Sweet cherry potters

Stoke city ended their losing streak of 3 straight 3-0 losses with a great victory over Bournemouth at the vitality stadium.

their was only 9 minutes on the clock when Stoke city’s record signing Giannelli Imbula got his first ever ever goal for Stoke and English football for that matter when a deflected cross off Shaqiri, fell kindly for Imbula who smashed it home on the volley from just outside the box.

on 18 minutes Stoke fans inside the vitality stadium thought stoke had made it 2 when a throw in from Erik Pieters was hit first time on the half volley from Johnathan Walters only for it to ripple the side netting. their wasn’t much more to come in the first half and Stoke go into the break leading by a 1 goal to nil.

at the start of the second half stoke are forced into a change as Marc Muniesa tweeks his hamstring (again) and is replaced by Dionatan Teixeira.

the second half starts rapid when on 52 minutes a great run from Johnathan Walters see’s him pick out Ibrahim Affelay and from inside the D fires it home to give the Potters at 2-0 lead.

Stoke are forced into a second change with Glen Johnson going off with suspected knee ligament damage and is replaced by Joselu. It does not take long for this substitution to do more damage to relegation threatened Bournemouth.

only 55 minutes are gone when a wonderful run and cross from Shaqiri finds the head of Joselu who makes no mistake and puts the Potters 3 up with over half an hour to play.

within 2 minutes the cherries pull one back through Matt Ritchie his shot on the half volley whilst swivelling around flies past Stoke keeper Jack Butland who never stood a chance. superb finish.

Bournemouth then created a number of good chances to score more. first a good run and cross from king only needs a touch to go in but Ritchie just cant stretch enough, then another run and cross from king flies across the box but Stanislas can not get on the end of it.

Bournemouth drop more points at home in their debut Premier league season and as Stoke fans know it really is important to make your home ground a fortress if your going to survive.

after 3 straight defeats for Stoke it was relief to get a win under the belts. but with no game for 13 days due to fa cup weekend, Stoke will have to try and keep momentum when they face another relegation threatened, possibly already doomed side in Aston Villa at the Britannia Stadium on the 27th of February who themselves are looking to bounce back after losing 6-0 at home to Liverpool this weekend.

its looking up for Stoke now though who are now 5 points from 5th place and the Europa league spot. surely this has to be a realistic aim now with the Premier League being so unpredictable this season.