It was sod’s law that in one of Jack Butland’s finest Premier League performances, the only shot to evade him fizzed through his legs. To add insult to injured pride it was struck by a defender. But despite the ignominy of being beaten by Russell Martin’s shot, Stoke City’s 22-year-old goalkeeper was the stand-out performer on an afternoon when much of the focus was on his new team-mate Xherdan Shaqiri.
The £12m record signing worked hard in attack and defence despite an obvious lack of match fitness, and his inswinging free-kick after 11 minutes was perfectly placed for the unmarked Mame Biram Diouf to put the visitors ahead with a diving header at the far post. Martin’s equaliser came near the half-hour mark, moments after the referee, Mike Dean, had invited the 22 players gadding about in the sweltering heat for the amusement of all to present to the sideline for a mid-session drinks interval.
While Cameron Jerome and Wes Hoolahan in particular will rue sending glorious chances wide when hitting the target seemed a formality, Butland pulled off a series of splendid saves as his goal was, at the beginning and end of the second half, relentlessly peppered. The post-match revelation that he was playing with a broken index finger sustained in training on Thursday made his heroics all the more impressive. Not least because he played without a painkilling injection.
During an entertaining match that a less toothless Norwich would have won pulling a cart, Stoke’s vocal travelling support made clear their affection for Asmir Begovic’s replacement. Butland earned his England cap as a 19-year-old playing 45 minutes against Italy in a friendly three years ago, but on the strength of this performance it will not be long before the FA milliner is measuring the circumference of his head once again.
“The Stoke fans have been brilliant to me,” Butland said. “They have been very supportive and they sing it most games. It is brilliant to hear. I am just trying to do as well as I can and hopefully it leads to a call-up. I am lucky enough to have been there before and I understand it. I have got one cap and that is certainly a target for me to get back in that squad and it is what I want to do.”
Notwithstanding the “bit of a nightmare goal to concede” scored by Norwich’s captain, Roy Hodgson will be impressed by a goalkeeping performance that enabled Stoke to escape a packed Carrow Road with a point they scarcely deserved.
Moments before his goal, Martin had been foiled as he attempted to convert a Nathan Redmond cross, while Jerome, Redmond and Jonny Howson were left pondering the injustice of it all as Butland performed a passable impersonation of an octopus to give the scoreboard operator a fairly easy afternoon.
Effusive in his praise of his star player, Stoke’s manager did stress there is room for improvement. “When his fingers are all right he’ll be even better,” joked Mark Hughes. “Although I’m not sure that is possible.”
Man of the match: Jack Butland (Stoke)
