Mark Robins admits Stoke City were too easily bullied and needed to get a better grip of football’s dark arts after a deflating defeat at Portsmouth.
Stoke were leapfrogged in the wrong half of the Championship table by a Portsmouth side who ran out 3-1 winners at Fratton Park, with goals from Colby Bishop, Callum Lang and Connor Ogilvie while Ben Wilmot replied in vain for the Potters.
Portsmouth didn’t win any of their first six home games back up in this division but they have won six and drawn one of their next seven as they have found a way to shock Championship sides with some ‘old school’ ideas.
Stoke weren’t helped by a surprise decision by ref Josh Smith to award the hosts an early penalty for an alleged push by Josh Wilson-Esbrand but they also didn’t help themselves and Robins didn’t hide his frustration at full-time.
“I’m really disappointed,” he said. “They set the tone right from the start and we didn’t live with that. We allowed them to bully us all night. They got the first from what was a really soft penalty, I thought. I didn’t think for one second he was going to give a penalty but then he’s given a penalty. But it is what it is, I suppose if you’ve got hands on a back.
“They’ve set their stall out, let’s have it right. They’ve thrown themselves to the floor, they’ve fouled us, they’ve kicked us and we’ve had nothing because it’s all the dark arts. They’ve all manned us tonight. People don’t understand what that means but they’ve got players who’ve experienced the other side of the game because they’ve come through a different route I suppose.
“Colby Bishop, for instance, starting goal side of our defenders when the ball gets kicked, he just runs backs and blocks them for other runners going through. We’ve got understand it. It’s old school, that’s old school football and you’ve got to be able to deal with it and not just think teams are going to allow you to come and play.
“It’s really disappointing because all they did was run harder, they run harder to get in behind, they run harder to get into positions to try to put your under pressure. That’s how this team puts you under pressure. That’s what they are, how they’ve been built.
“We can show them everything we want to beforehand and if it still surprises you on the night then you’re not going to get anything from the game. That’s what happened.
“We found ourselves a goal down from the penalty and then a punt down the middle, we allow it bounce and they get their first. It’s really poor.
“The goal we scored was a really well-worked goal but we didn’t look like we were going to score after that and that’s another disappointment. We got into decent positions from time to time, got to the edge of the box, transferred the ball onto the shooting foot – I’m thinking of Lewis Baker’s chance – worked it really well but needed to get a shot away quicker. They are throwing bodies in and doing it all night.
“Where they were miles better than us was in that physical department.”
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