Two quickfire goals just after half time from Nahki Wells earned Bristol City a point at Stoke City after they went 2-0 down inside 15 minutes – but that didn’t tell a quarter of the story of one of the more bizarre games of football the EFL Championship will see this year.
Bristol City will be ruing loads of missed chances and could easily have won this by four or five. But equally, Stoke will be disappointed they couldn’t finish off the Robins when they were 2-0 up, and they had chances to win it as the second half petered out into exhaustion.
The game was played for the first 75 minutes like it was the last ten minutes of an end to end FA Cup tie, with tactics, strategy, possession and calmness completely out of the window. The two teams traded blows like punchdrunk boxers, but if it was in the ring, City would be the clear winner on points.
City had an incredible 28 attempts at goal, including ten on target. They won 13 corners, absolutely battered the Stoke defence, and were only prevented from securing an easy victory by the heroics of Stoke keeper Viktor Johansson, who had the game of his life.
The number of chances City created and spurned were enough to win three or four games on their own, but a combination of Johansson, the post, some last-ditch blocks and tackles, but more than all of that, City’s wayward finishing, meant the Robins head back down the M5 with just a point instead of all three.
It seems bizarre to say that, given Stoke were 2-0 up at half time and could have extended their lead as well, such was the chaotic nature of the match. Stoke roared into City from the kick-off, creating a clear cut chance and a great stop from Max O’Leary in the City goal after just 29 seconds.
That was a warning not heeded, because a minute later, Lewis Koumas found himself six yards out with enough time to hook a volley over his shoulder and past O’Leary to put Stoke 1-0 up inside 90 seconds.
City rocked but came back strong, creating pressure and chances in the first ten minutes. Stoke scored again, against the run of play, with their next attack. After 15 minutes, Koumas screwed a shot wide, only for Andrew Moran to tap it in at the far post. That prompted City into all-out attack, and every time they went forward they looked like scoring, carving open a fragile Stoke back line with ease, only to falter at the crucial moment.
The rest of the first half saw countless Bristol City chances, and how they went in still 2-0 down will be a mystery to all who witnessed it.
Mehmeti was clean through but the keeper saved well. There were at least two goalmouth scrambles worthy of inclusion in an end-of season crazy football compilation video. Wells forced a point blank save from Johansson, and Vyner could only prod the rebound against the outside of the post from about six feet away. Max Bird struck a half volley from a corner that was flying from 25 yards into the top corner, only for Johansson to get the padding on the tips of his gloves to it, to divert it over the bar.
Jason Knight had a snapshot from inside the box that forced a great save. McCrorie flicked a free kick on that flashed across the face of goal. It was one-way traffic. At one point after about half an hour, City had had 11 shots at Stoke’s goal, at an average of one every three minutes. Stoke had mustered three: the one in the first few seconds, and the two they scored from.
The relentless pressure couldn’t last, and even though City took a breather allowing Stoke to come back into it at the end of the first half, the Robins still ended the first half with 18 attempts at goal – that’s one every two and a half minutes, on average. Through the whole of the first half – relentless.
Assistant head coach Chris Hogg made a change at half time, taking off Mehmeti and bringing on young West Ham loanee George Earthy, and he did make a difference, or rather made a nuisance of himself, right from the start of the second half, popping up in spaces Mehmeti hadn’t in the first 45.
Perhaps more crucially, Hogg switched Jason Knight and Max Bird around, with the Irishman heading back into the engine room of midfield. It didn’t seem to make too much difference initially and Stoke almost made it three in the first five minutes, before City went up the other end and forced a corner.
It was taken quickly, caught everyone napping as a defender deflected a missed clearance to take it away from the diving Johansson. The ball flew through to Nahki Wells, who was the quickest-witted of everyone in the box, and his controlled side-foot volley finish into the net was the work of a true finisher.
Within minutes, Earthy was involved again, causing panic in the Stoke backline as he ran direct into the box. A Stoke defender poked it out for a corner – only for Nahki Wells to be on hand to tap it in instead. Everyone appealed for offside, until they remembered you can’t be offside from an opposition pass back.
At that point, City were back on level terms in the 52nd minute with two quickfire goals, and for the next ten minutes, tried to finish the job with Stoke on the ropes. But their manager did what City’s assistant head coach didn’t, and threw on some subs to settle the ship. It worked, Stoke came back into it, and things settled down into just a regular cup tie frenzy, instead of the basketball craziness of the first 60 minutes.
But City regathered themselves and pushed for a winner. It was now, between the 65th and 70th minute that the keeper Johansson truly earned his man of the match status.
First, he defied physics to get down to a Jason Knight near-post poke from a corner that everyone thought was a goal. Knight was eyes-wide celebrating, the City players around him thought it was in. The 600 City fans in the corner above the goal jumped in unison. Even Pele looking down from heaven had his hand in the air to acclaim the goal, despite vowing to himself that he wouldn’t fall for that one again, after Gordon Banks in 1970.
But no, from nowhere, Johansson suddenly became like Neo in The Matrix. He morphed from a man standing upright two yards from his near post, to a man lying prone with his arm outstretched at his near post, in the kind of split second reaction time that means you get a false start in the 100m in the Olympics, because they think you cheated.
City regrouped and four minutes later Johansson pulled off a double save, as if his heroics to that point weren’t enough. He stuck out an elbow to deny Earthy’s clever dinked finish when he was clean through, before leaping up again to stop the rebound being headed in by Sykes.
City began to lose momentum after about the 70th minute, but were still fashioning chances mainly from set-pieces. Johansson showed his vulnerabilities in the air by flapping at a Williams free kick, and watching helplessly as McNally headed back across the goalmouth. Unfortunately for City fans, the players watched it go past too.
Max Bird created a chance for himself, but in the last ten minutes, the Ashton Gate men were tiring and lost the momentum, so it was Stoke that looked most likely to win it, as Max O’Leary showed he could pull off a point blank save too. Sinclair Armstrong came on and was offside more often than he looked threatening, while Yu Hirakawa was frustratingly only given the 87th minute to have a run at the panicky Stoke defence.
In the end, the game petered out to a 2-2 draw, like battered boxers holding onto each other in the 12th round. Stoke were the most bloodied and beaten, but still claimed the draw. City will be wondering how they did not leave their man on the canvas.