Stoke chairman defends their tactics.

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Taken from Sky.

Chairman Peter Coates has defended Stoke's style after Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini appeared angered by their approach in the sides' 1-1 draw.

Mancini failed to shake hands with Potters boss Tony Pulis after seeing his side drop crucial points in the title race and then sent No 2, David Platt, to speak to the media in his place.

The Italian made an elbow gesture during the game as David Silva was caught by Dean Whitehead but Coates rubbished talk of rough-house tactics - and said Stoke had grievances of their own.

"It's disappointing, we believe we are fair," Coates told Sky Sports News. "Records say we do OK in the Fair Play League.

"The incident with Whitehead was not intentional, he caught his ear. We could have had a penalty with the Gareth Barry incident but we get on with it.

"We don't lie down, we don't fall over, we're strong and physical but I don't accept we play the game anything other than in the right spirit.

"This idea we're a team of giants just doesn't bear relation to the facts - Chelsea are a big team, City are a big team."

They will always do ok in the fair play league if referees like Webb never punish them!Oh and don't lie down?.......Take them away from the baying mob that support them and i think you'll find you are pretty gutless Coates!

Just emphasising a point!

 

[Mike D]

Lets be honest they play to there strengths big lads limited skills a small intimidating ground. Apart from the sublime finish by Crouch the rest of the goal epitimised Stoke route one from the goalies boot without touching the ground in the back of the net.

Lets be honest without that moment of genius lets supposed that he ment it Stoke were never gonna score. They don' have a Silva, a Balotelli a Nasri, but they have a Robert Hoof at the back who can smash balls from defense into the attack and thats what they do.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

To be fair to Stoke they are good at what they do at home.

On a big pitch like ours and Wembley they are clearly average to shite.

 

[cheddar404]

I don't blame Stoke for the way they play. They set their stall out and have relative success. If our team had the battle and drive that they do then the league would be sewn up by now. They push the boundaries of the rules of the game and get away with it. The rags do this also. If we played like Stoke do I'd hate it but let's face it, our football under Pearce and Peter Reid wasn't a joy to watch and I still followed us then. If Stoke were playing in my back garden I'd shut the curtains (unless they were playing us) but fair play to them. Football's about all sorts of different styles.

 

[BertTrautmann'sParachute]

It's not quite so conscious is what I'm saying. Obviously if the refs were thinking about it so consciously it'd be a VERY odd way to officiate.

I just think that when a crowd like Stoke's is there, and Stoke are flying around with hard challenges the ref is more likely to subconsciously let them off because he knows they're based around a physical game.

I actually think that what I attributed to you is true. Take that ref against liverpool in the first semi-final at the Ethad. He kept giving us free-kicks but failed to book their players. He thought he was doing a good job by not yellow-carding anyone, but what he was actually doing was allowing the victims to stop us building any momentum and thereby allowing a team of cheats and long-ball merchants stop a team that plays attractive football. Refs are fucking pricks and cowards, as that game against the victims and tonight's have amply demonstrated.

What did you attribute to me again?

Haha, I shouldn't have had that second glass of red! The refs in this country are prone to ruining football matches by favouring teams that are barely on nodding terms with the beautiful game whilst penalising those that are. These are usually crimes of omission by which a ref lets one team robustly kick another whilst not affording the same luxury to the other team. This is why Wenger looks like he does as he's had to put up with it for quite a while now.

 

[VibbyUTD]

They push it as far as they are allowed.They are dirty and intimidating,cheat and it was a forearm smash in the face of Silva,he knew exactly what he was doing!The same as Huth's elbow in Mario's throat in the final.

As you say,if the refs let em do it they will and if you have limited talent and cash i can see why they do.

Completely agree with you there, was going to raise the same point.

If you don't have that much purist talent as most of your opposition, you need to level the playing field by making them play your game i.e. smaller pitch, less expansive play etc.

You can't berate them for doing what they do unless they're purposely seeking to injure.

If they suddenly got a cash injection of 80m per year to spend on transfers with no FFP around the corner, and whatever wages those players earnt, they'd ditch their rugby play and compete for better players.

 

[Alex the Blue]

The Stoke fans were brilliant at Wembley. Would we have hung around like they did after the final whistle if we had lost, I doubt it. Good crack with them at the services to and from the game.

Not nice when the Stoke fans kept booing Silva on Saturday especially when our fans would never boo another player would they.

I blame the Stoke fans for Dzeko and Balotolli turning in crap performances. I also blame them for not getting Barry sent off following his potential leg breaking tackle. I also blame them for some people on this site living in another dimension.

 

[Phleeper]

There's no point moaning about how Stoke play, you know what it's going to be like before you get there and you just have to deal with it. It wasn't just on Saturday where we've put in performances which have been below par, so you can't say that had any real input to it. They even left the two long throw players, Delap and Shotton on the bench even though without Vinny I thought we may have been vulnerable to such a tactic. A draw was a fair result, but Webb had a particularly poor game for both sides. Their crowd was less noisy than they have been in previous seasons, (I'd got a ticket in one of the home stands with living locally and our allocation having sold out) only cranking up the volume after the goal, which after they've stopped creaming themselves about it, was pure route one football They just tended to shout wanker at Mario and Silva, very witty. It was bad manners of Bobby not to shake hands as it has provided more negative headlines and accusations of sour grapes from the Stokies who are now likening him to Wenger who they dispise.

 

[trueblue gio]

What you pick up at the game and not from the tv is the Stoke management of the officials, Pullis is on the touchline the entire game appealing for every ball that does not go their way whether it is right or wrong, it just drip feeds pressure on the lines man near him and the ref. While this is happening Pullis's assistant is never stood more than 2 yards away from the 4th official drip feeding his complaints so these can be passed on at half time to the ref. This mountain of negative pressure is sure to have an effect, whether the officals admit to this or not. This is all on top of the physical niggly game that they cause on the pitch, that for some reason the people of Stoke enjoy, maybe they should set up Stoke City RL to play summer rugby at the ground, it looks like the locals have an appetite for it.