Stoke City 4 West Bromwich Albion 1

The match which had originally been scheduled for the end of March saw the Baggies enter town with promotion secured but a chance of the title within reach. However, it was the Potters fans who were celebrating at the end after a fantastic performance and result.

The line-up consisted of two players making their first division debuts, Andy Wilkinson and Gareth Owen. Clint Hill was brought into defence and Sebastian Svard came into midfield. Wayne Thomas, Gerry Taggart, Marcus Hall and Peter Hoekstra were all out, Tony Pulis blamed injury but a more likely scenario is that they were rested for Sundays match against Gillingham in which Pulis is desperate to send his former club down.

There were moans amongst the crowd at the team selection and it was the away team who had most of the play during the first half. City did have the first chance with Hill heading past the post from a corner. After this, Cutler tipped a Darren Moore header round the post and Jason Koumas and Lee Hughes both came close with efforts from outside the area. However, the young defence looked strong and although City had barely threatened all half, they took the lead just before the break. A Kris Commons corner came in, Karl Henry had his shot blocked and then Darel Russell fired home via a deflection from 20 yards out.

Albion again started the better in the second half. Henry cleared off the line before after 49 minutes, a Koumas corner was headed home by Scott Dobie who had lost his marker in the box. This could have signalled an onslaught from the Baggies and they almost took the lead through Dobie again but a superb last ditch tackle from Wilkinson prevented a certain goal.

In the 63^rd minute, City regained the lead. Commons set himself up for a free-kick whilst most of the crowd focused on an ejected away fan. Presumably, Russell Hoult was watching this as well because he let the low drive slip through his fingers and under his body to make it 2-1 City.

It became 3-1 ten minutes later. A superb ball from Russell split the Albion defence to free John Halls who in turn crossed for Kris Commons who side-footed the ball into the corner of the net from ten yards. Albion were shell shocked and the damage was complete when Commons turned provider five minutes from time. His inch perfect cross found the only Stoke player in the box, Gifton Noel-Williams and he placed a firm header comfortably past Hoult.

Albion’s dismal night was complete in the last minutes when Koumas was given his marching orders for kicking out at Russell off the ball. By this time most of the visiting support had left anyway and the Potters had once again beat their old friends the Baggies.