Pitch battle as bosses argue over the grass!
The devil of this encounter was always likely to come in the detail of what each manager said afterwards, rather than out on the hawthorns pitch.
There is plenty of needle between Tony Pulis and Mark hughes and the latest episode in a soap opera that seems set to run might be titled ‘Turf Wars’.
Glancing out as the groundsmen got to work once the final whistle had sounded, hughes suggested the grass had been left long to slow down Stoke’s play.
Pulis, unsurprisingly, scoffed at that remark, insisting it was the same cut as always and then reminding everyone that he remains unbeaten against Stoke since leaving the club in 2013.
It could have been even better for Pulis, whose side seemed on course for victory after Jay Rodriguez opened the scoring.
But Ahmed hegazi had a brain freeze and gifted Stoke an equaliser that meant that bit more for hughes, given the identity of the man in the opposite dugout.
Peter Crouch was the beneficiary, still scoring Premier League goals at the age of 36 — his tally reaching 104 — and reminding us of his value in a side that now tends to play to his advantage only when trailing.
Pulis knew Crouch’s predatory knack when signing him for Stoke in 2011 and said here that his mere presence unsettles defenders.
Certainly hegazi suffered a major aberration. The egyptian defender had begun his West Brom career so promisingly but failed to heed Ben Foster’s call to leave when Ramadan Sobhi hit an innocuous cross 13 minutes from time. hegazi took a swipe at the ball to clear but succeeded only in nudging it past his keeper and into the path of Crouch, who scored, 15 minutes after coming off the bench.
Pulis wheeled away in frustration. ‘That is probably the easiest headed goal Crouchy has ever scored,’ said hughes, before noticing the lawnmowers. ‘It’s difficult to get that little spark at the top end of the pitch. I see they’re cutting the grass now. They should have done it before the game, but there you go.’
Asked whether that was to counteract Stoke’s passing game, hughes said: ‘Quite possibly. I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the people involved. It wasn’t a huge thing. It was a slow day, the sun was shining, we needed that quickness to our play and it wasn’t quite there.’
Pulis then responded witheringly. ‘That was the same cut as Bournemouth and everybody else but obviously,’ he said, adding with a smile, ‘still unbeaten against them.’
The grin would have been wider had West Brom won their opening three games of a top-flight season for the first time since 1978-79.
They took the lead in the 61st minute. Allan Nyom crossed from the right and Rodriguez (below) caught Kurt Zouma and Geoff Cameron napping.
Rodriguez stole in to head home from close range for his first Premier League goal in a West Brom shirt. It was a moment celebrated ferociously by players and Pulis, who had been subjected to some invective from the away fans. Forgetting that he led Stoke to Premier League promotion and security, they attacked his style of football, no doubt coloured by hughes’s public stance on making the club attractive to watch.
That tension between the managers is long-standing and it was notable that hughes had to seek out Pulis before kick- off to deliver the customary pre-game handshake. Pulis dismissed those who once cheered him but now derided him, by saying: ‘I think that’s the way the world is. I don’t think that matters at all.
‘ There’s a person in the stand called Peter Coates ( the Stoke chairman) and his family who respect what I did. ’