STOKE CITY v WEST BROMWICH ALBION
Barclays Premier League
Saturday 16th March 2013, 3:00pm
Britannia Stadium

MATCH NOTES

A victory for Albion would see them set a new club record for most wins (14) during a Premier League season. The club's previous high of 13 was set in 2011/12.

Stoke have won just one of their last nine league games and have also gone eight league home games without a clean sheet.

Albion are attempting to record successive victories at Stoke for the first time in almost 82 years.

Baggies' striker Romelu Lukaku needs two goals to equal Peter Odemwingie's club record of 15 Premier League goals in a season.

The only teams to have conceded fewer goals than Stoke this season are Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Albion's last six games: Swansea City (H) W 2-1, Chelsea (A) L 1-0, Sunderland (H) W 2-1, Liverpool (A) W 2-0, Tottenham Hotspur (H) L 1-0, Everton (A) L 2-1.

Stoke City's last six games: Newcastle United (A) L 2-1, West Ham United (H) L 1-0, Fulham (A) L 1-0, Reading (H) W 2-1, Arsenal (A) L 1-0, Wigan Athletic (H) D 2-2.

TEAM NEWS

Albion

Shane Long and Steven Reid are both doubts having failed to recover from the injuries that forced them to miss last weekend's win against Swansea City.

Zoltan Gera and George Thorne are both out with long-term injuries.

Squad from: Foster, Myhill, Daniels, Reid, Jones, Olsson, McAuley, Tamas, Ridgewell, Popov, Dorrans, Mulumbu, Yacob, Brunt, Morrison, Thomas, Lukaku, Long, Fortune, Odemwingie, Rosenberg, Sawyers, Brown.

Stoke City

Defender Robert Huth serves the final game of a three-match ban with Marc Wilson expected to once again deputise.

Winger Matthew Etherington faces a late fitness test having already missed the last two games with a back problem.

Cameron Jerome could return after being forced off with a knock in last weekend's defeat by Newcastle United.

Squad from: Begovic, Sorensen, Cameron, Wilkinson, Shawcross, Whelan, Nzonzi, Walters, Kightly, Etherington, Jones, Whitehead, Crouch, Jerome, Adam, Palacios, Shotton, Shea, Wilson, Owen.

QUOTES

Baggies' boss Steve Clarke:

“All the games in the Premier League are physical in some way, It’s a physical league, it’s a good league, and it’s a competitive league.

“Stoke have their way of playing, very successfully. They’ve been established in the Premier League for a long time now and Tony [Pulis] has done a great job there. It’s always a difficult game and, if you go back to the game we had at The Hawthorns earlier in the season, it was a close, competitive game, and unfortunately for us on the day Stoke got the break and managed to get a 1-0 win out of a game that was drifting towards a 0-0.

“We’ll go there and try and do what we did last season with West Brom, when we scored late to get three points. That’s what we’ll try and do again this season. We’ve concentrated on ourselves, the way we work and the way we want to play. Every week we touch on the opposition, we speak a little bit about them. But the main aim for me is to make sure we play as well as we can play and if we do that hopefully the result will be positive.

“There are no doubts about this team - this team can battle as well. That’s what I like about this group of players. If they have to play football to win the game they can do that. If they have to dig in and battle to get a result they can do that as well.”

www.wba.co.uk

Stoke boss Tony Pulis:

“When we drew at West Ham earlier this season, Steve Nzonzi hit the underside of the bar with a shot which bounced back out. Last week at Newcastle, Cabaye’s free kick hits the bar and goes in. It shows there is a fine margin between getting a result and not getting one.

“We’re on a bad run of form in terms of results, but not performances. At St James’ Park, that was as well as we have played in a long time. Even Alan Pardew felt his side were fortunate to get the result in the end, but that’s the way it’s been going.

“It’s all about the results. When we went 10 games unbeaten, we played exactly the same way and everyone was jumping around. If you win games, people are happy. If you aren’t winning matches, they let you know about it. You have to accept that as a manager, but I haven’t changed anything that we weren’t doing back when things were going so well for us. The best thing we can do is put in another performance like last Sunday, and then hope that we get one or two breaks as well.

“We need our supporters because they can help us enormously. We’re just hoping that they turn up and really get behind the team. The players are the most important people at the Football Club. They thrive on confidence and the supporters can help in that respect.”

www.stokecityfc.com

MATCH ODDS

Result

Albion Win: 2/1, Stoke City Win: 11/8, Draw: 9/4.

First Goalscorer

Crouch 5/1, Lukaku 11/2, K Jones 6/1, Long 6/1, Jerome 7/1, Odemwingie 7/1, Owen 8/1, Walters 8/1, Adam 10/1, Fortuné 10/1, Rosenberg 10/1, Etherington 12/1, Shea 12/1, Morrison 12/1, Kightly 14/1, Brunt 16/1, Dorrans 16/1, Thomas 18/1, Mulumbu 20/1.

REFEREE

Mike Dean (Wirral)

Has taken charge of three Albion games this season - the 1-1 draw at Tottenham in August, the 4-2 win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light in November and the 2-1 New Year's Day defeat at home to Fulham.

The Wirral official has refereed one Stoke game this season - the 3-1 defeat at Swansea in January.

He has handed out 105 yellow cards and four red cards in 30 games so far this season.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets will be available from the away turnstiles at the Britannia Stadium on the day of the game priced at £30 adults, £17 under 17s, £21 over 65s and £14 under 11s.

WEATHER FORECAST

Cloudy with a 30% chance of showers, 7°C.

FIXTURE HISTORY

LAST LEAGUE MEETING AT THE BRITANNIA STADIUM

Stoke City 1-2 Albion
Barclays Premier League
Saturday 21 January 2012, 3:00pm

Stoke City: Sorensen, Woodgate (Pennant 52), Shawcross, Huth, Wilson, Shotton (Jerome 78), Whelan, Delap (Wilkinson 88), Etherington, Walters, Crouch. Subs not used: Begovic, Jones, Fuller, Whitehead.

Goalscorer: Jerome 86.

Albion: Foster, Tamas, McAuley, Olsson, Shorey, Thomas (Dawson 90), Mulumbu, Dorrans, Morrison, Cox (Tchoyi 87), Fortune (Long 83). Subs not used: Fulop, Mattock, Jara Reyes, Odemwingie.

Goalscorers: Morrison 35, Dorrans 90.

Attendance: 26,865

Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire).

Albion finally ended their 30-year hoodoo at Stoke and brought the curtain down on their miserable run in the Premier League. After losing 13 games and drawing five of their previous 18 visits to this part of the Potteries, it required two mistakes from Stoke goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen to gift Albion the points. Sorensen first allowed past him a low 30-yard shot from James Morrison, and after substitute Cameron Jerome seemingly salvaged a point in the 86th minute, Graham Dorrans then beat the Dane in injury time with a 25-yard free-kick. In fairness, Albion thoroughly deserved this rare win over their Midlands rivals as Morrison also twice hit the woodwork, whilst they carved out other more memorable opportunities to end a run of three straight league defeats. The first came in the fifth minute, with winger Jerome Thomas thwarted by the outstretched left foot of Sorensen after shaking off the challenge of right-back Jonathan Woodgate. Thomas then turned supplier in the 14th minute, picking out Simon Cox just inside the area with a delightful pull back, only for the Republic of Ireland international to slice his shot horribly wide. It was not until midway through the first half that Stoke finally created their first effort, albeit somewhat fortuitously as a long punt upfield was missed by both Nicky Shorey and Gabriel Tamas. That allowed Jonathan Walters a clear run on goal, but as he fired off an early shot, Tamas did superbly to backtrack and produce a vital block. Moments later Morrison tested Sorensen for the first time after being allowed a 20-yard run on goal before letting fly with a rasping shot from 25 yards. However, leaping to his left, Sorensen brilliantly tipped the ball onto his crossbar. It was a portent of what followed just moments later, and at first there was no danger when captain Ryan Shawcross cleared a long ball upfield. Collecting Youssuf Mulumbu's nod forward inside the centre circle, Morrison was still 70 yards from goal, but he was allowed to run and run by a Stoke side that stood off him before he struck a 30-yarder directly at Sorensen. The City goalkeeper should have collected, only to be beaten by a slight last-second swerve on the ball, clawing at it desperately as it ran behind him and crossed the line. One contentious moment before the half ended when Peter Crouch and Albion skipper Jonas Olsson clashed, the latter returning after missing the previous four games with a calf injury. The Stoke striker reached around the front of the centre back, with his right hand coming in contact with Olsson's face. Fortunately for Crouch the incident was missed by referee Anthony Taylor, but picked up on replays as it was shown a couple of times, whilst Olsson to his credit did not make a meal of it.

Inside the first six minutes of the second half Albion should have put the game to bed, but first Marc-Antoine Fortune was denied by a block from Robert Huth after a pull back from Dorrans. Within a minute Sorensen was beaten again by Morrison, only for the Scot to despair as his stunning hooked half-volley from 20 yards struck the right-hand post. When Jermaine Pennant replaced Woodgate in the 52nd minute, a previously off-colour Stoke side raised their game. Marc Wilson first fired a 25-yard drive wide and Walters glanced a header inches past the right-hand post. In between, with gaps on the counter, Cox's failure to adequately connect with a sidefoot shot after racing onto a clearance from Foster and stealing in behind the Stoke defence allowed Sorensen to save. The reprieve seemed mighty in the 71st minute when referee Anthony Taylor harshly appeared to have awarded a penalty when Walters ran into Gareth McAuley. But from the spot the Stoke striker went for power, with his shot striking the left knee of a diving Foster. With the game reaching its conclusion, 73rd-minute sub Jerome then glanced Pennant's right-wing free-kick beyond Foster 13 minutes later, seemingly keeping the hoodoo alive. But in the first minute of injury time Sorensen was guilty of allowing Dorrans' long-range free-kick flash past him into his bottom left-hand corner to further add to his afternoon of woe.

Sporting Life

CURRENT CONNECTIONS

Baggies' keeper Ben Foster started his professional career with Stoke but failed to make a single first team appearance.

Current Albion assistant head coach Kevin Keen spent over six years as a Stoke City player.

PAST CONNECTIONS

Amongst the players to have turned out at various levels for both clubs are: George Baddeley, Gary Bannister, Paul Barron, Tommy Broad, Fred Brown, Garth Crooks, Neil Cutler, Bill Davies, Paul Dyson, Wayne Ebanks, Fred Fenton, Ross Fielding, Sean Flynn, Tony Ford, Ricardo Fuller, Gary Hackett, Graham Harbey, Willie Hendry, Carl Hoefkens, Russell Hoult, Geoff Hurst, Joe Johnson, Tony Kelly, Neil Mackenzie, Steve Parkin, Paul Peschisolido, Graham Potter, David Powell, Paul Reece, Brian Rice, Fred Rouse, Maurice Setters, Barry Siddall, Larus Sigurdsson, Andy Smith, Andrew Smith, Derek Statham, Mickey Thomas, Isaiah Turner and Gavin Ward.

ALL-TIME LEAGUE & CUP RECORD VS STOKE CITY