For all of you have put this together on the game. Well after Mr Atkinson ruining the chances of an away win for our lads on Boxing Day, by sending off Whelan and Wilson and Mark Hughes to boot, today was all about revenge. It was reported that the Newcastle team were already on the beach after suffering successive 4-0 defeats against Southampton and Man Utd whilst Ryan Shawcross was making his 200th appearance for Stoke City. Throughout the game Stoke were the team that showed much greater intent to win the game and Arnautovic supplied a number of crosses from the left that caused problems for the Newcastle defence. In the first half ( the clock was not working for some strange reason today!) he supplied a cross for Crouch who powerfully headed on to a post when, perhaps he should have done better, Krul was sound beaten! Arnautovic also squared a ball across the line of the penalty area for Odemwingie who with space and time, had a great chance to seriously test Krul. Unfortunately, he completely miskicked and it summed up his performance on the day. However, on to the positives, Stoke showed their determination to win all three points and to be honest should have won much more convincingly that just a single goal. On 42 minutes, Arnautovic and Pieters combined well on the left and Arnautovic slipped a pass to Pieters, who whipped a cross over which with the assistance of the wind deceived Krul and floated into the net. Pieters in celebration shrugged his shoulders to admit he did not mean it. However, it was good for Stoke to have some fortune after the debacle at the Sports Direct Arena! Midway through the second half, Adam came on for Ireland and he made an immediate contribution by driving Stoke forward. Adam and N’Zonzi helped Arnautovic completely dominate the left hand side of the pitch with searing running at the Newcastle defence. He crossed to Crouch who headed just over, then a few minutes later, Arnie took two defenders with him before slipping the ball to Adam who from the edge of the penalty area dragged his shot wide. Cameron also got into the act by crossing well for Crouch to head down weakly for Krul to save comfortably. Newcastle enjoyed a good percentage of possession with Stoke players putting the bodies on the line to block shots and protect Begovic. Begovic was not called to pull over any spectacular saves as he only had to make regulation saves on the day. Anita probably the smallest player on the field had a chance to equalise but just did not had enough height to head into an empty net when the Stoke defence was exposed down the right. Not a five star performance from Stoke but one that showed that Mark Hughes was determined to ensure that we finish 10th and if at all possible finish higher. This was a step to that aim as we are now only 3 points behind Newcastle with a 4 goal better goal difference. The fourth successive home win allows us to be looking up the league rather than down. That is such a good feeling in early April!
