Expect the expected – Stoke preview
You already know everything that you need to know about Stoke. I could be cheeky and say that even if you know nothing about Stoke then you still know all you ever need to know, but that’s not what I mean, and what makes Wigan any different? What I mean is that Stoke, the place, the team, the fans, aren’t about to come on like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, they do what they say on the tin, in fact the most contrary thing about the whole place is Nick Hancock’s career in comedy.
Robbie Williams? Well he’s not from Stoke anyway bit in any case he did the most typical thing for a sensitive soul from any northern town, by buggering off as soon as was possible without showing ingratitude to his mum.
So, whichever picture of the potters you subscribe to, we’ll see it tomorrow. We’ll get Delilah, long throws and hard work. We’ll get kicks, niggles and moans. We’ll get team spirit and working together. Tony Pullis and Peter Reid will look miserable and work their way through an industrial pack of Wrigley’s. The question these days is not what you’ll get from Stoke, it’s how you’ll cope with it.
If we’re honest, what we’re all a little scared to say is that Latics should be able to handle Stoke. It should be beauty and the beast and deep down we all believe that beauty should win out in football. “No-one likes us and we don’t care” leave that one for the office banter, there’s nothing better than being everyone’s second team because of the way you play the game, we’ve been there, we know.
The problem is that beauty doesn’t always win out, that all too often it comes over all limp and fragile and in any case we can’t guarantee that the good Latics will turn up.
Maybe it doesn’t matter, what Latics have failed to show us this season is that they are capable of winning ugly of grinding results out. Take Wolves, Fulham and Everton at home; Blackburn, Stoke and, erm, Everton away. All of them games that Latics couldhaveshouldhave got more from and didn’t. But the Sunderland game did give hope of a new resilience in the way that we allowed them back into the game but not to edge past us, we’ll need plenty more of that grit tomorrow.
I’ll be on the train back from that London and I suspect that I won’t be missing a classic, but who knows? I’m sick of hearing how inconsistent Latics are this season, but it would be great to see them buck the trend of this one and claw some of that goal difference back, now where’s Jeff Kenna when you need him?
(picture taken from Ruben’s ‘Samson and Delilah’ (c) The National Gallery)
What a load of tosh.
Yes Stoke are physical and know what they are doing but your blind if you think the likes of Etherington,lawrence,Tuncay and Fuller etc cant play.
Yes Stoke have some tall guys and we all know about the throw.
If people dont wisen up and realise Stoke are far more than just physical team, they will go the same way as Blackburn did on Saturday.
Blackburn were by far the more physical side at the Britannia first half,Stoke matched them ,earned the right to play and then played them off the park.
Be careful with generalisations.
No under-estimation at all, we’ve been in exactly your position, first when we got promoted to the championship and then to the Prem, both times relying on people thinking less of us than we deserved, but both times with a team that was more than the sum of it’s parts.
Then again, maybe you’re right, maybe Stoke’s gameplan revolves way more around the silky skills of Liam Lawrence than it does team spirit and hard work. Either way there’s no need to be so defensive, which is, co-incidently, is something I used to tell Latics fans who used to ge het up about criticism of how Paul Jewell’s side played.
Be proud of your team’s achievements don’t try to make out that they’re something they’re not.
I think the truth about Stoke lies somewhere in between the opinions of the author and the above commentor.
We will test you with a lot of long balls and maybe a lot of long throws, depending on whether or not Delap plays (he often doesn’t away from home now), but don’t don’t be shocked if Etherington skins a man, cuts all the way across the pitch, plays a neat one-two with Lawrence, cleverly turns a defender and curls home a finish; that’s exactly what he did on Saturday.