Stoke City supporters celebrated being paired with Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup semi-finals almost as raucously as getting there.
In the concourses and bars of the Britannia Stadium, Tony Pulis’s players were already being lauded to the rafters for reaching the last four of the competition for the first time since 1972. But after Manchester United were drawn against Manchester City or Reading in the first semi-final, the loudest supporters in the Barclays Premier League got even louder.
Along with Wigan Athletic, Stoke are the only present members of the Barclays Premier League yet to play in an FA Cup Final. Now they can scent their opportunity — and with the right to contest their passage at Wembley, where they have not played since defeating Bristol City in the Auto Windscreens Shield final of 2000.
Their manager was eager to play down the prospect of landing the best draw and more interested in heralding Stoke’s ability to rise up against the odds. “It’s disrespectful to Bolton to say that’s the draw we wanted,” Pulis said. “We just wanted to win today and whatever team we got pulled against, we’d treat them with total respect. Bolton have been an established Premier League team for longer than us and it will be a tough game.
“For 2½ years since we got promoted, we’ve been written off. We’ve got to three quarter-finals, two in the FA Cup and one in the Carling Cup, while finishing twelfth and eleventh in the Premier League, and now we’ve reached a semi-final. Everyone wrote us off but we haven’t done badly. I’m just delighted for my players. The biggest problem we’ve got is people getting blasé about it. We have no right to beat anybody unless we go out there and work hard.”
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Danny Higginbotham was the match-winner, driving home a controversial free kick in the 62nd minute, but Thomas Sorensen, the goalkeeper who is wheeled out for the Cup games and has already been told he will play at Wembley, earned his corn with three fine late saves as West Ham United almost salvaged a strange tie. Matthew Upson also headed against the crossbar four minutes from time.
Only last week, West Ham beat Stoke 3-0 in the league to continue their climb out of the relegation zone. They have been in excellent form, scoring goals for fun and with a midfield the envy of most clubs outside the top five. But Stoke threatened to blast them away in the early stages.
Robert Huth powered in to head home his eighth goal of the season from Rory Delap’s long throw-in as Upson, his would-be marker, was blocked off. Jermaine Pennant and Matthew Etherington made the most of their space in front of the full backs, the tactical hole in West Ham’s 4-3-3 formation.
Avram Grant’s team had barely surfaced for air when they equalised on the half-hour mark.
In the first of several disputed decisions that appeared to affect Mike Jones’s refereeing performance for the rest of the game, Frédéric Piquionne controlled Thomas Hitzlsperger’s fine through-pass on the corner of a shoulder and arm. He lifted the ball over the outrushing Sorensen — think Lionel Messi but with clogs on — and lunged in to beat Huth to convert. It was such a painful process, the former Portsmouth striker immediately had to be substituted.
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The referee will have had access to television replays during the half-time interval and it took him 11 seconds of the second half to award Stoke a penalty. Etherington went down easily under Scott Parker’s challenge but, upon picking himself up, saw Robert Green dive to save his spot-kick brilliantly.
In the 61st minute, the Chester official got his next big decision spot-on. Carlton Cole jumped with his arms to block Pennant’s 30-yard free kick, so another free kick was awarded, ten yards nearer to goal. Higginbotham, who had never previously scored in the Cup, struck a low left-footed shot that Green was only able to fumble against a post and over the line.
Then, seven minutes from time, James Tomkins and Jonathan Walters wrestled shamelessly in competing for Hitzlsperger’s free kick at the far post. “It was a penalty for us at the end and he didn’t give it,” Grant, convinced that the referee was seeking to atone for failing to award handball against Piquionne, said. “It was more bushido [a form of martial arts] than a penalty.” For Stoke, justice was done.
Stoke City (4-4-2): T Sorensen 8 — M Wilson 7, R Shawcross 7, R Huth 7, D Higginbotham 7 — J Pennant 7 (sub: D Whitehead, 81min), G Whelan 6, R Delap 6, M Etherington 7 (sub: D Collins, 90) — J Walters 6, K Jones 5 (sub: R Fuller, 90). Substitutes not used: C Nash, D Pugh, S Diao, A Wilkinson. Booked: Shawcross, Fuller.
West Ham United (4-3-3): R Green 5 — J Tomkins 6, M Da Costa 6, M Upson 5, W Bridge 5 — M Noble 7 (sub: Z Hines, 81), S Parker 7, T Hitzlsperger 8 — V Obinna 6 (sub: R Keane, 68 5), C Cole 6, F Piquionne 6 (sub: J Spector, 35 6). Substitutes not used: R Boffin, D Gabbidon, L Boa Morte, L Jacobsen. Booked: Obinna, Hitzlsperger, Da Costa.
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Referee: M Jones. Attendance: 24,550
Stoke knockout heroes
•John Ritchie supplied two goals in Stoke’s 3-2 quarter-final win away to Hull City in 1971. He then scored in the drawn first match in the semi-final against Arsenal.
•Terry Conroy, the Ireland midfield player, scored the winning goal as Stoke beat Manchester United 2-1 in a quarter-final replay in 1972.
•Rory Delap’s throw-ins set up goals in Stoke’s first four FA Cup games (including a replay) last season to take them into the quarter-finals for the first time in 38 years.
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Words by Bill Edgar