While there were few complaints from the crowd about the points being shared in a game that offered traditionally lively Boxing Day fare, both managers came up with one or two. David Wagner felt his side’s indifferent finishing cost them a win their superiority deserved. Mark Hughes, not for the first time, was unhappy about a couple of decisions that did not go Stoke’s way, a disallowed goal in the first half and a penalty that was not awarded in the second.
“We are still waiting for our luck to change,” Hughes said. “But we’ve picked ourselves up and gone again and I’m really pleased with where we are at the moment.” Wagner described Huddersfield’s point as a success, though clearly felt it could have been improved upon. “We were the better team in open play but we still need to improve,” the Town manager said. “We created a lot of chances and Stoke didn’t.”
For the neutral, though, the entertainment was first-rate. A win against West Bromwich Albion earned some breathing space but if Stoke are to pull decisively away from the relegation zone they need to stop giving away goals. The only Premier League side to concede 40 in the first half of the season they were a goal down after 10 minutes here, with Tom Ince finally getting off the mark for the Terriers. After a run down the right by Tommy Smith and determination shown by Collin Quaner in holding off Geoff Cameron to cut the ball back from the goal-line, Ince could hardly miss from near the penalty spot.
That was just the start Huddersfield needed, and Aaron Mooy spent the next few minutes threading passes into space behind an uneasy Stoke back-line. Quaner should perhaps have made more of one breakaway but his cross was too strong for the unmarked Steve Mounié, before Huddersfield but they had to survived an incredible goal-line scramble following a corner.
Jonas Lössl made a diving save from Ryan Shawcross’s header and when the ball was returned to the goalmouth the goalkeeper had to make an unsighted stop when Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting attempted an overhead kick from a couple of yards out. Lössl just about managed it, with the aid of a benign rebound from his right upright, and though the handily placed Peter Crouch claimed the ball had crossed the line the referee’s wristwear indicated otherwise. Replays showed Stoke had been unlucky. The decision was correct though extremely marginal, with only 10% of the ball failing to cross the line.
More bad news for Stoke came when Shawcross pulled up injured after half an hour and Cameron moved back to take his place in central defence. Though Rajiv van La Parra twice went close before the interval, Stoke were unlucky again at the other end when Choupo-Moting put the ball into the net from Xherdan Shaqiri’s pass, only to be recalled for the narrowest of offsides. Again the decision was probably correct, yet the margin must have been almost as tight as the one that required goal-line technology.
By the second half the game had become as even as it was enjoyable. Steve Mounié was just too high with an overhead kick that had Jack Butland scrambling, then Shaqiri went just as close with one of his curling shots from the angle of the area. The powerful Quaner made a couple of surging runs towards goal, scattering Stoke defenders as he did so, without managing the necessary end product once he got within shooting range. When Mounié missed from close range from a Smith cross it began to look as if Huddersfield might rue their failure to add a second goal during a period when they were on top.
Sure enough the tireless Joe Allen found space on the left for a low cross that Ramadan Sobhi tucked away for an equaliser against the run of play. Stoke should have had a penalty when Christopher Schindler brought down Mame Biram Diouf as the game entered its final quarter, but the referee waved appeals away, just as he had when Allen wrestled Mooy to the ground a few minutes earlier. While the first incident had been debatable, there was no doubt Schindler’s trailing leg was what caused Diouf to lose his footing.
“It was a clear penalty, the referee needs to give that,” Hughes said. While neither side deserved to lose this match, Stoke might have slightly stronger grounds for feeling they could have won it.
