Stoke player ratings vs Bristol City as ironic cheers rub in miserable ...

Stoke City were left blaming themselves after falling to a disappointing defeat at Bristol City.

Stoke end a mid-week round of fixtures sitting 19th in the Championship following a 2-0 loss at Ashton Gate when they twice left Anis Mehmeti with far too much space to score.

Mehmeti got the opening goal to calm any nerves around the home supporters when he tapped in a cross from Stoke’s January transfer target Mark Sykes. He got the second from a second-half corner that had been headed back across goal.

It makes it two painful mid-week defeats on the road in the last three weeks for Stoke fans, with this one following Portsmouth, and a disappointing follow-up to an encouraging win at Hull last time out in the league.

Wins at home would at least take the pressure off these kind of matches a little and Mark Robins will go in search of his first as manager when they welcome Swansea to the bet365 Stadium on Saturday.

Stoke’s horrible habit of conceding early goals continued into a fourth match out of five, even if this time it took until the 11th minute – and they had actually had a couple of bright moves the other way before they were made to kick themselves.

Bristol City worked it over from left to centre, where Scott Twine slipped a pass between Gibson and Josh Wilson-Esbrand for Sykes to square for Mehmeti, who had inexplicably been left to go into the six-yard box unmarked to tap past Viktor Johansson.

Nathan Lowe almost provided the perfect response when he chased and kept in a ball that was spinning out of play down the inside right channel and scooped it over Max O’Leary to graze the crossbar, but no teammate could force it home. And it was straight up the other end for Max Bird to come close to making it 2-0, placing a shot just wide from left of the penalty spot after Ashley Phillips chose not to put in a tackle.

Stoke looked vulnerable defensively but so did the hosts and Baker had a good sight at goal just after the half-hour mark when Wilson-Esbrand cut back a cross for the midfielder to hit on the bounce, but steer it narrowly wide.

Robins changed Seko for Junior Tchamadeu at the break and rolled the dice just after the hour when he swapped Lowe and Gibson for Lewis Koumas and Bae Junho. There was applause from the 800-odd travelling fans in the away end for Lowe but sarcastic cheers to greet Gibson’s number and cap a tough night for the returning captain.

But it was the hosts who got the all-important next goal, with Mehmeti again given far too much space to find a finish past Johansson. Stoke couldn’t clear a corner and switched off, with Tchamadeu ball watching, as it bounced for Mehmeti to slam into the net.

It could have quickly been three. Yu Hirakawa had time and space in the box to fire on target and Johansson had to fling himself to his right to push away – and he stopped from the same player moments later after Stoke had lost possession too easily on a counter attack.

Stoke couldn’t muster enough of a response and struggled to give O’Leary a save to make, let alone make him nervous. They will need to dust themselves off quickly, however, because results like this always make the next match even more important.

Here are the player ratings from Ashton Gate:

Johansson: Made some saves look routine and let down by defence for first goal. Excellent stop to deny Hirakawa. 7.5

Rose: Inexplicably left Mehmeti for opening goal and was lucky to only see yellow when took frustration out in lunge on Armstrong. 4

Gibson: Couldn’t stop cross getting into box for opener and can’t afford to get up to speed while playing. Hard to take cheers on substitution. 4

Phillips: Didn’t seem at ease with three at the back particularly through opening stages and was reluctant to commit himself. 4.5

Moran: Lively in moments but couldn’t influence the game enough not find the right balls into the front two. 5

Wilson-Esbrand: Shouldn’t have allowed Sykes to cross for opener. Better going forward although crosses were hit and miss. 4.5

Seko: Run out at right wing-back. Able to put in a couple of crosses but left space behind for Bristol City to attack. 5

Burger: Can pick out a pass if Stoke could get him on the ball more. Armstrong tried to get him into trouble off the ball at corner. 6

Baker: Annoyingly reluctant to shoot. Can pick out a pass but not taking enough risks or playing positively enough. 5.5

Lowe: Ran himself into ground and was unfortunate with scooped cross that grazed crossbar in first half. 6

Al-Hamadi: Pretty relentless running. A little bit rusty with touches but tried hard to link up with Lowe. 6

Substitutes

Tchamadeu (for Seko, 46): Started on bench after blowing hard for much of Saturday. Ball watching for Mehmeti’s second. 4.5

Koumas (for Gibson, 66): Offered fresh legs to run behind but Stoke couldn’t find him. 5

Junho (for Lowe, 66): Didn’t get on the ball enough to be able to change the game. 5

Tezgel (for Al-Hamadi, 76): Not enough service into the final third to make a difference in the final stages. 5

Pearson (for Baker, 85): First league appearance since March last year on the back of FA Cup cameo. 5

Not used: Bonham, Vidigal, Thompson, Lawal.

Referee: James Bell (South Yorkshire) 5

Match rating: 3.5

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