***Official Stoke vs City match thread***

[paddyblue]

absolute shit. no movement at all. this is becoming too common. all this tip tap shit is too predictable.

we were lucky to get a point, stoke much the better team. hopefully a serious wake up call because any glossing over this result would be delusional

We deserved a point,Stoke were not the better team but we were not good.

i qwould agree we had the better team but they worked a lot harder than us they challenged for every ball to the end and so broke up our tip taps almost every time

[PeterParker]

And almost forgot, what a pathetic display of their fans.

I was really impressed by them untill today, but doing the poznan and acting like total shites, made me sick.

[zuricity]

we just not want it enough.. really shite this, yaya's shot in frustration saved us from total embaressment.
why does Silva start? he needs a break, players should shoot more, sick of the small passes who end up nowhere
AND dzeko is not a footballer

how can you possibly know what might have happened if yaya had not have scored?

like dougie all i am reading on here is negative crap.

this season isn't over at all. we are at the top.

[Ted Hughes]

And almost forgot, what a pathetic display of their fans.

I was really impressed by them untill today, but doing the poznan and acting like total shites, made me sick.

Booing Silva for being treated for a head wound caused by a red card challenge was beyond contempt. How the fuck can you boo a bloke for having his head cut with a forearm smash ?

[PeterParker]

And almost forgot, what a pathetic display of their fans.

I was really impressed by them untill today, but doing the poznan and acting like total shites, made me sick.

Booing Silva for being treated for a head wound caused by a red card challenge was beyond contempt. How the fuck can you boo a bloke for having his head cut with a forearm smash ?

In their minds, that was a dive. But hey, that's the way they play there.

[blues2win]

We did lack width although it's a narrow pitch at the Britannia. The fact is though that our best two crossers are Richards and Kolarov. Mancini didn't have much choice but to play Richards in the centre but there was a case for playing Kolarov. Barry would have been there to cover him. It would have been a risk because Aleks is weak defensively but he does put the ball into the danger area at least a few times a match.Personally I think we need a genuine pacy wide man to change things up if we get stuck away from home which we seem to do pretty frequently.

I dare say Mancini will defend himself by saying we missed chances in the first half which is true, I suppose. If he says the players were tired I'll fucking scream though. Stoke played on wednesday night at Spurs which was a tough match for them. Fatigue is no excuse for tonight's poor display.

[Moonchesteri]

had turn off the fu**ing sound on espn

Funnily enough, I turned the Finnish joke of a commentator off so that I can listen to the ESPN commentators with a 3second delay.

[zuricity]

Silva looks very fed up with the prem and it's ref's now I think. You can just see him longing for Spain where he can play football and get on with it without being kicked to fuck.

How they got their first yellow in the 65th minute I don't know. Absolute bullshit.

Wy didn't Mancini make any changes after 20 minutes when the game started screaming for width. Should of started kolarov and AJ.

I hate football.

again nonsense, silva will get kicked whereever he plays.

how can you have width on a field deliberately narrowed to meet the needs of a throwin expert who was on the bench for most of the game?

first yellow, that's Howard Webb for you , did you expect anything else from him?

listen , when everybody and his dog is willing to cheer city's opposution on, it makes it pretty difficult.

now watch united f*ck up on monday. they really are a poor team.

[Beefymcfc]

It's always fun wandering through this thread after a game to see how violent some of the reactions are and who they aimed at.

Dzeko obviously today and he wasnt great but he wasnt that bad either.I was watching for some dynamism at the end from of the 3 (4 if you count AJ) strikers we had on the pitch.Did we get anything close to that? Did you actually notice any of them?

I know Dzeko was involved because plenty on here were wanting him off but weren't the others just invisible? I would rather have someone failing but getting invloved than not showing and being involved at all.

Having said all that, boy do I dislike Stoke.

I do like a balanced opinion. Contrary to my earlier thoughts Stoke went all out to get something and credit where credit's due. What is it about us though, where teams push 100%?

For me, it was another park the bus job, hoping for something from a long ball or set piece. It worked for them but I'd never have thought they'd score like that; it was an amazing goal. The control and strike were superb but why was it that the goal then gave us some urgency? Yaya's strike was equally superb but why did we then not push on? Were we happy with a point?

Top of the league but only on goal difference which could be wiped out against a Fulham team who are diabolical on the road. I expect us to be 3 points behind come the end of this round of games and also expect we'll be behind on the goal diference stakes. It's all a little disappointing but it was a cold, rainy, winters night in Stoke!

And Dzeko. Why people jump on his back when the rest were a bag of bollox, I don't know. Mario was non-existent and what did Carlos add? Edin was the best of a bad bunch and I just cannot fathom how Mario keeps getting a start.

[zuricity]

i qwould agree we had the better team but they worked a lot harder than us they challenged for every ball to the end and so broke up our tip taps almost every time

they didn't challenge for anything. All they did was get a 1 in a million goal. dead lucky.

[leewonpen]

Can Mancini not see we play too narrow.Fuckin Stevie Wonder can see that.Why play Dzeko and Ballotelli if you not gonna cross the Fuckin ball.Johnson is wank he made no difference whatsoever. Why put Tevez on for less time than he played against Chelsea. We need 1 winger and another centre half at the winter transfer window. Very short sighted by the board, we spend all that money and then when it comes to the point that the title is to be decided.Nothing. Im so frustrated.

How wide would you like to play on a narrow playing surface? Last I checked you can only play inside the touchline.

Go fuck yourself you cunt. We ve played too narrow since January.

[paddyblue]

its very hard not to be negative when you look at our away form, 2 wins from 9 only a very brave man would bet on us winning
even 3 of arsenal,wolves,norwich and newcastle away, i think 3 wins is a must to be in with any chance

[Alioune DVToure]

The Poznan was just a way for them to get over their FA Cup final heartache. That's the sort of banter that you give and have to take in football.

I'll take issue with their kicking lumps out of us but not with their celebrating a killer goal.

[FA cup winners 2006]

We deserved a point,Stoke were not the better team but we were not good.

we created nothing except a 40 yard deflected effort. stoke had a corner cleared off the line. a header which joe threw a hand at and got into numerous dangerous positions.

we created nothing, ballotelli should never have been on the pitch after the chelsea match, something is up with silva and it needs to be sorted

[trout man]

I think that's a decent point with all the injuries v the rugby team & Howard Webb. It's only a fluke from Crouch which has cost us the 2 points.

I don't have any complaints with Balotelli & Dzeko today, they did their best against a bunch of fucking thugs & a bent ref, with no creativity from the midfield.

Silva is a waste of a shirt at the moment & imo if he's going to play at all, it would be better to bring him on when the oppo are tired rather than start him & have him running around tackling people & getting viciously assaulted.

Once Aguero was ruled out, with Silva carrying an injury & JL VK missing, it was always going to require someone else in the midfield to step up, which, on a small pitch v a bunch of cheating fucking thugs is not easy.

Mario did well not to react to blatant, orchestrated violence & provocation. Howard Webb is a cunt.

Simply this

[kennyboy]

its very hard not to be negative when you look at our away form, 2 wins from 9 only a very brave man would bet on us winning
even 3 of arsenal,wolves,norwich and newcastle away, i think 3 wins is a must to be in with any chance

agreed, its really hard to be positive seeing the performance of today. we don't play like champions, think its still
to early for us. don't know if its the players or mancio, today should be a 3pointer, fuck this iam off to a bar !

[Ted Hughes]

It's always fun wandering through this thread after a game to see how violent some of the reactions are and who they aimed at.

Dzeko obviously today and he wasnt great but he wasnt that bad either.I was watching for some dynamism at the end from of the 3 (4 if you count AJ) strikers we had on the pitch.Did we get anything close to that? Did you actually notice any of them?

I know Dzeko was involved because plenty on here were wanting him off but weren't the others just invisible? I would rather have someone failing but getting invloved than not showing and being involved at all.

Having said all that, boy do I dislike Stoke.

I do like a balanced opinion. Contrary to my earlier thoughts Stoke went all out to get something and credit where credit's due. What is it about us though, where teams push 100%?

For me, it was another park the bus job, hoping for something from a long ball or set piece. It worked for them but I'd never have thought they'd score like that; it was an amazing goal. The control and strike were superb but why was it that the goal then gave us some urgency? Yaya's strike was equally superb but why did we then not push on? Were we happy with a point?

Top of the league but only on goal difference which could be wiped out against a Fulham team who are diabolical on the road. I expect us to be 3 points behind come the end of this round of games and also expect we'll be behind on the goal diference stakes. It's all a little disappointing but it was a cold, rainy, winters night in Stoke!

And Dzeko. Why people jump on his back when the rest were a bag of bollox, I don't know. Mario was non-existent and what did Carlos add? Edin was the best of a bad bunch and I just cannot fathom how Mario keeps getting a start.

Dzeko won more challenges today than he has all season.

I don't know what people expect Mario to do amongst that lot though, there was simply nowhere for him to go.

We suffered today imo from the fact that we still don't quite have the right blend of players we need for every eventuality. A left footed right winger wasn't really what was required & Balotelli + Dzeko aren't really a pair of players who fit together. The team today was makeshift & not an 11 you would expect to gel together. Bob needs to get the squad balanced in the summer.

An interesting moment today was when Zabba went off & Milner came on at right back rather than Savic. If only Bob had realised earlier about Savic.

[PeterParker]

I really am not that convinced that was an incredible shot.

Just watch at Joe for a second. First of all, he was just a thew meters in front of the line, so he doesn't have the excuse he was caught offguard, then the shot was from an important distance and he had time to see and to react to the direction of the ball. Then another problem was that he reacted with his both hands aside, if he tried to use his left hand, he could had been able to touch the ball.

And maybe, just maybe, Crouch pushed Gazbaz before taking the shot. In a replay, Barry looks after Webb.

[Ted Hughes]

I really am not that convinced that was an incredible shot.

Just watch at Joe for a second. First of all, he was just a thew meters in front of the line, so he doesn't have the excuse he was caught offguard, then the shot was from an important distance and he had time to see and to react to the direction of the ball. Then another problem was that he reacted with his both hands aside, if he tried to use his left hand, he could had been able to touch the ball.

And maybe, just maybe, Crouch pushed Gazbaz before taking the shot. In a replay, Barry looks after Webb.

I was a foul, again, just like Wed.

[trout man]

I really am not that convinced that was an incredible shot.

Just watch at Joe for a second. First of all, he was just a thew meters in front of the line, so he doesn't have the excuse he was caught offguard, then the shot was from an important distance and he had time to see and to react to the direction of the ball. Then another problem was that he reacted with his both hands aside, if he tried to use his left hand, he could had been able to touch the ball.

And maybe, just maybe, Crouch pushed Gazbaz before taking the shot. In a replay, Barry looks after Webb.

Sorry spidey, but that's just wishful thinking at best. You know what 'thought' did, shit itself and wasn't sure.