Stoke City picked up their first win under head coach Narcis Pelach as Tom Cannon scored four in a 6-1 roasting of Portsmouth. Here are the talking points from the bet365 Stadium.
The opposition helped – Portsmouth were a different beast to Middlesbrough – but even considering that, rarely has there been a bigger contrast between two consecutive matches nor between collective expectations and what transpired.
It was an angry mood long before full-time at the Riverside and if anyone had been asked then what chant would be sung in Narcis Pelach’s direction in the second-half on the Wednesday night, it probably wouldn’t have been, ‘Chicho, give us a wave.’
Stoke and the new head coach badly needed a performance that supporters could buy into, just a sense that the team could move in a positive direction in this new chapter, and they got an emphatic assault to the senses.
Stoke were clinical, yes, but the mood was set when Ben Wilmot charged up the pitch in the opening minute and harrumphed a shot onto the crossbar. Shots went in hell for leather and Stoke swarmed forwards like a team possessed. This was both relief and a statement. The future is evidently not going to just be passes between centre-backs.
The Tom Cannon as promisedStoke were told what kind of striker they were getting in Tom Cannon when the beat half the Championship to sign him on loan but there hadn’t really been a sight of him until he rocked up against Portsmouth.
The 21-year-old was always keen to break the defensive line and ruthless when he did so. Sam Gallagher can take a lot of credit, more on that shortly, but four goals in one game is an incredible feat. Stoke’s top scorer only got six through the whole of last season.
He’s the first Stoke player to score in one game since Peter Thorne against Chesterfield in March 2000 and that set Thorne, who hadn’t been due to play that day, off on an incredible purple patch as he hit it off next to new signing Arnar Gunnlaugsson, scoring 20 in the final 17 matches of that season, including a Wembley win over Bristol City.
Here’s hoping we can look back in 24 years and remember Cannon for his form over a season rather than one incredible night.
An old-fashioned strike partnershipStoke hadn’t played with a proper old-fashioned front two since April 2023 when Dwight Gayle and Tyrese Campbell had lined up for Alex Neil against Gareth Ainsworth’s Queens Park Rangers. Less said about that day the better and we’d have mercifully forgotten about it altogether if George Weaver, AKA Potterlytics, hadn’t flagged it up as the last time Stoke had played with a proper old-fashioned front two.
It has been a lot longer than that since Stoke had a front two that linked together like Gallagher and Cannon, Cannon and Gall. Rock on Tommy indeed.
It was all about balance. We saw the best of Cannon and Bae Junho and Lewis Koumas because of Sam Gallagher, Andrew Moran and Wouter Burger. We saw the best of Burger, Gallagher and Moran because of Junho, Koumas and Cannon constantly stretching the game.
Everyone was giddy by the time the sixth went in but there will have been a few mental notes being taken that Stoke lost their forward momentum as the substitutions were made in midfield and attack. Maybe that was due to the state of the match but it will all be valuable knowledge to the head coach as he truly weighs up his starting XI and the depth behind it.
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Six of the bestStoke haven’t scored six in a league game since May 2015 when Steven Gerrard’s Liverpool were trodden into the ground and it’s only happened on two other occasions since the 60s, both against Leeds United.
Post-war league games when Stoke have scored six-plus:
May 24, 2015: Liverpool (6-1, home)December 21, 1986: Leeds United (7-2, home)August 26, 1985: Leeds United (6-2, home)December 10, 1966: Aston Villa (6-1, home)February 12, 1966: Northampton Town (6-2, home)March 21, 1964: Ipswich Town (9-1, home)September 12, 1962: Charlton Athletic (6-3, home)December 17, 1960: Plymouth Argyle (9-0, home)September 9, 1959: Lincoln City (6-1, home)December 9, 1957: Swansea (6-2, home)February 23, 1957: Lincoln City (8-0, home)October 6, 1956: Rotherham United (6-0, home)September 22, 1956: Leyton Orient (7-1, home)September 8, 1956: Notts County (6-0, home)March 13, 1954: Bury (6-0, away)February 15, 1947: Chelsea (6-1, home)
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