Stoke City vs Derby County. Sky Bet Championship.
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Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Stoke City and Derby County at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday; Ben Gibson scores late winner for Potters after being involved in chaotic own goal leveller.
Saturday 2 November 2024 16:31, UK
Ben Gibson headed in a late winner as Stoke beat Derby 2-1 in the Championship.
The Potters went into the lead early on through Tom Cannon's ninth-minute penalty after he was taken down by Jacob Widell Zetterstrom.
Derby, somewhat against the run of play, levelled things up in bizarre fashion after Gibson's header beat his own goalkeeper Viktor Johansson, who got the last touch as the ball went into the net.
But captain Gibson secured all three points for the home side with eight minutes left.
The first chance of the game fell to the away side after Junior Tchamadeu fouled Nathaniel Mendez-Laing on the edge of the Stoke box, but the resulting free-kick by Joe Ward was saved by Johansson.
However, it was home side who took the lead. A delightful through ball from Enda Stevens found the advancing run of Cannon, who went down in the area after contact from the Derby goalkeeper.
Cannon picked himself up off the turf and dispatched the spot-kick from 12 yards into the bottom right corner.
On-loan Brighton midfielder Andrew Moran should have really have made it 2-0, but his sweeping left-footed effort went wide.
Stoke were dominant in the opening 45 minutes, with the back-line limiting the away side to only three shots and as many touches in their box in the first period.
Cannon almost grabbed his second of the game just before the hour mark.
A fast-flowing counter attack saw the ball land at the feet of Bae Jun-ho who touched it off to Cannon. The 21-year-old took one touch to set himself before taking aim, only to be kept out by a combination of the goalkeeper and Erin Cashin.
Moments later, Zetterstrom made a sensational stop to deny Jun-ho after heading a cross from Stevens goalwards.
At the other end, Johansson, who had been solid all game, had a moment of madness in the Stoke goal.
A cushioned header from Gibson should have been easily claimed by the goalkeeper, but the Swedish international was nowhere to be seen and despite his recovery effort, he could not prevent the ball from joining him in the back of his own net.
But with eight minutes of the 90 remaining, the home side regained their advantage as an inswinging corner from Jun-ho was headed home by defender Gibson.
Stoke held on to record only their second league win under Narcis Pelach since he took over from Steven Schumacher back in September.
Stoke's Narcis Pelach:
"We wanted to be more aggressive than them, we want to be this strong team that scores with wide free-kicks and set-plays, I was very pleased with the (winning) goal that we scored.
"We have worked a lot on set-plays. When I was with Huddersfield, we were the best team in the league, we scored 22 goals from set-plays by keeping it very simple but being very aggressive.
"I am really pleased. When you watch the goal back we are nasty, we put the ball into the six-yard box and we get good contact with it. I am pleased that our captain has scored it after the mistake for their goal.
"I think we were the better team, I think we deserved the win, we score a nice goal with some really good play which resulted in the penalty, but for me the most important thing for me was coming back mentally from the goal we conceded.
"Against Hull and Bristol City we lost composure mentally, not tactically, and today we stayed there. We lost momentum for 10 minutes today, but we tried to be calm, we came back and scored and we have come away with three points."
Derby's Paul Warne:
"I am so disappointed with the second goal, but I would be. I don't expect anyone will be surprised to hear me say that I think it is a foul, but if you run flat out into the front zone man, to knock him out of the way and you score in the front zone, then I'm going to be disappointed.
"But, if you don't play well enough, you possibly don't get anything out of the game. I don't think we played well enough in the entirety to merit any points.
"I thought at 1-1 we were gonna win it, 1-0 is an awful scoreline for the fanbase, even the Stoke fans thought it, that we might get a goal here sooner or later.
"We tried to make attacking substitutions, and I'm an optimist, I thought we were going to go and win it after that."
