Reaction from the bet365 Stadium as Stoke City play out a 1-1 draw with Huddersfield Town
Stoke City completed their Easter weekend with a home draw with Huddersfield Town. It’s a draw that keeps a useful distance between themselves and the bottom three heading into the last six matches of the season. Here are the talking points from the bet365 Stadium.
Wouter Burger tangles with Bojan Radulovic during Stoke City v Huddersfield Town at the bet365 Stadium
Ki-Jana Hoever tries to end the goal vacuum
Stoke have had 19 different scorers in the league this season – plus a much-needed contribution from own goals – but only two up to now had scored more than two. Ki-Jana Hoever joins that small group (with Ryan Mmaee, 3, and Andre Vidigal, 5) with two in two to take him to three as well.
“It was a great goal,” said Steven Schumacher. “Hopefully he keeps that habit up because it’s important everyone contributes goals. Obviously you want goals to come from your centre-forwards but if they don’t then you want them to come from anyone.
“It was a really good goal, he showed a brilliant bit of skill to come inside and it was a great finish. We felt that might have been what was needed to unlock the door and then after that I thought we grew in confidence, got into some really good areas but didn’t manage to make one of those chances count. We had one cleared off the line. On another day we might have won it.”
The goals certainly haven’t been particularly flowing from centre-forwards or anyone.
To take as a starting point in this instance that game in December 2022 against Cardiff when Stoke had last scored a home equaliser, they have since had 32 league matches at the bet365 Stadium, winning nine, losing 16, scoring 27 and conceding 36.
It’s such a painful record and no surprise that no one in the EFL has scored fewer times on their own turf.
What a show of loyalty from supporters to keep coming. It will, one day, make goals taste all the sweeter but that day can’t come soon enough.
Players make their cases from the cold
Two starts for Mehdi Leris and useful contributions from Ryan Mmaee and Sead Haksabanovic in both games. They’ve come in and made cases that they can play a part in Stoke staying up.
Schumacher said: “We said that yesterday in the prep before the game, that the lads who played on Friday were excellent so everyone who played today was going to have to step up because it shows that people are ready and willing and wanting to play. That’s what we want in this run in, we’ll need everyone to contribute and they did today. Haks didn’t start but he made a real positive impact in the second half when he came on and Ryan Mmaee did well as well. It’s pleasing for those two.”
