Rapport från Dave, vår man på plats
Dave var på plats i lördags när Stoke mötte Fulham. Här kommer bilder mm.
Aye up duck,
Pete, Wils & myself made the trip down to Fulham. Petes daughters (Charlotte & Victoria) had traveled down on the Friday to stay with friends and make a weekend of it.
On the way down we passed quite a few Stoke supporter coaches and the van that has that impressive Stoke paint job done on it.
After parking at Greenford we had a quick pint before getting the tube to Putney Bridge.
After a little detour ( Petes fault, not mine ) we got to Putney Bridge around 1:30pm. Stoke took another good away following and the pubs were full of Stokies. The first pub was too rammed so we headed a little further on where we met Petes daughters friends.
Charlotte & Victoria weren't with them as they had left their match tickets back at the flat. (what are they like?) They eventually arrived around 2:15. Fulham away is like no other away fixture. It certainly is quite unique with a very relaxed atmosphere. Apart from Stoke accents the only other accents I seemed to hear were American ones.
Onto the game. Stoke missed Beattie, Wilko and Higgy through injury. Cresswell, Kelly & Pugh replaced them. Strangely enough all of these 3 replacements were later substituted themselves. To be fair Fulham also lost Johnson & Zamora after half an hour of the game starting.
I thought Stoke actually started quite well and were a little unfortunate when Fulham took the lead. Ironically, it came from a counter attack after Stoke lost possession from one of our own throw ins. After that Fulham had a couple of chances to put the game to bed. Stoke were glad to get to half time only 1-0 down.
Stoke had the majority of play in the second half without creating anything clear cut. Shawcross & Fuller should on of done better when presented with headers on goal.
Fulhams defender Pantsil was booed throughout as Stoke fans reminded him that we hadn't forgot his shocking antics at the Brit earlier in the season. He was the idiot who tried to get Fuller sent off by faking an injury to his face after they had both squared up to each other.
.....Dave
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