Late Shawcross strike boosts survival hopes
Ryan's express: Shawcross delivers the knockout blow to Boro With a predictability bordering on the inevitable, Rory Delap's long throw proved too much for troubled Middlesbrough, and Ryan Shawcross brought the house down with a glancing header.
Skirmishes outside the ground, police arriving late at the various flashpoints and busy ambulances attending the scene provided a worrying aftermath to an enthralling afternoon.
Stoke's eighth victory at home was achieved with their trademark set-piece, though triumphant manager Tony Pulis admitted that it had not worked for a while.'We scored eight of our first 13 or 14 goals through the long throw,' he said. 'But after that they dried up and this is the first time since that run at the start of the season that we've scored from it. It's a great weapon, though, and we've been oiling Rory up to get that quality on the throw again.'
Seven minutes from time Delap found that quality, and Stoke glimpsed Premier League survival. In that same moment, Boro manager Gareth Southgate found himself on the edge of the precipice and facing abuse from his club's own fans.
It did not matter that he had trained all week to prevent that long throw from beating his defenders.
'It would have been negligent not to, and we dealt with it for most of the game,' he pointed out with a certain amount of futility. Neither was it any longer significant that Boro had outfought Stoke for most of the match with a bruising display that provided a platform for some fine passing from the away team.
Eight successive away defeats, with no goals in seven of them, was too much for some of the hardcore Teesside supporters.
Boro chairman Steve Gibson is not the kind of man to panic and sack his manager just when togetherness is needed, though regular followers of the club say they would not bet against Southgate walking in the summer if Boro are relegated.
He takes such difficult days to heart, even though he shrugged his shoulders last night and insisted: 'It's part and parcel of the job, it is irrelevant how I am. My job is to keep the club in this division.'That would have looked more likely last night if Tony McMahon had been able to end a sparkling move with a scoring header, if Gary O'Neil's shot had not been turned round the post, if Tuncay's skills had come with an end product. Boro's season has been full of if-onlys.
Clashes between rival fans left a steward in a stable condition in hospital after suffering a head wound. One female fan was also reported to have been injured. Three supporters were arrested.
