Boss Tony Pulis admitted tiredness in his team had prompted his bold triple substitution in the Barclays Premier League clash with Everton – and was delighted with the way the move paid off.
The Potters, who were playing their 54th game of a gruelling season, fell behind in the 44th minute at the Britannia Stadium through Peter Crouch’s own goal.
At that stage the hosts had only really threatened with efforts stemming from the long throws of Rory Delap, but they were reinvigorated in the 67th minute when Pulis chose to make all three substitutions at once.
Crouch, Jon Walters and Delap were replaced by Cameron Jerome, Ricardo Fuller and Glenn Whelan and within two minutes, Stoke were level.
Jerome was the man to net the equaliser, powering through Phil Jagielka and John Heitinga to force the ball past Tim Howard, and the much-improved Potters might have gone on to win it from there.
In the end it finished 1-1, to the satisfaction of Pulis, who was reluctant to take too much praise for the second-half intervention he said he had made simply because his side were looking so weary.
Referring to the substitutions, Pulis said: ‘Sometimes you get them right, sometimes you don’t.”
