Maksym's the right man for the job!

STOKE City dug deep to see out a 1-0 win at Portsmouth that Mark Robins hailed as important as any they have secured this season, even if it might not have been their best performance.

- Peter Smith

CHANGING GAMES: Sorba Thomas.

(Steve Bardens/Getty Images)

There was a debut, a surprise return, a typical contribution from an increasingly key man and a near sellout away end taking the mickey out of Sky Sports. Here are the talking points from Fratton Park

Stoke have a history of using centre-halves at fullback.

Tony Pulis pretty much made it policy and rarely signed an out-and-out fullback.

There were stand-ins like Robert Huth, who did ok, while Ryan Shawcross, Jonathan Woodgate and Ibrahima Sonko have less fond memories - but the likes of Danny Higginbotham made it their own.

Still, few were expecting Maksym Talovierov to be the stand-in right-back that Mark Robins turned to when Junior Tchamadeu was forced out of this game with a one-match suspension.

He wasn't tasked with marauding down the line as Stoke played with a narrow back four, but just to head it and kick it and let Million Manhoef do the attacking.

He did play a superb diagonal that Divin Mubama should have done better with while he made important contributions when defending the box.

It looked like he enjoyed himself. He's got minutes in the bank and he'll be ready when needed again or to stake his claim in the middle.