Stoke City FC

 Stoke have shown many qualities this season not least raw passion and power. Crass

A cracking tune from the legends that are queen. The lp's they put out in the 70's and beyond were nailed to the wall classics. GOOOOAAARN FREDDIE

Nottingham's finest band bring the SCR series near an ear splitting crescendo

It seems i've been busted by the you tube police with the stoke vs hull video but i'm positive you have watched the goals many times over, what a win at hull. The best of the season in my opinion, if only for the reason that we finally shut everybody up, closed the door. The amount of hype surrounding hull was reaching 'beatlemania' proportions in the early stages of the season, understandable to a certain degree after the whirlwind start, unfortunately the players and manager started to believe it and it all went downhill from there. To come through and seal our survival against tango man's boys was pretty special and two great goals settled proceedings. Saying all this i would rather see hull stay up at the expense of a more established premiership club so hope they manage to pull a result or two out the bag. I love the way stoke have fought against adversity this season, the fact that we have been scrapping so hard to defend the name of our great football club against the sad and misguided words of washed out players and pundits, cheap shot radio stations and bookies, all looking for the headline. Can't wait to get up the britannia on saturday and give back everything stoke city have given to me this season. We have fought all the way, the players have bled for the red and white shirt, we have found new heroes and seen our own emerge from the ashes to stoke the red and white fire which is burning brighter than it has for a long long time. WE LOVE YOU

Writing about stoke city football club this season has given me the greatest pleasure and being able to bring the tunes into it has added some spice, a flavour you know you want to taste. Every day until the end of the campaign there's a stoke city rocker for you. Thanks people.

John Holt - Ali Baba

Let the PR machine roll on..............

Stoke 1-0 Blackburn Att27500

A fantastic victory for the potters, it's been great to be able to say that of late, what a run in we are having. Every player giving their all and more, the fans just keep giving and giving too, the energy created around the britannia stadium is gaining recognition far and wide and a club once notorious for scrapping and mayhem are now climbing to the top of a different tree. Even the pundits are getting in on the act, paul merson on sky sports news saying that he had never seen a team work so hard for each other. Liam lawrence breaking the tension of the game with the only goal, it's great to see liam starting to fire on all cylinders at such a crucial stage of the season. Blackburn will have enough to escape the mire i'm sure, as for stoke do we dare to have a go and see how far up the table we can finish, now is the right time of the season to be talking about this, when you are on a run leading into the final straight, why not talk of a top half finish, we have spent all season worrying about relegation and now find ourselves nudging at the top half. It's not arrogance it's looking at the reality of a team whose players are all fit as a fiddle and hungry to prove we are good enough to seriously compete in this league and with five games to go we are in the middle of the table looking up. The finest sight for me on saturday was the table which showed us (for 24 hours at least) above moneybags man city with the shady sheik at the helm. I have dubbed them the devil this season for splashing around ridiculous money and paying crazy wages, a careless strategy when you don't have the tradition and infastructure of the more established clubs at the top. Players strolling round the pitch earning more than the average guy earns in years, seemingly only giving 75% for the shirt. Anyway folks, i really hope we go at it for the rest of the season and as the headline suggests let's 'chase the devil.....

It's one of those big days today, the likes of which that you look forward to in the months leading up to it. Yep it's down to the O2 arena in london to see the mighty AC/DC in concert. The DC have shown qualities which you could align to the spirit and bounce-back-ability of the potters having fought adversity and decline over the years but coming through the other end fighting hard and earning respect. A bit like all the rock n roll greats, iggy, the ramones etc. LET THERE BE ROCK AND LET THERE BE STOKE CITY FC.

'Ay up folks what an important match we have ahead of us on saturday, a visit to the mecca of art deco football, yep we are off to the hawthorns. A massive fixture which sees the potters still looking for their first away win of the season. Will it come saturday, who knows, it's hard to get upbeat about the run of form away from the britannia but we always seem to pull something off against the baggies. Will it be different this time, who knows again. All i know is that the action starts here and with a stoke city rocker as well. A tune which encapsulates the type of performance (the miming aside!!) the potters will have to put on against albion. Raw, aggressive and downright nasty.

The Exploited - Dead Cities

Thanks catflap for the eventual heads up. This proud potter will continue posting. PS. Me and my readers have a message for you in a stoke city rockers style.

For what it's worth

You keep me hanging on

Well folks the abuse has been coming thick and fast lately from all corners of the media. TalkShite radio presenter jimmy quinn compared us with a pub team and is sticking the pins in the voodoo potter as we speak praying for relegation for the reds. He thinks we don't belong in this league and the majority of presenters on that excuse for a radio station think the same and aim childish and generally dumb ass comments at the club. There was a fella in the guardian who wrote a pretty nasty review of the 'boro game and also questioned the intelligence of ryan shawcross, spitting bile, hope it chokes ya walrus face. Most of the people who are saying these things had us down as 100% dead certs for relegation and would have expected us to be dead and buried by now, they didn't bank on the fire that burns in the bellies of players and supporters, this blaze has now turned into a raging inferno so expect the explosion of passion from stokies to get louder over the coming weeks. We all want the same thing, survival. The detractors are saying that other clubs deserve to stay in this league because of the style of football they try to play, you know the tippy tappy dot to dot stuff that's going to get the baggies relegated. Stoke are capable of playing some fantastic stuff and we can pass it about but only when the time is right, we need to play to the strengths of the players that we have got and we do that, our main assets are being strong, organised and commited and slowly we will see the players coming in who can add dimensions and put the mix in the blender for a rather wonderful sauce. Matthew etherington is a perfect example, a ball player but also a hard worker. The perfect stoke combination.

Anyway fools listen up. Screw the lot of you. WE ARE STOKE AND .........

YOU LOVE US

A new feature here catflappers, ripped right from the pages of the bolton wanderers blog. I've been getting more and more amused reading greeny's weekly betting column and his hilarious attempts at winning some dough so have decided to basically copy him and launch my own pathetic attempt at winning some cash. As you can see the stake is a couple of quid so i'll always be looking for a touch of value. In the unlikely event of me actually bringing in any bacon the money will go to the NVC charity....Northy's Vinyl Collection.

So here goes. Juve v Chelsea 9/5  Barnsley v Birmingham 13/10  Wolves 4/6 v Ipswich and the long shot Walsall v Crewe 11/5.

£2 Four fold

You know how things go down on these pages now, every momentus event is coupled with a quality tune because without football there is no rock 'n' roll and vica versa.

The Ace Of Spades

A new series to promote stoke city supporters who play in bands. To hold two such passions is comendable in every sense as we all know the footie and the tunes run hand in hand. The first act to get the 'rockers' treatment is stoke act OxScapula who play a quality brand of hard edged and fractured rock n roll which reminds me very much of the great bands who emerged throughout the 80's and early 90's on labels such as sub pop and dischord. I'll be going down to check them out when they visit nottingham on march 28th. Check out the myspace profile which carries details of forthcoming gigs and such like. Keep up the good work lads. Keep it tight and kick it out.  http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=169773798

Ox Scapula - The Man

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

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

I remember when stoke signed this fella, my immediate thought was, nice one he used to play for juventus didn't he?? It didn't dawn on me for a while that the journey from turin to plymouth was a downhill one. Unfortunately big vince has done next to nothing in a stoke shirt, the club even stuck by him when he was jailed for bullshitting the cops. I was hoping he would be gone by the time i finish writing this but probably not. I hate coming down on stoke players because they wear the red and white shirt and represent our great club but like most potters fans i resent pericard picking up a nice tidy sum every week, i've no idea what it is but it would be no surprise to hear it's 8k a week or something. Shocking. Basically the bloke is robbing us week in week out, serious questions must be asked somewhere along the line in the shape of how and why.

In Stoke City Rockers Terms

Bankrobber by The Clash

When you think of the mighty heavyweight clashes what comes to mind? Stoke v wolves maybe, ali v foreman, could be the blur vs oasis spats. Nah man, the real beef went down in london on a sunny morning in may '08, the meat in the sarnie being the showdown between your editor and avram 'sourface ' grant. Let me put you in the picture. After a quality evening down the smoke watching the mercurial american group 'ween' at shepherds bush empire a heavy headed northy sat on the steps of a hotel near the venue, smoking and deep in thought. As i sat in a trance like state, mesmerised by the slow moving traffic i spotted a big merc and thought wow this fella must have some bloody dosh, a deeply disturbing serious and to put it straight, ugly face peered from the window checking out the red and white stripes that proudly shone in the morning sun. As the car pulled alongside me it became apparant that the ugly fella staring at me was avram grant, the then chelsea manager. The stand off was intense, our eyes transfixed on each other,he even managed a smile, yep that's right a smile as he checked the holy words on the badge, stoke city fc. The millionaire manager vs the hungover dude wearing a stoke shirt. Well let me tell you he looked down and admitted defeat, probably crapping himself as the sheer force of the potters shirt forced him on his not so merry way.  

To celebrate this meeting of the minds i bring you a massive slice of heavyweight dub and an almighty clash between king tubby and augustus pablo.

King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown

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

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

Yes that's right people and it comes in the form of a football club, a proud club with proud fans turning into a bloated monster devouring everything in it's path, stand up manchester city and stand up the shady sheik.

Yes i'm sheik shady, the real sheik shady all you other sheik shadies are just imitating

Football had become an ugly monster many years ago, making millionaires of people who were average at their profession, michael ricketts comes to mind here, it's not his fault that leeds united payed him ridiculous sums of money for doing bugger all, more fool them but he is a shining example and a real bullet in the head for the average working man who is becoming increasingly alienated from the beautiful game. Football has become more than a kickabout, it's a global entertainment in the same way as music or cinema which is great because it needed a kick up the arse years ago and we got it with the premier league and sky. With exposure comes revenue and now we sit on our tea break in some shit hole of a factory and read about players who earn in a week what it would take us six years to accumulate, thats the way it is, we've got to deal with it, ugly as it may be.

This shocker of a tune is coming to a crescendo in the form of man city and their new owners, inflating the transfer market with ridiculous offers and valuations, trying to buy the love of men, yep the same man city who were battling it out with stoke in division three ten or so years ago. Fourteen million pounds for craig bellamy, a player who has had more clubs than stringfellow and is about as loyal as a grass. Good player when he can be arsed but if that is the state of the market then it's another nail in the coffin of common sense. The kaka situation is reality hitting for their fans, the bloke sounded all along like he didn't want to be part of this shady enterprise and fair play to him although the possibility of milan burning to the ground may have had some sway also. You can't buy the love of players on the back of some pipe dream, robinho has only just come round after they dosed him up in brazil and bundled him in the baggage compartment of a jumbo jet bound for eastlands, he's done a runner from their training camp. What next, ten million for vincent pericard of the mighty potters, he used to play for juventus so he must be good eh!! They will probably win the league next year and this piece of writing will look foolish but do i give a flying oatcake. NO

SUSPECT DEVICE BY STIFF LITTLE FINGERS (Live in london 79, check the action down the front, all the young punks)

Because football will blow up in our faces...Keep it tight stoke

Carrying on the dog theme after tony pulis classic ' we are battersea dogs home not crufts' quote. Check out this quality XI of canine favourites from northys record collection. Bite 'em on the arse stoke.

Stoke City Woofers

1. David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
2. The Cult - Peace Dog
3. The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
4. Led Zeppelin - Black Dog
5. Wu Tang Clan - Dog Shit
6. Butthole Surfers - Barking Dogs
7. AC/DC - Dog Eat Dog
8. The Exploited - Dogs Of War
9. The Cramps - Let Your Pussy Do The Dog
10. Butthole Surfers - Lonesome Bulldog
11. Ozzy Osbourne - Bark At The Moon

The first time i heard the white stripes they blew me nut off, your editor was one of the lucky few who saw them in a small venue before it all kicked off and they hit superstardom in this country at least. The fact that they adorned their LP cover in red and white striped clothing also made me feel good. I've chosen this tune to boot our arses into 2009 because the qualities that it holds are the ones that stoke city and the fans are going to need to help us get over the line.

Passion, Discipline, Sharpness and Desire. GOOOOAAARN STOKE

The White Stripes - Black Math (live)

We've got a testing time ahead boys and girls. Let's all stand up and be counted in 2009. To everyone connected with the club. Happy New Year.

To see us out of 2008.....The Ramones

http://www.catflapfootball.com/Football-Blogs/Stoke-City/2008/10/10/StokeCityRockersPart2.aspx

This stoke city rocker was a call for peace and a tune full of big beats and fine lyrical wordplay. Proper old school hip hop for positive types. We as supporters of the mighty potters should all unite behind the team in what will be a tough second half to the campaign. Negativity is a disease that spreads quick and can be dangerous. Let's get back to where it started, the passion, spirit and togetherness that got us to the promised land.

A call to the staff, players and supporters. United strength is stronger. GOOAAARN STOKE

Jurassic 5 - Concrete Schoolyard (live)

A bostin piece of rocksteady for you at christmas time.

Love from the SCFC ROCKERS

http://www.catflapfootball.com/Football-Blogs/Stoke-City/2008/10/10/StokeCityRockersPart2.aspx

Beautiful shanty from the coral straight from the rockers series. Get this one on before you head down the game. GOOOOAAARN

The decision today that was made in conjunction with lancashire police and blackburn rovers fc to only honour 4700 tickets of a prospected 7,500 is history coming back to haunt us. The spectre of the hooligan era looms large and the forces in the north west seem to have the dimmest view of the potters, kick off times have already been moved this season because of supposed intelligence and now over 2500 stokies are now deprived of a ticket for this massively important cruncher of a game. General sale was scheduled to go ahead on monday but now the sold out signs are up because of the witheld allocation. Other teams such as liverpool and sunderland have had the full package so why not us? There is certainly no basis whatsoever when you look at the fact that the majority of stoke games are trouble free nowadays in and around the ground. Already this season stoke fans have been subject to the section 27 law which basically allows police to round up away fans who are having an enjoyable drink in pubs on the way to the game and accuse them of looking like they might cause trouble at some point and send them back home whilst taking their match tickets. Hopefully this pig headed decision will be reversed otherwise they run the risk of having a home end with hundreds of potters fans in it. The police are the ones who are causing the trouble here, instead of policing 7000 odd stokies in one end of the ground they now will have to look after city fans all over ewood park because one thing is for sure, tickets will be available. Since the id card came in 2002 (it has recently been suspended) going away hasn't been much fun sometimes, getting herded about by over zealous officers with a dose of paranoia to boot. The blackburn game was to be a celebration of freedom, it still will be because 4700 is a superb following but the whole thing stinks..big time....

Take It Away Bizzle.

Finally, many thanks for your time and for the effort and passion you put into team talk. This blog is all about the tunes as well as the potters which is a fair reflection on my own personality. Hit me with them homzy, what are your top five tunes to slap on when your hitting some pre match lubrication?

The headline for the stoke v hull review was inspired by this mammoth slice of rythym. Two sevens clash by culture is a classic, if you slam this on the record deck before you whack on your fred perry and shoot up the match you will be walking tall with the swagger and cock that only reggae can give you. Peace brothers and sisters.

We Are Stoke

A message to mr mowbray from martha and the vandellas

http://www.catflapfootball.com/Football-Blogs/Stoke-City/2008/09/02/StokeCityRockers.aspx

Here's another chunky heavyweight blast of rock n roll from the stoke city rockers archives. A battlecry for all potters. Oh We're Stoke City Oh Stoke City.

Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant

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 Rallying Cry to the potters for todays game from the greatest live band in the world. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. Let the power of the two drummers be the beat as the lads come marching out at the jjb. Give it everything stoke. Make us even prouder. Gooaarn