Match Reports

FA Cup Round 4

26 Jan 2003: Stoke City 3 AFC Bournemouth 0 Att: 12,004

LUKEWARM CITY LEAVE TEN-MAN CHERRIES BURIED by Log of Leeds

After beating Wigan in the third round in front of a crowd of less than 10,000, this fixture held a bit more appeal. With a rare place in the 5th round at stake we were presented with very beatable opposition at home. Not only that, but also a team that Tony Pulis had previously managed and the prospect of an exciting little cup-tie. Well, for some reason it never quite happened. It ended up being an easy victory for City despite a lacklustre performance from the team, and by the end of the game I was slightly apologetic to my Dad, who was watching his first game of the season on my promise that Stoke had recently been looking good and playing some nice football.

The game saw us lining up with a very unfamiliar-looking defence. With Handyside suspended and Shtaniuk out with a reported case of the 'flu the whole back four had to be reorganised. Pulis chose to do what many fans have been calling for recently by recalling Petur Marteinsson to the centre of defence. He was partnered at the back by Wayne Thomas, while Karl Henry was brought in at right-back to cover Thommo's normal position. The midfield took on a more familiar look with Hoekstra and Bjarni returning to the left and right wings respectively, last week's unsuccessful experiment with Bjarni on the left apparently behind Pulis. Gunnarson and O'Connor manned the centre while Chrises Iwelumo and Greenacre continued their partnership up front. Banks in goal and Hall at left-back made up the eleven.

The opening minutes of the match saw Stoke attacking Bournemouth and within the first minute Gunnarson had hit a low shot just to the keeper's left and wide of the post. A Gudjonsson run was cut out and a good-looking Hoekstra cross was plucked out of the air by the Cherries' keeper before, in the 8th minute, Bournemouth came sweeping forward on a counter-attack. The ball was fed across to Wade Elliot who advanced towards Banks' goal before hitting a great shot past Banks and onto the right-hand post, only to bounce back across the goal to safety. It was a lucky escape and one for which Stoke would end up being very grateful.

Buoyed by that near miss, Bournemouth started to run at us with purpose and cause our makeshift defence a few problems. Elliot was particularly difficult to deal with on the right-hand side, making some good runs into the box and beating Hall on a couple of occasions. They won their fair share of corners and while there was never any real threat to our goal, they looked as if they had the desire to force one. For our part we were trying to get forward as well, mainly through the good work of Peter Hoekstra, but too often we were too predictable, or else lost the ball in midfield when a promising attack looked to be building. James O'Connor was particularly wasteful with the ball.

By now neither side looked like scoring and the atmosphere in the Boothen and around the ground was bordering on the deadly, apart from in the Bournemouth end where a good number of them (more than they used to bring in the league) were enjoying their day out. Both teams kept trying and Bournemouth got behind our defence once or twice, only to be caught offside or lose out to the advancing Banks. Thomas looked comfortable at the heart of our defence, as he usually does when moved across to cover that position, and he was partnered well by Marteinsson, although he did get caught out once or twice straying too far forward to challenge midfielders. Our attack was fairly well summed up by Big Chris's speculative shot on 36 minutes, which to the delight of the Bournemouth faithful in the South Stand came closer to going down the players' tunnel than in the goal.

It all changed though deep into first-half injury time when the Potters won a penalty. Gunnarson had broken from midfield, and when he was put through by Little Chris he was hauled down by the Bournemouth keeper. It was one of those fouls where the keeper made a genuine effort to get the ball but Brynjar just flicked it past him first, and was consequently clattered by the keeper for a definite penalty. Gunnarson would have scored, and the referee obviously felt he had no option but to send the keeper off. I felt this was rather harsh because there was no malice in the challenge, but at the end of the day that's the rule. There was some surprise amongst the crowd when Chris Iwelumo stepped up to take the spot-kick, but all fears were seemingly allayed when he stroked the ball calmly into the far left-hand corner of the net. However, the referee stood still and it was clear to the crowd long before it was to Chris that the goal had been disallowed. Now, if I expected Chris to miss the first one, I was certain that he would miss the second! Delightfully, he proved me wrong and put the ball in exactly the same spot to put Stoke one-nil up at the break.

Half Time: Stoke 1 AFC Bournemouth 0

The half-time interval saw the players out five minutes early warming up with a few shuttle runs, and one had the feeling that Pulis wasn't too happy with the first half performance. Interestingly, Banks was withdrawn at half-time and Neil Cutler became the fourth goalkeeper to play in the game - Bournemouth had also used their substitute after the sending-off. Stoke came out to kill the game off and did just that in the 50th minute. Hoekstra put a ball in to the box that CG could not quite get on the end of, but when the ball was played back in to the box, Iwelumo somehow managed to bundle the ball in under close attention from the Bournemouth keeper.

That goal and the sending off left Bournemouth's hopes in tatters, which was slightly unfair because they had more than matched us in the first half. After this though their only hope was that Stoke would throw it away, which indeed we tried to do by consistently giving the ball away cheaply in midfield. To be fair though we did improve as the half wore on and after a couple of scares at the other end Stoke started to look for the third goal. In the 73rd minute JOC played a rare accurate ball wide to Chris Greenacre. His cross was met by Iwelumo, who headed into the ground and saw his effort palmed over the bar as it bounced back up. We were starting to play a little more like we have done recently, and I was particularly impressed by the Chrises' movement up front - their partnership might just start causing defences a few problems?

On 77 a good Stoke move saw some neat interplay between JOC and Big Chris to release Hoekstra, who put in a lovely cross for Greenacre, only for the little striker to head over when he should have scored. Bjarni shot wide and again CG failed to convert after a Karl Henry ball in, and the game plodded on until the 82nd minute, when Lewis Neal was introduced at the expense of an unusually quiet Bjarni Gudjonsson. Just after this switch, Greenacre played a nice weighted ball for Hoekstra to run on to and dispatch low and hard into the bottom corner of the Bournemouth net for Stoke's best goal. And that was the end of that. Bournemouth had a chance of a consolation on 90 minutes but Hall read the play well and got back to clear off the line.

Team Marks:

GK Banks (7) not a lot to do but thankful for the post in the first few minutes

RB Henry (7) steady at the back and got forward well too.

LB Hall (7) good game but slightly rattled by Elliot at first.

CB Marteinsson (7) coped well and should be in the first team.

CB Thomas (8) great job from Wayne. [STARMAN]

RM Gudjonson (5) very quiet game from Bjarni.

CM Gunnarsson (6) not quite up to his recent standard.

CM O'Connor (5) passing awful. Effort alone not good enough.

LM Hoekstra (8) our only attacking option on the day.

CF Greenacre (7) good movement but must start putting chances away.

CF Iwelumo (7) led the line well and did well to keep his nerve on the second penalty.

SUBS

Cutler (6) looked confident enough.

Neal (6) good few minutes - would like to see more of him.

Goodfellow (6) replaced Hoekstra for the last few minutes.

Conclusion

Not a great game but an easy one, and one that left most Stokies scratching their heads in disbelief that Stoke had played poorly, but were in the FIFTH round of the FA Cup!!! (And now we know what we've got to look forward to!) We were never really firing on all cylinders, but the important thing is that we progressed, and a good cup run, in my view, is far from a distraction. It should be a good morale-booster, and a packed house for the Chelsea game could just kick-start our push for survival. As for the STARMAN award, Hoekstra came close but I would have to give it to Wayne Thomas for coming in and doing such a professional job at the centre of an unfamiliar defence.

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