Pulis Says Toon Had The Better Quality But Not The Know How!

Stoke have won few admirers with their direct style and heavy reliance on set pieces, with former Carlisle and Sunderland midfielder Rory Delap's long throws the Premier League's newest weapon of mass destruction.

Pulis, though, is unapologetic about playing to his side's aerial strength.
 
And how could Kinnear argue, he spent nine years in charge of Wimbledon, using tactics (or rather TACTIC) that saw the ball return to earth covered in snow!

Before the game Kinnear said: "Why should they have to apologise for the way they play if the way they play is effective?

"People are just moaning about the way they play football because they are picking up points most people didn't expect them to.

"They have surprised a few teams this season and we have to make sure we are not another one.

"They are particularly strong at set pieces and Rory Delap's throw-ins are a very potent weapon for them.

"They are very difficult to defend against and I think they have scored something like eight or nine goals from them already this season. If you have that at your disposal and you have players who are a threat in the air, you're going to use that to your advantage.

"I have absolutely no problem at all with that. What we have to do is make sure we stick to our own principles, fast passing football, like we saw against Aston Villa."

So why didn't Joe stick to those principles? He saw his side go 2-0 up then went back to his tried (and failed) tactic of "right ... let's close up shop".

Stoke City manager Tony Pulis felt his side could've taken all the points from the clash ... had they started game like they finished.

Tony Pulis: "In the first 20 minutes we were so poor and so far off their players it was pretty embarrassing and we pride ourselves on working hard as a group and as a team.

"We haven't got the quality other teams have got but if you've got good work ethic and the team knows what they're trying to do, I think you can take teams on.

"Every point you get you glean more confidence from. It's a good point for us, if we could have played the first half like we did the second we could have won the game."