Stoke sticky in the Toffees

Stoke suffered another defeat away from home in Saturday's late kick off and have now not won on the road since early December last year despite having many chances to secure a point from the game.


Stoke fans may have felt more optimistic than normal about todays game as they were boosted with the return of Robert Huth after completing his three game suspension after the FA gave him the suspension for violent conduct in the game against Fulham last month.

Also to boost the hopes of the traveling fans, Everton were without the likes of Steven Pienaar and Marouane Fellaini due to suspensions. However they were fortunate to have Tim Howard and Phil Jagielka both returning from injuries.

Stoke began with a 4-4-2 formation and started the brighter of the two teams with with Ryan Shotton's long throw into the box was met by Robert Huth who saw his header brilliantly saved by Tim Howard and the rebound by Jon Walters came off the underside of the bar.

Everton who are still pushing for a top 4 finish came to life after around the ten minute mark where Leighton Baines gave Jelavic more than one opportunity to score but David Moyes' men required a brilliant solo effort from Kevin Mirallas which saw the Belgian run from the edge of his own box to finish in style past Begovic after beating the whole of the Stoke back four.

Stoke had many chances to try and salvage something from the game. The first came in the 57th minute after Marc Wilson's cross (which took a slight deflection off Distin) found Ryan Shotton at the far post but he couldn't control his header as it went whistling past the post. Their second big chance came in the dying minutes where Cameron Jerome flashed his shot over the bar after Shotton's back heel found him in a good position but his shot was poor.

Stoke left Goodison Park hovering just 4 points above the drop in 13th place. Pullis believes that another 2 wins will be enough to see his side avoid the drop but Stoke fans will have to believe that home form is vital to ensure they aren't sent into the championship after they have really suffered on their travels this season. Stoke have a few six pointers remaining with fixtures against the likes of Aston Villa, QPR and Sunderland.

Karl Curran @currankarl