Stoke fan here in peace...

[ORFYDUCKMAG]

Good evening one and all.

Cheers to Ric for letting a guest user post early doors.

I work on the Stoke fanzine, 'Duck' (it's better than it sounds) and I'm planning a new series of articles 'Us and Them.' I ask fans other clubs 5 generic questions and I pool the most interesting responses (however nice/ nasty/ naughty) to from an overview.

Ideally it would be nice to avoid any cliche stuff (long ball thugs, Brexit capital, Stoke is a s***hole) but each to their own. No doubt a certain game in May 2011 might crop up. By all means gloat and take the p*** but some quirky/ honest/ original answers would be much appreciated... if you can be arsed of course. Another game in May 98 might also feature for obvious reasons! The more unusual the anecdotes the better - whether serious or ridiculous.

1. Generally as a club - how do you perceive Stoke City? Through the years? Any rivalry or a complete non-entity? Any reasons for admiration or contempt? Is/ was it a fixture of any interest?
2. Which Stoke vs Man City games do you remember personally (good/ bad/ indifferent) over the years and why?
3. Which Stoke teams/ managers/ players have made impressions on you over the years... good or bad?
4. The Stoke support: home and away - any thoughts? are we typical? Is there anything that makes us distinctive from other clubs?
5. Our grounds old and new - any particular memories/ opinions on the The Victoria Ground or the new Soulless version?

Thanks to anyone who can be bothered. For what its worth, I have lots of time for you lads - back in the third tier you really stuck it out. I have 2 stand out memories visits favourite visits to Maine Road:
1. A third tier clash which I think you won - Dickov was always a pest for us and he scored the winner. I was in that temporary stand and some of your lot kindly donated some house bricks to aid the Stoke-on-Trent regeneration programme!
2. We won midweek at your place - a Ray Wallace winner. I sat next to Nick Hancock and it was proper moody outside afterwards. I was keen on buying the Kippax(?) fanzine but thought better of it.
I try to for get the Mays of 1998 and 2011. The atmosphere for your visit to our place back in January 2009 was something else though. And I think it was boxing Day 87/ 88? when you brought down 12k fans to the Vic and nearly as many inflatables - what a sight! I was 10 and in awe of the the spectacle you created that day.

Anyway, thanks in advance. Stay safe. All the best,

Lee Hawthorne
@ORFYDUCKMAG

Evening one and all

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to my trespassing on your territory.

It was obviously a bit of a stupid/ brave risk venturing on here asking about your perceptions of all things Stoke City.

I’ve seen the whole range of tones/ comments haven’t I?!

Nothing has really surprised me in terms of positives or negatives. Given the Pulis years/ our recent political trends/ the caper of a section of our support over the years... I knew what was coming. We are divisive club in the sense that folk seem either charmed by us (plenty of begrudgingly respect) or else we are downright despised! Believe me, we are as divided in house – getting our fanbase to reach a consensus on anything from Brexit to Pulis is impossible. There are plenty of lefty football purists who buy our mag at least!

As with any city/ club though, there’s more to it than meets the eye: generalisations were always going to crop up. That's the nature of what we do isn't it?

I also expected a lot of love for our old ground compared to our new place. What I would give to go back and stand once more on that old Boothen End terrace at The Victoria Ground.

What was heartwarming was the depth of knowledge and rich memories that football fans hold onto. I love the obscure links we have between our cities/ towns/ clubs through mates/ family/ jobs etc.

I sent out these 5 questions to fans of over 20 clubs. So far, it seems that fans of Wolves/ Everton/ Sunderland/ Liverpool/ West Ham/ PNE/ Oldham and Man City have responded in enough detail to warrant an individual article in the fanzine. I didn’t bother with Crewe, Vale or Arsenal for obvious reasons. One foaming Gooner did hijack the Liverpool to forum to have a pop though – him doing that made me feel like less of a sad b****** for what I was doing on there!

Whenever matchdays return to our lives, I will get cracking on some of these, publish them and then post them onto the respective forums.

I will have one more check in a few days in case any late contributions have surfaced. Cheers to moderators for allowing this as well.

Whether you were dismissive/ funny/ bitter/ knowledgeable/ brutal or complimentary – thanks very much for your time. Some wonderful stories emerged out of this – it made me realise how much we all have in common (every club seems to have a similar cross-section of folk).

Best wishes

@ORFYDUCKMAG

 

[Churchlawtonblue]

Orfyduckmag, my two pennies worth is a follows.

I live on Cheshire Staff border so have several good fiends who are Stoke fans perhaps that gives my perspective a more positive slant.
Been to the Brit several times mostly under Pulis and then Hughes.

I disliked Pulis not because of the football he played, but because he always complained about our money, gave very little if credit to our style of play. Strangely he never did that to Fergusson when he lost to them as I understand him and Ferguson are good friends, which is another reason to dislike him.

Aside from Hughes, who i guessed would be the wrong appointment after Pulis as he doesn't focus on defence there are one or two other links between our clubs as others have pointed out. Stephen Ireland who i loved at City but for me never seemed to for-fill his potential. Shay Given a great keeper who we were lucky enough to have and of course Mike Doyle.

Crouches goal was excellent but disappointing, but most disappointing result i have witnessed was losing to you 0-1 to Diouf under Pellers when we dominated the game. I didnt go to the 5-2 game, glad I didnt.

Best results were the Cup Final where i found the Stoke fans i bumped into after and before the game to be excellent, like Sunderland, Wigan, Watford and not like Villa, the Scousers or Rags. Chelsea were OK?

The 7 -2 demolition was exhibition stuff by a City side and KDB on top form against a typical Hughes side.

Never had a problem with the way you played thats your prerogative and liked the fact that it upset Wenger and gooners.

Dont particularly like Mclean because of his IRA sympathies, he needs to move with the times.

Hope you come up mainly as my friends would be pleased. Denise Coates has stacks of money and Peter Coates seems like a nice fella, I met him on train several years ago. She should fork out and get the players in and get promoted. The last club that broke FFP in the football league was Leicester and two years later they won the PL and got a small fine from the league.