Season: 2009/2010   Match Date: 29/Aug/2009

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

Stoke City 1
Sunderland 0

FOOTBALLERS are human – even Abdoulaye Faye, so they say – and so events on Saturday shouldn’t really have surprised us too greatly.

No team talk was really required once Tony Pulis was able to name Tuncay and Robert Huth among his substitutes.

And what followed was the best and most intense performance of the season so far from just about every Stoke player out there.

That Tuncay and Huth weren’t able to waltz straight into the starting 11 was not only a justified vote of confidence in the old guard, but a reminder to the newcomers that players are picked on merit and not reputation in these parts.

The endeavour with which Stoke were to deservedly make it six points out of six at HQ also provided Tuncay and Huth with a close-up glimpse of the graft and spirit required of them once they are truly unleashed.

And you have to say that Stoke’s work-rate would never have been sustained for so long had the same players been subjected to 120 minutes in the Carling Cup action at Leyton Orient three days earlier.

Dave Kitson, the one man to play in both games, was the exception that proved the rule.

Not since Shergar was allegedly spotted disguised as a donkey offering cheap rides along Blackpool beach has there been a comeback like Kitson’s.

Now there’s a joke in there somewhere about Kitson once being a thoroughbred race horse disguised as a donkey, but such slurs now appear consigned to history on the evidence unfurling before us.

His second matchwinner in successive games – after not only failing to score, but failing to look like scoring in his 20 previous appearances for the club – represents due reward after a remarkably fine return to form this summer.

If he were an athlete, the authorities would probably be demanding a gender test or some such examination to try and explain such a dramatic return from apparent wreckage of his Stoke City career.

His confidence is simply oozing by comparison to the sunken figure last starting a Premier League game back in January, while his goalscoring is merely the cherry atop of an all-round game now providing the missing short-ball link between midfield and attack.

His current form throws up just one problem – where on earth do you play Tuncay?

As one of your two forwards? Out wide? As part of a bolstered midfield in a different system?

His late cameo on Saturday was short and sweet, picking the ball up deep and taking out tiring defenders with a surging run during his very first contribution in a Stoke shirt.

Lauded by supporters every time he so much as scratched his nose on the subs’ bench, his signing follows in the traditions of your Hudsons, Hoekstras and Hendries in raising the bar for skilful craftsmanship.

The present dressing room is now blessed with so many cult heroes that most supporters would gladly marry off their daughters (or even their sons) to at least half-a-dozen current players.

Especially after Saturday’s victory as the likes of Faye, Rory Delap and
Danny Higginbotham were among those turning in their best display of their season so far to ensure their places are not bequeathed any day soon to anyone sat on an increasingly powerful bench.

Take one look at the respective benches on Saturday and then dare to say you wouldn’t prefer Stoke’s to Sunderland’s, while events over the 90 minutes would leave Stokies and neutrals alike arriving at the same conclusion about the starting 11s.

No wonder the Match Of The Day panel were confidently talking up a mid-table finish, but those of us closer to home would do well to avoid such grand predictions for a little while longer.

Stoke’s half-time lead was due in large part to their superior defending after the heart of their back four proved every bit as strong and unyielding as Sunderland’s was flimsy and jumpy.

Not so jumpy that they could rise powerfully enough to cope with a string of Stoke corners heading their way, however, and two minutes before the break it was a half-cleared delivery from the left that was lofted back into a crowded box for the ball to bounce off a variety of limbs before Kitson hooked home from 10 yards.

Darren Bent was greeted with the ‘W’ word at every turn – and it wasn’t ‘wonderful’ – following that apparent slight towards Stoke City when leaving Tottenham earlier this month, but he failed to silence his critics as one effort was superbly blocked by Higginbotham.while another was glided narrowly wide.

Kenwyne Jones was even more ineffective on the day as he consistently failed to demonstrate the wisdom of any Stoke’s interest in his acquiring his services in this transfer window rather than the next.

The more effective and more attractive play came from Stoke in the second half as Matthew Etherington came out of his shell to help inspire one excellent move climaxing with Ricardo Fuller cracking narrowly over from an angle.

Stoke’s victory might also have been wider and less tense had a revitalised Glenn Whelan not seen an early second-half shot blocked, or a goal-line clearance not prevented Liam Lawrence crowning a typically energetic and selfless performance with his first goal of the season.

All the occasion lacked was a goalscoring debut from Tuncay, but that shouldn’t be too long in coming if he sticks around Stoke’s leading scorer.