 After the arrival of Robert Huth Wilkinson lost his place in the side and became one of a number first team players stuck on the Stoke bench.He played in the 1–0 win over Portsmouth due to the suspension to Abdoulaye Faye, and he put in a man of the match performance and almost scored his first ever goal for Stoke by beating two Pompey defenders before shooting just over Jamie Ashdown's goal.Wilkinson himself described it has his best Stoke display yet.