Preston North End 2
Stoke City 1

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

DEAN Whitehead is still working out all the nicknames of his new colleagues at Stoke, but there’s no chance of forgetting his own.

It’s a six letter word beginning with W and ending with R... and Waster adequately describes his failure to net a glorious chance to score on his Stoke debut.

But it’s a nickname unlikely to stick if, as anticipated, he provides the kind of all-round midfield contribution earning him 200 games in five years at Sunderland.

“Don’t worry,” he grinned afterwards, “in three weeks’ time that will be in the back of the net.”

It was not only his first game for Stoke, barely 24 hours after meeting his new team-mates, but also his first pre-season friendly after a summer spent in the departure lounge at Sunderland.

“I have to adjust,” he continued, “and hopefully in the coming weeks we I will get to know each other’s game. After two, three, four games you’re ready and raring to go.

“I’ve done most of the running and stuff, but that was my first game and so I’m playing a bit of catch up.

“I played 60 and hopefully I’ll get another 60 at Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.

“I’ve played 100 games in the Premier League, so hopefully I can bring a bit of experience to a group of players who had a good season.

“It was a fantastic season to finish 12th and there’s no reason why we can’t do finish better than that,” added the 27-year-old midfielder.

His first offering was probably a pretty accurate insight into the kind of player Stoke have acquired as he did the simple things well, worked as hard as his body would permit, passed the ball short and accurate, never gave it away cheaply and, on one memorable occasion, popped up in a glorious goalscoring position.

Sadly, that 33rd-minute opportunity went begging as he drove over on the half volley from no more than eight yards, but the point was he anticipated the nod down from a left-wing cross and was in the right place at the right time. We’ll hold him to that promise about burying such chances when the action begins for real against Burnley on August 15.

And he wasn’t the only visiting player to spurn chances to avert a fourth defeat in five pre-season outings.

The tone was set by Liam Lawrence’s 10th-minute penalty being superbly palmed around the base of his right-hand post by Andy Lonergan after diving low and at full stretch.

The penalty had been won by Dave Kitson who, with neat touches and intelligent movement, would add genuine credence to last week’s words about a fresh start at the Britannia.

Indeed, he was responsible for two of the three chances to befall Matthew Etherington soon after half-time as that pair remained two of Stoke’s more impressive performers on the day.

Of greatest concern was the ease with which Neil Mellor had established a two-goal advantage in the second quarter of the contest by exploiting some pretty ropey defending in front of a smattering of some 250 visiting supporters.

Thomas Sorensen’s failure to deal with put his first through a high ball left Mellor with time and space to control and bury a free effort into an unguarded goal.

And then the chunky striker, who clearly shares the same chef as his strike partner, discovered a burst of speed that was too much for at least three Stoke players as he strode into the box and unleashed his shot early enough to catch Sorensen a little off guard as he was beaten to his left at his near post.

All fluency to the game was inevitably lost as subs came and went in the second half, but Stoke might still have salvaged the game after Richard Cresswell headed home Rory Delap’s
long throw with 10 minutes still remaining.

But Cresswell himself shot wide with a half-chance and curled wide with a genuine chance in the closing stages of a game offering no excuse for complacency between now and the start of the real stuff.

Preston North End: Lonergan (Henderson, 46), Jones (Hart, 61), Davidson (Trotman, 61), Chilvers, St Ledger (Nolan, 61), Sedgwick (Brown, 65), Chaplow, Carter, Wallace (Hawley, 80), Mellor (Elliott, 65), Parkin (Nicholson, 65).

Stoke City: Sorensen, Griffin (Dickinson, 72), Higginbotham (Shotton, 63), Cort (Sonko, 63), Shawcross, Lawrence (Tonge, 67), Whitehead (Delap, 57), Whelan (Diao, 57), Etherington (Pugh, 57), Beattie, Kitson (Cresswell, 63).

Attendance: 3,121.