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?