Stoke City 1 Sunderland 0

Aug 30 2009 by Stuart Rayner, Sunday Sun

But the half-chances created by the Potters’ long throws and corners seemed to keep falling to a former Newcastle United man, Abdoulaye Faye.

The first real chance came when a Rory Delap long throw-in bobbled around in the box and Kitson lifted it over the bar from close range.

It was a fear of Delap’s exocet throws that made Nyron Nosworthy concede an unnecessary corner but he made amends by throwing himself in front of Faye’s shot from it.

In the 25th minute Glenn Whelan hit a piledriver of a shot which laid out Kenwyne Jones. Gordon came for but did not collect the resulting corner but Faye managed to put a tap-in wide at the far post. Soon later the big defender headed wide at a corner.

Gordon almost scored an own goal when he held a Delap throw just in front of the line. If he had let it go into the net, he would have had a goal kick.

It was not the only problem Sunderland managed to create for themselves. Seconds after Nosworthy was caught out trying a bit of skill in the wrong part of the field, Anton Ferdinand’s weak header back would have let Lawrence in if Gordon had not been so quick off his line.

The pressure that had been building in the first half finally told in the 43rd minute.

When a Stoke corner was headed back in, Jones’ first attempted clearance came off Lee Cattermole’s thigh, his second fell to Kitson and the striker smashed his first goal for the club.

It all came after a good start by the visitors, who had passed the ball around well in midfield during the opening stages. And in attack they had Darren Bent fired up for the occasion.

After the Sunderland striker had the temerity in pre-season to tell his Twitter followers he did not want to join Stoke, he was subjected to some pretty harsh tweetment by the home fans.

What they didn’t seem to realise is that when you boo top players, it generally makes them play better – and Bent certainly did.

He was picked out in the ninth minute by a brilliant Steed Malbranque pass which beat the offside track. But as he pulled his leg back to shoot, Faye launched himself into a block.