Stoke City: Golden oldies remind fans just what current Potters are lacking

THERE was a standing ovation on Saturday as Stoke supporters took the roof off with an atmosphere which brought a lump to the throat.

Unfortunately, the actual game then restarted after half-time guests Mark Stein and Dave Regis made their way back to their seats.

• GALLERY: Match Action: Stoke City 0 West Ham United 1

Stein and Regis, who paired up to fire Stoke to promotion from the third tier in 1992/93, were the club's guests of honour and brought a welcome change of mood to the crowd when they were paraded on the pitch during the interval.

It was well worth missing a Bovril and the queue for the toilets for. The game, sadly, wasn't.

No doubt Stein, the "Golden One", was inundated with inquiries about whether he'd brought his boots, but even at his mesmerising best he might have struggled in a City side which isn't creating chances.

Stoke have won one of their last nine league games, and that fantastic performance and 3-1 win at home to Liverpool on Boxing Day now seems a few Christmases ago.

West Ham hadn't picked up a point in their last five away games, but were the better side in the first half and just about deserved the victory secured by Jack Collison's first-half injury-time goal, as they went on to defend doggedly and still create the two best chances after the break.

This was only Stoke's second home defeat of the season, but there are worrying signs that the morale-sapping away form, in which Stoke have only won one game in 23, is beginning to infect their home performances too.

Equally concerning was the atmosphere at the Brit, which was at its most mutinous since City's Championship days.

Stoke were booed off at half-time and full-time by a sizeable section of the crowd, while the substitutions of Glenn Whelan and Jon Walters were greeted with ironic cheers aimed more at the manager, it seemed, than the players.

Eleventh place in the Premier League is no cause for complaint, but there are plenty of understandable objections about the startling lack of entertainment.

By Saturday evening, only the top five had conceded fewer than Stoke's 33 goals this season, but only rock-bottom QPR have scored fewer than City's 26 goals.

It's not pretty and, since the turn of the year, it's not been successful either.

Mind you, listen to some of the criticism out there and you would think City's football under Tony Pulis has always been awful. It hasn't.

The stuff Stoke were playing under Pulis two years ago was fast, exciting, winning football, and personally, I'd like the manager to be given the chance to recreate that with a rebuilding job this summer.

True, he's already had generous backing from the chairman, but surely his record of promotion, an FA Cup final, Europe and five seasons in the Premier should insure him against a poor season in which Stoke are still nine points clear of the relegation zone?

The problem is, Stoke aren't showing any obvious signs of recovering for the 10 games which remain this season.

A team scratching around for form at the start of this game looked no closer to finding it by the end, when they had resorted to playing ultra-direct up to Peter Crouch and Kenwyne Jones and hoping for a lucky break.

They might have got it in injury time when the ball bounced up and struck Guy Demel on the hand just inside the area, but the handball wasn't intentional and so referee Jonathan Moss was within his rights to wave play on.

Substitute Charlie Adam had rattled the bar with a superb volley moments earlier, so perhaps finding a place for him in the starting line up could improve the glaring lack of creativity in the side.

However, the main difference between the current side and the exciting "Pulisball" team of two years ago is out wide where Stoke haven't found a pair to match the Matthew Etherington and Jermaine Pennant combination.

Etherington was missing with a back injury on Saturday while Pennant remains out of favour amid accusations of disciplinary problems dating back to last season.

That's the manager's prerogative because team spirit is one thing his sides have never lacked.

However, Stoke's wide men at various stages on Saturday were Walters, who plays better when deployed as a striker, recent recruit Brek Shea, who is still making the transition from the MLS, and Michael Kightly, the summer signing who looks bereft of confidence.

Stoke need to find a way of getting the fans excited again, and not just courtesy of the half-time guests.