Stoke City 2 - West Bromwich Albion 2

Date:	Saturday 6th April 2024
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
Stoke: 5.5	(4-2-3-1) Iversen, Hoever, McNally, Rose, Stevens (Burger, 61), Laurent, Thompson, Manhoef (Léris, 83), Jun-ho, Hakšabanovic (Cunha Vidigal, 61), Mmaee (Campbell, 55) Unused subs: Bonham, Baker, Ennis, Wilmot, Cundle
WBA: 5.3	(4-2-3-1) Palmer 6.7, Furlong 5.6, Bartley 4.1, Kipré 5.0, Townsend 4.7, Yokuslu 5.4 (M'Vila, 70 4.7), Mowatt 5.4 (Weimann, 87 4.3), Wallace 5.3 (Phillips, 80 5.3), Diangana 6.9, Johnston 6.3 (Reach, 70 5.0), Thomas-Asante 5.6 (Fellows, 87 6.6) Unused subs: Griffiths, Ajayi, Chalobah, Swift Manager: Carlos Corberán 4.7
Scorers:	Manhoef (68), Cunha Vidigal (78); Johnston (24), Wallace (57)
Referee:	Andrew Kitchen 5.8
Attendance:	22,339 Home Fans 5.0 Away Fans 7.6

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Ratings submitted so far: 7

Brendan Clegg:

Very quick thoughts.

The team looked stronger although Fellows and Ajayi must’ve felt really frustrated.

We were poor for much of this game. We should’ve been 3 or 4 down at the break.

We went into tackles with 80% effort.

We were too slow, too patient, too many players held the ball for too long. Too many long balls when the elements made them unviable.

Although the weather was tricky, at the back we were a shambles. We didn’t deal with long balls, lost loads of 2nd balls.

I think we had 5 minutes at the start and end of the first half and maybe 10 minutes overall in the 2nd half when we were on top. We scored outside of these periods through good but basic play.

Neither of our wingers tracked back wide so our fullbacks were constantly exposed and Stoke looked a threat throughout the game.

However, once you’re two up to chuck away a couple of points is poor, even though I felt we looked a bit more solid after the subs. It was a crazy thing for M’Vila to do and a missed opportunity to take the pressure off us.

If we make the playoffs- and really we’ve got to get 6 points from the next 2 home games now - it will be a total lottery. There won’t be a favourite and we have plenty to fear.

Here’s hoping for a much better performance on Wednesday.

Palmer - 8 Kept us in it and even saved the penalty
Furlong - 6 Sloppy
Bartley - 4 Another poor game. What’s he doing for the first goal? Go and close it. Looks leggy and is giving it 80% and crap on the ball
Kipre - 6 Battled away
Townsend - 5 didn’t defend well enough and when he did attack the quality wasn’t there
Okay - 6 Taken off when it looked like he had the measure of the game
Mowatt - 6 decent enough
Wallace - 6 effort as always and poachers goal but lacked creativity
Grady - 7 Gave us our best moments but still frustrated when holding onto the ball too long or losing it cheaply
MJ - 6 Good goal but not in it enough, we need to move it to him much faster
BTA - 5 Effort and fight but lost it really cheaply. Decision making poor again, even for his redemptive involvement in our 2nd the final pass was poor.

M’Vila - 5 Actually passed it really well and took control but it was a criminal error for a player of his experience
Reach - 6 Once again passed it quickly and simply. I would just caution those who think he should start at left back. He’s not great 1v1
Fellows - 6 a spark again. Needs to be starting quite frankly.
Weimann - 5 should have done better with his chance

A disappointing Easter but unbeaten and 2 big home games to get back on track and keep things in our hands.