Tuesday 20 November 2012

Stoke's Pulis Admits to Cheating Against West Ham

 
Now I'm not about to get hypocritical here. Last night, I said that Stoke's goal was the best worked set piece I have ever seen, and that judgement holds. The run of Walters was brilliant, the pass was perfect, the finish was superb, and the overall execution of a training ground move, in the context of a game, stunning.

But it is a cheapened when Pulis tells us that it never actually worked on the training field and that deliberate obstruction was employed to give Walters the opportunity to run into that space. Pulis prefaced his confession with, "I'm not supposed to say this" and this compounds the sense of injustice because it feels like he is boasting about cheating.

It again provokes the question of when, exactly, referees are going to get a grip of all this holding and blocking in the box. Nolan does it of course when we have a corner so we can't complain too much, but I don't get why referees see it, and do nothing about it.

Last night, Carroll was being manhandled before a corner was taken and Foy stopped the play and gave a warning to the offending Stoke defender. Why? Why not allow the corner to be taken, keep an eye on the player who is cheating and blow for a penalty as soon as the ball is in play? Only then will we put a stop to this cheating, cheating which Pulis admits is planned and orchestrated on the training field.

Professional foul? They don't come much more professional than Stoke's preplanned thuggery!

Match report here: http://thegamesgonecrazy.blogspot.ro/2012/11/west-ham-1-stoke-1-two-precious-points.html 

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Football team practice set piece shocker, and I thought it was all off the cuff. Like you intimated to in your Bradley written article, people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Anonymous said...

Pullis admitted to a foul - something which managers should do more often. He DIDN'T say that the foul was pre-planned. As for carrol getting man handled - he gives it out so he needs to learn to take it.

John said...

Why are you surprised, exactly the same thing happened when they knocked us out of the cup a couple of seasons ago.

Hammersfan said...

John, did I say I was surprised?

Stani said...

HF? How on earth could you call that "the most wonderfully crafted set piece goal I have EVER seen...Amazing"??? You got overexcited a bit there mate. Clear foul play.

And what the hell you done to the blog? Why is there just the single article on the home page?

Hammersfan said...

I've dropped you an email mate. Congratulations!

Are you still able to access other threads from the panel on the right?

Anonymous said...

What's up with your page? looks like you've messed it up - can only see one post these days from the home page.

Stani said...

Thanks HF. Yep, the posts are listed on the right. It's just that only one post loads on the homepage. Although four have loaded this time. Not sure what you changed from yesterday for this to happen.

You should be able to select this in the settings somewhere. Around ten posts should be enough. I know in the past you've allowed more, but bear in mind the more posts that are set to homepage, the longer the landing page (homepage) will take to load. Ten posts is a good number with the frequency with which you post.

Anonymous said...

Will you look at the handful of knobheads arguing the toss about a dreary one all monday night draw? You ought to be worried,you could end up with ferdinand,anelka etc at your pokey little club. Don't panic,don't panic. Ha ha. Tossers.