Got back to the car soaked after a long march out of the stadium back to the town. It gave a lot of time to reflect on what was ultimately a frustrating turn of events.
The line-up gave away how much we'd been hit by injury and illness and the subs even more so. Freddie must surely be off to come on as late as he did. It felt like a nailed on penalty at the time too, the guy had hold of his shirt but if it's given against you - you're livid.
Tuanzebe is such a good defender, an athlete and with Woolfy next to him it show cased that Fridge is still class at defending, but neither he or Harry Clarke have a left foot that does more than standing on. It made us very asymmetrical and predictable too often.
We really will miss Morsy and while Leicester are all but champions now, it's not a part of the season where we can write off games. To see him get that inevitable yellow rammed home just how paperthin we are and how amazing our position has been up until now.
Stoke didn't look like a Schumacher side, he's got some decent personnel but apart from switching the wingers halfway through the first half (and it had bvgger all effect) they seemed like a side less than the sum of their parts.
There's an argument that the sending off actually harmed us. When they were a bit more open and we stopped trying to make Jackson win headers we looked more dangerous. With 10 they regressed to a tight and solid pyramid and we seemed to rarely go wide. Burns forced a good save from Bonham but too many crosses when to the wrong place or no one at all.
I've never seen someone sent off then his team given the free kick which looked a bit dubious at the time. Presume someone has had their FA laws out and checked. It's rare you can moan about two refs in a game but both seemed like they'd spent all Christmas playing Guess Who.
With the news about Hirst coming through to add a massive exclamation mark to just light we are now up top, we need this two weeks to recuperate and reset and get some quality in.
Won't be easy, won't be guaranteed but we still have a cushion in points and a run where we can build momentum. Even if we are caught in the coming weeks it means one result our way puts back there again so if we want promotion, if we fight for it, those under the weather, under performing and under speculation can be reevaluated before we head into the final stages.
The Championship, bloody hell. |  |
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