LATE CAMPBELL STRIKE RUINS CITY'S LONDON TRIP

STOKE

- Peter Smith

City were their own worst enemy as they conspired to a desperately disappointing late loss at Charlton.Harry Clarke hit the bar at one end and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi did the same at the other in a competitive first-half but neither side looked particularly confident in front of goal.

But just when it seemed the stadium was resigned to a 0-0 draw, Ashley Phillips got himself into a horrible position dealing with what looked like a routine ball over the top and Tyreece Campbell took advantage.

Stoke have now gone three games without scoring and, when a win would have lifted them to within a point of the top six, they are now stuck in the bottom half. Players dropped to their knees at full-time and there was deflation in the away end.

Mark Robins had made three changes to his starting XI, recalling Steven Nzonzi, Tomas Rigo and Lamine Cisse after using them from the bench at West Brom. Milan Smit, Bae Junho and Ben Pearson dropped to the bench while Ben Gibson missed out on the trip through illness.

It was Charlton who made the early play and Conor Coady hooked a volley wide before Stoke old boy Harry Clarke smacked a header into the underside of the crossbar when he left defenders for dead attacking a corner at the back post.