From my perspective it was a horrible game to watch. It was constantly halted by fouls and there was no flow from either side but................... It showed that we can win ugly and that this relatively young and inexperienced side has learned how to deal with the kind of threat that we can expect more of this season. As noted elsewhere, earlier in the season we couldn't have dealt with this kind of team (Think late equalisers conceded against WBA and Cardiff) but VK has learned also and last night when Stoke were starting to press higher up the field late on, he brought on Tella so that they were forced back by the threat of his pace on the counter.
Great three points and possibly the most important win of the campaign so far.

Good post. My thoughts exactly.

VK agrees with you to he says apart from the derby game most important win of the season so far, and I guess it shows he understands derby game rivalry

I also agree, that’s a game we’d have struggled to hold the lead, we were under the cosh but still looked fairly comfortable.

It was awful to watch. My least favourite game in many a year, probably not helped by my rubbish seat low & in the corner meaning I could barely see what was going on and I seemed to have cold wind blowing at me from in front and behind!!!

I’m not sure we did all we could to see the game out and there’s definitely some learnings to take. One being to get the ball down instead of playing head tennis with a massive team, the other completely wasting an opportunity to take the ball to the corner flag with two minutes to go.

That said, it’s definitely the type of game we’d have drawn earlier in the season and it’s good to show we can go and mix it up with teams that want to make the game a scrap. We seem much more mature and calm now, and as VK said, we’re defending in areas well away from our goal.

Nothing wrong with winning dirty in a scrappy game and a massive, massive win. Most important of the season as you say.

The last one and so on and so on

I did think it was strange at the end when with about two minutes left Muric took a goal kick and banged it down the field rather than our usual short kick to defender to allow us to play keep ball as is our usual pattern of play.

Not for me, they were some big games when we was in the habit of drawing too many where we snatched wins with late goals and I think those wins turned our season and got us onto the run of results and performances that took us away from the pack.

The Blackburn game was also a big one in terms of how we responded to the Sheff Utd game and not going into the break on the back of two poor results

If we'd have drawn or even lost yesterday it wouldn't have concerned me too much or changed my view that we are going to come 1st or 2nd. In football the last result or the next game can always feel more important than it really is but come the end of the season I doubt anyone will look back on this game as a key game or pivotal moment in our season.

That's exactly the kind of win I've been waiting for, we had to battle against an organised physical Stoke outfit and we stood up to the test and found a way to win, that's the hallmark of promoted sides winning when not at their best.

We’d have lost that game earlier in the season.

An ugly game but a beautiful team performance from us.

It was a strange one in that we didn’t have anywhere near our usual level of control despite high possession yet it never felt like Stoke were going to score, especially in the second half.

It just felt to me that Stoke were happy for a smash and grab and never deviated from their rigid formation that was all about stopping us playing even when 1 nil down.

Sets expectations for what we will most likely face (but better at it) in away trips to Luton and Millwall soon.