Match Reports

Worthington Cup 1st Round

10 Sept 2002: Bury 1 Stoke City 0 Att: 2,581

EARLY CUP EXIT WOE AS SHAKY STOKE MEET GIG LANE BURIAL by AndyP

I normally play football on a Tuesday evening, but decided in the afternoon I was going to give it a miss to make the short journey down the M62 to see Stoke take on Bury. Despite the being two divisions above Bury, I though this might be a difficult tie, as both teams were in the same division last season, and Stoke's 1-0 win at Bury had been a pretty even affair. I managed to entice fellow Leeds Stokie JasonD along, but I think by the end of the game we wished we hadn't bothered!

Cotterill decided to make some changes, bringing Gudjonsson in for Henry, and playing Iwelumo upfront for Goodfellow. A good sight was to see Hoekstra on the bench on his road back from injury. I thought it might have been an opportunity to rest Gunnarsson and Shtaniuk after international duties, but Cotterill obviously wanted to field a strong side and look to progress on a money spinning cup run.

A minute into the game Thomas gave away his increasingly trademark silly freekick towards the edge of the box, and the referee allowed an extra advantage by letting Bury take it from completely the wrong place. The shot fired in was gathered comfortably by Cutler at his near post. After 3 minutes Stoke had their first chance, and had it gone in things might have turned out so differently. A cross came in and Shtaniuk powered a header goalward only to see it cleared off the line. Two minutes later Stoke were awarded a free-kick on the right side, and Commons' centre was headed over by Gunnarsson. Stoke looked purposeful in the opening stages, and a good move and passing interchange concluded with Cooke sending an acrobatic effort over the bar. After 13 minutes, Cooke was involved again as he ran on to an Iwelumo flick, only to have his shot smoothered by the keeper.

On 23 minutes Stoke had another good chance. Clarke's cross was headed behind for a corner, and from the cross Shtaniuk's header again appeared to be cleared off the line. Around the half hour mark Bury were beginning to find a bit of belief, and Clarke's failure to stay tight allowed a move down the right, and a cross from just outside the box had to be well headed out by Handyside. Five minutes later Shtaniuk's attempt to clear the ball for a throw resulted in a needless corner, which luckily came to nothing. However on 36 minutes Newby escaped down the right again and his low hard cross was well claimed at the near post by Cutler as the forwards were running into the box. Stoke then tried an elaborate corner routine which led to a Gudjonsson shot sailing well wide. Bury could have gone in at half-time one-up, but for a brilliant save from Cutler to turn a shot from about 8 yards for a corner, after yet another low cross in from the right. The corner led to nothing, and the whistle went soon after for the break.

Bury started the second half looking more purposeful, and earned a corner on 49 minutes. It came out to the edge of the area, and the resulting shot was gathered by Cutler. Two minutes later, a Stoke throw inside the Bury half fell to Handyside, and his cross from the right was headed over by Gunnarsson. Meanwhile at the other end Cutler had to tip a cross over the bar for a corner as Stoke started to look vunerable. Sure enough, on 56 minutes Clarke lost the ball and it went out wide right, where Sthaniuk went over to cover, was skinned, and the cross arrived at the far post for the Bury full-back Stuart to head into the net.

Stoke missed a good chance to make a quick reply. On the hour a decent move brought a corner for Stoke. Common's centre picked out Cooke in a similar position to his goal against Preston, but this time he headed over. Two minutes later Cotterill decided on a tactical switch, and Goodfellow and Hoekstra came on to replace Cooke and Gudjonsson. Stoke had been losing out in midfield during the early stages of the 2nd half, and this change brought about a 4-3-1-2 formation with Hoekstra playing behind the front two in a roving role. However this weakened the midfield further, and left us with little attacking options out wide for the rest of the game. At least with Gudjonsson on the pitch there had been a supply of crosses. Bury's dominance continued and on 65 minutes they sent a shot just wide.

Four minutes later a Bury corner was met at the far post by a firm header that crashed against the bar. Stoke were beginning to get frustrated and the sole tactic seemed to be humping the ball up the field towards Iwelumo. Stoke produced a mad two minutes with about fifteen to go. First Clarke was booked for a meaty challenge as he followed through after a run. Next a Bury attack left the defence all over the show, and Cutler appeared to slip leaving an open goal, but Clarke got back to clear off the line. Finally Gunnarsson went in with two feet after losing the ball on a charging run. He was shown the red card (largely due to the histrionics of the Bury players) and the likelihood of Stoke in the next round effectively went out of the window. It was not until the 83rd minute that Stoke mustered their first effort on target of the second half. Commons made a bit of space for himself, but his shot towards the top corner was at a good height and lacked pace, so the keeper claimed it easily. A minute later Henry came on to replace Clarke.

Despite playing extremely poorly in the second half, Stoke almost conjured up an unlikely equaliser. Goodfellow picked up the ball in midfield and ran at the defence, leaving Bury players in his wake or backing off wrong footed. He got to the edge of the area and looked certain to shoot, but elected to slip a pass left to Hoekstra running into the box from out wide. The pass looked to have too much on it, and Hoekstra did well just to prevent it running out for a goalkick, but then he produced an audacious piece of skill to flick the ball up into the air, and his perfect clipped cross fell to the probably startled Iwelumo, and his powerful header was somehow put over the bar by the keeper. Either side of the goalie, and it would have been in. The corner came to nothing, five minutes added time were announced, and depressingly Stoke did not trouble (nor looked like troubling) the keeper at all during it. The whistle went, and Bury had a deserved victory. The Stoke players trudged off to boos from the traveling Stokies.

Team Marks:

GK Cutler (7) Could do nothing for the goal as his defence left him exposed. Made one very good save, and was generally sound.

RB Thomas (5) Continues to give away too many silly fouls. No attacking aspirations.

LB Clarke (6) Good goal-line clearance, but lost the ball that led to the goal. Did not get tight enough on his man too many times, allowing too much room for crosses.

CB Shtaniuk (6) Made mistakes. Skinned for the goal. Won most headers. Knackered?

CB Handyside (6) Not at his best.Too many hoofs forward when we needed to build from the back.

RM Gudjonnson (7) Probably our most creative outlet. Put some decent crosses in. Our creativity suffered went he went off.

CM O'Connor (5) Chased around as usual. No real creativity. Failed to hit the target with one effort from 10 yards. Poor passing.

CM Gunnarsson (5) Looked out of sorts and not up with the pace at times. Put a couple of headers over. Not creative enough in midfield. Got sent off to make matters worse.

LM Commons (6) Very quiet for most of the game. A few decent deliveries from set pieces.

CF Cooke (6) Laboured. Missed a good headed chance. Not quick enough to profit from Iwelumo's flicks.

CF Iwelumo (6) He became the sole target for Stoke in the second half, with everything being lumped up to him. Made some nice flick ons. Should have equalised at the end, but he was probably shocked that the cross came in to him at all from Hoekstra' s amazing trickery.

SUBS

Hoekstra (7) Ran around willingly. Not back to best yet. Gets (STARMAN) award for one moment of magic at the end to brighten up a particularly flat Stoke display.

Goodfellow (6) Came on to add pace to the game. Never really contributed much apart from late run.

Henry (6) On too late to affect the outcome.

Conclusion

It might have gone differently if the clearances off the line had gone in during the first half. However as the game went on Stoke faded, and became devoid of any real attacking ideas. We managed only two efforts on target in the second half, both in the last ten minutes! The ponderous forward line needs some pace and flair, and midfield needs more craft to go with the graft. If signings aren't made, or players do not return from injury quickly, we are going to struggle. Spirit and hard work can only take you so far, but in this display there wasn't much of those attributes either! We got what we deserved - nowt.

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