by Michael Baggaley
michael.baggaley@thesentinel.co.uk

WHEN The Times described Stoke’s performance in the goalless draw at Sunderland last week as “vaguely prehistoric”, we can assume they didn’t mean the Potters were as appealing as Raquel Welch in her fur bikini in One Million Years BC.

Dinosaurs weren’t quite roaming the land when Stoke last scored away from home before Tuncay’s 74th-minute leveller last night, but it must have seemed like that to the die-hard away supporters who had sat through nine-and-a-half goalless hours.

That’s time enough to boil 190 eggs, one after another, or visit Wigan nine times from the Potteries.

Wiganers bracing themselves for an insult at this point can relax ... we make no judgment on which would be the more soul destroying.

Over-physical Caveman football is not Stoke’s way, no matter what some critics say, but scoring away from home was a huge issue ... so no wonder the away end exploded into ecstasy and waves of fans raced forward to try tried to embrace Tuncay after he the striker headed Matthew Etherington’s cross home to earn Stoke a point.

Since Etherington scored in the first half of a 2-1 defeat at Hull, Stoke have created chances to score before drawing blanks at Blackburn, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Sunderland.

They have also been victims of the odd miscarriage of justice and, had they lost last night, referee Andre Marriner’s decision not to give Gary Caldwell a second yellow card, when he fouled Tuncay on the edge of the area just before half time, would have ranked alongside the howler to disallow a perfectly good Mama Sidibe goal in the 1-0 defeat at Villa Park.

Happily, Stoke weren’t prepared to let their fate rest on a referee’s whim. Their second-half performance was superb as they took the game to Wigan and created enough chances for Tuncay alone to have netted a hat-trick.

Having seen his side level, Pulis was still waving men forward, a bold approach which so nearly paid off when Mama Sidibe hit the bar and then substitute James Beattie forced an excellent save from Chris Kirkland just as the game crossed into injury time.

The manager was much happier than in the first half when Stoke not only conceded from a 14th-minute set piece, they also looked vulnerable.

Pulis improved City defensively by swapping Andy Wilkinson to left-back to deal with right-winger Charles N’Zogbia’s rapier thrusts inside and on to his left foot.

But the frustrated Pulis couldn’t completely shore up his under-pressure team, so spent spells flapping his arms to his sides like a distressed penguin as Wigan threatened a second goal.

He was clearly desperate to get them in for half time, a break and a team talk, which did the trick as Stoke’s hopeful football of the first half turned into a much more purposeful effort in the second.

They were roared on by 3,500 travelling supporters, many of whom had paid on the night, and were terrific even when their side was a goal down.

The few hundred die-hards who made the trek to the televised game to the Stadium of Light had to suffering the indignity of chants of “Where’ve you parked your minibus?” as Sunderland fans sought their own amusement.

But City’s away following brought a much larger slice of the Britannia on the road last night and easily out-sang the home supporters in the 16,033 crowd.

They deserved to see City break their away duck, and see the team play more as they do in the Potteries.

Stoke do not have such problems scoring goals on home turf, in fact they’ve netted 13 in the last four games at the Britannia.

More of that is needed on the road, but maybe, just maybe, last night was the dawning of a new age.