Pulis v Mancini The Triology

On the 13th of February Stoke City and Manchester City played out a simple football match in the F.A Cup 5th round. This would turn out to be the first instalment in a thrilling trilogy, full of red cards, red heads and red faces.

Stoke City v Manchester City Part 1 was a stalemate, a match befitting an honest film, decent cast, predictable ending but overall a real sense that there was more to come. The game felt a little like 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly', you half expected Clint Eastwood to drift into the ghost town like atmosphere that was Eastland’s and tell both managers to come back at dawn as this was most definitely unfinished business. The F.A Cup is a master piece of a competition, it would clean up at the Academy awards with several OSCAR's tucked under each arm and this is one tournament that every supporter wants to have a copy of. The question would be on the 24th of February which team would walk up the red carpet, collect the adulation and walk through into the quarter finals.

The agonising part to this trilogy of matches was that we couldn’t get straight to the replay because of rearranged league match the two teams had to play and this would take place at the home of Stoke City. The intimidating Britannia Stadium lovingly nicknamed 'The Bear Pit' because of the vociferous, loud and partisan home support. This was however an environment that Roberto Mancini was accustomed to having managed Inter Milan back in Italy but this was different, he was on foreign soil.

Mancini uncharacteristically based his whole team on size, every player must have been standing on tip-toes in a last ditch chance to get a starting place to prove to the manager that size doesn’t matter when you play Stoke, it’s how high you can jump towards Rory Delap's very own long range throws. Stoke City have their own arsenal of weapons in their team, they have the blistering pace of Ricardo Fuller, the sublime skills of Tuncay Sanli and a defence that would give the Spartan Warriors of ancient Greece a fight. These are not the weapons I am referring to but the weapon is a man who can throw a ball further than most can kick it. This is used to superb affect on the Britannia's narrow pitch. Roberto Mancini has the most expensively assembled team in the British game, Man City are the richest club in the world, he has won Italian titles and little old Stoke have reduced this man to picking his players out of a line up.

Tony Pulis now had a chance to say to his troops that it was down to them now, it was a time for his players to forget about the cup and focus on a meagre 3 points instead of cup glory. To Tony Pulis though, the League is his bread and butter, he prefers the league, he would rather finish 10th in the league rather than reach a cup final but that is the man. His stoic attitude towards achieving a goal in unwavering, he sends out his players with one thing on their minds 'don’t loose' and this is exactly what happened.

The game itself was poor to begin with, little action but livened up when Frenchman Patrick Vieira decided that Glen Whelan deserved to have his intimate area checked by the studs in his boots. The talented Irish midfielder took it like man and continued to play with a slight tear in his eye and the relief that he still had two and not one on the end of Vieira's boot.

The temperature was white hot when Stoke were reduced to 10 men when their Senegalese man mountain Abdoulaye Faye was sent off for pulling the lanky Toga striker Emmanuelle Adebayor down and the referee decided it was his time in the limelight. Stoke took the lead through the unscathed Whelan but when Barry equalized we feared for another 1-1 stalemate. There would be one more twist in this game that would shape the final game in the trilogy. His name was Alan Whiley, he was the referee and he wanted to take centre stage.

Rory Delap sent a long ranged missile into the visitors penalty area, Man City players running around in panic as Ryan Shawcross leapt high above the falling goalkeeper to score deep into stoppage time. The celebrations were short lived as Mr Whiley rather like an emperor in the gladiatorial arena waved his finger in the wrong direction to signal a foul on the keeper. The man had obviously read the script and thought he'd cover it in black pen, photocopy it and send it to the film company as he knew he had set us all up for a blockbuster of a finale.

Wednesday 24th of February, Tony Pulis and Roberto Mancini stood next to each other, they had front row seats but would refuse to sit down in case they missed a second. Similar to the league this game didn’t get going till an intervention by the referee. This time it was Adebayor, he was sent off for using his elbow then what can only be described as Tony Pulis having an outer body experience. I can relate this moment to any 'Star Wars' scene where Jedi will use the force to conjure up all their strength and act on it. The force was strong with Pulis as he made 3 substitutions that changed the game. The Turkish play-maker Tuncay was introduced, the flame haired striker Dave Kitson brought back from the footballing wilderness and Danny Pugh.

To say these changes were magical would be an understatement, within 5 mins of entering the ring Tuncay had threaded a ball through the eyes of Mordor where Kitson turned brilliantly to hit the back of the net. The home fans went into delirium, 'Super Dave Kitson' rang around the bear pit like a space shuttle launch. Mancini was downbeat but hardly a second had gone by when they were level, the pantomime villain that Craig Bellamy plays so well nicked the ball home for an equalizer. The game went into extra time, men all around the stadium were quickly sending mundane but very apologetic texts to their partners that it would be 'a late one' and not 'to wait up', this game would go to the wire.

The travelling City supporters started half heartedly to sing their favourite song 'Blue Moon' but this was quickly turning into 'Moon River' and the man playing this sad song was Roberto Mancini. He knew that his players were tired and lacked motivation, he knew that Tony Pulis had just given an awe inspiring team talk that would of raised the dead and above all else the home fans knew that what you put in, you always get back and boy did they sing.

The final quarter of this riveting trilogy was about to be finalised, the end scene was about to be unveiled and over 20,000 supporters were ready for the end. Stoke City scored two goals in quick succession to take the game. They served this up with a giant piece of humble pie when Shawcross headed Stoke into the lead before Tuncay finished City off with a pure slice of Turkish Delight to send Tony Pulis into the quarter finals and a meeting with Chelsea.

The final whistle came with the home fans singing 'You should of kept Mark Hughes' referring to the previous Manchester City Manager who by coincidence is a fellow Welshman to Pulis. I hear the Italian translation for this coincidence is that the Welsh are better than the Italians and please remind me once again what nationality is Chelsea Coach Carlo Anchelotti?... case closed I think.

Dave Kitson and Tuncay celebrate Stoke's win

Why Referee's are better human..

The primary job for a Referee in any sport is to ensure that fair play occurs, rules are applied and most importantly followed by the people involved whether they like it or not. This blog will look into the reasons why cameras or computers will never replace the sheer unbridled emotion that one single person can create in one erratic second that will either have some poor person sacked or hired.

When you sit down and think about the 'big red button' that we all imagine the Prime Minister to have we think of sheer panic and 'what if' moments. For him it could be a nuclear blast or even an attack on his house. The red button would stop the incident and leave everyone standing still and watching in disbelief as to why he pressed that button (no idea what it would be like anyway). Well this is similar to a match referee having the 'what if' moments but instead of having just one chance at hitting the red button you get trigger happy and want to press that thing all day.What I am saying is that at some point in our lives we all have that same 'what if' impulse moment to see what happens, an adrenaline rush where you try to rationalise what is happening and what would happen should you decide on an outcome.

If like me anyone has ever done public speaking then you appreciate that when 10, 20 or even 100 people are watching you then it can be slightly unnerving but imagine 70,000 people watching you. A referee will have around 400 cameras watching their every move as well! Try telling me this wouldn’t test your abilities as a human being to deal with this situation in a rational manner. Add to the fact that all these 70,000 people are shouting and screaming at you to give them what they want. If you don’t they will hound you and quite possibly hang you from London bridge if they could.

If we had goal line cameras then you can forget winning the 1966 World Cup or if cameras had been used in 1986 we wouldn’t have seen Diego Maradona's 'hand of god' that we are still talking about 24 years later. Referees create excitement through their human traits; at times of great stress we do not act rationally or have the capabilities to make the right decision so how can we expect them to have it right every single second of the game.

If we take the human element out of the game we are taking a piece of our own personality out of ourselves, imagine the game without a 2 hour rant about a decision a person made that you didn’t agree with? Imagine a game where there wasn’t a series of obscenities following a wrong decision or even worse imagine a game where as a supporter you didn’t see a man give your team a penalty in the 90th minute against your arch rivals and say to me it would be better if a camera gave it? No chance. We all love that human being pressing the 'what if' button, that one person who made that crazy yet totally irrational decision to send your best player off over celebrating a goal by throwing himself into the crowd in that one wonderful moment that is scoring a goal?

Referees are as much part of the game as the managers chewing gum or the players putting their left sock on first because they did it when they won last week just for good luck. We don’t need them just to ensure that fair play occurs but we need them because we as humans always want someone to blame when we fail. I want to see mistakes because that is life and what better way to express blame than seeing a 43 year old man from South Shields disallowing a perfectly good goal in the 90th minute to deny your team the win. It hurts like hell but we felt it and by next Saturday it will have been forgotten.

I am against goal line technology because it takes the human element out, it minimises risk, how boring is that? It will make the game less exciting and deny fans the inexplicable answers they desire 'why did he give that penalty?’As a passionate football fan I have felt that feeling of frustration, of anger and disgust for a fellow human being who is only doing his best. I understand that there is far too much money involved and the 'what if' moment occurred when French striker Thierry Henry blatantly hand balled in the Republic of Ireland’s penalty box and subsequently the Irish were denied a place in the World Cup finals which probably cost the nation millions in merchandise, T.V rights and countless pints of Guinness in the pub.

I do not want to contradict myself in saying we should stop hurling unnecessary abuse at a referee but what I am saying is that would you do his job? Most probably not, would any rational manager do it? No, so let’s get on with it and allow these guys the chance to light the touch paper and give the game some excitement!

Tony Pulis be my valentine?

If St Valentine had agreed to call the 13th of Feb the day for true love instead of the 14th or if the Football Association had thought to play this tie on the 14th then we really would be in love with the beautiful game even more.

On the weekend that celebrates all that is romantic you can forget the red roses or chocolate, because true love can found in the beautiful game that is football.Stoke City played Manchester City in the darling of all cup competitions, the English F.A Cup and the date was set, February the 13th not 14th.

The two men responsible for the success of the date with old lady F.A Cup were Welshman Tony Pulis manager of Stoke City and the Italian Roberto Mancini the head coach of Manchester City.

The two teams, one an unfancied, unattractive side whose style was bite and fright against the free flowing expensively assembled team of international superstars.

Manchester City are the wealthiest football club on the planet owned by billionaire oil tycoons from the middle east against the modest Stoke City owned by a local businessman who's wealth from his online betting company makes him the 25th richest man in English football but by comparison is similar to a Solicitor taking on a King in order to win the heart of the F.A Cup herself.

Man City have spent in excess of £250m on a team of 11 players against Stoke City's modest £25m in an attempt to win some silverware for their club's supporters.The stage was set, the game was screened live on terrestrial T.V so millions upon millions of avid football fans could watch the leading men show their hand and hopefully play their aces.

The result was a compelling 1-1 draw in which Stoke should have won and deserved to take the winnings but for a mistake from the usually rock solid defence the billionaires survived for another day.

The house kept its money but the gamblers out there would certainly have won a few pounds celebrating Stoke City's Ricardo Fuller running around the pitch shooting an imaginary gun into the stands when he scored, something which he may think twice about in the future but then again this man has been arrested on several occasions and is currently on bail but let’s be honest we all love a scoundrel.

The home team were and are like billionaire actors rehearsing for their big performance but only really whispering their lines as they were poor and seemed to sit back and allow the opposition to create the best chances. The watching England manager and fellow Italian Fabio Capello attending to see if his back up left back Wayne Bridge was up to the game following the sad news that his ex girlfriend had an affair with his best friend and now ex England captain John Terry. This farcical situation made worse by the national press overshadowed a Stoke City team including two genuine players who may make his squad to play in the World Cup in South Africa this summer.

Like all good Hollywood stories the two rookies who had their chance to impress the emperor in the big arena both fell just short of the mark, Matthew Etherington the tricky left sided winger that the national team is crying out for sustained a knee injury after 15 minutes and was stretchered off and Ryan Shawcross the colossal centre half with so much potential slipped at a crucial stage with Mancini's men scoring from his mistake.

Tony Pulis the Stoke City manager captures the hearts of every average fan with his no nonsense approach to his work. This man in his early fifties wears his heart on his sleeve with his clubs emblem sitting proudly on top of his favoured and now trademark baseball cap embodies what some women would call a real man.

The Manchester City manager is Italian crooner Roberto Mancini, a man so suave he'd pull your fiancé on your wedding day. He embodies the typical Italian stereotype, handsome, well tanned and with his greying hair even makes a blue and white stripped scarf look fashionable was standing proud in front of his adoring female fans with the cool calm eloquence of a film noire leading man walking up the red carpet.

The unfancied Mr Pulis was brave and commanding where as Mr Mancini sat quietly in his seat biting his lip as his team of glamorous players including romantic names such as Roque Santa Cruise and Emmanuelle Adebayor were shown up by names such as Rory Delap and Danny Higginbotham as they took centre stage to show the F.A Cup's leading lady how to dance.

Overall the game was superb, Stoke deserved the TV money, they deserved to win the game, they didn’t deserve to have 3 players out injured but what they got was the satisfaction that it doesn’t matter what aftershave you wear its he who wears it that matters.

Sorry Mr Mancini but the man wearing a baseball cap and tracksuit went home with the girl this time and will have to up his game in the replay because his valentines present didn’t impress not one bit.

Yes the game finished at a stalemate but the working man's hero has a second date and the Italian model is scratching his head in disbelief on how his advances yielded little response.

The scene is set; the 24th of February will be the day to find out which man will take his team on a trip down the Kings road to Chelsea in the quarter finals of this wonderful competition.

Roberto Mancini

Tony Pulis....