SOUTTS YOU SIR!
...WHILE VALE TAKE LEAGUE LEADERS TO THE WIRE IN FIVE-GOAL THRILLER.
THERE was a moment just before the hour mark as Stoke City dominated against Wycombe when you started to wonder if it might not be their day.
Rhys Norrington-davies had underlapped Jack Clarke to squeeze a low cross into the six-yard box for Joe Allen, two yards out. Instead of the net bulging, the ball spun the other way. Keeper David Stockdale had just done enough to touch it out of Allen’s stride.
Nick Powell had already hit the bar by that point and sent a pass whistling ahead of Jacob Brown in front of goal. Powell had a goal chalked off too, for what was judged to be a push on Anthony Stewart but was probably more like just being stronger.
The composure and incisive moment then came from a left-back, Norringtondavies, who had been given a half-time talk to embrace the attacking side of his game.
He was infield, midway in the Wycombe half to collect a pass from John Obi Mikel, play a lovely one-two with Steven Fletcher and surge into the box to bury under Stockdale.
Harry Souttar quickly made it 2-0 with a header from a Clarke corner and by the 70th minute, all nerves were gone and Stoke eased to a much-needed, deserved and convincing three points.
“Yes, we deserved to win the game, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” said manager Michael O’neill afterwards.
“We were a little bit wasteful in the first 20 minutes of the game. We could easily have scored two or three goals in that period of play. We hit the bar with Nick and that would have settled the game a bit easier.
“Then we got dragged into a bit of a battle for 15 or 20 minutes in the first half that we were trying to avoid. The game gets very disruptive.
“Essentially, Wycombe had two time outs based on the goalkeeper apparently being injured and suddenly then you’re in a situation when you’re playing six minutes of injury time at the end of the first half, which is pretty ridiculous.
“But that’s their strategy, they want the ball to go out of play and frustrate the opposition, which they do very well, and
fall into that.
“I think we played well second half to get ahead and the disappointing thing is that we didn’t win by more, to be honest.”
Stoke could have ran up a handsome score on another day – and no doubt that on another day they will be made to pay if they are not more clinical.
O’neill said: “We were just a bit wasteful at times in terms of the end product.
“Even right at the end you see with Norrington-davies, he should score again after good play by Jack Clarke. You get inconsistencies from young players and I thought we saw that in the game.
“Jack started the game very, very bright but then disappeared for a while then comes again and plays well in the second half. You’re never going to really get 90 minutes of quality from a 20-year-old and we ended with three on the pitch.
“We’ve got to be patient with young players.”
Norrington-davies, who was fortunate not to concede a penalty late in the first half when he challenged Admiral Muskwe, burst into the game after the interval.
O’neill said: “It was a good piece of play for the goal. We knew if we could get the ball switched after working it to one side of the pitch that he could step in. It was a nice little one-two with Steven Fletcher and it’s a very good finish.
“Rhys is a player who needs to play on the front foot. He steps into the game and he’s decisive.
“I think he’s probably suffered a bit since he had the red card. He’s not played with that same real purpose or vigour that he did in the opening games here, when I thought he looked terrific. I thought in the second half we saw the player we brought into the club.”
As for Souttar, there was only going to be one head on that corner as it floated across in the 69th minute.
The centre-back had been tested physically against former Crewe and Port Vale powerhouse Uche Ikpeazu and stood up to the challenge before landing the killer punch at the other end.
O’neill said: “I’m delighted for Harry because I’ve given him a bit of stick that he’s not given us enough in the opposition box.
“It’s ironic that he’s given it today against one of the more difficult teams to score against from a set piece.
“I thought he was terrific actually, because he headed everything, he was good on the ball and it was a really strong, commanding performance.
“I’m delighted he got the goal because it’s something we need to get a little bit more out of him and we want the opposition to fear him when we have opportunities in the final third.”
It was just the game, result and tonic that Stoke needed following a tough fortnight – losing against in-form Barnsley and being edged out by promotion-chasing Brentford and Swansea.
“It was really important to win the game,” said O’neill.
“We’ve played six and won three, lost three in recent times. If you look at the run, there are games in there like Barnsley when we didn’t do ourselves justice. I thought we played well at Brentford and beaten by the better team on the day, against Swansea the referee decided the game.
“They are all things you have to deal with in the Championship on a weekly basis.
“Now we’ve got a free week and we go into another three-game week (Middlesbrough away, Cardiff away, Derby at home) and we have to do everything to try to win as many of those games as possible.”