1 week Ago By [email protected] (Peter Smith)
Stoke City were left kicking themselves after letting a lead slip in injury time to draw with relegation rivals Luton Town. Here are the talking points from a deflated bet365 Stadium. The curse of injury-time goals What a difference to the league table those late, late goals for Coventry, Millwall and Luton have made in the last few weeks, even if there was controversy over the first two – offside for Coventry and a dodgy penalty for Millwall.
Three goals in the wrong net after 90 minutes had been played. This time they were pushed back and back or got deeper and deeper after taking the lead in a game of very few clear chances. The territory and amount of corners conceded and crosses let into the box seemed to be asking for trouble, even if Viktor Johansson only really had to make one save before he was beaten.
Stoke can either curse and feel sorry for themselves or they can grab the last five games with their fate still in their own hands and make sure they do whatever it takes to make sure they stay on the right side of that dotted line. It is so tight. Every point and every second counts.
Nerves are heightened in a massive scrap Stoke came into this on the back of encouraging performances against QPR and Preston but there was no doubt that this was a big, potentially pivotal match, and the nerves seemed to infect everyone in the stadium. Whether that transfers from the stands to the pitch or the pitch to the stands doesn’t really matter, only that it all ends up nervy. Luton were certainly a harder team to take on than QPR and Stoke couldn’t impose themselves in the same way.
What had always been expected would be a hard game became a real slog, a war of attrition, and never mind the performance, it was just about finding a way. If the breakthrough came via a deflection, grab it and hold onto it. But Luton then had nothing to lose by throwing bodies forward and the clock ticked slower towards full-time.
No one was sitting comfortably and what happened next only brings even more nerves heading into another big game at Cardiff. Stoke will have to find a way of dealing with them. “Yes, we're disappointed, yes we know the circumstances but they haven't changed,” said Robins.
“The circumstances are the same going into the last five games of the season. It doesn't matter who the opponents are, it really doesn't, it just becomes who keeps their nerve, who can perform the best? We've got some really good, talented players that know they are talented players and they can contribute in a really big way in these last five games." What comes next will define the season Luton were understandably celebrating like mad at the end but they’d swap places with Stoke in a heartbeat.
The gap is still four points rather that seven but four points is still a lot with five games to go. This was billed as the biggest game of the season but it was always going to be what comes next that will define everything. Robins said: “That’s how they feel.
They were losing, we were winning and we know what that means – we would have got three points rather than one, we’ve got two points less. It’s disappointing, really disappointing, but let’s put it into perspective. We can change the narrative on Saturday with a really good performance.
If we can pick up three points there then things look better. If you can get four points from an away game and a really tough home game which we should have seen out..
. We can pick the bones out of the games before when we finish the season but for now we have to focus on what comes next.” Stoke home form under Mark Robins Stoke have two home games left this season – Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United – and even if there were nerves here, they can take encouragement from how their form at the bet365 Stadium has swung since Christmas.
Sunderland 1-0; Plymouth 0-0; Oxford 0-0; Swansea 3-1; Middlesbrough 1-3; Watford 0-0; Blackburn 1-0; QPR 3-1, Luton 1-1. WDDWLDWWD Robins talked about starting to get the connection back between fans and players going into this match – and the first whistle was greeted by a rendition of Oh When The Reds which reverberated around the home stands. There will be a lot on the line in these last two games but that connection can still help drag Stoke to safety.
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