Ki-Jana Hoever tries to end Stoke City goal vacuum as stats show scale of improvements needed
Reaction from the bet365 Stadium as Stoke City play out a 1-1 draw with Huddersfield Town
Stoke City completed their Easter weekend with a home draw with Huddersfield Town. It’s a draw that keeps a useful distance between themselves and the bottom three heading into the last six matches of the season. Here are the talking points from the bet365 Stadium.
Stoke have had 19 different scorers in the league this season – plus a much-needed contribution from own goals – but only two up to now had scored more than two. Ki-Jana Hoever joins that small group (with Ryan Mmaee, 3, and Andre Vidigal, 5) with two in two to take him to three as well.
“It was a great goal,” said Steven Schumacher. “Hopefully he keeps that habit up because it’s important everyone contributes goals. Obviously you want goals to come from your centre-forwards but if they don’t then you want them to come from anyone.
“It was a really good goal, he showed a brilliant bit of skill to come inside and it was a great finish. We felt that might have been what was needed to unlock the door and then after that I thought we grew in confidence, got into some really good areas but didn’t manage to make one of those chances count. We had one cleared off the line. On another day we might have won it.”
REACTION: Stoke 1 Huddersfield 1
The goals certainly haven’t been particularly flowing from centre-forwards or anyone.
To take as a starting point in this instance that game in December 2022 against Cardiff when Stoke had last scored a home equaliser, they have since had 32 league matches at the bet365 Stadium, winning nine, losing 16, scoring 27 and conceding 36.
It’s such a painful record and no surprise that no one in the EFL has scored fewer times on their own turf.
What a show of loyalty from supporters to keep coming. It will, one day, make goals taste all the sweeter but that day can’t come soon enough.
An important draw
Four points from the Easter weekend is a good return although purely on a league table basis it might have been even better if the results had come the other way around. Still, so important not to lose and a result that keeps Stoke’s five-points buffer from third-bottom Huddersfield and the relegation places going into the final six games of the season.
Sheffield Wednesday are now six points behind Stoke in second bottom following a defeat at Middlesbrough while Plymouth Argyle have slipped to fourth-bottom due to a home loss to Bristol City.
Birmingham City scrambled to a 1-0 home win over Preston North End but Millwall have been sucked back in with a 2-1 loss at Rotherham United, although Rotherham are just one result away from their relegation being confirmed.
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