It was interesting to see if Steven Schumacher had calmed down enough from Wednesday night by the time he held his press conference on Friday afternoon.
Schumacher has made a point of not trying to get too carried away with defeat or victory since joining Stoke in December, but there were a couple of points at Swansea in mid-week which were particularly hard not to get angry about.
The head coach, like the fan base, knows the performance was nowhere near good enough, but also that at least two key decisions by referee Keith Stroud will go down in folklore.
Schumacher is still loathe to complain because he was ready to accept responsibility for the result rather than make any excuse, but still, it would be daft not to ask the Stoke manager about an incident which has got all Championship watchers talking in the last few days: the decision to disallow that goal from Niall Ennis after Carl Rushworth bumped the ball into his head.
“It was at such an important stage of the game,” said Schumacher as he previewed this weekend’s crunch match at Sheffield Wednesday. “At the time I was thinking, ‘We are nowhere near it here,’ but then when I watched it back we’re doing ok after they score. For 20 minutes until that moment and after about 30-odd minutes we were actually doing all right. The ball was in their half and we were building a bit of confidence and reacted quite well.
“The decision going against us put a dip in it a little bit. Then we had a big chance before half-time when Million (Manhoef) goes in one-on-one and if that goes in, again it’s a different game.
“Even though we felt by our own standards we were poor, there were still chances for us to be in the game. Then the penalty came from a foul outside the box – and a box you can’t see because there’s no lines on the pitch. There were a few things that went against us.”
PGMOL haven’t been in touch with Stoke yet with their review of key incidents of the match. That normally comes the following Monday or Tuesday after Wednesday night fixtures.
There has been a consensus in the Stoke City echo chamber about just how badly the referee got it wrong, but the thinking on that Ennis moment in particular is not too different even without red and white blinkers.
Schumacher said: “I don’t think we’re in a bubble. Gareth Ainsworth and Michelle Owen and the guys in the Sky studio – I got a text from them yesterday – were all saying they couldn’t understand why the goal was disallowed and they’re completely neutral.
“It was a mistake from their goalie. He tried to throw it out and his arm’s collided with Niall’s head. Niall isn’t even looking at the ball, he doesn’t know it’s there until it hits him. It’s a mistake from them and a mistake from Keith.”
It might not make it better or worse that Stoke presented Stroud with a bespoke gift when he refereed the 600th EFL match of his career back in January when the Potters won at Rotherham. It’s fair to say that no one will be asking if it made him any friendlier towards the club.
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