Source: FOOTYMAD
8 years ago today: Stoke City 3 Manchester United 1
A good occasion at the Britannia Stadium saw an experimental Stoke beat a decent united outfit. The Match Report > There's no doubt that a weakened United side SHOULD have beaten Stoke but the potters proved they weren't going to be the pushover Alex Ferguson perhaps thought they might be. A strong performance from Stoke eased to victory, but United weren't as poor as the score suggested. They did look like a decent side - featuring stars such as Nicky Butt, Diego Forlan, Silvestre, Djemba-Djemba and Fabien Barthez - O'Shea and his pals making up the other numbers. They certainly matched City, but Stoke had the edge with a new found stregnth brought into the team by Tony Pulis. New signings Keith Andrews, Darren Russel and John Eustace all featured along with the strikeforce of newly signed Asaba and Noel-Williams up front with Chris Greenacre. Quality has most certainly been added to the squad and Stoke can go into the season with higher hopes than last season.All players were given a run out and by the end of the game, Man Utd's reserve side was playing a young Stoke City side too (so don't try using that as an excuse Utd!). Karl Henry, Lewis Neal, Kris Commons, Laurence Hall and Brian Wilson all were on by the final whistle, along with Chris Iwelumo (goalscorer) Martiensson and Clarke.The first half saw little more than an attempt from Noel-Williams and hardly anything from United, the sides went in 0-0 after a hard faught first 45.The 59th minute was when Goodfellow struck. The youngster seems to have come on leaps and bounds over summer, he was put through by a fantastic ball from Martiensson and the potters were 1-0 up. It wasn't too long before United equalised - Stoke gave Diego Forlan way too much space and he took his time firing home a fierce shot in front of his own fans past Neil Cutler from 20 yards.Goodfellow had an ambitious effort blocked but this didn't stop him from having another soon after. He saw the opportunity for a lob over Barthez, and did this only to hit the crossbar, but this then hit Barthez on the back and bounced into the net. 2-1 in just over a minute after the equaliser.But that wasn't all. Chris Iwelumo took advantage of an error and good work by Stoke to capitalise and made it 3-1, volleying into the net from about 6 yards at an angle to the right hand side of the goal.Tony Pulis told the BBC: "The crowd we got just proves the potential we have here if we did get things going," he said. "In terms of league points it counts for nothing but it should help our confidence and some of these lads have done things they will remember for the rest of their lives. "Marc Goodfellow especially did well. He has everything you need to be a good player, it is just a matter of putting all those pieces together."
