Just What The Doctor Ordered....Stoke City FC 3 Preston NE 1

It was going to be interesting to see whether or not The Potters suffered a hangover from Wednesday's cup excursion north.

In the event Stoke got off to a slow start against Preston,and were second best until in the 18th minute when record signing Leon Cort got his head to Delap's long throw in -the throw cleared three Preston defenders - to glance the ball up and over his marker and the keeper into the net.
Stoke's second goal (27min) resulted from a Liam Lawrence cross from the right. Preston keeper Lonergan failed to gather,dropping the ball at Cresswell's feet for a simple tap in.

Preston got themselves back into contention when Brown headed in a Lewis Neal cross on 67 minutes.Five minutes later Stoke gave themselves a 2 goal cushion again when Leon Cort bagged his second of the match with a header from Liam Lawrence's right side corner.The goal virtually snuffed out the Preston threat,Stoke winning comfortably in the end.

So a very positive reaction from the team,and a result which temporarily moved them into third spot in the table.Following the late kickoff draw between Watford and Charlton Stoke return to 4th position,four points off the top and one point off second place.

Things continue to look good...next up Charlton away,a week on Tuesday.