English Premier League – Fulltime Review: Stoke City versus Birmingham City
Stoke City line up: Begovic, Huth, Faye, Higginbotham, Collins, Pennant, Whitehead, Delap, Etherington, Jones, Fuller Subs: Subs: Sorensen, Whelan, Gudjohnsen, Wilson, Walters, Tuncay Sanli, Wilkinson
Birmingham City line up: Foster, Carr, Dann, Johnson, Ridgewell, Larsson, Ferguson, Gardner, Beausejour, Jerome, Zigic Subs: Subs: Doyle, Bowyer, Phillips, Derbyshire, Fahey, Parnaby, Hleb
The encounter between Stoke City and Birmingham City kicked off in fantastic fashion as both the sides fielded full strength line ups in the first half of their mid-week matchup. The match that was being played at the Britannia stadium
began with Stoke City in ascendency as they played with their usual long ball strategy to capitalize on the aerial abilities of their striker Kenwyne Jones, who was signed by the Potters in the summer transfer window of 2010 from Sunderland F.C.
Jones was accompanied in the first half of the match by Ricardo Fuller in attack as Tugay was once again left on the bench by Stoke’s manager, Tony Pulis. Jermaine Pennant started for Stoke on his regular right side berth as the first
shot of the match was taken by Sebastian Larsson from Birmingham City in the 6th minute of the match. However, the ex-Arsenal midfielder was way off the mark with his effort as the scores remained level.
Stoke City had their first chance of the match in the 8th minute of the match as Jermaine Pennant whipped in an accurate ball inside the Birmingham penalty area. Jones was on hand to connect with his header but
ball went wide of the Birmingham goal in the end as their goalkeeper Ben Foster was left off the hook. Most of Stoke’s creative spark came through either Mathew Etherington or Jermaine Pennant, both the Englishmen played on the wings for the Potters all throughout
the first half.
In the 11th minute of the match, Etherington won the first corner of the night for Stoke City, the set piece was played in by Etherington himself as confusing ensued in the Birmingham penalty area. However in the
end, the ball fell to Fuller whose shot was wide of the Birmingham goal. From the 11th minute onwards till the mid-stages of the first half, Stoke were in control of the match as they utilized the width of the pitch to get their crosses
in. Regardless, most of the crosses were well dealt with by the Birmingham defence who looked at ease as far as the aerial battles with Jones were concerned.
Birmingham, themselves found it extremely hard to keep possession whenever they had the ball as their central midfielders had a woeful time in the centre of the park whilst trying to deal with the marauding runs of Etherington and Pennant.
Nonetheless, it was Robert Huth who broke the deadlock for Stoke City right before the halftime whistle as in the 45th minute, the bulky defender who capitalized on a deflected shot inside the Birmingham penalty area. Stoke’s goal was
followed up by the half time whistle as the first half ended with the score line at 1-0 to the Potters.
The second half kicked off with Birmingham in an offensive mood as in the 56th minute, Cameron Jerome had a good chance to draw his team level but his shot was well saved and held by the Stoke goalkeeper, Begovic.
Despite the fact that Birmingham started the second half off brightly, Stoke quickly regained their composure and started to dictate and dominate the tempo of the match just like they did in the first half of the game.
Stoke had a free kick in the 59th minute of the match which was dangerously swung in by Etherington. However, Dann was at hand for Birmingham City to head the ball out of play. Birmingham soon made their first change
of the match as Kevin Fahey was brought on by Alex McLeish to replace Beausejour on the left hand side of Birmingham’s midfield. In the 70th minute, Stoke almost conceded an equalizer as Birmingham broke forward in attack but successive
blocks on shots by Zigic and Carr saved the Potters lead as Stoke broke on the counter attack and Fuller went past two defenders before scoring a cracking goal with his left footed curler.
It was a glorious strike by the striker which doubled Stoke’s lead in the 71st minute. However, that wasn’t the end of the drama as Birmingham scored two goals within the next five minutes to gain parity with the
home side. Their first goal was scored by Fahey with a well taken shot from outside the penalty area. It was a powerful volley which ended up in the back of the net. Cameron Jerome was the scorer of Birmingham’s second as he rose high to meet Carr’s cross.
In doing so, the tall striker headed the ball home to complete an amazing recovery for the away side.
In the 83rd minute, Stoke scored their third goal of the match to regain the lead and this time Whitehead was on hand to take advantage of a massive mess inside the Birmingham penalty area. The former Sunderland
man poked the ball into the Birmingham net to send the home ground into celebrations. The match finally ended with the score line at 3-2 as Stoke City gathered all the three points against Birmingham at the Britannia stadium.
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