Another club that has changed a lot of personnel, including the manager, with O'Neill leaving and Alex Neil leaving Sunderland ( !) to come to stoke. Players like Fletcher, Joe Allen,Tom Ince,Benik afobe and Alfie Doughty have all left. They have brought in Adam Flint,Liam McCarron, Dwight Gayle and used the loan market to get Kilkenny,Clarke (Arsenal),Smallbone(Southampton),Delap (Man City). The last three are highly rated youngsters.
It looks like we will be without Ogbene and Lindsay. Taylor has said he might freshen it up and i feel he will leave Ferguson and Peltier out. He has to make a decision whether to play Wood or not. Personally i would leave him out and play him against Hull which i feel we have a better chance of winning. Stoke have a blend of young and old. On Saturday they played five under 23 yr olds and mixed them with the likes of Jagielka, Gayle and Fox with Clucas on the bench. In Tyrese Campbell they have a forward who is attracting the big premier clubs. They also have the highly rated 19yr old Delap on loan from Man City to add to the firepower.
I think you have to fancy Stoke strongly to win this. However, if we can go there and frustrate for over an hour some of these youngsters heads might drop. The problem is they have game changers on the bench. I think cuffey and Bramhall would be fine playing wide in a five with defenders behind them in a 4;5;1 formation
Well, I for one did not expect that result! Backs to the wall for most of the game, but we defended with true grit, great saves, and not a little luck. Well done lads, you definitely earned all three points tonight.
What a great result and one that we deserved based on pure grit and hard work. We can't match these clubs for wealth and resources so it will always be an uphill struggle but this group of players will not fail for lack of heart. Fantastic. And what an asset we have in The Viking. Also I can understand Stokes frustration at losing to little old us but what a moaning whingeing lot they are. If they were half as good at creating and finishing opportunities as they were at trying to referee the game they would have beaten us by several. The dive from Delap at the end of the first half was almost as funny as it was disgraceful. Anyway, confidence is everything in sport and we now know that we are capable of getting away wins against good sides and that might open the door for more - hopefully less nail biting than that was! UtM.
A hard working win where we rode our luck at times as Matt Taylor indicated after the match. This set of players will graft and although we have nowhere the skills of sides like Stoke we compete and on occasions will get the point/s. We allowed them to play down the sides and defended well when the ball came into the box. I do worry about the lack of pace from Hall,Humphries,Wood and Peltier but they put their bodies in there to keep the opposition out.
It looked like we set up in a 3:4:2;1 formation with Rathbone and Wiles just behind Kelly. When we went in front only glimpses were seen of Rathbone and Wiles assisting Kelly . Up top Kelly looked incapable of holding the ball up but in fairness to him he wasn't given much of a chance with what he was fed. We got pushed back and at times played a 3:6:1 formation or 5:4:1 with the midfield offering little going forward. The viking had a great game keeping us in it with two great saves, one from a one v one and a spectacular save right at the end.
Taylor's substitutions were brave with him putting on Washington and Eaves in an attempt to get us higher up the pitch. I thought Eaves offered more when he came on than Kelly did but he wasn't the loan striker like Kelly was. A great night for us with three more points gained to keep us up.
Rode our luck but the keeper and back 3 were outstanding.
Agreed with Taylor in his most recent interview that now the hoo do is over we can start being a bit more adventurous in our play away from home and that win should give us the confidence to do that.
