Ryan Shawcross
I liked John, a nice guy, and we probably didn’t get to see him at his best in the short time he was with us. He was great at holding the ball up and his physique was extraordinary.
But we had Kenwyne Jones too that season and he was the kind of player to fit our system perfectly. Kenwyne was strong as well and did well that year. The big thing with strikers is that they need to play all the time. They need rhythm and it is tough to come in and out, even if you’re built like a brick outhouse.
INCONSISTENCY is the most used word in the Championship for good reason. Stoke have won three in a row without playing at their best but go to Bristol City, play pretty well, make a load of chances, hit the post and bar but can’t score and end up losing to a long throw that we didn’t deal with well enough.
It was disappointing but, in the scheme of things, I look in four or five game rows and we’ve got 10 points from the last 15 available.
The main thing is to be in the play-offs or pushing for the top two at the end of the season and that still looks in our grasp. I’m certain that we’ll go on another run of wins and we’ll go another run of losses. We have to make sure the losses don’t last too long and we keep ticking off points and make the most of it when we’re in good form.
Wednesday night was a perfect opportunity to get a draw just to keep an unbeaten run going but the frustration has to be tapered.
We’re missing a lot of players through injury and suspension, including some of our most important, and Michael O’neill has had to use his squad – and he’s using it well. Lads are showing they’re good enough.
We are missing goals. Sam Clucas, Nick Powell are two you’d look towards for that while Tyrese Campbell is still getting back and Abdallah Sima will hopefully give us something.
We’ll be defensively fine with Danny Batth replacing Harry Souttar but Souttar has obviously been so important to how we play.
He’s a big loss.