SussexBaggie speaks…Stoke and the transfer window

Last updated : 25 January 2012 By Wba-mad Editor

Last weekend saw us pick up an outstanding 2-1 victory at Stoke City - our first victory at ST1 for 30 years.

Goals from James Morrison and Graham Dorrans were enough to secure the three points in a game which we pretty much dominated from start to finish.

Despite this, the outcome of the game could have been much different if Jon Walters had converted a dubious penalty awarded when Walters himself appeared to jump into Gareth McAuley in the penalty area and fall over after losing possession of the ball.

The same can be said of Stoke’s equaliser, with is coming from a free-kick awarded after Jermaine Pennant fell over when trying to reach the ball before it went out of play.

Thankfully, these dubious decisions by referee Anthony Taylor were not enough to prevent us achieving a fantastic result.

Men of the match

Every player played their part in the victory, but Ben Foster, Jonas Olsson, Youssouf Mulumbu, James Morrison and Marc-Antoine Fortune deserve a particular mention for their performances.

Fortune was particularly impressive, especially when you consider that this was his first Premier League start of the season. The out-of-favour striker, who many supporters assumed would be leaving the club during this transfer window, led the line superbly and caused Ryan Shawcross and Robert Huth at the heart of the Stoke defence a lot of problems.

There are currently only six days left until the transfer window closes, with this currently being perhaps one of the quietest transfer windows of the last few years.

This is shown by the fact that having completed the signing of Scott Allan from Dundee United a couple of weeks ago, we have signed one more player than several clubs in the Premier League.

We have not even been linked with too many players this month, although one player who has been linked to the club fairly frequently is Liam Ridgewell – who we have reportedly made two bids for during the transfer window.

Both of the bids have been rejected by Birmingham City, but it seems as though Ridgewell is keen on a move away from St Andrews, so hopefully we will make another bid and it will be enough to bring him to the club, as we could certainly do with strengthening at left-back.

The FA Cup

This weekend sees us take on Norwich City at The Hawthorns in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

This was not exactly a draw which captured the imagination of either set of supporters, especially seeing as we played them at home in the league just two weeks ago.

The game in the league saw us enjoy a lot of possession and create a number of chances, but still lose 2-1 after conceding yet another late goal at home. With this in mind, our players should be eager to improve on that result and progress into the next round of the competition.

It won’t be an easy game, but hopefully we can produce another good performance and pick up a positive result!

Boing Boing! 

Would you welcome Liam Ridgewell to the club? Have your say here at Baggies Banter