Stoke City F.C

Disappointing result from Sunday afternoon when Man Utd came away with victory over Liverpool 2-1 thanks to a late penalty from R.V.P. I thought Liverpool were worthy of a draw but things were made tough for them when they had a man sent off, I know I'm a Liverpool fan and may be accused of a little bias but if that was a straight Red Card then they may as well take tacking OUT of the game, and if he had to go then so should Evans ( Man Utd Player)
Still tough times for Liverpool and i cant' see it getting any better in the short term as i can't see where the goals are going to come from, but i think you need to stick with the boss and show him the support that the old Liverpool way was famous for .... not to mention successful.
I take my hat of to the club and the supporters for the way they handled the occasion on Sunday from the terrible Hillsborough disaster back in 1989, It was an emotional day all round but i felt it was done with  a lot of dignity and respect and when 'You'll Never Walk Alone' was played it seemed to carry even more volume and significance.

It brought back many happy memories of when i used to stand in the middle of the Kop in the mid eighties and some of the great games i witnessed , with the many greats of the game, Dalglish, Rush ,Souness, Hansen, Lawrenson just to name a few, and in later years the Barnes, Beardsley era.

Well before all that i was watching my home team Stoke City in action with my Dad a mad supporter from when he was a kid taking me to the games when i was only about 6 or 7 years of age, Stoke to had a very good side at the time ( probably the best they've ever had) , certainly much better then about 12 years later when i was around ( Probably the worst team in the history) .. :)
One of the first BIG matches i went to was in 1974 ( Only Master Sweeney and Tommy H will remember this one) and was against the mighty Leeds team of the day who were on 29 unbeaten games at the time and were going for a record 30 matches should they not get beat. The atmosphere was electric that day ( especially for a kid of 6) and when Leeds took a 0-2 lead things weren't looking good for the men from the Potteries, that was until the talented Alan Hudson and Jimmy Greenhoff took the game by the scruff of the neck bringing the game back level at 2-2, The place then went ballistic when local boy and Hardman Dennis Smith popped up for the winner late in the game to end the Leeds run.
As i said it was a very good Stoke team at the time and should have gone on to bigger and better things unfortunately a few years later in the winter of 1976 disaster was to happen when the roof blew of one of the stands and left the club with a massive 250'000 repair bill. In True Stoke fashion we were NOT insured and were forced to sell all the best players in the club to help finance the ground.
It set the club back many years, and its only the past few years has the Club returned to the Premier after a long time out, Things are looking up now though, and although we have since moved grounds and an away  game against Stoke City is not one many clubs look forward to these days.

In my younger days , i was a big collector of all programs from the matches that i attended, i think even now i have thousands stored away from games over the years - sure some are worth a few bob these days and one day i might see about selling them off to any collectors back home. Here is one that training partner Tommy Highman might remember seeing he is a Geordie Lad ?

Newcastle vs Stoke program from 1974 at St James Park, For the record the game ended all square 2-2 :)


Good to see i have at least one reader out there, with Gun runner Master Sweeney taking a peek, Master is a Arsenal supporter but we wont hold that against him, and i will be sure to write about the Big Game from 1989 that Arsenal won the title with at Liverpool to keep him happy in time to come :)

Cheers