Stoke City faithful question 89th minute decision as nerves spiral
Stoke City supporters were subjected to another evening when nerves grew in a nail-biting scrap at the wrong end of the Championship.
A home match against struggling Luton Town was never going to be a free-flowing goal fest but Stoke managed to find a way in front when Lewis Baker’s free-kick spun into the net mid-way through the second half.
Stoke had 16 minutes plus injury time to get the three points over the line but they were pushed back and Luton found an equaliser as the board was lifted to show the amount of added time.
It was a result which keeps Stoke in the thick of the fight, with a trip to third-bottom Cardiff City up next on Saturday (3pm). Fans have been spelling out their hopes, fears and moans on social media.
Sean Tideswell: Why in satan’s trousers are we slinging a corner in the box on 89 minutes at 1-0 up? Baker, who was taking it, obviously plus Pearson, Wilmot… experienced players should be playing the time game.. Poor.
Kelvin Evans: The way I saw it, maybe I’m wrong, Bocat stopped running with the player, letting him cross the ball easily to his teammate, he put in a great shot on a tight angle, but at a good height for a keeper to save and our keeper made a rare mistake that beat him on the near post.
Peter Rofe: Carlton Morris should have seen red. Game would have changed. Players dropped back after scoring and looked nervous. Very tense at back all game. Why do we insist on playing out from the back? We end up boxing ourselves in and losing the ball. Luton won the majority of second balls, unacceptable. It’s getting tougher as each match, and points slip by. We simply must see games out and stop conceding late goals. We can still do this, but it’s going to be a bumpy old ride until the end of the season… btw Mark, keep Koumas on the bench, and find a way of playing two up top. Best form of defence is to play in the opposition half, more bite please.
Wayne Bisson: All those moaning, the fans were 10 times worse than the result. The atmosphere was dead. No 12th man no loud and proud. Our home support is a joke and embarrassing, Outsung by a few Luton fans. Thank goodness for away games. The fans are awesome, home fans pathetic.
Matthew Pye: Fifteen points to play for and still in our hands.
Jon Hewitt: Three injury time goals conceded in the last six games. Is it a lack of fitness, concentration or just sitting back causing this issue? Not good enough.
Joel Eldridge: Should’ve been there for the taking! This fixture was screaming three points but it’s the same mistakes again, again and again! Imagine taking the foot off the pedal in the situation we’re in! Our own worst enemy! All of us left there with our heads down feeling like we lost! Teams around us scoring and we don’t even look a threat towards goal! I’m not negative I’m worried.
Dave Stonier: Two teams that cancelled each other out for the majority of the game, poor going forward and created very little against a team second bottom. That says it all about us going forward this season. Got a lucky break with the deflected free-kick but after that they wanted it more all over the pitch. Fair result and it’s as we were. It just means we need a win at Cardiff and something positive against Wednesday. I’ve said for a few months now I can see us going to Derby needing a win.
Shane Lawson: We were poor in possession. Very poor. Not too bad when we didn’t have the ball, but yet again, we’ve switched off at a crucial moment and paid the price. We still aren’t creating clear chances, and if we do create them, we don’t convert anywhere near enough of them. If by some miracle we stay up, this has to be addressed in the summer.
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