Stoke 1 West Ham 1 Avram not there to see that it was nearly good!

In the beginning Avram created the team and the tactics. 2 Now the defence was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the Greenness; and the spirit of Zola hovered over the face of the squad. 3 And Avram said: 'Let there be Da Costa.' And there was Da Costa. 4 And Groves saw Da Costa, and saw that Da Costa was quite good; and thus Avram divided the opposition forwards from the Greenness. 5 And Avram called the Da Costa centre half, and the Greenness He called keeper. And there was 45 minutes and there was a whistle, one half. {P}

6 And Avram said: 'Let there be some tacklers in the midst of the team, and let them divide the forwards from the defenders.' 7 And Avram made the midfield, and divided the defenders which were behind the midfield from the attackers which were ahead of the midfield; and it was so. 8 And Avram called this team West Ham. And there was forty five minutes and there was a whistle, to end the first half. {P}

9 And Avram was not there to say: 'Let the players of West Ham be gathered together unto one place, and let the clean sheet appear.' And so it was not. 10 And so Avram could not call forth the clean sheet from his defence, and through the gathering together of the players he could not call forth His Victory; and being not there, Avram could not see what might have been good. 11 And Avram did not say: 'Let the defenders put in tackles and close, challenges yielding possession, and possession bearing control after its kind, wherein is the seed of victory, upon the pitch.' And so it was not so. 12 But the Pulis brought forth tacklers, their challenges yielding possession after its kind, and possession bearing control, wherein is the seed of victory, after its kind; and Pulis saw that it was good. 13 For there was a whistle and there was a restart, the second half. {P}

14 And Avram was not there to say: 'Let there be ball retention in the midfield of the team to divide the opposition from our goal; 15 and let there be forwards holding up the ball to give relief unto the defence.' And so it was not so. 16 And Avram was not there to revert to two great strikers and 4-4-2: the greater striker to win the ball, and the lesser striker to shoot towards the goal. 17 And Avram was not there to set another player into the midfield to give relief unto the defence, 18 and to rule over the midfield and over the match, and to divide the opposition from the Greeness; and being not there, Avram saw not that it might have been good. 19 And lo, there was a cross and there was a header, two lost points. {P}

20 And Avram was not there to say: 'Let the midfield swarm with swarms of busy players, and let Obinna fly ahead of the midfield in the open firmament beyond the Stoke defence.' 21 But Pulis created the great Stoke monsters, and every tackling creature that kicked and crunched, wherewith the midfield swarmed, after its kind, and every winger too after its kind; and Pulis saw that it was good. 22 And Pulis blessed them, saying: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the West Ham net, and let Stoke points multiply in the Premiership.' 23 And there was a whistle and a draw, still bottom of the table! {P}

Player Ratings:

Green 4 (First half howler, shared responsibility for the goal, one good save, although fortunate that the post came to his rescue in truth):
Jacobsen 6 (Looked neat and tidy most of the time.)
Da Costa 6 (Must take some responsibility for the goal as grounded as Jones headed home Pennant’s cross)
Upson 6 (Generally strong and neat in his defensive duties but horribly out muscled by Jones when Green turned that shot onto the post)
Gabbidon 5 (Cross came from his flank and he was nowhere to be seen. His distribution was poor all game);

Behrami 5 (Conceded stupid free kicks, collected an absurd booking have committed three fouls in the space of 30 seconds and offered next to nothing going forward)
Parker 6 (Scored a goal and ran around a lot but his first FOUR passes went to Stoke players. He lost possession twice outside his own box trying to run with the ball rather than pass and played one crazy cross field pass into touch, setting up a Delap throw in the closing minutes.)
Noble 7 (Kept ball well from what I saw and put in some lovely tackles to win back possession.)

Piquionne 6 (Great shot against the bar and linked up well)
Cole 6 (excellent defensively at set pieces but offered nothing going forward)
Obinna 5 (Ran around a lot, enthusiastic but takes the wrong option 99% of the time.)

Sub Kovac 6 (Did his limited job reasonably well after replacing Behrami.)