Season: 2009/2010   Match Date: 19/Sep/2009

by Martin Spinks
martin.spinks@thesentinel.co.uk

HOW we scoffed at Sunderland's Anton Ferdinand for recklessly conceding a needless penalty in the early stages of Saturday's live lunchtime kick-off.

How we groaned two hours later when Danny Collins upended Sam Ricketts in identical circumstances at a far more sensitive stage of Stoke's fixture at Bolton.

And the hat-trick was completed by Portsmouth's Belhadj after he, too, entered that same twilight zone in his own area to concede a carbon-copy penalty at Villa Park.

Collins dropped Ricketts in the 89th minute to concede a penalty of far greater consequences than those gifted by his brethren elsewhere on a curious day for defensive blunders in the Premier League.

It was a fate neither Collins nor his colleagues deserved at the end of a game in which they appeared to be ushering home a relatively comfortable away win.

That's late goals now conceded in three of Stoke's six Premier League games to date – costing three points in the last two alone – as poor timing is joined by poor defending and poor concentration.

One caller to an after-match radio phone-in insisted on blaming the final score on the manager's substitutions, but that was simply a case of putting two and two together and making five.

The end result was down to nothing more or less than the kind of individual error unbecoming of Stoke's overall protection of what should have been a fourth clean sheet in six league games.

Of far greater concern than the removal of a tiring Dave Kitson in the latter stages was the pre-match decision to play a left-footed centre-half at right-back to accommodate Robert Huth, and still play with a flat back four, by omitting the unlucky Andy Wilkinson.

But Huth, it turns out, is one of those rare breed of footballers we once referred to as two-footed players, now about as rare as a three-legged Dodo, as his control, his crossing and even his shooting on one occasion were all undertaken by a previously under-estimated right peg. Good news for Stoke, bad news for Wilkinson.

His presence certainly did nothing to weaken Stoke's aerial strength – most notably evident with one brilliantly headed clearance in front of his own goal in the second half – and City as a whole largely nullified the customary influence of a frequently isolated Kevin Davies.

Indeed, his greatest impact on proceedings was felt by various corners of Abdoulaye Faye's metallic anatomy as they positively indulged themselves in a physical head-to-head that was more Burnden Park than the Reebok.

Not that the contest was merely a physical confrontation, far from it, and it was Stoke frequently exhibiting the greater freedom and attacking prowess against opposition enjoying little encouragement from the sidelines.

If the Britannia is the cathedral of noise, then the Reebok is the temple of doom.

The home fans have clearly reached that crossroads confronting established Premier League clubs unable to push on that little bit further in terms of achievement and style, but Charlton and Southampton, to name but two contemporary examples, are painful reminders that you should be careful what you wish for.

Stoke's 3,000 travelling fans comfortably made more noise than the Bolton fans for long periods. Come to think of it, Tony Pulis comfortably made more noise than the Bolton fans for long periods, too.

An advertising hoarding for a local gym, which read EasyTone, was certainly not calming the visiting Tone as he and Gary Megson engaged in their usual head-to-head audition for town crier.

Megson gives ground to no-one in the shouting stakes, especially on home soil, and his frustration was the far more justified for the vast majority of Saturday's contest.

Only the curious decision to book Ricardo Fuller for diving, rather than award the penalty most referees would have given, denied Stoke an early breakthrough during a first period in which they boasted the better football.

Fuller himself also cut one back for Matthew Etherington to fire into a Bolton body, while Glenn Whelan's curling free-kick momentarily threatened to beat the keeper's full-length dive to his left.

The home crowd belatedly found its voice immediately after the break, following a couple of substitutions aimed at enlivening their side's previously tame efforts, but it was Stoke who edged in front when Fuller nodded on for Kitson to outwit Ricketts left of goal before steering his precise shot across the keeper and inside his far post.

That's now three in four for a player once saddled with a record of none in 18 for Stoke, and his manager is clearly struggling to keep pace with his progress.

In one interview in the tunnel after the game, he set Kitson a target of 10 goals for the season, but by the time he'd jumped into a lift and arrived in the main media room the target had been extended to 12 to 15.

Thank heavens Match Of The Day didn't invite Pulis up another two flights of stairs to its commentary point, otherwise the target would have been 20 and counting for poor old Kitson.

Bolton huffed and puffed in pursuit of an equaliser, but only in the 69th minute did they truly threaten when Thomas Sorensen flung up an arm to divert Gavin McCann's shot behind for a corner, from which a subsequent goalmouth scrambled ended with Zat Knight swivelling and scooping over from eight yards out.

Bolton fans were clearing their throats for one almighty full-time jeer when Collins clattered into Ricketts on the left-hand edge of his area to leave Matty Taylor sending Sorensen the wrong way from the spot.

The final whistle followed soon after... and the Bolton fans heckled a fair bit anyway.

Please God, don't let the Britannia ever become enveloped by the same combination of apathy and frustration should Stoke survive for another two or three seasons.

Relegation might be more preferable than that.