Excellent from Stoke today. More than deserved a point. Played some neat football as well 2nd half. Crouchy's goal was out of this world. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Football purists! Crouchy and Whitehead were outstanding. As good as we were, Man City were atrocious. No-one will ever convince that that is proper football. Constantly passing it sidewards. Zabaleta summed it up when he passed backwards when 1 on 1 with Bego. Doing the Poznan was hilarious. Very satisfying taking the piss out of the Man City fans. There were many positives today but I was especially happy with some of our football in the 2nd half. Plus I thought we defended higher up in the last 5-10 minutes plus injury time, partly down to Whitehead you could argue as his pressing of the Man City defenders and midfielders forced them back.
Can someone explain to me why stoke fans booed silva for the rest of the match after he was elbowed in the head?
View from the south stand Fair result,I thought we got our tactics completely wrong,not for the first time either,but I don't think either side did enough to win The stoke support was magnificent,best I've witnessed in many a year.I think revenge for the FA cup final was probably responsible for the increased decibels which is fair enough The Poznan was quite amusing Still a really **** ground to get away from
Sgt NOTICE that we played MORE footie the last 10/15mis sure we did because Palacios and Pennant came on. Badgers it was accidental... as for Ballotelli play acting? the guy is a feckin lunatic excuse the French. Going down first half like he was dead, ball goes past him and he jumps up and has a shot at goal.. the cheating **** As for that PENALTY re Barry on Whelan? Citeh we're lucky to get anything. HOW much did that team cost Citeh.. Oh and Jerome was CLEANED out also first half? Funny how you don't explain that or didn't you see it. No bother a great pt and GOAL of the SEASON by Crouchie
Very gracious Paul. I thought we were magnificent today. Very disappointed in your performance today. Glad to see a Man City fan taking the Poznan for what it was unlike some on Twitter who for some reason cannot understand the irony of it.
Paul I've read many of your posts in the past... as always pretty much spot on. The Stoke crowd today we're really up for the game and I thought a pt was fair enough.. on any other day it would have been nice to see Crouch's goal win ANY game, I thought it was world class too Sgt.
I think the Stoke fans in the Seddon were under the impression that Silva made a bit more of the 50-50 challenge than there was.
A refreshingly positive post Sarge. Maybe if there was more if this type of post on the board more people would start posting?
Jose, More people woud post positively if Pulis set up the team positively and the team played positively, don't you think ?
Badger's I WAS talking about it, that Barry tackle. **** me had that been a Stoke player. This board would be full of the usual bile dirty,physical type of excuse's. As for that elbow, from where I sat it looked like they both headed the ball and that is why some we're having a go at him. Still think it was accidental though. Whitehead is not a dirty player anyway. Agreed though that the Barry tackle was disgusting. MOTD did mention it and also the fact it was a penalty re inside the box. Anywhere else on the pitch that is a bad foul and a yellow card at least. P.S. hope you hammer the baggies today
Both players went up for the ball, both were looking intently at the ball. It is often impossible to get leverage to head the ball without using your arm and sometimes it looks like an elbow to the face. Silva acted like a tart, I've seen Stoke players take harsher challenges than that and get straight back up. Silva (great player as he is) is a complete wuss and often a cheat like a few of his fellow players yesterday, Balotelli especially.
I thought it was an excellent result and the point was well deserved. We played some decent football at times and looked pretty solid at the back. Their successful pass ratio was over 3 to 1 compared to ours but as SGT says playing suare all the time doesn't work. The pressing of the ball was generally verfy good and I thought the Center Mid was played very well by Deano/Whitehead. Worried with our wing play, its no where near the standard of seasons gone by and they are actually making our central midfield look ok - never thought I would say that! Crouch was decent and I thought Jerome was solid and very unfortunate to be subbed - I think Walters offered very little - which is down to sharpness more than anything - IMO! For me a result that potentially got away and TP frustrates the hell out of me with his selections, tactics and subs - more often than not they just dont make sence!
Dont think there has been a huge amount to be positive about lately. We have been very low in the form league and thats been on the back of wins over the 2 newbies? I think all on here are quick to praise when we play well or dont get the rub of the green. If you are reffering to TP - he's still the same and I think our views also remain the same, but I dont think you can class that as negative - its an opinion! in fact if anything we try and be light hearted about it!
MOTD showed a close up of Whitehead's challenge on Silva. The commentator said that it was an elbow to the jaw, and that's what I thought too because that's exactly what it looked like - Whitehead's elbow coming into contact with Silva's jaw. What I can't figure out is why Silva had a bandage around his head that was level with his ears and nowhere near his jaw at all.
I thought the same Smit tbh. Another thing I couldn't figure out was how Balotelli was on the floor begging for a free kick and when the ball suddenly came near him soon after, he immediately got up and got on with possession. It's almost as if he wasn't hurt at all...
