Stoke came into the game looking to bounce back after a 1-0 loss away at Norwich City. Stoke, before the game had not yet scored an away goal in the championship let alone an equalizer so today, they had to dig deep. Huddersfield approached the match having beaten West Brom away and Rotherham at home. The Terriers also had an extra incentive to win as manager Neil Warnock was set to step down from his role as The Town boss. Meanwhile, there were still injury concerns for Stoke men: Ryan Mmaee, Andre Vidigal, Ki-jana Hoever and Enda Stevens.
Straight from the first whistle, the game had action at both ends as firstly, Josh Laurent tested The Town keeper from outside the box, however the midfielder fired well over the bar. The Terriers first chance of the game was a right footed effort courtesy of winger Josh Koroma after he out muscled Michael Rose and drove into the box, shooting straight at Mark Travers.
Stoke began to show signs of dominance in the opening minutes and began to pile pressure onto the Huddersfield defence. City thought they had broken the deadlock in the 11th minute as Ben Wilmot slotted in forward Tyrese Campbell who slammed the ball past Nicholls, unfortunately the flag went up for offside.
It was new signing Haksabanovic’s full debut and he showed lots of quality, the winger had an opportunity two minutes after the offside goal, as he worked a shot onto his left foot and forced a corner.
Huddersfield were feeding off scraps and long balls in the first half as they couldn’t play past Stoke, this showed in the 17th minute as young winger Jack Rudoni fed off a bouncing ball at the edge of the box as he drove the ball towards goal, however, the ball landed calmly into Mark Travers’ gloves. There was a small break in play midway through the half as the referee appeared to have pulled his hamstring, therefore had to be replaced by the fourth official.
After the stoppage in play, Huddersfield began to get more into the game creating more chances for themselves. One of these chances proved to be of importance as an in swinging free kick from Sorba Thomas was met by the high rising head of Matty Pearson who powered the ball into the bottom right corner. This goal did not appear to get Stoke down as midfielder Daniel Johnson provided an instant reply; tapping the ball in from close range after the ball was parried into his feet by Nicholls.
Stoke continued to look the more attacking threat as the ball went into the net for the third time as Burger passed the ball into the far right corner, no goal however as Tyrese Campbell proved to be in an offside position as he slid towards the ball. The result of the previous stoppage in play allowed nine added minutes at the end of the half, however these minutes were quiet and both teams went into the break at 1-1.
Stoke had looked the more dominant side in the first half and this continued in the second half as bright spells of play led to chances for Haksabanovic, as Campbell looked for the winger with a ball across goal, but the Town keeper rushed to collect the ball. Haksabanovic’s other chance was a piece of individual brilliance as he turned onto his left foot inside the area which then set him up perfectly in front of goal, unfortunately his shot flew over the bar.
Stoke found themselves ahead when a cross from a corner was thumped in by Ben Wilmot who rose high to win the header. Unfortunately, much like Stoke did in the first half, Huddersfield came up with a reply courtesy of Jack Rudoni. The forward scored with his left foot following a corner.
Another set piece goal conceded by Stoke!
Despite late efforts to find a winner, Stoke had to settle for a point in West Yorkshire after a dominant performance.
Manager Comments:
Alex Neil was asked about his side’s performance, he said: “That's the first time Haksabanovic has started and I thought he was excellent. I thought Tyrese Campbell had a constant threat. I think it was three or four times he got down the side. I thought the midfield four controlled the majority of the game.
Everybody knew coming here, we expected like a carnival atmosphere because it's Neil’s last game and things like that and I thought we took that away from the stadium really quite quickly, because we controlled the game with the ball.
I thought that everybody was hoping it was going to be an end-to-end game. It became that towards the end which didn’t really help us.”
Daniel Johnson played a new role and when questioned on this, Neil said: “We've got injuries to four players who have started the season for us and I’ve been trying to find a way to make us more solid defensively but also give us a threat going forwards.
Apart from the goals, I thought we found that the balance here was really good, but we conceded in two really naive moments.”
Neil Warnock dropped an interesting comment about Stoke at the weekend, here’s what the Terriers boss had to say: “I thought it was a decent game with plenty of action. The injuries made it a bit awkward, but I can’t fault our lads.
You look at the Stoke squad and wow, it’s a good squad isn’t it? That’s a good result for us to get a draw.
It wasn’t disappointment to go in level. After their equaliser I was happy to go in at 1-1.
He added: Stoke had better players than us but it doesn’t mean you’re going to win. If you’ve got the right attitude, we’ve put the pride back into Huddersfield over the last few months.”
Stoke are back at home on Sunday Afternoon vs Hull City.
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