Season: 2009/2010   Match Date: 06/Feb/2010

Stoke City 3
Blackburn 0
by Martin Spinks
martin.spinks@thesentinel.co.uk

THE icing on the cake – that’s the manager’s 300th ‘birthday’ cake – should have been shaped in the image of the muddy left boot belonging to Matty Etherington and the bloodied bandage from Andy Wilkinson’s head.

Both conveniently symbolise the distance and the mode of transport during a pretty long and eventful journey over Tony Pulis’s 300 games as Stoke City manager.

The club has travelled a long way – from the nether regions of the Championship to halfway up the Premier League – since that very first game finished in a 4-2 defeat at Walsall on November 2, 2002.

Just how far they have travelled was also evident in the latter stages of Stoke’s heaviest Premier League victory to date when Etherington, more than anyone, tossed away the textbook and let his natural instincts take over.

Pulis has kept a disciplined check on his players and their natural instincts – too tight a check for some – but that progress over his six-and-a-half year association with the club is all the justification he needs.

But once victory was in the bag and Blackburn were reduced to 10 men, the shackles truly came off, as Stoke even indulged in the occasional flash of exhibitionism.

And the moment that will live longest came in the 67th minute when Etherington, a player more used to a gambol than a gamble these days, produced the kind of wonderful individualism that so very nearly hijacked an occasion dedicated to the memory of the great Sir Stanley Matthews.

The Wizard of Dribble himself would have had a twinkle in his eye as Etherington cut across the face of goal from left to right, sucking in two or three defenders in the process before trading passes with his fellow winger Liam Lawrence.

Then, with one defender attempting to usher him away from goal, he shook him off by cutting back inside onto his favoured left foot, created brief time and space for the shot, then duly deposited his precise effort beyond Paul Robinson’s dive and inside the keeper’s right-hand post.

No wonder the crowd in the corner rose for a standing ovation every time Etherington sauntered over to take a corner thereafter, rather like spectators at fine leg welcoming a successful bowler at the end of his over.

For every Etherington there has to be a Wilkinson, however, and we all know the Wilkinsons of this world have more than played their part in underpinning the success generated by those 300 games under Pulis.

Wilkinson, a man for whom anything less than 20 stitches is a mere scratch, saw a raised boot in the first half and couldn’t resist the temptation for a bit of manly action.

The blood poured from his forehead almost as profusely as the acclaim poured from the Boothen End, forcing the full-back to interrupt his medical attention to applaud back by way of thanks.

He left the field looking like Henry Cooper circa 1966, but returned looking like Terry Butcher circa 1989, while any lasting scar will be worn like a badge of honour by Stoke’s own Last Action Hero.

Wilkinson’s wound will also act as a short-term reminder that Stoke’s victory – their best since December 2007 and their best in the top flight since beating Wolves 4-0 in May 1984 – was no cakewalk in the first half.

Buoyed by an early 1-0 lead following Danny Higginbotham’s superb volley after peeling away from the pack to greet a half-cleared corner, Stoke were subjected to the bitter taste of their own medicine as Blackburn flexed their muscles and flung plenty of artillery into the City area.

It would have been 1-1 had Franco Di Santo not headed over a left-wing cross from in front of goal, while a spell of half-a-dozen corners in immediate succession saw a Christopher Samba header deflected off City’s line and narrowly past a post.

Blackburn were entitled to feel aggrieved by the breadth of the half-time scoreline, therefore, after Etherington chipped goalwards from another half-cleared corner in first-half stoppage time to invite Mama Sidibe to sneak between defender and goalkeeper to prod home with the kind of goalscoring instinct for which the Mali international is rarely credited.

The second half was little more than a procession for Stoke once Samba, having been booked earlier for an off-the-ball tangle, was cautioned again for blatantly tugging Ricardo Fuller after being turned near the halfway line with half-an-hour remaining.

Higginbotham, mistaking his number for three for number nine on Saturday, threatened twice more from corners as Stoke confidently extended their unbeaten league run to four games for only the third time as a Premier League club.

A goal-line clearance and two point-blank saves from the ever-improving Paul Robinson in the Blackburn goal seemed certain to thwart Stoke’s pursuit of a third goal, but up popped Etherington to remind us of his, and Stoke’s, progress.

That progress remains too slow for those harshly berating manager and players for a 0-0 draw at Sunderland five days earlier.

However, a quick glance at the league table, a quick recourse to the bigger picture and a quick reminder of that 23-year exile should surely unite us all in raising a glass to 300 not out.

The manager himself will also have raised a glass on Saturday.

Possibly to Etherington, definitely to the clean sheet.