Season: 2009/2010   Match Date: 20/Feb/2010

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

WE should have guessed it would be Stoke’s day from the moment their reserve goalkeeper was presented with Portsmouth’s player-of-the-month award for December.

It did not always seem so, however, especially when the referee began auditioning for the month of February.

But Stoke are made of stern stuff these days and the more you kick them, it seems, the more they come out fighting for more.

Angered, but not subdued, by Mike Dean’s harsh dismissal of Andy Wilkinson in the 73rd minute, Stoke battled thereafter with a resilience that always promised to safeguard an unbeaten record now stretching to 10 in all competitions since the turn of the year.

What we could not have reasonably bargained for was the injury-time drama that was to transform a gutsy draw into the kind of dramatic victory they were denied against Manchester City four days earlier by Alan Wiley’s sorry interference.

You held your breath for a split second, just in case another phantom foul was detected, but this time the whistle shrilled for nothing more than confirmation of Stoke’s late, late winner.

The exclamation greeting that 91st-minute strike, with only 10 men on the field remember, was matched only by the exclamation at the scorer’s identity of their goalscorer.

To describe a Salif Diao goal as a rarity is like describing the Dodo as somewhat scarce, for this was his first goal for Stoke in 78 appearances and his first goal in the Premier League since October 2002.

No wonder manager Tony Pulis admitted afterwards: “I didn’t know Salif had scored the goal until I got into the dressing room. I actually thought Mama Sidibe had scored it – that’s how bad my eyes are. I still couldn’t believe it when I was told.

“I was so surprised it was Salif. I don’t think he’s ever got past the half-way line before, never mind got into the opponent’s box.”

Not quite true, of course, though he was pretty close to the halfway line when smashing home his only previous goal in a Stoke shirt during a pre-season friendly in Austria last summer.

Saturday’s match-winner owed everything to the brooding menace with which Ricardo Fuller so frequently stalks such fixtures as he exploded into life just as Stoke’s fourth successive 1-1 draw was in the offing.

Fuller goaded his man into fatal commitment on the right-hand edge of the Pompey area, drew the attentions of David James as the England keeper dived towards his feet, then pulled the ball back for Diao to crash into the roof of the net.

Another ugly Stoke goal.

The visiting contingent would have gladly taken the draw after earlier events had conspired to leave Portsmouth, not Stoke, anticipating the greater share of the spoils.

Pompey were already forgivably aggrieved by a tight offside decision denying Frederic Piquionne in the first half by the time the adept Frenchman, scorer of two against Stoke in the Carling Cup, netted from a tight angle after a skidding shot had bounced awkwardly in front of Thomas Sorensen. Sorensen’s failure to either hold or properly clear was not horrendous, perhaps even a little unfortunate, but the manager later attributed blame to a goalkeeper entitled to feel the heat from Asmir Begovic, the man picking up that player-of-the-month award on his return to Fratton Park at the weekend.

Stoke’s pursuit of an equaliser threatened to be long and fruitless after Tuncay’s shot was palmed away by James and his header flashed well wide shortly before the break.

But the scores were level within five minutes of the restart when Robert Huth leapt highest to greet Glenn Whelan’s right-wing corner with sufficient power that goalkeeper and defender barely even twitched as the ball bisected them on the goal-line.

An open contest then ensued in which either side could have pinched all three points, so it was perhaps a blessing in disguise that Stoke were reduced to 10 men with 17 minutes of normal time remaining.

That forced them to play nine men behind the ball in stout and convincing defence of the draw, while taking the kind of chance they ultimately did take on the break.

But that red card was not without its cost, of course, and TV replays substantiated the initial impression that Wilkinson had been unlucky to pick up his second booking in six minutes.

Aruna Dindane’s pace was causing him trouble down the Pompey left, true, but his use of the hand against the shoulder was not only routine practice for a defender in that situation, but reciprocated by his opponent as they simply fought gamely for a 50-50.

Wilkinson had only just stopped shaking his head on the sidelines by the time Salif Diao’s unlikely heroics sent it shaking again, but even harder this time.

Sadly for Portsmouth, and for football in general, heads will be shaking for a lot longer down on the south coast.