes at Wolves on Saturday. "I thought Jonathan did smashing," he enthused. "But in the last 10 minutes we got a little bit stretched and I took him off because I didn't want him to get injured."
We lost 3-0 being defensive, so if we even attacked a little bit it could've been 7 or 8. I'd rather be ultra defensive and lose 3-0 than play attacking and lose 8-1. Many better sides than us have got beaten by Man City this season and by bigger scorelines so 3-0 isn't too bad. We have to be realistic, Man City have a LOT more money than us and could well win the league, probably favourites with the ****'s injury list getting longer with Jones and Young getting injured last night.
i dont give a sh*t which divisions the team are in, i am entitled to my opinion which ever team i support, and as a sky sports subscriber, i'm helping support your club, muppet. i'm interested to see if you thought that performance was acceptable, at least cardiff would, if nothing else, put an ounce of effort into the game, your players rolled over, they were so awful it was beyond belief, a terrible advert for stoke city as a club, but hey, why not divert attention away from that.. its the fans i feel for, i'd be livid if i paid money to watch my team give up like that.
I didn't see the game as I couldn't find a working stream but by the sounds of it we didn't surrender as such, the effort was there we were just so incredibly awful that it appeared we surrendered and to be frank we usually are away from home, it's just something we have to accept. Pulis won't play anything other than a defensive side away at a top 8 club. We don't surrender away from home, we're just very defensive and our passing is woeful. Let's not forget that our 3 best passers were either on the bench or injured so we were never going to keep the ball. We are awful away from home and Pulis' tactics are very often widely criticised but he has got us to an FA Cup Quarter, FA Cup Final, mid table for 3 successive seasons, into the last 32 of the Europa. Anyway as I said above I'd rather be ultra defensive and lose 3-0 than come out and play and eventually lose 8 or 9-0 which would've happened had we forced the issue. Then what would the players feel like then? They'd feel dejected and bereft of confidence ahead of 3 very important games. Shawcross deliberately (not confirmed but it's pretty obvious to me) got himself booked on Saturday so he'd miss this game so he'd be back for more winnable games. That shows, along with Matty and Jermaine rested that we were thinking more about the 3 important games coming up than this one. We've got to be realistic, we cannot match Man City away from home so shutting up shop and hoping for a 0-0 was all we could do really. I do not blame the manager. It's when we've played defensive against sides more on a par with us that we get really pissed off with Pulis. Losing 7-0 at home to Birmingham in 1998, THAT was surrender.
thanks for the reply sgt, a much more mature and informed answer than other people on here i read your post but i take exception to this bit: i thought what differentiated the PL from other european leagues was that any team can beat any on their day, obviously, pulis doesnt feel this is the case. its a sad state of affairs if you dont really care if you lose against a big team, its bad for the league full stop if you get a game like that. its not the players missing but the defeatist attitude of the players who replaced them. no closing down, even though everyone was behind the ball, it seems pulis expected a defeat but a performance you wouldnt expect from a team which relies on effort and a high tempo.
Very true. It's not often we play like that. The only other time was against Chelsea when we lost 7-0 a season and a half back. It was obviously the tactics to keep it respectable. With Etherington and Pennant on the bench and Whelan injured we had no chance of getting any joy going forward and maybe that just played on the players mind as well as playing against such opposition.
