Stoke City extended their unbeaten home streak in the Premier League to 13 matches with a 1-0 win over Fulham earlier today.
Charlie Adam scored the game's only goal on 26th minutes, volleying home from close range following a Peter Crouch knock-down.
The win moved the Potters up to 11th in the league table, level on points with the Cottagers.
Here, Sports Mole assesses whether or not the result was fair.
Match statistics:
Stoke:
Shots 16
On target 2
Possession 40%
Corners 7
Fouls 18
Fulham:
Shots 9
On target 2
Possession 60%
Corners 2
Fouls 11
Was the result fair?
It certainly was. Fulham simply could not deal with Stoke's aerial prowess and they were unable to stop the crosses coming in. Martin Jol's men could quite easily have lost by a much greater margin.
Stoke's performance
Aside from the first 10 minutes, in which they looked a little shaky, the Potters were solid at the back. Going forward, Matthew Etherington and the overlapping Ryan Shotton offered good width, which enabled Stoke to provide excellent service to Crouch in the penalty area.
Fulham's performance
The Cottagers offered little in attack. Dimitar Berbatov, who captained the side, was very quiet. Mark Schwarzer fumbled quite a few crosses, while the number of headers won by Philippe Senderos could easily be counted on one hand.
Sports Mole's man of the match
Ryan Shawcross was impenetrable alongside Robert Huth. The Stoke captain made a vital clearance early in the game, after Huth and Asmir Begovic had collided with each other. Shawcross's presence at set pieces was also one of the game's biggest attacking threats. He hit the crossbar in the first half and headed narrowly wide midway through the second.
What next?
Stoke will be at home for the second time in five days when they host Newcastle United on Wednesday evening. On the same night, Fulham travel to local rivals Chelsea.
Robert Summerscales
