Sheaf Saint

And we are miles stronger than Wigan were last season. Everything is relative.

I bet there were a few Wigan fans who said the same thing last season as well.

It wasn't identical. In the tackle on Gaston he at least made a slight connection with the ball. He got nowhere near the ball in the one today.

I wouldn't exactly call it a howler but he perhaps should have done better with it. He seemed to wait too long to decide to come for it and then didn't commit fully.

Its a shame Gallagher wasn't available today. We could have done with his movement up front in the second half. Stoke defended very well but we were attacking so slow and centrally that we made it easy for them.

Meh. Are we ever going to beat this bunch of hoofers? Stoke played us at our own game in the first half and sat back and played for the draw in the second. Draw was inevitable really. Not our best performance by a long way but the conditions looked horrific. In a match very short of overall quality, I'm going to nominate Lambert as MOTM for that superb free kick to give us the lead.

Well when the nuns fail, it's time to wheel out the big guns...

Might be to do with the weather. Looks proper horrible out there.

Stoke are just sitting deep and playing for the draw or the hope of a counter attack now. Have to find a way through but so far all of our attacks this half have been one-dimensional.

I don't remember Crouchy being such a whinger when he played for us.

J Rod should have hit the target with that. Free header.

Need to put them to the sword in the 2nd half. They are giving it a good go but we have so much more quality on the ball than they do. Newcastle losing at Chelsea as expected, so it would be nice if we could nick this and leapfrog them.

FFS! Stoke with.another of their trademark 'bundle the ball into the net any way you can' goals. Are we ever going to beat these c*nts?

Haha! That's poetic justice - Begovic beaten by the wind!

I'm blaming you for that goal.

They a1re pressing us back into our own half and playing a lot of balls in to the box. Stopping us from pressing high ourselves.

Shall we just stick with this thread and sack the other ones off?

Stoke are giving us a real game here. Not helped by the lino on their left missing a couple of obvious offsides so far.

Like we did with Clyne in the Burnley game?

Was it a straight red? If so then he definitely will. If it was a second yellow and they have a midweek game then no he won't.

Is there a mod around that could merge these threads? We don't need three!

What a farking superb FK from Lambert! 1-0!

Seeing as Glasgow Saint doesnt appear to be around to start one today...

You have to laugh. They were clearly pinning all their survival hopes on him finding some form after returning from injury, and almost immediately he gets himself suspended for three games. If it was anybody else they would have just accepted the FA ruling and moved on. He thought he was being cute and clever, deliberately swinging his arm at Flores but trying to make it look like it was unintentional, but as people have already noted it is the facial expression that gives it away. As for Flores' play-acting though - what a prize c*nt.