2008-09. A reserve report.

[knowles]

Flicking through various old Oatcake editions, I remembered a favourite old feature of mine- the Reserve Report.

Back then, I lived in Gloucestershire and, up until four years ago had only had the 'pleasure' of seeing our reserves play on one occassion. That night, a Liverpool side featuring future stars Owen and Carragher lost 2-0 to a Steven Taaffe inspired Stoke at the Victoria Ground.

Since moving to Eccleshall I have watched our reserve side with great interest and, over the past two seasons, written reports for The Sentinel.

Having not missed a game this season (yes, I am that sad) I thought I would update you all with how the lads are doing.

The season begun at the Britannia when Aston Villa rolled into town. Danny Higginbotham made his second debut after signing on the Monday while Villa named a strong line up with Cuellar, Sidwell and Harewood all starting.

Despite Mark O'Connor naming a number of players who had helped us to gaining promotion from the Championship, Delfouneso put Villa into the lead, finishing off a sweeping move.

However, according to plan, Higginbotham popped up with an equaliser to send a majority of the 675 crowd wild. When I say wild, I really mean politely applaud.

Villa, last season's reserve champions, won the game through Osbourne before Danny Pugh was sent off and duly missed the Carling Cup tie against Reading for his actions.

A full month later, in early October, and it was Fulham's turn to visit the Britannia. Stoke, sporting their away yellow kit, fell behind through a goal from Milsom but jailbird Vincent Pericard eeualised matters with a smart half volley. On the stroke of half time, Glenn Whelan's penalty gave us the lead.

It was looking like our first victory until Fulham were awarded their own penalty. The brilliantly named (and fastly improving) Danzelle St-Louis Hamilton saved it but Brown scored the rebound to leave the final score at 2-2.

Next up was a scintilating game at Barnet's Underhill, against Arsenal. Once again, Mark O'Connor named a side that wouldn't look out of place in the Championship and Pericard scored an absolute screamer to give us the lead. Arsenal, displaying their much coveted youngsters, turned the game on it's head. With Jack Wilshire pulling the strings, Coquelin equalised, before Jay Simpson (currently on loan at our friends from Smethwick) rolled in a penalty.

Poor refereeing was threatening to ruin the game and Tony Pulis ran down the tunnel to have a quiet word with him at half time. It was a battling display from the Potters and Danny Pugh smashed home to level matters.

One of the few youngsters given a run out in the reserves, Louis Moult, was then shown his second yellow card to give us an uphill task. Sure enough, a late error from Ryan Shawcross allowed Rui Fonte to give Arsenal the victory.

As we all know, "We always beat West Brom" so the 2-0 victory at the Britannia thanks to a Richard Cresswell brace was no great surprise. It was also our first win of the campaign and the catalyst for a great run.

The last time a Stoke side played at Griffin Park was against Brentford in our promotion season from the second division. This time it was against a young Chelsea side. Sadly I didn't take advantage of the 5/1 odds on a Stoke victory as we easily swepped them aside.

After Simonsen had saved a tame Miroslav Stoch penalty, Tom Soares notched his first goal in Stoke colours before Pugh wrapped up the victory with a coolly taken strike.

Now at the back end of November, our next trip was to Leyton Orient's Brisbane Road to see us face Tottenham. Another strong line up secured a third consecutive 2-0 victory. Michael Tonge and Pugh scored the goals to move the second tring into second place.

At this stage of the reserve season, Andy Wilkinson and Whelan were virtual ever presents. Their good form has since been rewarded and they are now two of the first names in the Premier League line up. It just goes to show that if you have a good attitude, your time will come.

There are other players who strut around for the reserves and really does frustrate you. It should be a platform to move onto better things but equally a chance to integrate youngsters with first teamers. Up to this stage, only a handful of the academy had been given an opportunity but, out of those who had, Nathaniel Wedderburn stood out like a sore thumb. He really is a central midfielder we need to keep hold of.

The next game saw us back at the Britannia against Arsenal. With the first team sunning themselves in Dubai, it was up to our academy lads to keep Eduardo quiet live on Arsenal TV. They didn't let the badge down and centre back Ashley Page nodded us into the lead.

A brilliant goal from Wilshire levelled matters before Tom Thorley restored the lead. A terrible challenge from their captain, Randall, resulted in a deserved red card but Wilshire scored his second to bring the scores back to 2-2. A last minute Marc Grocott strike rattled the post and we could feel a little hard done by to only draw the match.

It was a brilliant performance from a group of lads who are doing so well in the academy league.

Next to the Britannia were Chelsea and Liam Lawrence was given an opportunity to stake a claim for a start on the Sunday at Aston Villa. He grabbed the opportuntiy with both hands by bringing Stoke from behind, scoring a free kick and a penalty before a Lee Sawyer thunderbolt levelled matters.

Michael Tonge won the match though with a rasping drive from the edge of the area. The match also turned out to be Dave Kitson's last appearance in a Stoke shirt.

Up until then, the fringe players were doing well but it all went downhill at the start of last month at West Brom. Henri Camara lead the line and, quite frankly, he was shocking. Consistently offside and missing from six yards, it's fair to say it wasn't his best match ever.

Chris Wood and Josh Knight put the home side into a comfortable lead and the song "We always beat West Brom" was now being shoved down our throats. A cracker from captain Andy Griffin deep into stoppage time was no consolation to the handful of Stokies who had travelled to the Hawthorns.

It was then the visit of Portsmouth to the Britannia. Naming an extremely youthful side (apart from Linvoy Primus) our star-studded line up should have been more than capable of brushing them away.

Camara was up to his old tricks again, failing to score when presented with about five golden opportunites and, in the dying seconds, Bogard won the game for Pompey. Another side note to this game was that Matty Etherington received a hefty whack to his ankle, which meant he was unable to start the first team match against Boro.

If that was bad, it was to get worse at Villa Park the week after. Mama Sidibe, just two days after playing a crucial role for Shawcross' winner against Boro, went down in a heap in the warm up and was subsequently ruled out for the season.

After that, the match was a side issue and the forward partnership of Moult and Seyi Olofinjana was hardly pulling up many trees. A goal from James Collins won the game for Villa, who were able to parade Shorey and Bouma in their line up.

After two injuries in successive games, Mark O'Connor made the correct choice for our debut at Nantwich's Weaver Stadium last week.

West Ham came to town and we fielded a side entirely made up of academy stars, with Wedderburn showing his versatility by slotting into the heart of defence.

Despite a gallant effort, a screamer from Anthony Edgar and a penalty from the impressive Zavon Hines ensured a 2-0 victory for the Iron.

Tonight, it is time for revenge as Stoke travel to Bishops Stortford, the home for West Ham reserve fixtures.

So, it has been a season of ups and downs, injuries, wins and defeats. Some players have taken their chance as you would expect others just think they are far better than playing for Stoke reserves.

The chosen line ups do make you wonder though. Our academy are gettign some great results in their league but, in my eyes, they are being held back by not being played with the older professionals.

Perhaps it is time to play a half and half side (half youngsters, half pros) to integrate the academy and push them forward.

Quite rightly, we do not want any more injuries so I think it would be a safe assumption that a majority of the remaining reserve team line ups will be made up of academy players.

Good luck to them. They always put in a spirited display and certainly play for the shirt- more than can be said for some people (Mr Kitson).

[lazymatt]

nice post.

[luke45]

Good read that, cheers Knowles.

[stokie25]

Excellent read, knowles! Our proposed training facility should hopefully see our youngsters progress through the levels and who knows what emerging talent lies ahead for our club

[PenkhullStokie]

Great read

[jacka118]

gREAT POST, GREAT READ!

[garyhackett]

Cheers Knowles- good read.