Stoke City 1 - West Bromwich Albion 2

Dave Watkin:

Potters Curse Lifted

Tony Pulis, Sir Stanley Matthews, Josiah Wedgwood, Arnold Bennett, Captain E J Smith, Anthea Turner, your boys took a hell of a beating; can you hear me Nick Hancock, your boys took a hell of a beating ? with apologies to Bj?rge Lillelien.

Albion thoroughly deserved this victory over Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium, the first in the Potteries for almost thirty years. A first half goal looked sufficient, particularly after a second half penalty was saved, but then, inside the last five minutes, the Potters equalised. A glorious injury time free kick sent the away fans delirious with joy; no doubt celebrations in the Black Country continued well into the evening.

Roy Hodgson made four changes. Jonas Olsson made a welcome return from injury replacing Craig Dawson. Graham Dorrans was recalled for the unfit Paul Scharner, whilst Gabriel Tamas and Marc-Antoine Fortun? made rare starts, getting the nod ahead of Gonzalo Jara Reyes and Peter Odemwingie.

Albion began facing a ferocious wind, but despite that disadvantage created the better of the early chances, the best of which saw Thomas thwarted by the legs of keeper Sorensen. Midway through the half a tremendous block by Graham McAuley prevented Walters testing Foster, before the Baggies came desperately close to opening the scoring. A great run by James Morrison ended with a fierce rising drive from 25 yards, which Sorensen finger-tipped onto the underside of the crossbar. In the 36th minute, a Stoke City hoof down the field was headed forward by Youssouf Mulumbu to James Morrison and again he let fly from twenty five yards. This time he fired low down the centre and a last second swerve fooled the keeper, who could only deflect the ball into the net off his outstretched leg. The Baggies safely negotiated the rest of the half without conceding.

Far from sitting back and defending, with the wind at their backs, Albion pressed for a second goal. A shot from Fortun? was blocked, before Morrison was again in action, a cross from Thomas was chested down by Mulumbu and the Scotsman hooked a shot from the edge of the area which struck a post before rebounding to safety. Just after the hour a huge clearance by Ben Foster was brilliantly controlled by Simon Cox, but as he ran on, Sorensen was quickly off his line to smother the shot. In the 72nd minute, the Baggies suffered a horrendous penalty decision. Walters ran at McAuley, the defender nicked the ball as the Stoke player crashed into him, but the referee pointed to the spot. Walters took the kick, but Ben Foster flung himself to his right to save. It felt as if destiny was on our side. Good work by Fortun? down the left set-up Morrison again, but this time his shot was inches the wrong side of the right upright. Then in the 86th minute the Potters were awarded a soft free kick wide right; Pennant crossed and substitute Jerome rose to head home. Significantly, it was Albion who pressed for the winner and on the stroke of full time, after Morrison was felled just outside the left hand corner of the penalty area, they had their chance. Graham Dorrans swung in the kick, Jonas Olsson and James Morrison both ran across the keeper?s sightline and the ball nestled just inside the right hand upright for a 91st minute winner. Cue absolute pandemonium in the massed ranks of Baggies fans behind that goal and at the final whistle a prolonged standing ovation for the team.

What an emotional victory, compounded by the circumstances. The penalty award by Anthony Taylor was ridiculous, if he needed to whistle at all, then he should have given a foul against the attacker. The late equaliser seemed likely to extend our wait for a victory in Stoke into a fourth decade, before that amazing winner.

To select a man-of-the-match was almost an impossibility. Although all the team were heroes, there are four outstanding candidates. Ben Foster, for a splendid penalty save; Jonas Olsson, after an inspirational return to the defence; James Morrison, for peppering the keeper with shots and Marc-Antoine Fortun?, for a superb display of front running and that doesn?t even include the match winner Graham Dorrans.

For the second season in a row at Stoke, Roy Hodgson astounded the fans with his audacious team selection and it paid off, with Fortun? giving possibly his best ever performance in a Baggies shirt. Finally, the Baggies fans were at their very best, backing the team throughout and drowning the supposedly intimidating Britannia roar. Almost uniquely, the three league points were forgotten, the important thing for all was to win the Staffordshire Derby on away turf and break the hoodoo ? and we did!

ALBION FORMRATE: VERY GOOD

MEN-OF-THE-MATCH: JONAS OLSSON / JAMES MORRISON

Albion recorded their first victory away to Stoke City for twenty-nine years, four months and thirteen days, at the nineteenth attempt. It?s quite an achievement, given that in the last eighty years, in forty-three matches, this was only our fourth win. Twenty-five were lost, including one by 10-3, when famously the late Vic Stirrup cycled there and back. More recently, the curse has also struck at The Hawthorns, with only one win at home in the league since 1988 meaning no victories anywhere in the ten games preceding today?s match. Our overall record against City is 39 victories to their 56, with 31 matches drawn and a goal difference of 176 to 195.

The victory was vital on a day when eight of the bottom ten teams picked up points. Albion remain 15th, but are seven points clear of the relegation zone. A win for Villa at Molineux means we?re two points and four places behind the Villains, but seven points and four places above Wolves. The Baggies have exactly the same record, in terms of points (25), wins (7), draws (4) and defeats (11), as at this point last season. Our away record is the 5th best in the Premier League!

FOOTNOTE: Thanks to J K Rowling for inspiring the headline and the Norwegian commentary, a version of which can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqZTP8-8wIs for the opening paragraph.

Steve Fereday:

Please ignore everything I said last week!! Brilliant performance today. Fortune magnificent.

Big Frank:

I thought I'd give it a few hours before posting, time to come down a little and hopefully be a bit more subjective, and to be honest I was just a bit too 'tired and emotional' last night to post anything remotely sensible.

WWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!

Definitely one to go down in the family bible as an "I was there" day and I will gleefully admit that at the end I was offering my considerable rear end to the nearby clayheads to kiss, they were gutted to say the least after spending the previous couple of hours roundly insulting anyone and everyone unfortunate to be close enough to hear them.

The game itself was the to be expected tense affair and Roy's team selection caused a few shakes of the head all around me before kickoff but some earnest discussions with my near neighbours eventually brought forth the opinion that Roy was merely matching like for like and wasn't going to allow us to be bullied by the typical Pulis tactics.

What to say about the performance? Well for starters we settled down into what I would call a 4-5-1 formation and it reaped absolute dividends. The back 4 were solid and rarely troubled and I think Tamas did more than well enough as a makeweight right back, yes he looked out of sorts and position at times and made a few wrong choices but if he was there to be a big lump against their big lumps or because we are running out of right backs due to injury then either way it was the right choice to make.

I want to make a special mention here for Mulumbu who I thought was immense and is liable to be overlooked due to all the inevitable and deserved praise for the performance of MAF though the rest of the midfield, including Thomas who I have often doubted in the past (did you see that one Jimbo? Doubting Thomas!) and of course how can you dream up enough suitable superlatives for our Marco? He out-bullied Huth, Shawcross and the rest of their defence sometimes all at the same time. I can't help but wonder how well Long could feed of him?

Please Roy either the same or something similar at home!

The travelling Baggies were in their usual superb form and I look forward hugely now to the visit to the custard bowl.

oshawabaggie:

I haven't read the other posts yet, so sorry if I'm being repetitious. Some unexpected team selections, which worked very well, except for Cox. It was evident that Hodgson wanted to beef up the team with Tamas and Fortune. Fortune especially put in a great shift. I couldn't understand the inclusion of Cox, who once again proved he is not a premier league player, particularly with Long and Odemwingie sitting on the bench.

But's lets not get too critical on a day when a very good overall team performance exorcised the Stoke demon.

The return of Olsson was vital. What is our record with him IN the team versus OUT of it, I wonder? He is our most important player without a doubt. Once again Morison's shooting was huge a feature, as he returned to the great form he was in before his injury.

Yet another bad penalty decision went against us, but the gods allowed Foster to redeem his cock up in the last game with a great save.

Very satisfying.

Derby Bernie:

Fortune favours the brave

Just a few afterthoughts. This was our grandson's first away match - a birthday treat. And what a present!

Great decision from Roy to include Fortune as the one man up front. Amazingly, he out-fought, out-headed and out-dribbled the lumbering giant defenders of Stoke. I thought the whole team performed brilliantly in very difficult conditions and Fortune, Morrison and Olsson were outstanding throughout. Makes you wonder what Marc-Antoine's drive and enthusiasm might have done for our toothless attack against Everton - if only he'd been given a chance in the second half!

We seem to be a much better organised and compact team when we play with only one out-and-out striker. This allows the mid-fielders to continually make forward runs and we end up with more players around the oppostion penalty box when needed.

Although we were at the other end of the ground, it looked obvious that Mcauley had cleared the ball cleanly before Walters flattened him. Free kick to Albion. No a penalty to Stoke - does anyone know why?