It’s another good point on the road
Stoke boss Paul Lambert was always going to be disappointed with his team’s 1-1 draw against Burnley this afternoon. He’d described the game as must win for his relegation battling team but they had to settle for a point after our second half fightback.
“We made the perfect start, scored early and really looked to be in the ascendancy,” Lambert said. “We had wonderful opportunity to really kill the game off just before half time when the ball fell to Mame (Biram Diouf), but he was perhaps a little too hesitant. He had pulled the trigger, and the ball had hit the net, then I don’t think there would have been a way back for them.
“They came out after the break and had more joy. They were getting balls in the box and asking questions of us and managed to pull back on level terms. It was a blow, but we huffed and puffed but it wasn’t to be unfortunately.
“Listen though, for as long as it is mathematically possible then we will keep fighting with everything we have. We wanted to win today, we didn’t get it but we got a point, and in football who knows, it may prove to be a hugely important one.”
Sean Dyche admitted we hadn’t been at it in the first half but came back well after the break. “It was a hard earned point,” he admitted. “As people would have expected, they are fighting for their lives here and working hard as a team. In the first half they were the better side, not by a long way, but definitely the better side. But in the second half we changed it around.
“Overall, I think their goalkeeper is arguably man of the match and that usually implies that the opposing side have done well.”
The goal came just past the hour and it was a scrappy one after Jack Butland had pulled off one of a number of outstanding saves. Dyche said: “We just couldn’t find that quality finish and in the end it’s a scruffy one that Barnesy has got, but at the end of the season you look at the tally and it doesn’t say how you got them.
“It’s another good point on the road and last year we’d have taken any of those we could get our hands on, which is probably another marker of how far we’ve come, that we’re thinking we could have got three today.
“The players will get a few days off now, because they’ve worked hard in the last week, and then we’ll get ready to go again.”
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