Holmes_and_Watson

Mara really needed to hold onto that one. Smallbone didn;t have too many other options. But we need to get control of this.

A couple of moments, but we've not had much out of Fraser/ Mara/ Aribo combo.

Smallbone picking the wrong option, more a pain since his job is largely to be picking out the right ones.

One day I'll see us pick out that ball in behind there defence and get our player in on goal.

Oooooh... nearly. Wrong option from Mara. Good move though and nice from Aribo.

Arma's workrate will be missed. More defensive subs with a fair bit to go. Need to see where our attacking outlet is going to be here. We need something to stop waves of Stoke attacks.

Aribo coming on to replace that pace Sulemana was giving us. 🙂

Stoke could still equalise, so not that inevitable. 🙂

Stoke player dived to get a foul... from the ref's tackle.

Big bloke gets header in tactics change shocker... obviously Stoke here. We don;t have a plan B and ship players out to make sure it doesn;t happen. 🙂

Baz lost control of that one. Does exactly the right thing and gets rid. He got it form one of those Smallbone passes back, when there was a much better forward option with minimal risk.

Their keeper hoofs and we get possession back. Baz in the same situation would be getting it to one of us. Just another note to one of his strrengths. Ch..ch..ch.. changes... Suleman off (shame) Alcaraz done lots well, worked hard.

Nice move Arma not hesitating to get it in.

This is where a bit of passing them to death would be nice.

We've lost our momentum here after a bright start. We know how sitting back works for us...it doesn't.

Going forward Stu did the right thing and passed it into the space. Had Manning not got there, it would have been on him, and we were right to get forward. Manning lost it, but we had 1 in the box for him. SOmetimes I think he should just try to get it in there, if there ar eno options to pass back. Baz makes a save! Commentator bleating on about us getting away with 2 penalties or something... so negative...

Crumbs! That corner had a plan behind it. Clearly the work of new set piece coach. 🙂

So underrated.

Sulemana nice and direct. Nearly

Nice pass out from Baz.

This is good stuff. We're certainly creating things which was a problem first half. Hopefully more as Stoke have to push up. Just have to keep our heads and pick our moments and don;t overcommit.

Awful corner. But we didn't comded frp, a break away. SO, positive in that respect...

Oooh nearly. Commentator harsh on Stu there. Really good move.

Both teams struggled to get any consistency going there. Stoke looked to be having more of the nearly breakthroughs. We got some passing together, but not for any length of time. Stu, and Smallbone a little off with the passing. Sule not tracking back too well. We preferred to not try to pick a forward option at times. Not just Smallbone, but as the link player he stands out for that. Yet, on a number of other occassions that was the right thing to do. Because with Alcaraz so deep, we had no one to be on the end of things. Arma and Alcaraz switched better in the last game, providing more of an outlet in the middle. It will develop and the players will learn when to pick the right moments. But Stu did pick up good spaces, offered direct movement and support. He's technically one of our best, and overall it shows. Sulemana's pace is already a mark of fear for defences, and he had some lovely moments, and Smallbone was all over the park keeping that passing going. Lovely track back and a really good block too this half, after I felt this was a little lacking in his game. One up off the back of few chances. Let's hope the players' scar tissue isn't going to cause a problem when dealing with the dizzy heights of beiong a goal ahead this time. We've done a lot right, so the second half is a chance to build on that.

Bah! Almost the first time we thump it from deep into that flank, and Sulemana is miles back.