Darren Huckerby » Match Review 2011

Norwich City v Stoke City

A solid start to the Premier League campaign last week was followed by our first home game of the season, Stoke,who are at present probably as strong as they have ever been player wise in the Premier League,had a strong side out considering they only played 3 days earlier in the Europa League. One of the big plusses for Norwich was Rory Delap missing in the starting line up,love him or hate him he is part of a well organised way of playing and his long throws after cause chaos in the oppositions box. Norwich made a host of changes to deal with Stokes size advantage,out went Wes,Fox and Russell Martin in came Johnson,Pilkington and Naughton,Morison was also missing with a slight groin strain,he was replaced by Chris Martin having his first start for a while.

First Half

The game was pretty even in the early exchanges, Stoke looking for diagonal balls to the powerful Jones with Walters trying to work off him,but Norwich also looked comfortable in possession with Pilkington looking good every time he was involved. A high challenge in the box on Walters by De Laet could have been given as a penalty and Walters was furious when it wasn't, Norwich also had a shout of a penalty when Huth jumped with Barrett in the box but there didn't look much in it. Norwich were having a good bit of the ball with both wingers looking to put dangerous balls in the box at every opportunity. On 22 minutes Pilkington was unlucky to see his effort blocked well by Shawcross, Stoke, who were struggling to impose themselves on the game, had their best chance of the half, Matt Etherington picked the ball up 30 yards out and did well to beat his man and had a left footed shot on target which Ruddy did well to parry away. Pennant was taken off on 31 minutes to be replaced by Pugh, Pennant didn't look his normal self and looked like he might be carrying an injury. Norwich seemed to take control of the first half after the substitution with the excellent Crofts and Johnson breaking up play well and feeding both wide men and Chris Martin at every opportunity. Stoke still had threats but were resorting to long diagonal balls to Jones and Walters that we were dealing with well. In stark contrast to the Stoke v Chelsea game i watched last week,against us Stoke didn't throw 1 ball into the box and the big lads like Shawcross, Huth and Woodgate didn't go up for any throws, Delap is a very useful weapon when he is fit. Woodgate was booked for a late tackle on Bennett, the resulting Bradley Johnson free kick was glanced home by De Laet, on 40 minutes Norwich were continuing the pressure and Begovic did well to keep out a Woodgate deflected cross.

Overall an excellent first half for Norwich with all parts of the team looking good,they matched Stoke in every department and moved the ball well,deserved the lead.

Second Half

Stoke came out with something to prove second half, with Pugh and Walters having half chances in quick succession. A great left footed effort by C Martin kept Begovic on his toes. On 58 minutes Ruddy did well to keep out an excellent free kick from Etherington. The big turning point of the game came in the 64th minute when Walters got the wrong side of Barnett and went down, it was clearly outside the box but to the surprise of the Norwich fans a penalty was given but more importantly a red card was shown to the astonished Barnett, if your keeping to the letter of the law maybe its a red but i've seen a lot worse not given, Ruddy produced a tremendous penalty save keeping Norwich 1-0 up. Backs to the wall time and Pilkington was immediately sacrificed to bring on another centre back, Shotton came on for Woodgate and used his Delap style throw in into the box,it clipped Crofts head and lucky for Norwich and Ruddy it went straight to him. With a man less Norwich were penned in, Shottons cross come shot nearly caught Ruddy out but he managed to keep it out,Jones should have scored from Shottons cross but his right footed effort from 6 yards out flew over the goal. Norwich were getting deeper and deeper as Stoke turned the screw, in the 3rd minute of injury time Jones made up for his miss with a superb header from 6 yards out.

Overall the game changed on a referees decision, Norwich's work rate and play up to that point deserved all 3 points but Stoke are a good team who created some very good chances near the end. The big question is would they have had those chances if we had had 11 men and our best header of the ball still on the pitch? Probably a good point for both teams but it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.

Norwich City (4-4-2): Ruddy, Naughton, De Laet, Barnett, Tierney, Bennett (Surman, 74), Johnson, Crofts, Pilkington (Ayala, 66), C Martin (Jackson, 84), Holt. Subs not used: Rudd, R Martin, Hoolahan, Fox.

Stoke City (4-4-2): Begovic, Huth, Woodgate (Shotton, 77), Shawcross, Wilson, Pennant (Pugh, 31), Whelan, Whitehead, Etherington, Walters, Jones. Subs not used: Sorensen, Collins, Upson, Wilkinson, Arismendi.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancs)

Attendance: 26,272

Score 1-1

Good Points

Midfield 4 were excellent all afternoon, Johnson and Crofts breaking up play well and both wingers putting some great balls into the box.

Back 4 dealt with Stoke threat very well, until the sending off Stoke didn't really create too many clear cut chances.

Chris Martin came in and did a great job against a tough physical back 4, nice to see him looking so fit.

Holty did what Holty does, bet all 3 Stoke defenders had had enough of him by the end of the 90 minutes.

Ruddy goes from strength to strength even before saving the penalty it was a commanding performance,his handling was top notch, his penalty save at that time probably got us the point.