Saturday, 15th September, 2012

Stoke City manager Tony Pulis has hailed as "brilliant" that striker Peter Crouch managed to "get away" with scoring against Manchester City by using his hand to control the ball.

Despite Crouch clearly controlling the ball with his hand before slotting home, Pulis refused to condemn the former Liverpool man and instead insisted that he was happy that his player had managed to score.

The goal in the 15th minute had given Stoke the lead at the Britannia Stadium before new Manchester City signing Javi Garcia headed home from a free-kick 20 minutes later.

The Premier League clash ended 1-1, but the talking point was Crouch’s contentious goal, which Pulis surprisingly chose to praise.


"I haven’t seen it, but if Peter’s got away with it then brilliant", the Stoke manager told Sky Sports.

"It’s nice being a smaller club to get away with something against the bigger clubs", added the Potters boss.

Citizens manager Roberto Mancini meanwhile bemoaned the manner of Stoke’s goal, claiming that Crouch’s effort had more to do with basketball than football.

"If you want to talk about their first goal, we will talk about it.

"It was not football, it was basketball. I don’t know how it’s possible the referee didn’t see it."

Manchester City may consider the visit to the Britannia Stadium to be two points dropped in their quest to retain the Premier League title.

However, the Citizens would be forgiven for having more than one eye on their upcoming trip to the Bernabeu to face Real Madrid in the Champions League.

 

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