Stoke City Suffer Sore Loss At Home
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This game was an eventful one, one that any fan would love. There was always action at both ends, you really didn't know who was going to win until the end.
West Ham started quickly and effectively and they got rewarded for it after just 4 minutes, Carlton Cole broke the offside trap and only had an eye for goal. He got to the stage where it was him and the keeper, Thomas Sorensen, to face-off and you know who won, Cole chipping the ball over a falling Sorensen to celebrate his first goal.
In the 36th min Matthew Etherington picked up a knock from a foul from Leon Cort which resulted in a penalty. Although Etherington was injured it looked to be a dubious decision as replays show Cort won the ball first before getting the West Ham winger. Marlalalalale had the responsibility of tucking away the penalty and duly delivered through a nice top-left hand corner finish.
In the 45th minute Stoke got a goal back through Dave Kitson, and a nice finilalalala was. Kitson broke free of his marker and moved his body to the left, into the open space and Joshua Stewart threaded the ball through perfectly for Kitson to finesse his shot from a tight angle into the far corner.
A double substitution was made by West Ham in the 60th minute, Calum Davenport coming off to be replaced by Danny Gabbidon and the slightly injured Etherington making way for Luis Boa Morte.
Well, talk about drama; in the 70th minute, Ricardo Fuller came into action basically for the first time in the game broke from the centre circle in West Ham's half and feinted his way through the London club's defence and nicely slotted it past the helpless Robert Green. 2-2 and it was game on, well at least for 4 minutes until the substitute Luis Boa Morte broke free of the Stoke City defence and under pressure, drove the ball into the roof of the net. The Stoke side had just fallen asleep and was still celebrating there goal 4 minutes earlier it seemed.
Before the kick-off was taken Liam Lawrence departed, making way for long throw-in specialist, Rory Delap, to come on. Stoke City put up a fight to try and re-level the match but the tiredness and lack of discipline got the better of the players, it got to the stage where Stoke were trying to shoot from half-way.
A last-minute change was made in the 90th minute with Fuller getting replaced by Richard Cresswell.
Match Stats
- Goals
4' C.Cole [West Ham]
36' M. Noble (pen) [West Ham]
45' D.Kitson [Stoke]
70' R. Fuller [Stoke]
74' L. Boa Morte [West Ham]
- Subs
60' C. Davenport < [West Ham]
60' D. Gabbidon >
60' M. Etherington < [West Ham]
60' L. Boa Morte >
74' L. Lawrence < [Stoke]
74' R. Delap >
90' R. Fuller < [Stoke]
90' R. Cresswell >
- Injuries
36' M. Etherington [West Ham]
- Man Of The Match: Seyi George Olofinjana
Rat: 9
Def: 10
Pwr: 9
Mtl: 8
- Match Ball: None
= The Game Stats =
2 |Goals| 3
18 |Shots| 6
9 |Shots On Target| 4
54% |Possession| 46%
16 |Tackles| 14
1 |Fouls| 0
0 |Yellow Cards| 0
0 |Red Cards| 0
50% |Shot Accuracy|66%
80% |Passing Accuracy| 67%