Crouch secures Stoke victory

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes states Peter Crouch still has a “massive duty” to play at the club after scoring the winner against Southampton.

The 36-year-old striker began as a substitute in the 70th-minute prior to jabbing the goal to hand his side their 2nd victory of the season.

“Crouch wants to play more games and wants more starts but as a sub he gives the opposition something more to deal with,” Hughes said.

“He has a huge role here and has come up trumps for us late in the day. We got over the line in the end.”

 

 

 

Crouch has actually scored three goals in 7 looks for Stoke this season, 2 of those coming as a substitute.

Mame Biram Diouf’s header placed the hosts in advance and they must have doubled their lead a minute later on.

Virgil van Dijk, making his initial league begin given that January for Saints, reduced Saido Berahino in package but his penalty was conserved by Fraser Forster.

Southampton equalised via the not likely resource of Maya Yoshida but Crouch came off the bench to protect the 3 factors.

He was the difference as Stoke defeated Southampton 1-0 at St Mary’s in Could – a game where Saints appreciated most of the ownership yet were poor in the final 3rd.

As well as it was a comparable story at the Bet365 Stadium where their persistent lack of confidence before objective revealed.

Mauricio Pellegrino’s side fell behind when Diouf was left unmarked in package as well as nodded in from Xherdan Shaqiri’s corner however Yoshida gave Saints wish with an impressive scissor-kick battery from Shane Long’s flick-on.

Saints, behind again, conserved their ideal chances for the final 10 mins, substitute Manolo Gabbiadini had 2 shots inside 60 seconds, yet his side were left empty-handed.