STOKE CITY LIVE
Luton Town v Stoke City match-day blog today from 1pm at stokeontrentlive.co.uk FOLLOW ALL THE ACTION FROM KENILWORTH ROAD AS IT HAPPENS WITH PETE SMITH
MEET Stoke City’s allscottish attack: one born in Shrewsbury but wouldn’t look amiss as an extra in Braveheart, the other born in Halifax and wouldn’t sound amiss in Last of the Summer Wine.
It’s been a good week for Steven Fletcher and Jacob Brown, who have scored four goals between them in the two goals they’ve been paired together by Michael O’neill.
Brown, whose mum was born in Robroyston, Glasgow, has seen his hard work match by a leap in his development this season and has been rewarded with his first international call-up. He could make his debut next Friday in Moldova while QPR’S Lyndon Dykes – a former Stoke target – serves a one-game suspension.
It’ll be a proud day for him and his family and his coaches at Stoke, who have nurtured his progress since he joined from Barnsley 14 months ago. He’s shooting more often (2.3 shots per 90 minutes this season, compared to 1.4 last), making more tackles (1.2 to 0.7), and key passes (0.9 to 0.6).
“He’s an incredibly unselfish player,” said O’neill. “He works very hard, he presses the opposition and runs in behind. He’s got good physical attributes. He’s strong, he’s got decent pace and he’s improving all the time.”
In fact, the clear message from everyone who knows him is that he’s desperate to keep improving all the time.
Dean Holden said: “I spoke to him about it on Tuesday and it typified the lad really. At quarter to four on the day he’d been called up for Scotland he was just walking in for an ice bath. A really top professional who maximises every ounce he’s got.”
It had been unknown to the wider world that Brown was eligible for Scotland but he isn’t the first Stoke surprise on that score.
Harry Souttar, through his very thick Scottish voice, is a proud Australia international thanks to his mum Heather, who is from West Australia.
It was Adam Federici who alerted selectors, explaining: “Harry came up to me in pre-season and told me he’s Australian, I looked at him and thought, ‘Well I can tell by your accent, mate, it’s a really thick Australian accent!’
“He impressed me in training anyway, I thought he was a great prospect, so he asked if he could get a hook-up to the Australian team. I gave a text to the Caltex Socceroos Team Manager and he texted back and asked for some footage of him.