Vacamion

Hearts now 4 points ahead of Celtic, with Hearts having played a game more. I said in this thread when Hearts beat Celtic less than a month ago to open up a large gap that (much to my chagrin) they'd probably end up being overhauled. Such is the gravity that pulls on non OF clubs at the top of the league. Didn't think the gap would be erroded so quickly.

That bust up was caused by a Stoke player deliberately stamping on Begovic's foot, the sneaky bugger. Like a lot yesterday, the cameras picked it up but the officials didn't.

Other votes so far being harsh on Skipp, IMHO.

I thought he was alright, especially first half. Largely nullified their winger. He was part of a few attacking moves, too. He certainly compared very favorably with Ricardo on the other side of defence. Luke Thomas was nowhere near our biggest problem out there today.

The save just before the Stoke goal was very good. Commanded the box at set pieces and not a bombscare when played the ball by the centre backs. Great stuff.

He was shoved by two hands in the back when challenging several times (shown in a replay). Pearson shoving him off the ball, into his upper body from the side, was an attempt to get him to retaliate or to bully him. You must have missed these incidents.

Twenty million bookings for us. None before 90 minutes for them (a couple for them in stoppage time). They spent the whole game shoving and kicking our players. Patson Daka was being shoved as he tried to hold it up. You could see Pearson shoving him off the ball before their fracas. They stamped on the goalie. There was a Stoke header back into play from a yard off the pitch. Several of our bookings were first offences. He was awful. Just awful.

Fair play, I love to see Patson Daka sprinting and closing down at the end. Don't see that from Ayew.

Shit ref.

I thought Daka was doing great, pressing and helping to force turnovers in possesion, before the goal, and was a better option than Ayew because of this, so the goal is a huge bonus. Weird thing to say about a striker, but there we are, well done him. And this ref has done some baffling stuff.

PATSON DAKA GOAL MACHINE

That famous passing triangle "Winks, Ricardo...Stoke"

All Stoke, so far.

It's a horrible way to lose, but losing the head over it and dismissing the team is not the right reaction. "Treat these two imposters just the same". The good news? No getting up in the small hours, tomorrow.

MOTM? Tough on Starc with tenfer in the match, but Head's knock changed the mood and was match winning, Head, then.

Great knock by Head. Looking forward to some suggestive headlines

Whilst this innings has been a bit of a shellacking, the India series showed us that this group has some fight and resilience. It's a whole lot more uphill than it was, but I wouldn't go writing England off for a whitewash just yet.

Having just seen the controversial decision, I'm far too indignant for this time of day. If we lose this narrowly, those two "murmur" DRS decisions going against us will have played a role.

I went for a couple of hours' kip at lunch, with England in the driving seat. WTF, lads ?

You have to applaud that. It's magnificent. Crawley under massive pressure from now on.

I wonder if Stokes opened with Wood and Atkinson because they were wicketless. Neither bowled badly. Here we go with setting a target.

Day 3 and 4 tickets looking a bit less valuable, just now.

Ewwwww

I'm imagining Boycott commentating on that first over, with Crawley having had a practice waft earlier in the over and going for every ball, and I imagine he might have sworn.

Set the alarm. Come on lads