MISS BIG CHANCE
Jack Butland’s work was more routine by comparison during that scoreless first period after tipping over one free-kick and then saving another, from Whelan, low down as at least one pair of boots stretched to try and poke home.
The game needed a goal, not least to distract us from the rain and the cold, and fans were still returning to their seats after a half-time run round the block to keep warm when Stoke opened the scoring.
Mcclean, with a rare endorsement ringing in his ears from nearby Stoke supporters, cut out an attempted clearance and then whipped the ball in low from the right for Sam Clucas to deftly dummy a shot os his own before turning to see Allen smash into the roof of the net.
It was the sort of goal Frank Lampard made a living from and it’s that kind of role the Welshman is promising to fill bountifully for the second time in his Stoke career.
Villa weren’t sluggish in their response as Butland parried a Tammy Abraham effort and then saved at John Mcginn’s feet just 30 seconds later.
But what lives longest in the memory, certainly for the visiting contingent, is the two chances which then followed to make it 2-0 and most probably game over.
Tom Ince, usually pretty impeccable in his decisionmaking and execution, skewed wide when he might have squared to a bawling Clucas from Allen’s throughball - and then Ryan Woods freed Ince to cut the ball back for Allen to power his shot a foot over the bar.
Just how costly those misses were to prove became evident once Kodjia had stepped off the bench to offer the Holte End renewed hope.
Erik Pieters had already grappled with his man inside the Stoke area and escaped possible punishment when he did so for a second time in the 73rd minute after being spun by Kodjia and, with that Holte End baying for blood, it would have taken a brave or a deaf referee to wave play on.
Abraham rolled in the subsequent penalty to leave Stoke contemplating victory one minute and the grisly prospect of a possible defeat the next with so long remaining.
But it was Stoke nosing back in front five minutes later when Mcclean, surely enjoying his most effective game for the club, breezed past Elmohamady before feeling a slight clip of his ankles from behind.
Benik Afobe had only been on the pitch four minutes after being dropped again and his confidence would have been all the more fragile in that very moment when recalling his penalty miss down the road at The Hawthorns in August.
So credit the guy for not only grabbing the ball and scoring, but doing so with a tracer bullet past the keeper’s low dive into his left-hand corner.
Now the victory would be Stoke’s. Maybe, if the referee had looked favourably on the foul Pieters was ambitiously claiming out on the left, but he didn’t and Yannick Bolasie was left crossing at pace for Kodjia to leap above a rooted Martina and thunder his header past Butland’s dive to his right.
The Holte End rose in unison to proclaim their saviour, and it’s not even Christmas yet.
For the sake of at least one of these two fine clubs you hope this fixture is not replayed next season, at least not in the Championship, but who knows, we may be reconvening at Villa Park in rather warmer conditions some time next May?
There can’t be a supporter there on Saturday who wouldn’t take that.