STOKE CITY FC 1 SUNDERLAND 0
Stoke came into this game with £14m + of talent sitting on the bench.Now it may not seem a lot when you take a look at Manchester's City and United, or at Chelsea,but this is Stoke we are talking about!How far we have come even since the beginning of last season when the team sheet substitutes list includes Robert Huth,with 20 caps for Germany,Tuncay with 50 caps for Turkey to boot!
Added to that we have a 'new' striker Kitson from Reading,another £5.5m purchase,getting a game only because of Beattie's injury. Last season's invisible man is showing distinct signs of life.
The received wisdom from the club was that Sunderland would be a tough nut to crack,and to be fair they looked a much better team than they did last year.
That said the Stoke defence ably marshalled by Abdy Faye and Ryan Shawcross restricted the powerful visiting attack to very few chances,no mean feat when you consider the size,strength, and mobility of Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones.
The whole Stoke team worked really hard,closing The Black Cats down quickly when the ball was lost .
The deciding moment arrived just before halftime, when Kitson latched onto a loose ball in the six yard box,lashing his shot skilfully,deliberately,and cleverly into the ground for it to bounce up and past defenders on the goalline into the net.His first goal in The Prem for The Potters - it is to be hoped the first of many.
Fourth in the table then, 7 points from 4 games played, represents a very solid start to the season.The squad looks stronger than last year,and with seemingly no-one resting on their laurels the prospect of further additions in the next few days.
Stoke came into this game with £14m + of talent sitting on the bench.Now it may not seem a lot when you take a look at Manchester's City and United, or at Chelsea,but this is Stoke we are talking about!How far we have come even since the beginning of last season when the team sheet substitutes list includes Robert Huth,with 20 caps for Germany,Tuncay with 50 caps for Turkey to boot!
Added to that we have a 'new' striker Kitson from Reading,another £5.5m purchase,getting a game only because of Beattie's injury. Last season's invisible man is showing distinct signs of life.
The received wisdom from the club was that Sunderland would be a tough nut to crack,and to be fair they looked a much better team than they did last year.
That said the Stoke defence ably marshalled by Abdy Faye and Ryan Shawcross restricted the powerful visiting attack to very few chances,no mean feat when you consider the size,strength, and mobility of Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones.
The whole Stoke team worked really hard,closing The Black Cats down quickly when the ball was lost .
The deciding moment arrived just before halftime, when Kitson latched onto a loose ball in the six yard box,lashing his shot skilfully,deliberately,and cleverly into the ground for it to bounce up and past defenders on the goalline into the net.His first goal in The Prem for The Potters - it is to be hoped the first of many.
Fourth in the table then, 7 points from 4 games played, represents a very solid start to the season.The squad looks stronger than last year,and with seemingly no-one resting on their laurels the prospect of further additions in the next few days.
No comments:
Post a Comment