The Five Greatest Moments Of The Greatest Ever Year?

There has been much conjecture recently as to whether 2011 has been Stoke City’s best ever year, as TP said after beat Spurs.

I wasn’t born just after the war when we nearly won the title, nor was I born in 1972. I wasn’t even quite born in 1974-5 when injuries robbed us, so it’s hard to say, and even harder to make an accurate comparison, however I can talk with confidence about everything that has happened to Stoke City since attending my first match, as a nine year old boy in August 1985.

We have had some good years since. Chief among them obviously, was 1992-3 when our Steino/Nigel Gleghorn (still my favourite two ever Stoke players) inspired side swept all before it and won the league.

1991-2 was great too, Lou came, he bought Steino, he gave us hope, he exorcised the Alan Ball years at a stroke and we won at Wembley. Or how about 1996? When arguably only bad leadership from the boardroom cost us a place in the top league, as Lou’s patched up side performed heroically.

1999-00 was a personal favourite of mine too. When Brian Little did his mid-summer flit and second choice manager Gary Megson was appointed to take over, few could have envisaged what happened – the first choice manager was a baseball cap wearing Welshman who chose Bristol City instead (wonder what happened to him…?). Say what you like about the Icelanders but that season was magnificent, that away game at Wycombe, when Gudjon Thordarson came over to the fans at the end, while Stokies sung “its just like watching Iceland” is still one of my best ever away games.

Then there’s everything since 2006. It’s been the best five years of my Stoke supporting life. Now is not the time to document these seasons (one day I will write a book on it!) but there was our Lee Hendrie/Ricardo Fuller inspired renaissance, the promotion the season after that surprised everyone except those who had actually seen us play and the Premier League Years which we all know about.

So there has, even in what has seemed like a dark time for the club, been much to enjoy and reflect upon but still I have not answered the question as to whether 2011 has been our best ever (recent) year.

Despite my affection for the years mentioned above, I would have to say, yes it has been – and here are five reasons why. Five of my favourite ever moments as a Stoke supporter and therefore in my life. Five reasons why, whatever happens 2011 will probably be my favourite Stoke year for good.

1)      Beating West Ham in the Quarter Finals of the cup.

What an atmosphere, what a game! And standing there at the end, in the ground, just jumping for joy. And if that wasn’t enough how about when we were stood talking to some friends outside while horns started blaring and people starting screaming “its Bolton, its Bolton!” and we knew this might be the year we got to the cup final.

2)      THAT  game with Bolton

The greatest performance ever by a Stoke team? Certainly in my lifetime. Given the magnitude of the game, of the occasion it has to be. We simply and completely destroyed Bolton Wanderers. It could have been more than five. It is without question the happiest I have ever felt walking out of a ground.

3)      The FA Cup final

It might be a cliché to say it, but those that know me know it’s true. All my life I have dreamed about watching Stoke City in an FA Cup final. I have dreamed of being there when the teams came out seeing all the flags, the colour, just the day itself. And I don’t mind admitting that I got dewy eyed when “Abide With Me” started. For my Grandad, the reason I am a Stoke fan, who died in 2005, just before we got good again, for my Mum, who died in 09 and didn’t even really like football, but would have been so pleased for her sons.

Yes the game was awful and I still have never watched Tevez lift the cup up (and never will) but that day wasn’t about football. It was – and will remain until we win something – the greatest day of my life.

4)      The game with Chelsea at home in 2010/11 season

An odd choice, I will grant you, but I would argue that it is the best game of football I have ever seen us involved in. This wasn’t Bury or Mansfield we were playing, this wasn’t a plucky display in the third round of the cup, this was us going toe to toe with a team that had won about nine games on the trot and really thought they could win the league. This was the day when Stoke City players knew they belonged in the Premier League. It was also the day when we would have won in Ricardo Fuller doesn’t miss a late sitter, but this is Stoke, we can’t have everything.

And finally 5) Thun away

The Europa cup wasn’t supposed to be easy but it has been, we were supposed to get beat by Hadjuk Split, but we didn’t. As previously spoken about on these blogs I am petrified of flying, so haven’t been to any of the other games. My brother went to Split, and I joined him for a trip on the coach to beautiful Switzerland.

The journey was terrible, and if anyone goes with Thompson Sport again they want their head examined, but everything about the town and the game itself was brilliant. The welcome we received, the weather, the town itself, the game, the atmosphere, the result – this might be my only ever European away night and it was very, very special.

So that’s it, my personal choice for the moments of 2011. Maybe 2012 will beat it?

Running Out Of Credit

Well, a lot has happened since my last blog, hasn’t it?!

It was doom and gloom before the Blackburn match – people talking about “must wins” and so on, now its three wins later and we have the last 32 of the Europa League to look forward to – and what a tie too!

So there’s nothing to moan about, right?!

Well so you’d think, but something has vexed me hugely in the last week or so. Indeed we have seen prime examples of it recently.

It happened Sunday and has been happening since, and it happened on Wednesday.

It’s been happening since promotion and no doubt will continue to do so.

Simply put, Stoke City do not get any credit for anything that we do. And I will go further – the mainstream media wants us to lose.

On Sunday we had one of our finest ever days in the Premier League. Our players worked like Trojans and beat a team that many were tipping to win the league this season.

Yes we had some luck along the way, of course we did. But it made up for the game last season when the same referee managed to miss a ball that went behind the line and lets not start talking about all the other decisions that went against us and continue to do so, shall we?

It is the opinion of this blog that moaning about referees is pointless and stupid. And I have written as such on numerous occasions both on here and in other mediums, however that works both ways. We will not be embarrassed when we get some luck go our way for once.

But no, whenever we have a good win, like Liverpool earlier in the season, or Spurs it seems that these things get analysed to the limit. Instead of focussing on our heroic defensive display against King Kenny’s men, all we heard was our penalty should never have been given and they should have had three of their own.

After the Spurs game the same thing happened. Shawcross is an animal (and I am not convinced the foul on Kabul was a penalty) we handballed it, we did this, that and the other, oh and there was some absurd nonsense about Ryan Shotton’s throw-ins.

Then on Wednesday I am sat watching the Besiktas game and the commentators were seemingly desperate for us to lose. I honestly believe that if Ricardo Fuller hadn’t been so unlucky with that header, or Matt Upson hadn’t been sent off we would have won the game, but listening to Stewart Robson and Jim Proudfoot you would have thought we were being destroyed. The classic from Robson was “Higginbotham went to sleep for the goal, he’s had a poor game.” Despite the fact it was actually Rory Delap who failed to mark.

So in the interests of fairness here are some facts for Robson, Proudfoot and anyone else who wants them:

Since we went up in 2008 we have performed fantastically. Three mid-table finishes, an FA Cup Final, a League Cup Quarter Final and while we are at it we are the only British team to Qualify from the Europa League to the knockout stages, in our first European campaign for 40 years.

With all due deference to my Stoke bias I would argue that no other club has gone up in recent years and performed so well. The likes of Bolton – who are frequently held up as a benchmark – and Charlton went up and down before they established themselves, which touch wood we haven’t looked like doing – rocky spell in November notwithstanding.

If that was any other club the pundits would be hailing the rise as meteoric. The pundits loved the likes of Blackpool, Hull and now Swansea and Norwich, and why? Because the perception of us is we are horrible, we foul and we play long ball.

Now I really couldn’t care less how we play the game, in fact I like direct football.  What I don’t like is my club getting no credit for its achievements.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, and certainly as Stoke City supporters we are allowed to gripe and to moan and to react to defeats in any way we please. I don’t write these things through rose tinted spectacles, nor do I think everything at Stoke City is perfect, but we are entitled to a fair hearing from those who are supposed to be impartial.