WAGNER’S BATTLERS IMPRESS BUT HAVE TO SETTLE FOR A POINT

Had a superb game up against Peter Crouch, but could have been penalised for his tackle on Mame Diouf in the box Substitutes Laurent Depoitre Big and strong against a physical Stoke defence. Held the ball up well - 7 Joe Lolley Linked up well with Malone on the left following his introduction - 7 Scott Malone Attacking move by the boss to bring on the marauding left back - 7 TOM INCE netted his first competitive goal for Town but they were held at home by Stoke City.

The winger opened the scoring in the 10th minute before Ramadan Sobhi levelled the match with half an hour to go.

Referee Anthony Taylor could have pointed to the spot twice in the second half at either end, but denied both teams penalties as they shared the spoils at the John Smith’s Stadium

David Wagner made four changes to the side that earned a good point at Southampton, with full backs Scott Malone and Florent Hadergjonaj making way for last season’s pairing of Chris Lowe and Tommy Smith.

Danny Williams made way for Jonathan Hogg, who returned from a one-match suspension following his red card received at Watford.

The final change came up top, where Steve Mounie replaced the in-form Laurent Depoitre, who had netted three goals in the previous three matches.

Town had the first chance of the match in the fifth minute, when Ince dragged his left-footed shot wide of Jack Butland’s goal, but it was Jonas Lossl who was troubled first out of the keepers, making a good double save from Xherdan Shaqiri and Joe Allen after the Potters broke through the Town line down their right hand side.

The Terriers made the perfect response to that moment of pressure, however, when Collin Quaner slipped Smith in down the right hand side.

The winger received the ball again on the right side of the box and – after riding a challenge and performing a pirouette – rolled a perfect ball into the path of Ince, who made no mistake from six yards out.

Stoke could have levelled after 16 minutes, but Peter Crouch – the Premier League’s leading headed goalscorer – could not steer his nodded effort on target from a corner, putting the chance narrowly over the bar.

And Stoke came even closer to levelling through Switzerland international Shaqiri, following a misplaced Mathias ‘Zanka’ Jorgensen pass.

Chris Lowe got back to block the effort and put it fractionally wide for a corner.

From the resulting set-piece, Lossl made an exceptional save from Ryan Shawcross’s header, before Lowe cleared Kurt Zouma’s shot off the line - repeating the feat from an Eric Choupo-Moting backheel on the rebound.

And the Cameroon international was frustrated again,