Reaction from the bet365 Stadium as Stoke City lose an at times hot-tempered match against Southampton in the Championship
Stoke City’s frustrations against Southampton were reaching a boiling point as they lost the game by one goal at the bet365 Stadium.
More serious incidents included veteran players Ben Wilmot and Ki-Jana Hoever staggering off the field to add to a long list of injuries, contentious refereeing decisions, and even drama after the final whistle as both teams jostled, shoved, and postured.
After a 10-minute post-game discussion with referee James Bell, Alex Neil delivered his assessment of the game and its key talking points as Stoke turned their focus to a trip to promotion favorites Leicester City this weekend.
Neil: “I think all you ever ask your team to do, as individual players, is to give everything they’ve got and I thought we got that. I don’t think there can be any complaints in terms of effort from the players.
“I thought our set-up was brave to keep two players up the pitch. I think against Southampton if you don’t do that, you end up sinking further and further back towards your own goal and you don’t pose a threat.
“I thought we had some really good breakaways that we didn’t really make the best of at times. I thought every time the ball turned over we ended up two for two and we just had to get the down the sides and we could have made maybe some better chances in the game.
“We get undone by one moment of quality when the ball ends up in the top corner.
“We faced many difficulties when players had to leave the field. Jordan Thompson started out at left back before switching to right back and eventually ending up at center back. Junior started out at left back before switching to right back.
“I believed the players deserved credit. None of them, in my opinion, shown any signs of self-pity; instead, they just got on with it and gave it their all.
It looked like a stonewall penalty that you didn’t get?
“I’ve spoken to the referee for 10 minutes and given him my opinions on the game and the decisions that were made and how I thought he handled the match.
“If you look at the foul that led to their goal and if you look at the foul in the box (on Lowe) and you compare both in terms of contact…
“We were given two directives at the start of the season and one was based around soft contact for fouls and not buying into soft contact. I thought the first foul was really soft. The other directive was time wasting. I don’t think either of those directives were carried out well enough.”
You’ve already said (on Sky) that it was too early to assess Ben Wilmot’s injury but it’s another blow?
“We had six players missing (as well as Baker and Tezgel). We’ve got a whole frontline of Campbell, Mmaee and Vidigal unavailable. Enda Stevens, a natural left-back with a good left foot, is out. Gooch and Rose are missing, we lose Ben then we lose Ki-Jana. Yes, it’s challenging.”
It doesn’t help that, as you’re stretched, you’re up against one of the strongest squads in the Championship?
“They had Che Adams on the bench who was supposed to be moving for £20 million in the window but didn’t go. I think it shows you. They’ve got a squad at the moment valued at £100m, £150m, whatever it is, and the difference in the game was a free kick.
“So I’m extremely proud of the players. I couldn’t have asked any more of them. I thought they carried out everything I asked of them. Can we have a bit more quality in certain moments? Yeah. Cam we get a better get a cross in or get across the front a bit better?
“But in terms of effort and endeavour they gave everything we could ask. They gave their all.”
It looks like that is a sixth penalty that PGMOL will say Stoke should have been awarded already this season?
“After every game, an incident report goes in from the referees and an independent panel will look at all the key moments and report back to you whether something should or shouldn’t have been a penalty or a free-kick, big decisions that were right or wrong. I don’t mean decisions all over the pitch, the key ones. In each game there’s maybe five incidents.
“I think we’ve played now, what, 10 league games and the PGMOL have come back to us – and that will be another one because I’ve watched it back and it’s a definite penalty, no doubt about it – and we’ve had five penalties that have not been given in our favour but should have been penalties based on their analysis looking back. That will definitely be six. To have six after 10 games really is a ridiculous number considering we’ve been given zero.”
And that is painful in the Championship when matches are so, so tight?
“Yes, like today when it was decided by one free-kick going into the top corner. If we end up getting the decisions we should have got…
“It will be really interesting if people look back at the Nathan one and say that it’s not a penalty because I’ll be absolutely astonished if that’s the case.”
The free-kick count for fouls was Southampton 17, Stoke 2
“That was the free-kick count? Wow – although that doesn’t surprise me. There were so many in the game…
“I just had a chat with the referee there, a calm conversation and I’m just saying to him, when you’re managing any match as a referee, in my opinion, you come away from the game not really noticing them because he’s managed it that well. You should go on unnoticed for me.
“There should be roughly split decisions across the pitch. You’re not going to get them all right but tut the easiest way to do it is to try divvy them out 50-50 across the match, particularly when there’s ones when you’re not quite sure who it is, which will happen. To say it ended 17 versus two doesn’t surprise me.
“I’d imagine that would be quite odd if you look at any game. That must be really odd.”
A first start for Nathan Lowe, which must have been a great moment for him?
“He did well, yeah. I thought him and Junior (Tchamadeu), who was also making his first start, gave us enthusiasm and energy. They worked extremely hard. Junior showed good maturity and flexibility going from one position to the next when we needed him to do that.
“And I thought Nathan fought his corner. Some of our best opportunities for us fell for Nathan. In the first half there’s one (collecting a flick from Haksabanovic) when he should probably just hit it and tries to take a touch and the defender comes in to take it off his toe. The header that just goes over the bar and you saw the penalty when he gets across the front.
“He’ll remember that. I think he did himself and his family proud.”
You saw a lot of fight, literally at times, as players played for the shirt?
“I’ve been saying this for weeks. We discuss this regularly in terms of how much the players are putting in and how much they want to do well.
“At the moment we just seem to find ourselves on the wrong side of things. I mean, the free-kick’s a cracker. Whatever you want to say about it, he clips the bar, he gets it up over the wall and dips it down. There’s not you can do about that. You can’t fault Trav. I don’t think it was a free-kick.”
Can you shed any light on what happened after the final whistle?
“Not really. There seemed to be a bit of a coming together but I’ve just said the same thing to the referee: the hostility and the anger comes through the crowd because you’ve riled them up by continuously given decisions, from their perspective as a club, against us and you feel hard done by.
“What happens is, that frustrates the players, you can hear them all shouting onto the pitch. The players get a bit frustrated and one little stupid thing, somebody says something they shouldn’t say and the next minute, everybody is…
“What I said to the referee is that we’ll probably get sanctioned for that. We’ll probably get a fine – and in my opinion it’s because the game wasn’t managed properly. If it had been managed properly I don’t think that happens.
“I can’t remember being involved in an incident since I’ve been here where that’s happened after a game.
“I’m not blaming our defeat on the referee but the simple fact is that there’s one team’s performance, the opposition’s performance and the officials’ performance and each one of them will have a massive bearing on the game.”
