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

THE wingers’ union is not as well known as its goalkeeping counterpart, but Stoke coach Mark O’Connor is delighted to see Matthew Etherington lighting up the touchline.

O’Connor knows the position well, having plied his trade as a versatile winger for QPR, Exeter, Bristol Rovers, Bournemouth and Gillingham.

He says the in-form Etherington is benefiting from improved service.

“People perceive that when things aren’t going well it is always the winger who gets taken off,” he said.

“They say ‘the winger didn’t fancy it’, but when you are playing wide you are reliant on other people giving you the ball.

“You need to get your wide players in the game, whether that is through your front players, midfield or full-backs.”

In that case, left-back Danny Collins deserves some praise for Etherington’s performances.

The former Sunderland captain prefers playing at centre-half, but has formed an effective partnership with Etherington on the left since moving from the Black Cats for £2.75m on September 1.

O’Connor, pictured below, added: “You could say Danny took one or two games to realise Matty’s strengths and weaknesses, as we all do when we are playing with different players.

“But you can see the two of them have started to play well together.

“I also think the front players have started to play with Matty a little better.

“There is an understanding there that comes through training and playing.

That can click very quickly, but sometimes it takes time.”

Etherington’s confidence is higher than at any time since his £2m move from West Ham in January.

The 28-year-old has performed well enough to hold down a place and start 23 league games since then, but O’Connor says the winger sets himself high standards.

He said: “We don’t need to tell him he’s played well. He’s on fire at the minute and he knows he’s doing well. He would say that is what he expects of himself.

“When he drops below that he feels he’s not doing well when sometimes I feel he’s doing all right.

“But that’s the attitude you want. You want people trying to raise the bar.”

Etherington would be a strong contender for fans’ player of the season so far, but defensive midfielder Dean Whitehead is taking longer to win around some supporters following his £3m move from Sunderland in the summer.

However, O’Connor says the staff are pleased with the way the 27-year-old has carried out his central midfield role.

O’Connor said: “As a team player I think he has been excellent in all aspects.

“He covers a lot of ground and perhaps a lot of the stuff he does goes unnoticed, but not by us.

“He is tidy on the ball and there may be games where we might start to release him to get forward a bit more, but not at the moment.

“I am not blaming him, but there have been one or two games where we haven’t been as good as we should have been in midfield.

“But I think generally in midfield we have done ok this season and he has been a big part of that.”

Etherington and Whitehead are both likely to be part of the Stoke midfield that takes on O’Connor’s old club Portsmouth at the Britannia Stadium on Sunday.

O’Connor was a youth team coach at Portsmouth for six years before moving to work under Tony Pulis at Plymouth.

He was recruited by Pulis again, this time at Stoke, three years ago.

He’s sorry to see his old club at the bottom of the Premier League table, but won’t be showing any such sentimentality on Sunday, when he expects Paul Hart’s team to provide a tough test.

O’Connor said: “I enjoyed working at Portsmouth.

“It is a good football club with fans who are probably second only to our own, so there will be a good atmosphere on Sunday.

“Portsmouth have lost some good players, but they still have some good players.

“Their performances of late have shown that.

“We played them in the Carling Cup and they gave us a beating, and they have just beaten Wigan by four, so we are under no illusions that it is going to be a tough game.

“We need to get back to what we are capable of.”

Portsmouth’s form – over the last three games at least – is better than Stoke’s. Pompey beat City 4-0 at Fratton Park in the Carling Cup before winning 4-0 at home to Wigan and losing 3-1 at Blackburn.

City don’t need reminding they followed their Carling Cup exit by drawing 2-2 at home to Wolves and losing 2-1 at Hull, after leading both games.
O’Connor doesn’t believe the Carling Cup game, when Stoke made 10 changes, will have any bearing on Sunday’s match.

He said: “If we were going to Portsmouth with the same 11 then you might think there could be some mental scars, but there will be a different 11 playing and we are at home, so this is completely different.”