Stoke 1 - 1 City: Match report

A decent away point acquired in a frustrating fashion.  Stoke were on a good run of form - coming off the back of three successive wins against Birmingham, Liverpool and West Brom - and they started like a team with the confidence to win the game.  City began in a fairly ponderous mode with midfield sloppiness tilting the first half in Stoke's favour.

Ricardo Fuller and Kenwyne Jones proved to be a bit of a handful for Kolo and Kompany, with Jones' flick-ons frequently wrong-footing our back line in the first period.  City were thankful for Fuller's dragged shot across goal when a neat interchange between Stoke's forwards created the best chance of the opening forty-five.  Yet as long as these efforts weren't threatening Joe Hart, one of the beauties of having a side so rich in quality is that you never feel too far behind the game.  Silva has gained lots of praise within the City camp for his performance yesterday - in a game that sceptics will have earmarked as too tough for him from the very day he signed.  Joe Hart's comments are typical:

We have great characters, we have players with great strength but we also have someone like David Silva. On that pitch, people may have thought he would have had nothing to do with the game but he ran the show. That showed big character from him.

His reading of the game means he can avoid the roughing up that teams would probably like to give him but he is not afraid of the physicality of the game either.  An interview in the Guardian with Daniel Taylor at the beginning of the season pointed this out:

 "It's not that easy in Spain either, you know," he [Silva] points out. "There are people who can dish it out there as well. It's not something that daunts me in any way." Indeed Silva can be a feisty little so-and-so. Luis Aragonés, the former Spain manager, once described him as having the "biggest balls" in the national team.

He is the playmaker the side has been crying out for and his influence on the side is continuing to grow.

City came out stronger in the second half and began to dictate the play - with Balotelli coming closest in the opening exchanges.  Despite City's tightening control on the game, Stoke came closest before Micah's goal when Milner had to clear off the line.

Micah's goal showed an imagination and footballing creativity that you might not associate with the player.  Aware of the runner to his outside, he sold a dummy that put him within clear sight of goal and, keeping his composure, he drilled his shot across goal for what appeared to be the winner.

The composure shown there was missing for Etherington's equaliser.  With time and options, Kolo hoofed the ball aimlessly forward to the Stoke keeper - inviting them onto us and giving them the belief that we were on the ropes.  A neat backheel later and Etherington had tucked it away to take two points away at the death.

A frustrating end to the game but not a bad point really.  To use a slightly warped statistic, the last time City took three points away from the Britannia it took a winner from Gerard Wiekens back in 1999.  Obviously contests have been few and far between since then, and the team is quite a bit stronger than it was (a team that contained Lee Crooks, Jeff Whitley and Jamie Pollock), but the Britannia Stadium is a notoriously difficult place to visit and City met a Stoke side high on confidence and in good form.

Mario Balotelli was under instruction to control his temper and the fact he succeeded under not inconsiderable provocation is an encouraging sign for the future of his Premier League career.  It was also encouraging to see Kolarov put in another good performance - he is the first left-back we have had in years who looks solid in defence.

After all the negativity at the Birmingham game, these two away games represented a tough test for the togetherness of the City squad and four points, that were very nearly six, shows a good return.  Overall the team played for each other, and their manager, and hopefully this is a sign of a developing spirit that will be vital for the team to succeed.  I would hope Mancini can expect a similar welcome of support in the upcoming home games.