Stoke once again have compounded the critics and not only avoided the dreadful “second season syndrome”, but actually improved their points and placing from last season. It’s a fantastic achievement for the club and its passionate and noisy fans. I have to say that as an away fan at either the Brittania Stadium or the old Victoria Ground, listening to the Stoke fans regal you a blast of “Delilah” is an experience you have to witness. Hats off to them, it’s an impressive sonic attack that seems to come from everywhere.

To the modern fan, most people assume Stoke have seemingly come from nowhere and when I started watching football, Stoke City were unfortunately on the way down. They have suffered over modern seasons, but don’t be fooled by the clubs league standings over the last 20 years. Throughout most of the 20th century the club were a well established First Division side.

Now they’ve begun to re-establish themselves and a lot of credit has to go to Tony Pulis for the work he’s put in at the club since he returned for his second stint as manager. Today he’s had an interview with the BBC’s underated Juliette Ferrington in which he’s opened up about some of the leaks and gossip that threatened to derail the clubs progress earlier this season. Following on from Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s refreshingly honest interview in the Guardian, it makes such a refreshing change for someone to deal with the issues fans actually talk about.

I find Pulis an interesting interviewee, his experiences in the lower leagues as a player and manager stands him in good stead. He’s been where it really matters in football, rather than the cossetted world of top flight football. He has an astounding record of never being relegated as a manager so far at the 6 jobs he’s had since he replaced Harry Redknapp at Bournemouth in 1992 and he knows what a club needs to keep it up. It may not be pretty sometimes, but it works.

In the interview today, he’s named names and laid it out for all the fans to see. He’s fed up with people running to the press and leaking stories, which in his opinion destabilises the club.“I thought Beattie was one of the main reasons we stayed up in the first year, he was exceptional, but he hasn’t had a good season in my opinion. “Kitson was our record signing, and I don’t think we’ve got what we thought we were going to get, to be perfectly honest.”

Regardless of what players may think or what John Terry may say to the press, the power at a football club has to lay with the manager. Fans may have favourite players, but ultimately it is the manager who’s neck is on the line every time his team kick off. He’s the one who gets the stick if the side loses and stands back when the team win. Players don’t get sacked when the team struggles, the manager does. The last thing a newly promoted side needs is a couple of ego fuelled players thinking they’re the only thing that matters at a club.

The two players he names can point the fingers all they want, but they simply haven’t performed this season at all. Kitson’s tenure has been a bit of a disaster to be honest, but you can’t go shouting your mouth off about the manager. He was bought to score goals and simply hasn’t produced anywhere near the form he showed at Reading. Beattie on the other hand, has always had a reputation as a bit of a “prima-donna”, so it was seemed more a question of when he’d blow up rather than why. He is a classic example of potential being wasted by poor off field discipline. Ironically both have drink driving convictions.

Martin Keown tonight criticised Pulis for his comments, but I applaud him for his honesty. I’m sick to death of pampered players whining because they are not the be all and end all at clubs they clearly feel aren’t big enough for them. Pulis would do well in selling the pair of them and investing in some raw talent that has it all to prove rather than two players who feel they are bigger than Stoke City. No doubt, someone will want them but Stoke City are better of without them.

So the big story that will be blown out of proportion from United’s 2-1 victory over Newcastle is the war of words at halftime between Cristiano Ronaldo and Stephen Taylor. Nothing too serious, Ronaldo calling Taylor a rubbish footballer and Taylor in grand reply going ‘well you are ugly’ like some high school girl would say to another in the middle of a junior high spat. Why this is a story I’ll never know.

So the League Managers’ Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association have got together to come up with some recommendations about referees. I have to say some of the recommendations aren’t all bad. The main ones include setting up a way of formalizing complaints and feedback between club and ref, and having the top two divisions use licensed referees with video analysis after every game. You can read the rest of the things recommended here.

Harry Redknapp is telling his Spurs players to lay off the booze, even if they stay in the top flight. I wonder if that comes with random BAC checks?

Who would have thought it would be James Beattie heading Stoke City’s fight for survival?

Fulham are opening up contract talks with Brede Hangleand to make sure he stays a Cottager. Good idea.

Here’s the latest red top Manchester City fodder. Spending 100 million quid to sign Messi in the summer. Remember the source on this one folks.

Thank you Jose Mourinho for stating the bloody obvious when you say Manchester United will win the title.

West Ham will be without the services of Valon Behrami for the rest of the season.

And finally, Gianfranco Zola and Steve Bruce have two totally different observations about the refereeing of Stuart Attwell. One backs him, the other says he’s not ready. I’ll let you figure out which one said what.

Stoke City or Portsmouth Fans Didn't See Much Football Today

For seventy minutes at the Britannia Stadium, Stoke City and Portsmouth football clubs were getting very close to contending for my ‘worst match ever watched’ title. The last twenty minutes redeemed it.

When it’s all said and done we will remember one thing from today’s match between Stoke City and Portsmouth, the penalty that should have never been given.

Just minutes after the incidental one-two Niko Kranjcar played with David Nugent to put Portsmouth ahead, Michael Jones calls a ridiculous penalty on Glen Johnson. Sol Campbell’s flick on put Johnson just out of position, but when he went to control the hand was never used, only the chest. The eyes deceived Jones and Stoke City were level, for all the wrong reasons.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear, this game deserved to end level. However in the events leading up to the goal, Portsmouth were edging their way into the ascendancy. Pompey were the ones who looked like they were going to steal three points. Only Everton, Chelsea and Manchester United have gotten the max at the loud and vocal Britannia.

How Portsmouth allowed Danny Pugh to get in that much space after Stoke went level is just beyond me. Even more so, how did James Beattie head that slow bouncing shot in? While I think Portsmouth were in the ascendancy in the build up to their first goal, they allowed one bad call to nearly give Stoke City another three points at home. Portsmouth in the end, were lucky to get a share of the spoils thanks to a poor Hermann Hreidarsson shot that ended up deflected in by Ryan Shawcross.

Michael Jones called an extremely soft game, one that a Premier League referee should not call. He left a card too many in his pocket, but didn’t leave the whistle down when he should have done so.

Other Thoughts From Today
I do feel sorry for Aston Villa. They deserved something from their game with Chelsea. If Arsenal wasn’t doing everything in their power to not climb into fourth, Aston Villa’s home form would be a worrying sight heading down the stretch.

For being unbeaten in twelve, would you want six of those to be draws? Would you want the last three to be nil draws? Then again when looking at the lineup, the only two names that struck fear were Andrei Arshavin and Robin Van Persie. Arshavin I feel was subbed off too soon (maybe over cautious by Wenger after what happened to Eduardo on Monday), Robin Van Persie was kept in check all afternoon.

Bolton will have a few weeks to breathe away from the relegation zone after getting two quick goals in the first half, putting West Ham away. West Ham though looked like they could have went a month without getting an equalizer.

So Manchester United have finally given up a goal in the league. However with Edwin Van der Sar not in goal, how soon will we grow old of hearing about ‘Van der Sar’s streak’ instead of the one Manchester United had for so long? Cristiano Ronaldo’s free kick that proved the difference was simply sensational.

How would you like to have been a Manchester City or Blackburn Rovers fan heading from the north of England to the south, only to do a turnabout and head home after finding out your upcoming fixture was canceled? I know if it was me, a few words of the four letter variety would have came forth from my mouth. (If you were traveling to one of those two games, or any other game this weekend that was called off, what was your reaction to finding out that it was indeed canceled?)

While yes the cold snap in England last weekend took out a huge chunk of the English footballing schedule, there is no excuse in my mind for a club to have to call a match off because of a frozen pitch. If you are a top flight club, making sure your pitch can withstand a freeze should be something that is easily taken care of. Using heaters on the pitch (as was reported on the BBC Text Commentary on Saturday morning) should never happen.  As for Fulham, if Sam Allardyce is to be believed, they don’t even have underground heating.

With only the threat of fines being thrown about over this, to me this isn’t enough. The only two things a Premier League match should be called for is fog and the fact it’s raining harder than the field can drain (which with today’s technology would have to be one hell of a downpour). If it was up to me, both Portsmouth and Fulham would be losing the three points via forfeit. A strong message has to be sent out that unnecessary postponements will not be tolerated, and the only way for that to happen is if teams start losing the points they could possibly gain.

I would have thought that after Rafa Benitez went off on Fergie, saw his Liverpool side draw with Stoke, and then saw Manchester United defeat Chelsea this past Sunday, he would have kept his mouth shut. I guess I was wrong. Instead, Rafa has now turned his attention towards David Gill and his position within the FA. Look Rafa, after being humiliated in the manner in which you were last weekend, now isn’t the time to be turning the screws on a rival club. In fact, dare I say you’ve actually allowed this to turn into a major distraction to the club you manage?

Rafa is not the person to decide what is normal or not within the FA. Bringing David Gill up after your humiliating weekend only cries of sour grapes and desperation. Being top of the league and desperate is something you never want to show.

Other Stories
This story is just funny after the fact. What was Jose Bosingwa thinking when he said ‘we know what to do to stop him’ (him being Cristiano Ronaldo).

Is Manchester City fixing to buy up Andrei Arshavin away from Arsenal? Just remember the source of this story.

Phil Brown states the obvious when he says there are 14 teams in a relegation fight. That’s only for now, it’ll slowly start to clear up…eventually.

Stoke City welcome back James Beattie to the Premier League. How much help Beattie gives Stoke up front remains to be seen.

This is an interesting set of stories from Chelsea. While Nicolas Anelka is saying the Blues chances of winning the title are alive, one of the red top specials tonight speaks of a bust up between Luiz Felipe Scolari and Nicolas Anelka. While I wonder how much of that second story is actual fact.