...ok, perhaps not. If there is one thing that myself and Carrabuh will always agree on its Stoke City! Anti-football, hoofball... call it what you want - if its effective and breeds results the manager will be given leeway; at this time the results are not good. I spoke to a number of Potters fans after the game and all agreed that they are growing tired of Pulis' tactics and lame excuses. This was interesting as I bizarrely remember having a chat 12 months ago with one of those fans. He didn't recall this but a year ago he was full of praise for Pulis and exclaimed that Norwich would have to adapt their pretty passing game to get results in the top flight. He was right. We did have to 'mix it up', but Stoke are on another planet altogether with their particular take on 'football'. Pulis' selective memory is also causing concern and ridicule. His assessment of the Adam dive was correct to a degree. He shouldn't have been booked and he should have received a free kick - but did he not go unpunished early 2nd half for a blatant dive? It was hardly a fleeting glimpse of Stoke's inability to stay on their feet. Walters, Whelan and Crouch all took it in turns to pretend to be Tom Daley. Interestingly, the one Norwich player to 'go down easily', Robert Snodgrass, was also rewarded with a free kick. Was he fouled? It happened right next to me and yes, he was clipped. Was it soft? Absolutely. Would the Adam 'foul' have been a soft free kick? Absolutely. Ref got it wrong by giving him a yellow but overall the referee's poor decision making cost us more than our visitors. Etherington was remarkably fortunate to stay on the field after petulantly lashing out at Bassong, in full view of the linesman who ignored it. Crouch seemed to think he was a basketball player at one point with not one, but two handball's in a matter of seconds. I don't want to have to talk about all this nonsense but unfortunately the match was a complete waste of time. There was a period in the 2nd half, maybe lasting as long as half an hour, where I gave up - it became unwatchable. If anybody tells me Stoke are adapting their game and trying to play more football, I will ignore them, regardless of how strong the argument. This was as bad as it gets. 'Give the ball to Begovic - hoof the ball to Crouch - head the ball to Walters - dive'. And so 'Plan A' continued until the game entered the latter stages when 'Plan B' was put into action. 'Give the ball to Begovic - hoof the ball to Crouch or Jones - head the ball to Walters - dive'. Still no reward for Stoke's inventive tactics. So to 'Plan C'. 'Give the ball to Begovic - hoof the ball to Crouch, Jones or Shawcross - dive'. Yes, that's right - Walters had gone off by then. For Norwich, it was a deserved win under a barrage of hoisted and 2nd balls. A triumph for football? Not really, as we ourselves got dragged down to our opponents extremely low level - ironic as their level of football is generally in the stratosphere. It came as no surprise - I've seen Man City get dragged into a game of 'hoof' against Stoke. What we can take out of the game, apart from the three points, was an exceptional defensive performance, despite the loss of two first choice defenders during the match. Tettey once again was outstanding. He has made the crucial difference. He and Hoolahan. I can't commend Hughton enough for what he has achieved in the last three weeks. He has sorted us out. Totally. Players know their roles, the system suits them. They have always been good players but the key thing is the good morale seems to have returned, both on and off the pitch. Last season we would have drawn this match - indeed, under exactly the same circumstances we did! We need to score more goals and take more of our chances but its so pleasing to know that if we get a goal, we aren't frantically scratching around to get a second. We can win games when we don't play well now. We can win games when we aren't firing in front of goal. We can win games by being a good solid unit. People may want to see 7-5's and 5-4's - I do if I'm being honest - but I also want to see my team become established in this very difficult league. We have the right man in charge to achieve that. I often say football teams play in the image of their manager. It certainly is true of Stoke. An obnoxious and ugly personality in charge of an obnoxious and ugly football team. Pulis seems to have more effective plans and tactics during his tirades at referees than he does to use for his own team on the field - that says a lot. He "wears the club shop" and "he looks like a chav"... both funny chants. They were just about the only moments that I enjoyed on Saturday, well, except the goal and the final whistle. Thank god we don't have to put up with that nonsense every single week. I'd happily pay £30 a week to never watch it again. OTBC IHWT
I saw a tweet from David McNally on Saturday morning to say there were some tickets left - a rarity in itself. Someone responded by saying "£45 lower Barclay to watch Stoke City, I'm not surprised there are seats left". Good appraisal, Superman but don't forget that for long periods "Stoke played like the home team", according to chav boy
Superman,......exceptional defensive performance? Obviously you weren't watching at all in the first 15 minutes, (still in the pub were you). 1st basic rule of defending; do NOT pass the ball across your own penalty!! Garrido and Bassong were guilty of this so many times I lost count, if that had been against Suarez he would have had another hat trick in the first 10 minutes, shocking, it was absolutly shocking!! It did improve after that, and we didn't really get bothered too much by their big front men, but exceptional it WAS NOT! Generally some good performances, Whittaker especially, very impressed with him. All round a satisfactory game and result! PS: Stewie Griffin socks strikes again!
right, so a few stray passes... i'd rather we see a few stray passes than what stoke were doing. my 'exceptional defensive display' constitutes the 2nd half bombardement. i don't think stoke threatened us at all first half, even if we did give them the ball a few times. 2nd half though, every defender getting in blocks, sticking their heads in where it hurts, last second lunges to deny passes and crosses and shots, midfielders and wingers helping out, holt helping out, not being daunted by their physical approach, despite being handed two significant injury blows to the defence... we didn't play well but we still deserved to win. the reason? we were very good defensively. on a side note, as i didn't really talk about our players much, i agree with whittaker - i thought he was excellent both at right and left back. interesting to see we lined up for the first time with all four defenders being hughton signings. and a clean sheet! another one.
just to add to my point about us being rock solid at the back, i think the edp summed it up in their player ratings when describing bassong: "One or two pieces of sloppiness in the opening exchanges but a class, calming influence."
Sorry, but "a few stray passes"! That was amateur night, I was sitting in the N&P with my head in my hands!! On one occasion Bassong actually 'passed' the ball to a Stoke player in our own penalty box, then stood there with his hands in the air as if he couldn't believe what he'd just done, but a couple of minutes later he did it again!!! As I said we could have easily been 3 - 0 down in the first 15 minutes. Granted, later it was better and we coped well, I guess Hughton gave them a kick up the arse at half time, but exceptional defending is WAS NOT! Apart from that first 15/20 minutes we played well as a team, which was the part of the afternoon I enjoyed!
3-0 down? i'm not even sure barcelona could have punished us to that extent. i have no idea what match you watched if you think that - i can only recall the one moment which realistically could have been punished with a goal which i'm happy to admit was awful. there was maybe a slip from turner in the 2nd half, though he could barely walk at the time. so yes, there was some very sloppy passing - maybe four or five in the entire match from norwich? i have taken the match as a whole and we defended very well. you have to defend well against stoke because they get all the 2nd balls from crouch's knock downs. your assessment to write off an entire match's defensive display based on one madcap moment is bizarre.
on the case for the defence, am i right in saying that if you take out the three thrashings; fulham first day freak, liverpool freak result, chelsea understandable; we have only conceded four goals in seven games. impressive
First half, I actually thought we were really good both attacking and defensively. Wes picked up the ball in good positions and made things happen, Tettey and Johnson were brilliant and won a lot of possession and I don't think Johnson's passing was as bad as normal. I thought the wide men were a bit disappointing though, and Holt never really got in the game. Second half we couldn't string two passes together going forward, defensively we were superb though, and in the whole game they probably had one chance which Kenwyne Jones put wide. Finally, Steven Whittaker was brilliant in my opinion. I had doubts about him, but based on that performance he will be a good player, brave, quick and read the game really well at times.
I'm not sure R Martin will get back in the side automatically - Whittaker did his claim to a place in the starting 11 no harm at all by that display.
Tony Penis as my Grandson called him, is indeed one of the most disliked people in football outside of Stoke. Fair dues, they won't assissinate him-yet. His Stoke have been in the Prem for 5 years now and have not really been on people's radar for relegation. So he has an argument for his particular style of play keeping his club in the division that even CH admits is imperative we stay in. What amazes me is that he wants to take all the credit for it. Considering some of the teams his current squad have played for, I am surprised he believes that it hasn't been the ability of these players to adapt to his awful style that has kept the club where it is. I'm not arrogant enough to suggest that only purist football teams have a place in the game or even in the highest division but Pulis has to accept that he and his club are unpopular and that is what he really ought to be taking the credit for.
CH thought Javier's was just a local injury, mind you his last two games haven't been brilliant but Turner and Martin in particular appeared to be longer term.
Come on read what I've written properly! I said the first 15/20 minutes were amateur defending. My assement of the rest of the game was that we got it together as a team and kept them out fairly easily! I was sitting in the N&P so was closer to what was going on than you in that period, as I understand you are in the Barclay, that's 100 yards away. I don't care what you think you saw, but you DO NOT keep passing the ball across your own penalty box, which we did time and time again in that period, and as I said a far better team than Stoke would have taken advantage of that big time! It's strange but I found the game much better than I thought it was going to be, mainly because once we get into a game now we do look a solid unit right across the team! I think this is a team now owned by Chris Hughton! Not too many Hughton knockers about now Eh?
great to hear everyone singing 'chrissy hughton's yellow army' too. its been a while coming but we seem to have a united fan base behind our manager now. finally, the lambert hangover has cleared
it's perfectly permissible to pass across your own openalty box, many of the quality teams do it all the time, and play intricate passing, the point is if you do pass i, make sure it;s a good pass, otherwise don't fecking dio it
