BROWN’S ON TARGET TO GET BACK TO WINNING WAYS
FILLING in the panel on the side of these pages highlighted the similarities between this match and the previous weekend’s at Middlesbrough.
Stoke had 61 per cent of possession in both, three out of 11 shots on target against Derby compared to four out of 16 at the Riverside. The build-up play was encouraging, no one was sure if the clinical edge was going to be there to make it count.
Crucially, this time, Stoke kept the back door firmly shut. The three-man defence of James Chester, Harry Souttar, Danny Batth with Adam Davies behind didn’t let the opposition have any shots on target. Davies had only had to deal with a couple of lollipops at Cardiff on Tuesday too.
So when Stoke finally got a good chance and finally took it, it mattered.
It was Jacob Brown who stepped up. He was lurking at the back post to head home when Tommy Smith passed Jordan Thompson’s free-kick from the inside left back to Nick Powell on the edge of the box to dip in a lovely cross.
It might have been doubled five minutes later when Batth’s header was pushed wide in the six-yard box for Brown again, but this time he hit the side netting.
“We haven’t had enough
1-0 wins so it’s nice to get one,” said O’neill.
“I thought in the first half our play was good, very good at times, but we didn’t create enough with it. We didn’t get enough shooting opportunities, we didn’t get enough good balls into the box. Part of that was down to good defending from the opposition as well.
“The second half, I thought, was a question of trying to find a breakthrough.
It’s a good ball in by Nick Powell and a good finish by Jacob, who has had a bit of a difficult period for us but worked ever so hard and I’m delighted for him to get that goal.”
Brown had been the one change in the starting lineup from the mid-week draw, replacing Steven Fletcher (head), who missed out due to concussion protocols.
“He gives you everything he’s got,” said O’neill.
“Not that the other lads wouldn’t but he gives you an incredible work rate up front and we felt that would occupy the centre-backs to get more from Nick Powell and that threat in behind as well because he has that pace.
“He’s had a difficult period for us because at times we’ve asked him to play wide right, which I think he can play, but his better games for us have come as a striker.
“He’s a young player still coming through. We knew what we were buying; we were buying potential, we weren’t buying the finished product by any means. There is a lot he has to improve on.
“But when you have that natural athleticism he has, that pace, that power, strength, and good delivery as well – I think he has that in his locker – he just needs to polish up certain parts of his game. That’s the
responsibility of him and us.
“He has a brilliant attitude, he’s a brilliant boy. I was delighted for him and so was everyone in the dressing room, who gets to see how hard he works every day.”
The three-at-the-back system which has generally been Plan B this season has gone a long way to helping Stoke post 18 clean sheets in 38 league games, 22 in all from 44 in league and cup.
It does bring its limitations,
however, going the other way.
“Maybe defensively as a back three we were a bit more solid as a team,” said O’neill. “But there is always compromise to that and it’s a little bit more difficult to create. There is always compromise.
“This was our third game in a week and we needed a third midfield player as opposed to a third attacker. If you look at our bench, it’s
extremely young – three 18 year olds and two 20 year olds – and it was important to get through.
“I thought Joe (Allen) and Jordan (Thompson) and John (Obi Mikel) were terrific.”
Mikel can put his feet up for a couple of days now while Allen and Thompson go on international duty.
Allen has made 16 starts and three sub outings in the 19 games since returning from nine months out with
a terrible Achilles injury. Most of those have been full 90 minutes too but he came off in the latter stages here as Stoke were seeing the job through.
“He’s ok,” said O’neill. “He had a bit of a tight calf so it was a wee bit precautionary. He was feeling it at half-time and he was feeling it at that point of the game. I never like to take Joe off. I thought he was terrific today.
“His performance level was excellent and we just had to watch him in the last 15 minutes or so.”
Stoke’s control of the game did not impress Derby manager Wayne Rooney, whose side are now five points above the relegation zone with eight games to play. Third-bottom Rotherham have four games in hand.
“It was a very frustrating first half in particular, which I thought felt like a testimonial game,” he said. “That’s fine for Stoke but not for us. Our plan was to be on the front foot and we thought we could cause Stoke problems but I’m hugely disappointed.
“We tried to get runners in behind to move their three centre-backs out of position but I thought we lacked in energy and quality and didn’t deserve anything from the game.”