Stoke City 2 - Wolves 1

Last updated : 08 August 2004 By Footymad Previewer

However, after a promising pre-season, Stoke City would have other plans for the visitors.

Stoke's dominance began after only four minutes when Marcus Hall's left-sided cross reached Darel Russell at the back post who lost his composure and rocketed the ball over.

City came forward again ten minutes later, but Lewis Neal's corner came to nothing as Gifton Noel-Williams failed to direct his header under pressure.

Wolves looked more like kittens in the first half and never really produced anything to worry the home side. Mark Kennedy's 27th minute free-kick was the only remote chance with the effort rocketing into Row Z.

The away side looked brighter after the break and created the best chance of the game soon after the restart.

A quick one-two between Kenny Miller and Colin Cameron let Cameron into the box but a brilliant save from Ed de Goey denied the Scot.

The Potters broke the deadlock on 55 minutes when Russell picked up a deflected shot off Jody Craddock, pounding the ball from the angle of the box into Paul Jones' bottom right corner.

Stoke doubled their lead on 70 minutes after Mark Clyde was adjudged to have brought Ade Akinbiyi down in the area.

Clive Clarke calmly stepped up and slotted the ball low to Jones' left.

Wolves clawed a goal back late on in the 87th minute with Noel-Williams conceding a penalty through handling the ball but Miller's top left spot-kick wasn't enough to claim the points.