Stoke 0 Southampton (1) 1 – 3/10/23 8pm
Stoke fell to a 40th minute free kick in a bad tempered game. They matched The Saints, but looked blunt up front. Here’s how the game unfolded in real time:
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Why has Alex Neil put TWO keepers on the bench?? Why has he rested Wesley? What are Will Smallbone and Harwood-Bellis doing back here with Southampton? But most importantly, is that really Nathan Lowe the teenager making his debut for Stoke??? Go lad go!
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2.42 HUGE cheer as Smallbone clumsily concedes a corner. He’s not as popular as he thought he’d be!
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3.58 Southampton showing why they’re a struggling Championship side rather than a Premier side: wayward passing, loopy clearances, feeble keeper punches. This is NOT what was expected.
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18.55 Haksabanovic flicks on to Lowe, but he takes one touch too many, and it’s cleared for a corner. Nathan puts his head in his hands as he knows he should have hit it first time. That’s all you need to know as a first team striker!
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21.03 Great move by Southampton down their right is finished with an appalling shot by Sulemana that sales off towards Hanley. Jeepers!
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34.10 Superb break and cross by Lowe from the left, but somehow it swerves in the air confusing Mehdi Leris. Must be the Trentham Height’s wind!
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40.33 0-1 !!! An awesome free-kick into Travers’ top right hand corner by Stuart Armstrong. However, the replay shows it was barely a foul, and somehow Ben Pearson got away with not being cautioned by messing about in the wall (to no avail as wall fails dismally). Fans sing “One nil to the referee!!”
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44.30 Pearson is booked despite it not being a foul, and Hoever also gets a yellow.
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45.+1 Junior Tchamadeu (Xanadu) hits a shot just wide from the corner of the box. He looks like he means business.
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HT 0-1, and a lot of boos!
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46.50 Armstrong almost heads in for 0-2, but McNally clips it safe.
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48.01 Leris’s sharp shot is clipped just over.
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Attendance 20,002
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54.01 Hoever is having a howler, and here he is outrun resulting in Wilmot’s legs colliding alarmingly with the post. Can’t see him carrying on….?
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59.00 Jordan Thompson on for Wilmot, who at least is able to walk off.
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59.35 Straight clear header for Alcaraz from the subsequent corner could easily have resulted in 0-2. Travers gathers.
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62.45 Haksabanovic is toppled in the box…but nothing given. Leris and Lowe have had appeals turned down in the last few minutes too. The Haks one is the most convincing.
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69.50 Burger and Junho replace Laurent and Haks.
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70.55 Leris makes two fouls in the space of 15 seconds, but doesn’t get booked. Laurent somehow manages to escape a yellow before he was replaced. Yet, those first half yellows…?
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73.00 Wesley on for Hoever.
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75.00 Burger runs headlong into the ref! the fans call for a red card! He gets a drop ball.
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82.20 Saints on the break, and Mana blasts wide when it seems easier to score.
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87.01 Johnson booked for foul and Leris for arguing after Burger’s foul (stamped on) goes unpunished.
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90.00 Ten minutes added.
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92.49 Smallbone is subbed & gets a round of applause!
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95.12 Burger brings out a save in the keeper!
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101.00 FT 0-1 ! Stoke fall to 17th, Saints to 9th. Scuffles after the final whistle. Dear oh dear.
