Aston Villa 1 - 1 Stoke City
Bent 43 Jones 20
Villa Park
Att: 35,325
Bent Dents City’s Bubble
Stoke ended there barren run of seven away defeats with a spirited performance at Villa Park. The Potters went ahead midway through the first half with a header from Jones from a Delap special but Bent equalised just before half time.
It was typical end of season scrappy match, both teams edging closer to safety they would have both taken a share of the spoils before the game. Stoke high as kite after last week’s lord mayor show at Wembley started the game much brighter than the home side. Stoke were organised, compact and looked comfortable on the ball.
The opening goal came in the 20th minute after a succession of six Stoke corners which saw Friedel make an acrobatic save from a Huth drive and then from a header off Jones from a corner. The goal came when Delap launched a throw into the danger area and Jones made a run lost his man and rose highest to head Stoke into the lead.
Stoke continued to push forward and look for another goal, they had the look of a team full of renewed confidence after last week, Villa were struggling to make any in roads into the Stoke defence and struggled to get Young or Downing into the game.
It was 31 minutes before Villa created a half decent chance when Heskey headed over header from Walker's right-wing centre. Bent appealed in vain for a penalty after claiming he was pushed by Huth when attacking a cross from Nigel Reo-Coker.
Stoke's ploy of dropping deep and relying on Huth and skipper Shawcross to deal with Heskey and nullify Bent's pace seemed to be working a treat. But the visitors backed off once too often and the Walker was given bags of time to centre and Bent got in front of Shawcross to send a pinpoint header in off the post from just inside the 18-yard box.
Begovic should have dealt with the header a lot better he seemed to react late to header just inside the box. The goal was completely against the run of play and knocked the wind out Stoke but luckily it was right before the interval so Stoke could regroup.
After the break it was Villa who pushed on and tried to build momentum, Downing found himself crowded out on the edge of the area, Dunne failed to test Begovic and instead tried to find Heskey and the opportunity went begging.
Wilson found himself going into the book in the 56th minute quickly followed by Whelan seven minutes later for time wasting.
Downing then had a shot deflected just wide which had Begovic beaten, Heskey then came close when he slid near post to try and convert a low Reo-Coker centre but his effort went just wide.
Fuller came on for Delap in the 75th minute and had the ball in the back of the net minutes later but he had strayed into an offside position. Fullers day was not ended there he took a knock and got stretchered off with what looks like achilles injury and he could be out for the season.
Stoke ended the game with 10 men after not being able to replace Fuller after using all there subs despite this it was the visitors who looked likely to get all three points.
Stoke: Begovic, Huth, Shawcross, Wilkinson, Whelan, Wilson. Pennant, Delap (Fuller 75), Etherington (Whitehead 73), Jones (Diao 88), Walters
Subs: Sorenson, Collins, Faye, Pugh
Ref: Foy