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The Guardian
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Stoke (1) 1 Fulham (0) 0
Charlie Adam scored the winner for a second successive home fixture as Stoke defeated Fulham to extend their good run at the Britannia Stadium. His first had been the decisive strike in the previous home match - the 1-0 win over QPR. Stoke are now unbeaten in 13 games on their own turf in the league, stretching back to February.
Tony Pulis's side, who were the better team overall this afternoon and nearly had another goal when Ryan Shawcross headed against the bar, now have three victories to their name this season and are up to 11th in the table on 16 points. Fulham, meanwhile, stay ninth and are now winless in their past five games.
However, the Stoke manager was disappointed his side could not convert the chances they had to put themselves "out of sight". "I'm disappointed we have not won the game by more goals," Pulis said. "Even just looking at the first half, if you look at the chances, Robert [Huth] has missed a point-blank header from a corner and Ryan hits the bar when he is almost under the goal. There were some great opportunities and in the second half we had more. Then in the last few minutes, you are starting to scramble."
In driving rain, it was the visitors who made the brighter start, with Giorgos Karagounis lashing an effort across goal and wide on two minutes. There was a shaky moment soon after for Stoke as their goalkeeper Asmir Begovic misread a back pass, but the ball was cleared away and the home side began to settle down.
Huth headed the clearest opportunity yet wide from Matthew Etherington's corner on the quarter-hour mark and the Potters continued to put on the pressure, with Adam sending the ball over after juggling it in the area. Moments later though the Scotland midfielder scored, taking one touch in the six-yard box when Peter Crouch headed Ryan Shotton's cross his way before swivelling and firing the ball in. Shawcross then almost made it 2-0 in the 36th minute when he clattered a header against the bar.
Stoke looked eager to wrap things up as the second half got under way but frustrated their manager with missed opportunities. Martin Jol admitted his side had struggled. "In the second half we did better. In the first half it was exactly the same as it is for most of the teams here, and probably how it was for us last year," the Fulham manager said.
"We couldn't get out of our half. We still wanted to play, but it was difficult and then you get the long balls and they pressurise you and play their style."
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