The Stoketshirts.co.uk blog

It’s Christmas Eve 2011 and Stoke City have arguably had their best ever year. It’s something that I believe to be true, especially when comparing it to what we sometimes consider being halycon days of 1972, days of The League Cup Victory, European Football and a league finishing position of 17th out of 22 clubs. Hang on a minute, 17th!!! How memory distorts the thruth! Looking at the table back then I was surprised to discover that we only had 6 home and 4 away victories! (It was 2 points for a win and 1 for a draw back then).
Brian Clough’s Derby County had won the title with 58 points, one point more than Leeds United, Liverpool and Manchester City. United finished eighth while Huddersfield Town were relegated.

The main point of difference between now and then is the money that the club generates and how it compares to others. Back in the 70’s Stoke City shared gate receipts with other clubs both home and away.
Our average home attendance was 24,204, which was ranked 19th in the pre Premier League days of Division One. Even Leicester had the 15th highest average attendance with 28,536. So If we were playing the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and the other clubs in the league, then we would take half of the gate money from the away fixture and give them half of the cash from our home games. This meant that clubs back then had a more evenly split balance on revenue raised and money they could spend as gate receipts were the primary source of income, meaning that the league was being played from a more even starting point in terms of finance. I know that the argument about the periphery sales of food, programmes, etc could make a difference but back then, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a major factor.
Now in 2011 every club keeps it’s own gate money and the divide between the big and not so big clubs continues to grow. Last season we had an average gate of 26,858 which ranked 13th. highest in the Premier League. However, gate receipts are no longer the primary source of income for most clubs as television monies and off the field activities generate more money than attendances.

Whilst recognising the amount of investment that the Coates family have put into Stoke City I feel that the achievements of a F.A. Cup Final runners up place behind the richest team in the world, a final finishing position of 13th in the Premier League (and being on course to better that this season) and the achievement of a final 32 place in the Europa League put’s the managerial skills of Tony Pulis in a higher regard than those of Tony Waddington, given the difference in the landscape of football between 1972 and 2011.
This in my eyes makes Tony Pulis the best manager that Stoke City have ever had.
What do you think?

12 Days ‘fore Christmas

The most frustrating thing about Stoke on Saturday is that we started so sluggishly.  We were up against a team of genuine quality, but allowing them to totally dominate us proved suicidal.   We did however score two brilliant goals.  Hopefully Jonesy’s blast will bolster his confidence and lead him and us to a bright finish to the season.  Despite having spent most of the first half frantically trying (and usually failing) to clear the ball, at half time we were only 2-3 down and alive in the game.  For large spells of the second half we matched our opponents.  We imposed ourselves on the game and kept the ball well in their half.  We couldn’t quite force an equaliser and our spirited resurgence proved  fruitless.  The truly costly aspect of the game was the lethargic start.  For most of the first half we were dreadful, and for that reason it’s hard  to feel that we really deserved anything from the game.

Sadly, Friday April 15th marks the 22nd anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.   Policing at football grounds has, for many years, been a sore point amongst supporters.   It was  former Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police John Stalker in the 80s who said he was aware that many police knew that football matches were one time they were “Let off the leash”.      On the 31st January1989  we had an FA Cup replay at Barnsley. Thousands of Stoke supporters arrived late due to traffic congestion.   Outside the ground a crush developed and people were getting hurt.  Initial action was to send a police horse running in to the crowd which  only added to the chaos.   To ease the congestion the police opened one of the huge exit gates which allowed the crowd  to get into the game for free. This was the response  the same force used two months later at Hillsborough.  Had there been more Stoke supporters on the away terrace that night we could have suffered that awful disaster.    Same situation, same police force, same reaction.   We, like all football supporters, were actually riding our luck,  not just on that  night, but for years before.   There was very little consideration for the issue of crowd safety over crowd control.  It could have been any of us  with the loss of life…..  and the same scandalous tabloid allegations.  RIP the 96.

Paul Gascoigne and Jimmy Greaves will soon be touring the UK with a roadshow.  This will consist of them both telling stories from their playing careers and discussing openly their well publicised alcohol problems.  The end of the shows will consist of no-holds-barred question and answer sessions.  Showing admirable resilience Greaves has been tee total since 1978.  Paul Gasciogne’s story however has been a much more painful one.   Living out his traumas in the full glare of the media couldn’t have helped him.  I can’t be the only one to fear the worst when seeing his name in a headline.  It is however pleasing to learn that he’s been dry since Christmas.  Hopefully Gazza’s found himself a new focus that can help maintain his sobriety and prevent his life from unravelling again. 

We now look forward to Sunday April 17th and what could prove to be a very special day in our lives.  There are reasons to dislike the semi finals being played at Wembley but this isn’t the time for that debate.  The important thing is that we have reached a stage in the FA Cup that we haven’t reached for 39 long barren years.  In 148 years of history we have only reached three FA Cup Semi Finals.  39 years ago our dreams were brutally shattered.  The game was delicately poised at 1-1 when Arsenal’s John Radford was put clean through on goal but  clearly offside.  Inexplicably, the linesman kept his flag down and Radford gleefully scored to bury our hopes of reaching the final for another 39 years.  Following much confusion over Radford’s goal it transpired that on the far side of the pitch from the useless lino, there was a man in a white coat selling programmes to the crowd.  Stoke wore white that night and the flag carrying cretin thought the seller was a Stoke player.  This allowed Radford to put us out of the cup and generations of Stoke City fans to carry a chip on our shoulder the size of Heathrow Airport!  Surely on Sunday we can’t suffer such a deep injustice?  By the way, I have never ever seen Radford’s horrible goal and I’m not sure it was even televised at all.   But if anyone has a copy and can upload it to You Tube it’d be fantastic to see.  I must be a masochist! 

By the time our game against Bolton kicks off the first finalist will be decided.  It’s fair to say that if Manchester City are as poor as they were at Anfield their loathed red neighbours will effectively receive a bye to the final.  Why did Mancini start without Silva or De Jong?  Their sole consolation is that they can’t play so badly in two consecutive matches.

Our game against Bolton will be an intense tight affair.  Two evenly matched teams playing with a huge prize at stake.  Ties like this are often decided by a moment of  inspiration.  We’ll be hoping It’ll be a Fuller or Etherington making the difference as much as the Bolton fans will be hoping it comes from an Elmander or Davies!  It is great that one grand old club will be in the final. Stan and Nat will be watching proudly from above. Stan with a glass of fruit juice and Nat with a pint of brown ale!  I’ll be in the Pig n Whistle pub in the centre of  Brisbane, anxiously watching the clock and begging our players to take the sacred step 148 years of predecessors have failed to take.

Hearing Abide With Me has always brought a lump to my throat. From childhood, 2.45 on FA Cup Final day symbolised a huge slice of football heritage.  The huge noisy crowd gathered doffs it’s cap in reverence.  When The song starts the mood isn’t just about the game on the day.  We reflect on, and celebrate, the glorious history of the competition.  Cardiff’s shock win over Arsenal in 1927.  It’s George Mutch’s late dramatic winner in 1938.  Stan’s final in 1953.  Nat Lofthouse’s controversial goalkeeper charge in the 1958 final and Bob Stokoe’s ecstatic dash across the lush green turf to embrace Jim Montgomery after his Sunderland team embarrassed Don Revie’s Leeds.   If we win at Wembley we will have the chance to carve our name in history.  The memories Sunday may bring could live with us all forever.  In years to come we could cry tears of joy and reflect fondly  on that day in April 2011 when we finally, after so long, reached an FA Cup Final.  Players might find this hard to believe but that means more than money… much much more.   Come on Stoke.   Our time is now.

For the first time since 1972 Stoke City are in the semi finals of the FA Cup.  I watched it in the pub and it was a good turnout for a  Sunday night midnight KO.  The cup has retained enough magic to persuade people to go to work with a hangover!  We started the game at a furious pace and it was refreshing to be able to keep the ball in the attacking third.  If the nature of our play was a refreshing change, the source of our first goal was very familiar!  The Delapidator providing Huthwho responded with another powerful header.  As our very own Berlin wall wheeled away in delight that could be the first time we’ve ever seen him smile!  Perhaps the most pleasing thing about our performance was the way we bounced back after experiencing adversity.  Piquionne’s goal shouldn’t have counted but the baffling thing is how none of the officials saw the handball.  We immediately tore into them after the break and were (fortuitously in my opinion) awarded a penalty.  One question that has to be asked is why Etherington took it when Higginbotham was on the pitch?  It was great to hear the crowd’s support for Ethers afterwards…an example of  the unity we need.  That miss could have proved fatal but we continued to grind away and it Higginbotham who regained the lead for us with a sweetly struck free kick.  For one awful moment I feared the ref hadn’t seen the ball cross the line but there was nothing to worry about on that score.   All that remained was to cling on for 27 more agonising  minutes.  A few near misses came and went.  Then some close misses came and went.  When the fourth official held up the board to say four minutes of injury time it might as well have said 40.  The minutes ticked painfully away and eventually we became FA Cup semi finalists.  Shortly after the end of the game a mate came to tell me we’d drawn Bolton in the semi.  This was the thrill of a lifetime.  I’m not one to prematurely evaluate the quantity of poultry.  Any team you face will cause you problems but we all know, without being arrogant, that it could have been much worse.  Will we ever have a better chance to reach an FA Cup Final?  I don’t doubt Bolton fans will be asking themselves the same question.  Hopefully this will bolster our league form too.  We really do have the taste of  Wembley in our nostrils!

TEAMS CAN’T TOP US  FLOODS CAN’T TOP US.  So said the banners from the River City Crew… an exuberant group of Brisbane Roar fans.  The occasion was the Grand final of the Australian league, AKA the A-League.  Since the league started in 2005 many of the headlines have been grabbed by financial issues. It’s frustrating at times to spend time discussing receivership and takeovers when corners and free kicks are a  more favourable conversation topic.  Thankfully, the football grabbed the media attention at the weekend.  Rightly so.  Seeing over 50,000 packed into SuncorpStadium for a football match brought a lump to the throat.  A noisy sea of orange with a pre match performance by Brisbane band Regurgitator.   It was a special occasion even before the teams  walked out onto the pitch.  Fittingly, the game itself was a footballing classic.  Brisbane’s opponents were Central Coast Mariners, a team who lack the style and panache of their opponents but play with purpose and tactical discipline.  Central Coast had  most of the early exchanges but Brisbane played their way into the game with intelligent possession football.   Half time was 0-0 but it was a gripping encounter.  The second half consisted  of  huge rainfall and Brisbane hammering the Central Coast goal.  Attack after attack yet each wave of orange was stifled by increasingly impressive defending.  Full time was 0-0 which led us into extra time.  As extra time started it felt as if we’d been in the stadium for hours and hours, the 4pm kick off time was a distant memory.  But kick off time  came and it really was 4pm again because Central Coast were the better side.  This time however they scored.  The vast majority of the crowd were stunned into silence.   Central Coast smelt the disbelief in the home crowd (and team) and had the audacity to score again.  This wasn’t meant to happen.  As the game was played out to a background of  fluorescent orange silence I reflected on the Liverpool team of 1988.  Despite being a great team they found the FA cup final  just one game too many.  They had the style and the skill but couldn’t  raise themselves one last time to secure the double… remember too they were up against a solid underrated opponent in Wimbledon.  For Liverpool 1988 see Brisbane 2011. As I sat pondering this and wondering if any of the hundreds streaming out of the ground would return next season, Brisbane broke and scored.  the orange came to life again!  There was two minutes to rescue an entire seasons work.  Piling forward a late corner was won, the final chance to save the season.  The corner was deep and a Brisbane head met it to send it into the top corner of the net.  Pandemonium.  The ferocity of the ensuing mental was raucous and heartfelt.  The whole stadium embracing itself with joy!  Impressively, despite the hive of activity, not one drop of my beer was spilt, that’s class!  With three minutes of extra time left Brisbane were 0-2 down but had again bounced back to save the unbeaten record and take us all into a penalty shootout.  There was no doubt Brisbane would win the shootout.  And they did 4-2.  Central Coast were devastated.  All that remained was to see captain Matty Mckay lift the trophy that resembles a toilet seat (honestly) then to the pub for some serious celebrating!  Then on to watch an FA Cup quarter final between Stoke and West Ham.  Two games in one day and they both worked out right!  I love football.  HAPPY DAYS!!!  http://www.youtube.com/watchv=4OWnd4ndAnE

Against Milan  Spurs played with admirable discipline. Discipline they have lacked for so long.  Throughout the tie Milan had far more possession yet created little worthy of mention.  In the second half at White Hart Lane Spurs seemed to accept Milan’s territorial superiority and responded accordingly by sitting deep.  Pato was a livewire, making darting runs across the width of the frontline but Ibrahimovic was subdued.  For a player of his stature to be so uninvolved in a game…. when he’s the kind of player you need to turn the game your way  was baffling.  Not that Arry will be complaining.  For many years Spurs have had talented sides but often fallen short because of careless defensive errors.  Twoseriously big  European games against Milan and two clean sheets.  In the competition’s current format Arry is the first English manager to take a side to the quarter final.  This is Arry’s finest hour.

The last decade has been awash with media speculation regarding Alex Ferguson’s retirement and successor.  There have again been suggestions that this could be his last season.  One report suggested that if Man Utd win the league again he’d be ready to abdicate.  Of all the words devoted to the subject in the last ten years, the idea he’ll bow out in May is by far the most plausible.  He once stated his finest achievement was “Knocking Liverpool off their f#^#ing perch” Should his team  stay on top they will have won 19 titles to Liverpool’s 18, by far the most poignant indicator of their absolute dominance.  It would be entirely appropriate to step down from the perch.  Fools learn by their mistakes, wise people learn from other peoples.  Ferguson will be aware of the pitfalls of retirement.  Bill Shankly died with a broken heart.  A heart broken from seeing his beloved Liverpool go onto greater success without him.  He had to suffer the indignity of Liverpool’s directors asking him to stop turning up at the training ground….  his regular appearances  undermined Bob Paisley  because the players used to call Shankly ‘boss’.  Brian Clough managed two seasons too long.  In his autobiography Clough states clearly that the right time for to leave was after the 1991 FA Cup Final defeat to Spurs.  Of course it’d hurt to go out on a defeat but Wembley was a fitting stage for a manager of his stature to leave the game.  Instead Old Big Ed signed out on relegation and degrading tabloid tales of excessive drinking and a catastrophic Shredded Wheat advert.  Ferguson is different.  His passion for the game is obvious but football isn’t his entire life.  As well as football he has an interest in politics.  One thing which frustrates him is that visiting all the places he does professionally means there are few opportunities to  experience them fully.  There is still a keen interest in learning to play the piano properly.  In addition to these interests he has a family he’d  love to spend relaxing time with.   Alex Ferguson may well choose to step down from the perch.  As he approaches 70 he’d  find the bottom of the cage an invigorating place.

Our win against Bolton was solid if unspectacular.  After edging ahead we rarely looked likely to relinquish the lead.  We were on top all over the park.  The only phase of the game that Bolton got involved in was the period after half time when they looked as if they had received the proverbial rocket up their collective backside, but we soon extinguished that fire.  Keeping clean sheets is a priceless habit and Bolton couldn’t find a way through, this in itself was the most pleasing aspect of the game.  Another great positive was the performance of Tuncay.   He was instrumental in our attacking play often adding those quirky little touches that gave our game an extra dimension, and his pass for Ethers run, which led to the penalty, was simple but perfect!   The real endearing thing about Tuncay is that he smiles when he plays!  In a football world where players can look thoroughly indifferent after reaching a European Cup Final, it’s refreshing to see a player who actually looks as if he enjoys playing football.  Some of his supercilious fellow professionals could do with following his lead.  Another memorable point from the game was late on when the black bin liner blew across the pitch.  Not as amusing as the halcyon days of a dog on the pitch but  memorable all the same.

After a comprehensive victory it may seem overly niggly to pick fault BUT is there any chance at all of our players improving the free kicks at goal?  Wilson’s on Saturday was dire.  They either go into the wall or fly miles over the top.  Pennant hit the bar away to  Bolton but apart from that there has been  no threat at all.  For a side that doesn’t create much from open play a free kick gives a great chance to get a shot on goal but after each one I can’t be the only aghast Stokie pondering what they do in training all week.  If the time spent practicing Rory’s throw ins, (which are increasingly looking a spent force) was taken working on free kicks on goal, and shooting in general for that matter we’d increase our scorability, which wouldn’t be a bad thing at all!

It’s quietly pleasing to have made some progress in the FA Cup.  The game at Cardiff certainly wasn’t a cup classic but you can’t do more than win.  Several of the fringe players got a much needed game and came through.  Soares involvement was a surprise as I’d totally forgotten about him!  It all provides more experience for Ryan Shotton too who appears to be one of our bright young things.  Walters leaague form is patchy but scoring those two goals won’t harm his confidence at all.  Wolves away next and it would be preferable not to face a Premier team away.  However, I don’t like to focus on omens too much but in the last two seasons the team that has knocked Cardiff out has gone on to lift the trophy.  Is that a reason for optimism?  No, probably not. 

Despite being a lover of football traditions, it’s foolish to deny that the FA Cup has lost much of it’s polish in recent years.  Seeing games played out on front of half full stadiums and managers clearly regarding the whole competition as a nuisance isn’t an inspiring spectacle.  The FA holding this years final on a weekend of a full Premier League programme hardly suggests that it’s a priority for anyone.   But that  shouldn’t  stop us dreaming!! 

Such was the media furore surrounding Avram Grant’s position at West Ham, their game against Arsenal had the air of a public execution.  Each close up shot of the beleagured gaffer greeted with a comment about his impending sacking.  By half time Grant had become little more than a figure of pity.  The mismanagement of his proposed dismissal from the powers that be at Upton Park is as haphazard as it is disrespectful.  Treating the manager with that kind of contempt is ludicrous.  Allowing the approach to Martin O’Neill to become public was clumsy and damaging, esspecially as they were to be in a live televised game later that day.  If you want to sack a manager you sack them and pay them off.  That O’Neill has rejected the offer leaves Gold and Sullivan with some much derserved egg on their faces.  Amazing that after undermining Grant, David Sullivan had the audacity to come out and call for everyone to support him…..  even in the glib world of football speak that was a bit rich.  As for Martin  O’Neill, At 58 O’Neill has one big job left in him.  Methinks West Ham isn’t it. But if Dalglish doesn’t fancy it long term it wouldn’t be a huge shock if he was to turn up at Anfield.

Steve Bruce has expressed his disappointment that Darren Bent has chosen to join Aston Villa.  Shouldn’t he have balanced that with showing his elation at the size of the fee?  18m which could rise to 24m.  Despite the initial shock of the fee, if Bent injects the goals that Villa’s forward line is missing it could prove to be a shrewd investment.  Houllier will be painfully aware of the ramifications if Bent doesn’t succeed at Villa Park.  

One of the best moments of the weekend’s football came here in the A-League, Alex Terra’s goal for Melbourne Heart against Perth Glory was spectacular.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewQUsDq1dr8  You could drag out the well worn cliche about ‘if a Brazlilian had done that’…  but for the fact that Alex Terra actually  is a Brazilian!