English Premier League – Match Review: West Bromwich Albion versus Stoke City
West Brom Albion line up: Carson, Jara, Tamas, Pablo, Cech, Barnes, Morrison, Mulumbu, Scharner, Thomas and Odemwingie. Subs: Myhill, Tchoyi, Reid, Dorrans, Shorey, Fortune and Cox.
Stoke City line up: Begovic, Wilkinson, Shawcross, Huth, Collins, Pennant, Whitehead, Delap, Etherington, Jones and Fuller. Subs: Sorensen, Higginbotham, Whelan, Gudjohnsen, Wilson, Walters and Sanli.
The match started off in disastrous fashion for the visitors as Jermaine Pennant, the Stoke City winger suffered an injury within the first fifteen minutes of the match. The winger was a fitness doubt ahead of the encounter but he had
to be substituted in the 13th minute of the match due to his injury as Tuncay Sanli replaced him in midfield for the Potters.
In the 15th minute of the match, it was Rory Delap who hurled the ball into the West Brom box with his characteristically long throw in. However, the famous Delap throw in was ineffective this time around as West Brom cleared the ball
away easily. In the 16th minute of the encounter, Marek Cech played in a beautiful ball into the Stoke City box but Begovic was on hand to claim it for the Potters as the score line remained stagnant at nil all. In the 18th minute of
the match, Tuncay Sanli the substitute for Stoke City took their free kick from around 35 yards out, Robert Huth did very well to get a flick on to the ball but Scott Carson was equally at hand to deal with the situation as the ex-Liverpool goalkeeper gained
control of the ball.
In the 22nd minute, Tuncay’s cross was deflected out for a corner kick. Stoke City failed to take advantage of the ensuing set piece was Delap was not able to provide a good delivery inside the West Brom box. Stoke City were
in superiority early on despite the fact that they lost Jermaine Pennant within the first fifteen minutes due to his hamstring injury. Jara and Mulumbu linked up at the 24th minute mark as the former lay the ball off for the later but Mulumbu’s
strike was way over the bar as West Brom failed to hit the target yet again.
In the 27th minute, Etherington sprinted down the left hand side of attack for Stoke City. The winger played in a good ball inside the West Brom penalty area but yet again there was no one there to connect with the pass. It
was a disappointing moment for Mathew Etherington who had worked really hard to get into space to deliver the ball in.
The first half ended with the score line at nil all as it was quite a dull affair as far as the first forty five minutes were concerned. However, the second half was another story altogether as the second period kicked off with a bang.
In the 55th minute of the match, Stoke City were given a penalty for a foul inside the West Bromwich Albion penalty area. Etherington took the penalty and the Englishman made no mistake as he slotted away the spot kick to give his team
the lead.
In the 69th minute of the match, Tchoyi was on hand to test Begovic with a wonderful header which the goalkeeper tipped away. The West Bromwich Albion player was in action again in the 75th minute
as he forced Begovic into another save from a looping header.
In the 84th minute of the match, Stoke City surged forward and this time they were again awarded a penalty due to foolish defending by West Brom inside their own penalty area. This time, John Walters stepped up
and doubled his team’s advantage from the penalty kick. Stoke maintained control of the match till the end after their second goal and to cap it all off they even got a third one thanks to John Walters fantastic strike on the 93rd minute
mark. The match eventually ended with the score line at 0-3 to the visitors. It was a fantastic win in the end for the Potters who won their last match as well against Liverpool.
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