This story first appeared in The Sentinel on September 15, 2008

STOKE star Ricardo Fuller was dumbfounded by the decision to deny him a wonderfully-taken solo goal at 2-1 down yesterday.

City players and fans alike were acclaiming his second-half strike when, to their horror, referee Alan Wiley awarded a free-kick after ruling Fuller had collided with Joseph Yobo on his way to goal.

“I have no idea why it was no goal,” said the Jamaican. “I robbed him fair and square, I was just stronger than him. I never fouled him and I’m gutted, of course I am.

“The ref made a few bad decisions. On their first goal there was a foul on Seyi (Olofinjana), but it wasn’t given.”

Fuller was also at the centre of a brief and angry tete-a-tete with goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen after the Dane appeared to blame his colleague’s lack of marking for Everton’s second – even though it was Seyi Olofinjana who lost goalscorer Victor Anichebe.

But Fuller played down the incident, insisting: “He was saying I should have picked him up for the goal and shouldn’t have broken from the wall, but I had to get out at Phil Neville. He was giving me a bit of grief, but there’s no hard feelings. We are all in this together.”

And he insists that morale will remain solid in the dressing room after pushing Everton so close before finally succumbing 3-2.

“If we carry on playing like that,” he maintained, “we will pick up results. I am telling you that.”

Defender Danny Higginbotham was warmly welcomed back into the fold after making his second debut for the club following his deadline-day return from Sunderland.

“We’re obviously disappointed to lose that one,” he said.

“We should have gone on to get at least a draw after coming back from 2-0 down. We showed a great strength of character.

“At two down, most people would expect the game to be over, but at 2-2 we thought there was only going to be one winner.”

He sympathised with Fuller’s protests after his seemingly legitimate goal was ruled out during a frenzied spell of incident in the second half.

“The Everton players were carrying on playing,” Higginbotham observed, “so they obviously didn’t think it was a foul. Ricardo is a strong lad and simply used that strength.

“It’s great to be back playing here at Stoke in front of those fans again. The atmosphere was amazing and they really got behind us. Our fans have seen that we are giving it a right go.

“We will give teams a lot of problems here. Everton did very well last year, but we matched them man for man.

“We cannot fear Liverpool and Chelsea (Stoke’s next two league fixtures), we must go there with confidence.

“Being in this league is all about playing against some of the best players in the world.”