POLICE intelligence dictated this Coca-Cola Championship match between two sides with growing aspirations of Premiership football next season kicked-off at 12.30pm for fear of crowd trouble. For 39 minutes, proceedings were so lifeless it was as though the Staffordshire and South Wales constabularies had warned both sets of players not to do anything which might arouse passion among supporters.
The police might have wished things had stayed that way. Because when the game did burst belatedly into life, officers were required to act as peacemakers after an incident involving Cardiff boss Dave Jones, his reserve team manager Paul Wilkinson, a Britannia Stadium ball boy and a group of home supporters sat close to the visitors dugout.
The Cardiff backroom staff became agitated by what they claimed was a delay in returning the ball into play with Cardiff trailing 2-0. As tempers frayed and words were exchanged, one fan was led from the stadium and a wry Jones, himself spoken to by police, said afterwards: "The multi-ball system seems to disappear when you go behind away from home. Wilko got a bit upset with one of the ball boys. There was something said, but it all came from one family sat in the stand."
The Football Association will almost certainly request a report of the incident, although it was hardly surprising Jones and his staff were on short fuses as Cardiff's nine-match unbeaten league and cup run ebbed away thanks to an own goal and a debated penalty.
Roger Johnson turned Liam Lawrence's 39th minute corner into his own net in slapstick fashion after Glenn Loovens missed his kick. Eleven minutes into the second-half, Stoke's leading scorer, Ricardo Fuller, was nudged from behind by Kevin McNaughton, who was booked as was the luckless Johnson for questioning referee Steve Bennett's decision to award a penalty. Fuller stroked home his 12th goal of the season from the spot and Stoke threatened to run away with the game, with Ryan Shawcross and Mamady Sidibe both going close.
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Cardiff, though, had fresh hope after Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's 63rd-minute goal and he went close to an equaliser two minutes later.
Stoke, increasingly edgy in the closing stages, held on and manager Tony Pulis, who in the week before the game had written to the Football League complaining about his team's lack of penalty awards, felt vindicated. "We've had more stonewall penalties turned down compared to the one we got today," he said. "I think we are perceived to be something that we are not and it counts against us. But even if that's the case we should still be getting penalties if that's the right decision. It was an important win for us. The reports I got of Cardiff said they were as good as anything in this league."
Star man: Liam Lawrence (Stoke City)
Player ratings: Stoke: Simonsen 7, Griffin 7, Pugh 7, Shawcross 7, Cort 6, Lawrence 8, Cresswell 6, Diao 6, Delap 6, Sidibe 6 (Whelan 82min), Fuller 7
Cardiff: Oakes 7, McNaughton 7, Johnson 6, Loovens 6, Capaldi 6, Ledley 7, Rae 6, McPhail 6, Whittingham 7 (Thompson 82min), Hasselbaink 6, Parry 7
Scorers: Stoke: Johnson og 39, Fuller pen 56 Cardiff: Hasselbaink 63
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Referee: S Bennett
Attendance: 15,045