On the road, the Tigers dominated in front of the Sky Sports cameras.
Narcis Pelach, the new head coach of Stoke City, attributed the team’s 3-1 loss against Hull City on Friday night to both tiredness and the referee.
Ben Wilmot’s header thirty minutes into the game gave the Spaniard, who had taken over for Steven Schumacher on Wednesday, his first goal as Potters manager.
The match quickly took a turn for the worse in the second half as City took control of the game and equalized when Kasey Palmer nodded in the rebound after Viktor Johansson saved his penalty. Pelach disagreed with the call, believing that Mohamed Belloumi was offside before Eric Bocat tripped him.
City made the Potters pay with two goals in two minutes late on when Regan Slater came off the bench to thump in the second and Palmer’s cross deflected in off a combination of Wilmot and Johansson, sealing a first victory for Tim Walter.
“In the first 20 minutes we were on the front foot, we won some balls back up the pitch which was the game plan, because we knew they tried to pass a lot and play a lot of passes,” he said.
“But we didn’t punish enough. We were 1-0 up and I was happy with the goal because it’s something we worked on in these two days, so I’m quite happy for the goal.
“Then we have a big chance that we have to score and the game is another story – 2-0 up after 25. Tom (Cannon) and Million (Manhoef), they need to finish this much better because they are good players and they can do it.
“I’m happy with this 30 minutes, I saw my team, what I want to try to create. The last 15 of the first half we lost control.
“Second half I’m not quite happy, but it’s thin lines, at the end of the day the first goal is offside and then we lost the ball and emotionally we lost a little bit.
“I have the feeling that we gave them the things. We worked hard in the first 30 minutes and then we gave two goals out of nothing, this is something we have to work on.”
