SO it's Eidur Gudjohnsen and Kenwyne Jones up front against Aston Villa next week, Jon Walters on the right of midfield and Jermaine Pennant on the bench, writes Martin Spinks.

That, at least, is the broad hint dropped by yesterday's line-up for a competitive friendly against Crewe, in which Stoke fielded two different teams in either half.

Marc Wilson, who slotted into midfield in Glenn Whelan's absence in the first 45, will be left guessing whether he gets a starting place next Monday but an early goal yesterday will have done his chances no harm.

Wilson cut in from the left to score with a firm shot which put Stoke on their way to a comfortable victory.

And there was a first goal in a Stoke shirt for Jones, too, after he lost his marker at Matthew Etherington's left-wing corner to greet the ball with a cushioned volley in the 25th minute.

And there would even have been a third goalscoring newcomer in the first period had Walters not seen a firm cross-shot kicked away by the visiting keeper.

By comparison, Gudjohnsen, pictured left, was enjoying no such drama in front of goal, but his touch and passing showed glimpses of the class for which he was hired for the next nine months.

Stoke's winning margin at the break would have been greater had they not gifted Crewe a 12th-minute equaliser when Abdoulaye Faye's expansive crossfield ball left Robert Huth passing back weakly under pressure, to leave Ajay Leitch-Smith rounding Carlo Nash to score.

A new-look Stoke outfit took time to settle after the break but it wasn't long before Pennant was launching into a couple of trademark runs.

A lively Rory Delap, playing just behind Ricardo Fuller in attack, pulled a ball back for Michael Tonge to test the keeper's reactions low down, while Fuller was confounded by an even better save when turning his man one way and then the other, before seeing a rasping drive pushed over the bar.

Pennant twice caught a sight of goal but a cross-shot missed the far post and a header veered even closer to the woodwork.

Pennant turned provider in the 83rd minute, however, when his right-wing free-kick was controlled on the chest by Fuller before the hungry Jamaican rifled an unstoppable effort home.

Stoke (first half): Nash, Huth, Collins, Shawcross, Faye, Walters, Whitehead, Wilson, Etherington, Gudjohnsen, Jones.

Stoke (second half): St Louis Hamilton, Lund, Davies, Shotton, Higginbotham, Pennant, Diao, Tonge, Soares, Delap, Fuller.