POTTERS ONLY HAVE THEMSELVES TO BLAME

THE reason that Stoke City are mid-table summed up in 90 minutes.

They were dominant in the first half without being ruthless enough to make it count. Indeed, they needed an equaliser from Jacob Brown to go in level after Murray Wallace had bundled in the opener against the run of play at a corner.

But Gary Rowett’s halftime sub crowded midfield, the game became more squeezed and it was a horrible piece of defending which led to the next goal, when Mason Bennett took advantage of a rash decision from Danny Batth.

Frustration overshadowing reasons for encouragement. Blast.

Rowett said: “Stoke are not only a really physical side but they’ve got some really good players in there too, some technical players.

“I felt first half they were the better side. We played Jed Wallace around John Obi Mikel thinking he could run off him and get into good positions, but actually Mikel’s experience was allowing him to drag him into areas he didn’t want to be.

“It allowed them to get around the box to have some long-range shots without really creating that many chances but neither did we.

“To go in at 1-1 at half-time I was displeased because we had conceded a very poor goal but I couldn’t really complain because I could see it coming.

“I thought the second half was completely different. We made the changes to get the extra body in midfield and although we didn’t create as much as we’d like we got into some good positions.

“I know it was a mistake from Danny Batth who slid in but it was a good finish and I thought we looked by far the better side. We never came under any serious threat.”

Michael O’neill named an unchanged team for only the fourth spell this season – and was hoping for better than the previous two times, which saw wins over Luton and Wycombe followed by disappointing defeats to Barnsley and Middlesbrough respectively.

Remarkably, Harry Souttar was the only remaining starter from Rowett’s time at Stoke which ended just two years ago – and he had been in the under-23s back then.

Sam Clucas and Jordan Cousins returned to the bench to give more experience among the subs but the same starting XI pretty much picked up where they left off against Bristol City three days previously.

Nick Powell, the number 10 in a 3-4-1-2, was so good at finding pockets of space and him, Jordan Thompson and John Obi Mikel linked well together to help Stoke dominate possession.

By the half-time whistle they’d had 62 per cent of the ball and were bemused not to be leading – but at least they were not losing.

Millwall, also playing with three centre-backs, had limited Stoke’s chances of getting too deep into the final third but pressure was pretty constant.

Steven Fletcher scuffed a shot, Batth sent a header

over at the back post from a corner, Powell looped an ambitious effort over and hit another one too close to Bartosz Bialkowski, Rhys Norrington-davies cut in a drifted a shot across goal and Brown briefly morphed into Hotshot Hamish to welly one down the keeper’s throat from 30 yards.

Threats were few and far between at the other end but the visitors knew they had a chance at set pieces.

Hence why when James Chester was accused of a soft foul on the half-way line, Rowett stopped them taking a quick dead ball and signalled for the big men to march forward and George Evans to clip it into the penalty area instead.

It got Stoke on the back foot and from the resultant corner, Murray Wallace scrambled in the opener. Stoke just couldn’t get a foot through the ball as it bounced around in front of Adam Davies and the defender was in the right place to squirm it in.

Thankfully, there were only five minutes between that and a response.

Powell picked up the ball in front of the dug-outs on the halfway line and swung it over for Fletcher, running in the inside left channel. It was perfectly weighted in the wind even if Fletcher didn’t look like he had the acceleration to take advantage. He pulled a shot right and Brown was steaming in to collect, burying a shot through Bialkowski and inside the front post.

It was his second in three games since being paired in a front two, first with Powell and then Fletcher, in a system which seems to suit his strengths at the moment.

Rowett made a chance at half-time, bringing on Maikel Kieftenbeld in place of Kenneth Zohore with a task of seemingly following Powell around – and it immediately felt like it was going to be a second half of few chances. And neither of these sides have shown a knack for being too clinical this season.

Powell kept moving to try to find room and it was his pass on the half-way line that released Norrington-davies down the left for a good, low cross on the run that fizzed through the box to find Tommy Smith, who cut back for Brown to be tackled as he shot.

Millwall’s midfield crowding kept Stoke at arm’s length the game became more scrappy, particularly in a difficult wind and bitingly cold conditions.

Stoke weren’t particularly convincing when they had to deal with a Millwall set piece and Adam Davies spilled one and had to recover at another scramble. Danny Mcnamara had too much space on the underlap but Davies dealt with a poor shot.

Clucas came on to help Stoke try to take control back in midfield.

But immediately, disaster. Batth failed to deal with a forward pass and left Jed Wallace free to roll across for Mason Bennett to tap into an empty net.

Mcclean and Rabbi Matondo were thrown on with a rescue mission, replacing Thompson and Batth as Stoke shuffled into a 4-2-3-1.

That didn’t have enough effect so O’neill threw on Sam Vokes too, in place of Tommy Smith to go 3-4-1-2, or all-out attack.

All out attack led to nothing and Stoke are left with too much to curse as the season runs out.