Never haveI seen a game where the phrase the defences were on top is so fitting. The Match of the Day pundits said the game could have carried on until midnight and neither team would have scored and that seems about right. After the unfortunate lo s of Mamady Sidibe in the first few minutes, none of our players were able tocompete withBrede Hangeland for any aerial challenges. Despite this, worryingly, a lot of our players, with Danny Higginbotham and Andy Wilkinson being the main culprits, still hit the ball long frequently, when it was clear that we Chris Carpenter Jersey were likely to lose po se sion by doing so. After being completely outplayed in the first half at Newcastle last week, we changed things in the second half, playing with a higher tempo, pre sing the Newcastle players and pa sing the ball well. Yesterday we showed no signs of doing that. Our lack of adaptability is all well and good when yo are stifling a point out of a blunt side like Fulham, but we really must show more depth to the way we play as a team against the better sides, or we will be torn apart. It seems that whenever Ricardo Fuller is not on form, the overall Stoke performance and result is a disappointing one. He was in one of his mardy moods yesterday, after receiving an early booking for a late tackle he spent the majority of the rest of the game appealing for decisions and looking moody, with the exception of the couple of times he got the ball down and ran at the Fulham defence, one of which almost resulting in a Steve Carlton Jersey goal for Richard Cre swell. After an early booking, and given his propensity to waive the respect the referee convention, Fuller was always going to be walking a disciplinary tightrope, culminating in the second half clash with john Pantsil. After Fuller gave away a dubious free kick against Pantsil, the two squared up to each other, before Pantsil pushed his forehead into Fullers, making slight contact, stood still for a full three seconds and then hurled himself to the ground clutching hi face, making out that Fuller had struck him violently. His actions were frankly, a disgrace, knowing Fuller was already on a yellow card, he deliberately tried to get him sentoff by simulating Fuller striking him. In my, admittedly biased,eyes, Pantsil should be given a retrospective ban of at least three matches as we try and remove the element of cheating from the game. The decision not to take any action on Fuller was a correct one by referee Stuart Atwell, but aside from that he had a very poor match. He seemed to award every niggling free-kick Fulhams way, while constantly waving away fouls on Stoke players. The suggestion that I am biasedtowards Stoke in my view of this may be made, but the statistics speakfor themselves;fouls given away by Stoke 18. Fouls given away by Fulham 4. We have a reputation as a strong physical, even dirty, team,thanks in no small part to the words of one Arsene Wenger, and I feel at times referees an affected by that, overcompensating by giving every physical challenge as a foul against Stoke. The one big decision did go in Stokes favour though, Higginbotham clearly handling the ball from a cro s in the first half, Atwell declining toa clear penalty. Although Id never want to seeapenalty given against Stoke, this was an example of very poor refereeing, and in any other situation Id be angry that the penaltyhadnt been awarded. After awardingtheinfamous phantom goal to Reading earlier this season, and making numerousimportant errors in the high pre sure Notts Forest v Derby derby, Atwell was demoted to the lower leagues, and there heshould stay in my opinion. Whats worse than his poor decision making, he seemed to be influenced by the crowd. The Stoke fans really got on his back after a while, Mike Shannon Jersey culminating in him awarding several free-kicks to Stoke in quick succe sion in an attempt to pacify the crowd. On the subject of the atmosphere, while loud as always, it was strangely unpleasant yesterday, with the majority of the noise generated to rile the referee and the Fulham players, not to support Stoke. On the day, most of the Stoke players were little better than average, with the exceptionsof the always excellent Abdoulaye Faye and, encouragingly the other two Senegalese players on the pitch, Amdy Faye and Ibrahima Sonko. Neither of them put a foot wrong, despite having theirdetractors after past performances. I think that po sibly,SalifDiao and Amdy Faye, the usual midfield pairing, are too similar players to each other,each being at their best in the holding midfield role. When they play together they sometimes get in each others way, andour midfield is far too defensive, with no-one from in getting forward to help the attack. With Diao out injured, Faye was able to shine, bo sing the defensive midfield area, which allowed Glenn Whelan, starting alongside him to get forward more and support the strikers. One thing that concerns me about Stoke is while, we have spent a total of almost 4 million on two quality midfield players in Michael Tonge and Tom Soares, they are being limited only to cameo appearances, with players from the old Championship squad like DannyPugh and Richard Cre sell preferred. It seems strange that we would pent the money if we didnt intend for them to play a bigger part, Andrew Miller Jersey particularly Soares, who for the second game in a row didnt even make the bench. The opponents, Fulham, looked a good pa sing side, with very little penetrative powers. That is to say, they are the West Brom of the south. Unlike WestBrom though, their defence is very solid, so they can afford to not score many goals as they dont concede man either. They are far too good to go down, but not good enough to challenge forEurope this season, and I see them finishing anywhere between ninth and fourteenth.Player RatingsThomas Sorensen (gk):Sorensen didnt have a difficult save to make all match, but he was put under pre surefrom several good cro ses. He has a tendency to punch rather than claim, which is all well and good if you make good punches, as he usually does, but on one occasion yesterday he made a very weak punch, which Fulham should have done more to capitalise from. A good clean sheet. 6Andy Wilkinson (rb):Making his first league appearance since August, Wilkinson didnt look great. He is very strong in the tackle, but his distribution is poor and he lacks composure. Id be concerned if he Paul Goldschmidt Jersey were a regular starter, but he is third choice right back really, behind Andy Griffin and Andrew Davies so Im not too bothered by this. 6Ibrahima Sonko (cb): Ibrahima had easily his best game for Stoke, winning everything in the air and on the ground. While his positional sense his been lacking in some games, it was spot on yesterday, allo