Stoke City FC

Savour and treasure the moments folks and check out the commentary. Well done stoke city. Northy

The season now has a proper 'countdown' feel to it as the games remaining have reached single figures and the end slowly creeps up on us. We all know what a huge game the potters face tomorrow at the brit against the 'smoggies' of middlesborough and the importance of this fixture is not lost on anyone, the first in a series of games that the lads should be looking at winning, if we do come out with the three points it will give us that extra shot of determinaton and desire that is going to be so crucial in the run in. Mentally, some of these games are bound to be tough and sometimes will balance on the finest of margins. The players and management need to be ready for everything, in body and in mind.  Games like tomorrow and the fixtures away at west brom and hull, the home games with newcastle and blackburn, all these look like they could be tight and frustrating affairs which much at stake to the loser. It's going to be rough and it's going to be tough. We as fans must stand up shoulder to shoulder with the giants of our mighty football club and as a unit we prosper and grow. Pulis will be able to pick his strongest side against 'boro so let's make it a cauldron of noise and let's blast out of the darkness that is the premier league dropzone. GOOOOAAAARN STOKE

A timely rallying cry from detroit's finest. The boys need to push themselves out of that relegation zone and will need to show the attributes that the motor city 5 possessed. Namely cutting edge precision with an awareness of what's happening around us. The MC5 were big enough to stand up and be counted and fight the wrongs going on around them. One of the greatest bands ever, way ahead of their time. GOOOOOAAAARN STOKE!!!!!!!

Kick Out The Jams

By MC5

It might seem highly unlikely to the newer generation of football fans but the mighty potters had a couple of stabs at european football back in the early 70's. The team that was gracing the victoria ground and thrilling big crowds can send even the sternest of men misty and teary eyed when mentioned. The likes of conroy, ritchie, hudson and banks would play some great attacking football under the leadership of tony waddington and the potteries was football crazy. There were two instances of uefa cup football in these days.

1. 1972/73 Season.

After triumphantly returning from london with the league cup trophy the previous season stoke had bagged themselves a european spot, we had also lost to arsenal in the fa cup semi's for the second year running so we were right in the honours mix at the time. The uefa cup draw paired the potters with kaiserslautern of germany. After a 3-1 victory at the vic progression looked on the cards but a 4-0 reverse away from home put paid to that. The germans got to the quarters where they were battered 7-1 by monchengladbach who eventually lost to liverpool in the final.

2. 1974/75 Season

Stoke took on the dutch might of ajax amsterdam this time after a 5th place finish in the table the previous season in which we battled for the title. A 1-1 draw at the victoria saw the potters travel to the flatlands for the second leg with a healthy following, the ajax side of the day was packed with dutch internationals and with the game finishing a 0-0 draw stoke went out on away goals. The dutch eventually got battered 8-3 on aggregate by fc cologne in the quarters. Monchengladbach won it overall.

The less glamourous anglo italian cup is our next destination. Soon.

A massive player for us last season with his goals and assists, at times him, mama and fuller played some electric stuff and this has yet to be replicated in the premier league but he should be back tomorrow against pompey and if fit and raring to go can make a serious difference on the pitch. Liam show passion and is always up with the boothen end after a victory, fair play lad. Anyway the reason he's been out injured for a while involves tripping down a staircase after falling over his dog, not falling down the staircase at the dog nightclub drunk. Hmmm. So i suppose the question is.....

Who Is This Dog

Pulis     No

Ryan Shawcross The Mild Mannered Defender      No

Nello The Kit Man      No

It must have been Sublime's take on Hong Kong Phooey

Enjoy... SCFC ROCKERS

Born in the potteries, denis smith is a true stoke legend, making over 400 appearances for the potters between 66 and 82 he was a true servant to the club and broke many a bone giving his all in the rock of the defence for the club. Part of the exciting side of the 70's he loves the club with all his heart and as well as being in the history books as a player, he is a fan and a big one at that. Whenever he co-commentates for radio stoke it's always WE when he refers to the lads. It seemed like he could have gone on to manage the club at certain times but it never happened. At the end of the day smithy is a stoke supporter and that's the way he likes it. Good on ya denis smith. You are a potter through and through.

In Stoke City Rockers terms this hard bastard who bleeds red and white and put his body on the line for the cause is....

Iron Man

Black Sabbath

A great little interview with fuller. Cheers to JB stokie who posts on the oatcake for unearthing it.

Young wilko has come through the ranks at the potters and along with his good mate carl dickinson is stoke through and through. Sometimes he has you seriously worried with his rash decision making and wild distribution but as this season has gone on he has started to show a bit of maturity in the right back berth. I love the guy for his passion and raw love for the club and the youth keeps getting better.  To see him celebrate a goal or a win says it all for me. A big ball of emotion who wears his heart on his red and white sleeve. In stoke city rockers terms.....

The Damned - A band who had passion, determination and were a big fuzzy ball of outrageous emotion.

Love Song

Classic moment this, as sky sports news reported live from the promotion party at the brit last year the gaffer handed the mic to carl dickinson who led the stokies into a rendition of delilah. Little did they know that the stoke version includes the line ' i felt my dick in her hand and she laughed no more '. Cue mass apologies from the sky crew. Priceless.

A fantastic signing by pulis, ab faye is a defensive rock who will go down in potters history along with fellow hardmen denis smith, vince overson, ian cranson and sergei shtanuik. A tough tackler who has experience at the top level, a great reader of the game and he will never give any less than 110%. Faye is a sengalese international and is forming a formidable partnership with shawcross at the heart of the stoke defence. When catflap asked me 'if stoke city were a band who would they be', my answer was the legendary punk rock outfit black flag because they were ' brutal, uncompromising and relentless'. These qualities can be said of abdoulaye so his stoke city rocker will be....

Black Flag

Nervous Breakdown

Young ryan has made a real impact at the britannia since joining us, initially on loan in 2007. Some steady performances and goals in the promotion season saw tony pulis persuade the youth to turn his back on a new contract at manchester united and join the potters for a fee rising to two million. A few mistakes at the start of this season saw him dropped from the team and he publicly expressed his displeasure about it but has come back fighting and is now part of the first choice centre back partnership with ab faye. Ryan has already bagged himself a couple of england u-21 caps and a call up to the full squad in the future would not be surprising.

A solid and reliable defender who still has plenty to learn at a young age, in stoke city rockers terms........

Arctic Monkeys

View From The Afternoon (US Radio Session)

Anyone who watched this lad come through the ranks at stoke knew we had a quality player, griffin was superb in his first senior spell at the club and eventually moved to newcastle united for 1.5 million in 1998. We all thought he would become a fully fledged international for england but managed only to appear for the u21's. Injuries kept hampering a promising career even though griffin had some good spells at the toon playing plenty of european football. A poor appearance record at newcastle (76 games in six years) and portsmouth (43 in three years) spoke for itself and he never seemed to shake the treatment table syndrome. Loan spells back at his home club resulted in him being made a contract offer by stoke but instead he foolishly opted for derby county and their premier league assault which went down like lead balloon with this east midlands potter. He eventually returned to stoke halfway through the season, tail between his legs saying he had made a mistake joining that rabble from up the A50 and now as we speak he's plying his trade again in the premier league with his boyhood club. Normally choosing derby over stoke would lead me to the depths of despair and forgiveness would not be an option, but andy griffin was so upfront about the fact that is was a stupid move and he was foolish, it made me respect the man and forgive northy did. He's lost a bit of pace nowadays but his experience and know how is a good part of the potters set up, he is steady and reliable but whether he gets the captain's armband back off abdoulaye faye is another story....

Massive prospect when he was a nipper at stoke........I've always personally thought it was a case of....

Too Much Too Young

By The Specials

The season is getting older by the second so it's time to start bringing the heavyweight features into effect. We'll start with the rockers squad special. Each player will be given the musical treatment by northy. You are all hero's to me lads and i know you will make me and all the stokies worldwide proud. WE LOVE YOU CITY

1. Thomas Sorensen

A Great aquistion over the summer by tony pulis, the great dane is growing stronger by the game and his experience and shot stopping prowess is giving the team...........

PROTECTION

By Massive Attack

Because he can do stuff like this. GOOOOAAAARN RICARDO

A shout out to the catflap bolton wanderers editor mick green, he's swept the board this month, taken the lolly and fair play to the fella. He reckons he's posting so much as his boys are going down and he won't get the chance next year, you changed your mind after the win at hull mick?

That brings me to another point, 72 posts in a month is something northy will never achieve because i just ain't got the time, 50 will give me a nosebleed so all my fellow catflap editors don't need to worry about me publishing mumbo jumbo is search of the loot.

SCFC

Heres a tasty little rocker for you in honour of the prolific striker mick green. His dedication to his blog is concrete, he must be made of stone........

A great video, celebrating the spirit of 72 and other great stoke stuff. Well done to the uploader.

The voice of stoke city on bbc radio stoke, our nige has been waxing lyrical over potters games for many a year, he passed the mark of 1500 commentaries in 2007. Personally ive shared some dark times with nige, at the depths of despair, the tone of his voice making you realise stoke had no chance of getting back in a game. His insistence on saying stockings instead of socks, because after all that is what they are, stockings. Many stokies will have memories of sharing a crunch encounter in the company of this man. Since the evolution of the world wide web, exiled potters can now listen in via the official site. Nige spreading his gospel around the globe, stoke have supporters in the most unusual of places. Stokies here stokies there.... The ultimate tribute your editor can pay mr johnson is by recalling the time when i couldn't make the last game at the victoria ground against wba because of illness, the gut wrenching feeling that day of not being able to travel to stoke to say goodbye to my spiritual home was soothed by the fantastic audio resume provided by mr stoke, when he was choking back the tears describing how jimmy greenhoff was on the pitch putting the ball in the net as a cast of former favourites entertained the crowd pre-match. Top Man. Mr Stoke City

Peter Hoekstra hat trick against reading at the brit. Classic stuff.

There's only one tony pulis, if there is a man with broader shoulders and a thicker skin in football, name him. During his first spell as potters manager he saved the club from relegation, it went down to the wire and a 1-0 victory over reading on the last day preserved stoke's second tier status. During this season 2002/03 there was a 6-0 reverse at nottingham forest, pulis battened down the hatches after that and got the team playing with grit and determination. 2003/04 saw an 11th place finish on a mediocre budget, good work tone. In 2005 pulis was sacked after 'failing to exploit the foreign market', it still sounds ridiculous to this day and the idiots who made the decision should still be scraping off the egg. A laurel and hardy style season followed under johan boskamp whilst pulis managed plymouth. Once peter coates had regained control of the club in 2006 there was only one man he wanted at the helm. Crazily getting booed by stoke fans more than once for a so called negative style, pulis exploited the loan market and brought in the likes of salif diao and lee hendrie. Quality performances followed and stoke narrowly missed out on the play offs. 2007/08, we all know what happened next and here we are in the promised land. Some stoke supporters should be embarrassed until eternity for their treatment of pulis, but to this editor he is a legend, a real top bloke, he will never screw our club over because like us HE IS STOKE.

The roar came from the boothen end terrace, the stoke faithful saluting their hero. Steino theres only one steino.... Mark stein had just scored a scorching bullet past man uniteds great dane and the great old victoria ground was immersed in ear splitting volume.  A legend for all stoke fans who attended games in the early 90's, the man had great skill and a snipers eye for goal, 50 in 89 appearances and if you add the goals scored when returnng on loan its 55 in 100.  Sold to chelsea for 1.5 million in 1993, we had lost a legend but that was money the club could not refuse at that time.  His goal that won the autoglass at wembley in 92 and his mammoth tally  of the promotion season made him a crowd pleaser and your editor will never forget a certain goal he scored in a 3-2 win at nottingham forest.  Even on his loan return from chelsea he played with distinction. Fair play steino. Top lad

Formed 1863, founder members, went bust, re-emerged. Matthews, Steele, Franklin, Matthews again. Waddington era, promotion, League Cup winners '72. Viollett, Setters, Dobing, Hudson, Ritchie, Greenhoff, Conroy, cracking football, roof blows off stand, downhill slide, 17 points, bye bye top flight. Mills, Ball, the Macari years, Divison Two trophy. Autoglass, play-off despair, Parker, serious aggro, Icelandic years, away cards, Coates and Pulis back in. Investment, PROMOTION. THE FUTURE…