By Martin Spinks, Stoke Sentinel

Concentrate carefully and we'll try to make some sense of the mini football jamboree involving Stoke and Huddersfield at the Michelin training ground yesterday.

Stoke emerged with three wins and one defeat from four games of 35 minutes apiece, played in mercifully dry conditions as two horrendous downpours conveniently dropped their load either side of yesterday's matches.

Stoke fielded two teams - we'll call them A and B for the sake of convenience - and played simultaneously over 35 minutes against their Huddersfield counterparts on neighboring pitches.

The two Huddersfield teams then swapped pitches for a second game of 35 minutes and, just to try to confuse us further, included Stoke teenager Ryan Shotton in their B team for the second game.

City's strike force was in pretty decent form in front of goal as three frontline forwards hit the net, while Mama Sidibe atoned for missing out himself by inspiring the first and arguably best goal of the day.

The big fella gracefully by-passed a couple of challenges with a rare burst of speed down the left channel before selflessly squaring for Ricardo Fuller to net the first of his two goals in Stoke A's 2-1 win over Huddersfield A.

Huddersfield pulled one back four minutes from the end when Stoke's failure to clear a left-wing corner was punished from close range (by Luke Beckett).

Over on the other pitch, meanwhile, Stoke B were cruising to a comfortable 2-0 triumph after Jon Parkin's elegant chip was followed by Vincent Pericard sidestepping the keeper after John Eustace's cute pass had been helped on by Parkin.

The second round of matches saw Stoke A beaten by an eighth-minute free-kick (taken by Danny Racchi) that was deftly curled over a four-man wall and well inside Steve Simonsen's right-hand post by Huddersfield B.

Dominic Matteo saw a close-range shot blocked and an Adam Rooney effort was well held after Fuller twice teed up better-placed colleagues during Stoke A's fruitless search for an equalizer.

A quick turn of the head - there was plenty of that to try to keep pace with two coinciding games - was required to witness the deciding moment in Stoke B's 1-0 win over Huddersfield A in their second outing a few yards away.

Local youngster Tom Thorley, an eighth-minute substitute in the first game for the injured Liam Lawrence, bust a gut to steal half-a-yard down the right flank before crossing low for Pericard to touch home the easiest of chances.

Drawing conclusions from such workouts, especially when your eyes are flitting between two games, is a risky business. But there was no escaping Eustace's creativity, Fuller's goalmouth awareness, Peter Sweeney's impudence or Robert Garrett's enthusiasm.

An African trialist measuring well over six foot also looked strong and pretty impressive alongside Clint Hill at centre-half for Stoke A, while the sight of a sturdy Rory Delap at right-back and an attack-minded Carl Hoefkens at left-back was an intriguing little sub-plot to the story.