Stoke City 0 Birmingham City 2

Last updated : 08 August 2002 By Rob Stanway
Gunnarsson
Gunnarsson In Action
Stoke will face Sheffield Wednesday this saturday after a good pre-season run out. Injurys prevented a 'starting 11' being fielded however the players that did play did us proud. The first hour, Stoke were totally in control of the game and it wasn't until after the 2nd goal that heads started to go down.

The only place Stoke lacked was up front. Peter Hoekstra was put up front on his own and this obviously is NOT something we need to ever repeat. Goodfellow's pace had troubled Birmingham slightly but he lacked that quality that I'm sure will come soon in order to play at this high level.

In midfield, Van Doerzen put in a good performance as did O'Connor and Henry is coming on well, the manager is showing good faith in him and it is paying off. Bjarni Gudjonson also had a good game proving that he can play at a highlevel, at one point nutmegging a Birmingham player setting up a good chance.

Handyside and Shtaniuk looked good, Gunnarson also playing well and Commons (at left back) coming on very well.

In general though there were silly incidents where the ball was given away which we need to stop before we get punished. A good passing display but at times the Defence appeared to react slowly to a lightning quick Birmingham front line.

Lazaridis
Lazaridis
Match Incedents -------------------

The Blues broke the deadlock after 17 minutes, when Jeff Kenna beat defender Kris Commons and delivered a telling cross which Mooney headed home from six yards.

On the hour mark Lazaridis crept in behind Potters substitute Brian Wilson to score the second, and at that point heads went down.

The best opportunity fell to Dutch forward Peter Hoekstra, who outpaced Michael Johnson to latch onto Bjarni Gudjonsson's 50th minute flick. But the former Ajax winger could only blaze over the bar from a tight angle.

Midfielder James O'Connor tested Bennett with a long drive in the 20th minute, before Commons advanced infield and fired just wide from 30 yards six minutes later.

Neil Cutler was removed from the field in favour of Viander and he went on to finish the game well, keeping Cutler on his toes but it was obvious that the manager was unhappy about the shakey performance from the keeper after his second big mistake.