The {Official} Stoke City F.C. Thread

[Y 2 Jake]

Great news kids. Stoke are top again. They had what I hear was areally boring 0-0 draw with Watford. I don't care as I wasn't there and a point was good for us.

They're above Bristol who've played the same ammount of games as us. But Watford have a game in hand and are three points below us, and WBA have two in hand and are 5 points below. Maybe the FA Cup will make Brom stumble.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Bollocks.Bollocks.Bollocks.Bollocks.Bollocks.Bollocks.Bollocks.Bollocks.Bollocks.

Hull win 3-0. Bastards.

Bristol win by scoring in the last few minutes.

West Brom win scoring in the last few minutes.

And Stoke draw. You guessed it. Sheffield Wed scored in the last couple of minutes. What a fucker.

Are Stoke still top? Err I don't know. The tables haven't been updated yet. Top of my head I think yes, on goal difference. Hull are a point behind, we have a higher goal difference than Bristol, Watford lost and Brom were 4 points behind I think. But I could be wrong.

 

[THE Madcap]

hey Jake, nice result for my boys Palace last night!

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Well you can't win them all. I'm a little pissed, but it's not the end of the world. Nobody here expected up to be that high up anyway. So making the play-offs is good enough.

Anaywa everyone else other than Hull are doeing shite. At least we have been drawing a few, I still exp[ect us to make the top two on default.

 

[THE Madcap]

I would much rather you finish top two than Bristol City or Hull, neither of them two strike me as Premiership quality, whereas Stoke do have a decent squad.

I didn't notice until yesterday that you had Ameobi and Nash. How are they doing at Stoke? And also, how's Leon Cort? always thought he was a decent defender when we had him at selhurst. Who do you fancy for promotion/playoffs this year?

My Prediction:

1. West Brom
2. Stoke
---------------
3. Hull
4. Bristol City
5. Watford
6. Wolves
---------------
7. Palace

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Your table is pretty much how I'm predicting it. We face Bristol in a week or so. If we win that I fancy us for 2nd.

Ameobi hasn't done fuck all yet. But I guess it'll take time. The others are doing pretty well, Nash has the hardest job. We have a leaky defence.

 

[THE Madcap]

You gotta be excited now Jake? Promotion should be in the bag for your boys. Me on the other hand, I'm nervous. 2 games to go, 3 points clear and Hull away on Saturday!!! Not forgetting the fact that Wolves can pull the deficit back to 2 points before Saturday. I don't care what anyone says, The Championship always has and always will be more exciting than the Premiership!!!

 

[Y 2 Jake]

It's good to know that we could possibly go up tomorrow. If Hull lose or draw and we win then we'll be up. It's exciting. I'm not expecting us to have a great Premiership season. If anything I feel we'll challenge Derby for the worst team ever. But it's an experience. I'm also looking forward to seeing all those Premiership sides complaining about how cold it is in The Brit.

 

[THE Madcap]

hey man, even if you go straight back down, it's a MAJOR cash injection, which is definitely not a bad thing... Maybe you'll be able to BUY players next season haha.

The results in the Championship were so shit today, for your team and mine and I for one apologise for my team not helping yours out today!

 

[Y 2 Jake]

It's no big deal. All we need is a draw off Leicester. Hull are facing Ipswich so I'm expecting a draw off us both. Lecester need to win to stay up, Stoke need to win to guarentee automatic promotion.

I think Ipswich can still make the play-offs.

Anywho. Great season. Vale are down, Stoke are probably going up. Saving it till the last day makes it better anyway.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

West Brom drew last night. So them and Stoke are even on points. Problem is that they're all but up. They have a huge goal difference on Stoke and Hull. Neither are going to score 10 goals on Sunday. Just not going to happen. So Brom are up. But if Stoke win and they draw we're top. Which is awesome. We only need to draw with Leicester, while Hull have to win. Leicester also need to win to stay up. It'll be a hard game, but I just don't see us losing. But I also don't see Hull winning either. I expect a draw off them.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Yesterday was a great and monumetal moment in football history. A sleeping giant returned to the top flight of English football for the first time in 23 years. It was a great moment. Great match. I enjoyed ever second. It's been a long campaign. I remember being on holiday at the start of the season. i had this strange Greek man telling me that he was friends with Dominic Matteo. I didn't believe him. He started a fight when I questioned it. I hit him. He said he was sorry. He then gave me a free cocktail. I think that is probably what made me into a diabetic. But it was very tasty.

Everyone said it couldn't be done. Everyone was saying that we'd slip up at the end. I always had faith. I knew we'd do it. I said at the beginning of the year. Well go up I said.

People will now come out and say that on any tother season you wouldn't have had enough points to go up. I say bullshit. 79 points will always get you in the play-offs. And in the play-offs anybody can go up. If we don't deserve to go up then neither do West Brom. Or any team for that matter.

Quickly I'd just like to thank our sponsours:

Britannia Building Society, Le Coq Sportif, Aztec, East Midlands Airport, E.On, Thomas Cook, Topps Tiles, Lidl, The X Shop, Killergram, In Bed With Faith.com, The Potteries Shopping Center, Blunts Shoes.

I'm sorry if I've forgot anybody.

Goodbye Championship. See you in August 2009.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Are Stoke One Of The Most Important Teams In The History Of Football? ​

The answer, dear friends, is yes. The Fooball League is the oldest league in the world. Along with 11 other teams, Stoke were the founders. Along with West Brom, Wolves, Blackburn, Burnley, Everton, Derby, Notts County, Preston N.E., Bolton, Accrington F.C. & Villa, Stoke were in the first football league ever. I might go so far as to say that those teams invented the league format. I have no idea. But I'm claiming it anyway.

 

[Uncle Phatso]

I'd say they are then jake. Any team that was in on the first is important. And I applaud them and the other teams for doing it. I don't whatch to much football (soccer), because its never realy shown except on the spanish channel and I just can't really understand it so I just really end of saying screw it and flip through the channels. But in the rare chance that europian football or american soccer is on that along with lacrrose (please sp) I'll set down and whatch it. That along with rugby. I've allways throught I could be good at rugby. But In america you have as much chance in finding a real rugby team as making a billion dollers anymore. But anyways stoke and the other teams in the legue should be in the record books or should get more respect because without them there might not be legue teams. There might just be shitty teams facng good teams and such. Not saying that any people in soccer are all that bad. But some can be at times.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Our New Orange Striker​

Dave Kitson. I've heard he's pretty good. But what the fuck do I know. I've probably only seen about 5 Reading matches since he joined that club. At least we've signed somebody. It was getting to the point when I was unsure if we were going to get anybody. So that's two now. The Jamaican dude (who he?) and Kitson. At least you'll be able to tell when he's got the ball. I've never got how the people sitting next to me know the names of the playes with the balls. You can't read their shirts, and they all the look the same from where I'm sitting.

First pre-season friendly last night. Again about a week behind everyone else. Ok match. I didn't pay. I refuse. Newcastle Town isn't a ground. It's a pitch with a wall round it. No way was I paying. I went in the part and watched that shit.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

It's finally here. Today is the start of the new Premiership season. The main consensus is that Hull & Stoke are going down. It's just a question of who does worse. I don't agree with it myself. Where is West Brom in all of this? Fulham, Wigan & Bolton aren't much better either. It'll be a struggle, it'll go to one of the last few games, but Stoke have a chance of staying up.

Out main weakness was our defence. Thank fuck for a couple of signings this week. There's no reason why we should lose to Bolton today. A win or a draw is what we shoul expect. A 6 pointer for the first match of the season.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Great start to the new season. 3-1 victory. We dominated the first half, Bolton didn't really stand a chance. We slipped a little in the second half. But we new we had it in the bag, so there was no need for us to make too much of an effort. They scored in extra time, but it was nothing more than a gift from us to them. Top of the tabel now I believe. With Bolton losing that match they're now my faves to go down with a Derby record.

 

[Spunky]

Hahaha, It was 3-0 to Bolton before half-time.

I feel for Stoke though, I like to see fellow midland team's do well.

I reckon Amdy Faye will do a decent job in centre mid, He can pick out some good passes, and is a fairly good ball winner, If he need's to be.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

So apparently we scored in extra time, therefore earning a victory. Missed it myself, I'm not waiting in trafic for a fuckin' hour. I round the match up to an uneven 85 then I'm off. Caught the Villa goal, but really couldn't handle the rest.

The first half was one of the most boring matches I've seen in a long time. It was like the Stoke of 2005 all over again. But the second half was dynamite. Shame the second half couldn't have happened first.

Great win. A draw would have been great. Not ideal, but I was expecting a loss. Although it looks like we'll be shipping a lot of goals.

 

[Lee]

FANTASTIC win for Stoke, it's what was needed, after last week's loss to Bolton, and people paying out already, a win against a team like Villa is brilliant.

A very well done for Stoke, it seems this season is already going to be crazy (Spurs/Liverpool/Makems etc)

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Disappointing result yesterday. I really think we should get points from those type of games. The Villa victory was more than I though, but I expected at least a draw from Bolton & Boro. Next month is going to be hard. I'm optimistic of at least a point from the Everton game (Sky Sports 1 I think Jake fans), but I'm not holding out too much hope for Liverpool & Chelsea. Not that it matters, those aren't the teams we need to beat. So long as we do ship 5 goals in those matches I'll be happy. That must be really embarrassing.

 

[Lee]

To be fair Jake...Boro have done well so far, you did have Amdy faye sent off AND Boro missed a penalty. You have to look at the positives there, it seems things are going better for Stoke this season than anyone else thought.

A nice weeks break should recharge the old batteries!

 

[Y 2 Jake]

The ref in the Everton game was worthless. I'm not going to lie and say that Everton shouldn't have had a penalty, but the Fuller goal should have been allowed as well. At least the match was entertaining. I'm sure the whole season will be the same. I'll make the prediction of Stoke being the most entertaining team of the season, on a match basis.

I'm not concerned though. Maybe I'll feel differently at the end of September after the Chelsea & Liverpool games. But at the moment we have three points. There are at least 6 teams above us with only one point more. It's a poor starts. But it's not awful. Also Spurs are below us and it's not like they'll finish in the bottom three.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Great draw yesterday. Watched Match Of The Day and were were incredibly lucky. They could have destroyed us. Not that it's important. That's a point that nobody was expecting to get. The games against the big teams aren't important anyway. You can't go to Anfield and be looking to take points. But any points you do get are a bonus. Out most expensive player was only 5.5 million after all.

AllI need now is a good thrashing of Wigan, Hull & Brom today.

They just go on about Delaps long throws. Like it's something negative.

Because it is!!!

I beg to differ. It's not like he's not a solid all round player. The trows are just a bonus. Because the media have talked about them other people are picking up on it. I don't see what's wrong with it. Football is at it's most exciting when a goal can come at any time. A Delap throw is the same as a corner. Most people think that there could be a goal from any corner or free kick, so what's wrong if you think that more often when it comes to Stoke throws? Throw ins are just as much apart of the game as anthing else.

You can talk about how that's not the way to play real footbalL. But it is. Because more teams play like that. For every Arsenal there are thirty teams from lower divisons who play scrappy football. And if everybody does it then maybe the minority at the top of the football league have it wrong.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Overall I couldn't be more happy with the way the season is going so far. We've got poor results from some of the matches we should have got at least a point from. But we've also got points from games I didn't expect anything from. The only real disappointment of the season so far is losing to Derby. But that was the teams fault, they could have won that match easily, and they should have. But as we usually go out in the first round we're in I'm still pleased. I don't count the happering by Man Utd as a disappointment, it was going to happen at some point in the seasn, so it may as well be against the best team in the country.

We need to get a few points in December. And I honestly think it's another easy month. I'll be dissapointed if we don't get at least a point from the Newcastle, West Ham & Blackburn games, and three points against Fulham. I've written off the Man Utd game, and point is a bonus.

January will be hard, the only points I expect are off Man City. I think that if we do poor this month then we'll really struggle, but if we do well January won't be an issue.

We're getting lots of criticism for the way we play. Big deal, we've always been the same. Delap's throws weren't an issue last year, nobody in Stoke even noticed bar the odd ''oh ah that were a long un''. We are boring. Some of the criticism is unjust. The last three matches against Brom, Hull & Derby were a bore, but we dominated them. It's just a shame we can't finish. The Man Utd game must have been intresting from a neutral perspective, and only the Wigan match has been beyond awful.

Overall I'm optimistic about finishing above the relegation places, although with it being so close it'll be easy to slip up. It's a good job we've got an easy-ish run towards the end.

Either way I don't care. I'll go the matches anyway, I've got fuck all better to do.