Stoke City 1 - West Bromwich Albion 2

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Ratings submitted so far: 9

Brendan Clegg:

Another very strong showing and a brilliant away win.

No arguments with keeping the same 11 and we were pretty good from the off.

For the third game in a row some similar themes were there.

Firstly, we really are competing physically. Every player going into the war with plenty of fight and aggression.

Secondly, we’re looking to dominate the ball and again here Swift dropped deep to get the ball a lot and worked with Mowatt to create triangles to get us up and out. Maja also came deep a lot.

And thirdly, when the time was right we were not afraid to go long or break at speed. As soon as we’ve engineered a free wide player in their third we hit them fast.

It was a tricky game though. Stoke went man for man and chased us down and there were a few errors early on.

We took the lead through a great goal via a Fellows cross and Grant wanting it more than their defender at the back post.

And we looked on top. There was some great play from Maja who won the ball back aggressively, charged up the pitch and played in Fellows. His finish had the power taken out of it by the keeper but was creeping in before their defender cleared it straight to us. I think if Swift had dummied a shot he’d have been able to pass it into an empty net but he went for first time power and it was blocked on the line.

Out of nothing Stoke equalised. I’ve not seen it back but it looked to me like Bartley got caught ball watching and Koumas ran in behind to finish with high quality.

We bounced back almost immediately with a superb goal, releasing Fellows, him cutting back and Maja slotting home with perfect accuracy from the edge of the box. A terrific and composed finish that was a lot harder than he made it look.

The other way though Koumas was causing us problems with his pace, trickery and movement and I thought he deliberately kept darting in behind Bartley as our slowest defender. He hit the post when he should’ve scored and they missed a sitter from the rebound.

It became a bit breathless to see the half out but we just about did.

Second half we were more controlled and again broke well. I think our best chance Fellows put into the side netting but generally we managed the game well. We got very lucky when Maja came deep, gave it away under pressure and I think Koumas hit the post again.

As Stoke and we made changes it became more attritional. I think our incoming players all did really well and there were some great tackles or pieces of play. We probably should have picked Stoke off in the last 10 including 6 of injury time but either the final ball was poor or we went super cautious.

Overall an excellent day and although they hit the woodwork twice it would’ve been a travesty not to win here.

Special mention for Stoke’s new away experience. Not sure it’ll help them but it was brilliant, especially the ‘standing’ area and it made for a great atmosphere.

• Palmer - 6 Not a lot to do, generally good with his feet
• Furlong - 7 Defended well when it mattered but not an easy day
• Ajayi - 8 Got us out of jail a couple of times and brought the fight.
• Bartley - 6 Not an easy game for him and anything over the top or in behind was a problem.
• Heggem - 7 Is a beast. Won his battle.
• Mowatt - 7 Ran the show again.
• Molumby - 6 Loads of fight but there were spells where he chased shadows against their Korean player who looked decent
• Fellows - 8 A threat every time he had the ball
• Swift - 7 Ran himself into the ground but very good again
• Grant - 7 Corberan gets players playing at the top of their ability and then finds another 10%. Ran himself ragged, stretched them, aggressive whether attacking the ball or defending it.
• Maja - 8 Great gall and super smart all day with flicks or winning free kicks.

• Jed - 6 Put the work in and loved the win.
• Grady is a blow and a totally unnecessary foul. I thought Diakite looked really good on the ball and in the tackle and Dobbin showed flashes of quality for the first time.

Regretfully I’m a rare absentee for the Swansea game but, if we play like this, you’ve got to fancy another strong result.

I thought any points from this opening 4 fixtures would be a bonus so we’re ahead of my expectations already! Big week to get a striker in.