[themaclad]

[align=center]What better way to work off the half a ton of food you've eaten the day before, go to the ground nesstling on the mountain slopes near the A500/A50 in that most wonderous of cities on the planet, Stoke, luckily at this time of year it is mostly dark so you will miss the beauty of the Potteries
They have started the season well, although appear to have it a patchy bit of form, first time I went to the Bet 365 was a Boxing Day 1998 won 1-0 Michael Jackson was blowing a gale that day

https://www.stokecityfc.com/

MANAGER

Mark Gordon Robins (born 22 December 1969) is an English football manager and former player who is the manager of EFL Championship club Stoke City. As a player, he was a striker and is best known for his time in the Premier League with Manchester United, Norwich City and Leicester City.

Robins began his career with Manchester United. During this period, he scored a goal against Nottingham Forest in a 1989–90 FA Cup tie that has subsequently been credited with "saving" manager Alex Ferguson's job at Old Trafford. After spending time with Norwich and Leicester, Robins went on to play for Reading, Manchester City, Walsall, Rotherham United, Bristol City and Sheffield Wednesday in the Football League. Robins also played across Europe during spells with Copenhagen, Ourense, and Panionios before finishing his career with Burton Albion in the Conference National.

In 2007, he became manager of Rotherham United, and joined Barnsley in the same capacity in 2009, before leaving in 2011, following differences between him and the board. In 2012, he became manager of Coventry City until 2013 when he joined Huddersfield Town. Robins left Huddersfield Town in 2014 by mutual agreement. A few months later he became manager of Scunthorpe United before leaving in 2016.

In March 2017, Robins rejoined Coventry City and a few months later won the EFL Trophy. In the 2017–18 season, Robins won the EFL League Two play-offs with the Sky Blues and were promoted to League One. After a solid eighth placed finish in League One in the 2018–19 season, Robins led Coventry to promotion to the EFL Championship as League One Champions in the 2019–20 season. He followed that up by guiding Coventry to a respectable 16th placed finish in the Championship in the 2020–21 season, and further improved upon this with a 12th placed finish in the 2021–22 season. In the 2022–23 season, Robins led Coventry to a fifth place finish in the Championship, qualifying for promotion play-offs. Coventry City met Luton Town at Wembley in the final, where they ultimately lost on penalties. In the 2023–24 season saw Robins lead Coventry to reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the first time since 1987, where they lost to his former club Manchester United. Robins left Coventry in November 2024 and later was appointed manager of Stoke City in January 2025.


Attribution Timmy 96

Form



Stats Fotmob

STOKE 3 PNE 13

Sorba Thomas 8 goals 6 assists having a more than decent season

AI overview

Team Form and Context
Preston North End is currently in better form, sitting higher in the league table (5th vs 8th for Stoke) and are on an unbeaten run of five league matches with two wins and three draws. They have one of the best defensive records in the league.
Stoke City are in a challenging period, having lost four of their last five Championship matches. However, they possess a strong home record this season, which is expected to be a key factor in the AI's prediction for a home victory.
The match will be played at the bet365 Stadium and is expected to attract one of Stoke's highest crowds of the season.


Stoke culture

Christ Church is an Anglican church in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It is the parish church of Goldenhill and Tunstall; the combined parish, which is an Anglo-Catholic parish, was created in 2010.[1] It is a Grade II listed building.[2]



Attributed to Attic Tapestry

[themaclad]

Despite a dip in form seeing Stoke City drop out of the Championship Play-Off places, Paul Heckingbottom is expecting a difficult assignment when his team travel to the Potteries on Boxing Day.

“They were winning games on the spin earlier on in the season, they’re a good side and it’s a good game for us to prepare for, another tough opponent away from home, and looking at their squad, I think Mark (Robins) can make changes if he wants to.

“I think the tickets sales for the game have gone really well. I think they have as well for the game against Wrexham which is great. The way the fans have supported us on the road this season has been tremendous. It's been really, really good.

“I always enjoy the feeling of winning away from home, it’s a great feeling and we’ve done well on the road recently as well - we’re hoping to keep that going.”

Saturday’s draw against Norwich City at Deepdale saw three senior players return to the squad after lengthy absences with two of those combining for the last-gasp equaliser, Brad Potts teeing up Will Keane to find the net with a perfectly measured header. The North End boss is pleased to have a healthier squad heading into a busy festive schedule.


He said: “We need them. Pottsy’s role in the goal is excellent. He kept the ball alive right down in the bottom corner and he's the one winning the header in the box making sure it's not cleared, keeping the ball alive and then Keano puts it in.

“That’s one thing that Pottsy in particular does. He certainly makes himself available in the box and arrives on the end of things, whether he's playing in midfield or whether he's playing wing-back.

“With Ali it’s been frustrating because he's been on the training pitch with us all the time, doing the running, doing the technical drills, he's just not been able to do the contact. So, it's felt like we've always had him with us, but just not available to use. It was great to have him back against Norwich.

“Keano's had to be really patient, but we’ve also had to be really patient with him and Pottsy in terms of not trying to rush them back and just letting them come to us when their bodies are ready. It’s good to have them back.”

[themaclad]

Team News​
After making a return to action in North End’s draw against Norwich City last weekend, the trio of Brad Potts, Ali McCann and Will Keane all remain in contention for a place in the team on Boxing Day.

Milutin Osmajić will serve the final game of his suspension whilst Robbie Brady and Jamal Lewis remain on the sidelines.
The Hosts​
Stoke are currently on a difficult run which has seen them pick up just two wins from their last eight games – including six defeats. The dip in form has led to Mark Robins’ side dropping to 8th in the league table after a fantastic start to the season but still remain just two points behind Millwall in the final Play-Off place.

Their last outing was a 1-0 defeat at Watford but the Potters edged past Swansea City 2-1 in their previous home fixture.

Match Officials​
Referee: Thomas Kirk

Assistant Referees: Johnathon Bickerdike and Andrew Fox

Fourth Official: Richie Watkins

Thomas Kirk will take charge of the clash at the bet365 stadium and was the man in the middle for North End’s 2-2 draw against Middlesbrough at Deepdale in September.

[themaclad]

https://www.fotmob.com/matches/preston-v...tab=lineup

Attendance: 26,314 (2,553 PNE fans).

Referee: Thomas Kirk.

Seventh visit to the Bet 365 Stadium, won five drawn two, only one goal conceded, one of my luckier venues. On the whole a decent 0-0 to be fair to them after the initial onslaught they were probably the better side however created little can only remember Iversen having one real save make, yet both the BBC and FootMob made their keeper man of the match.
Again we seem to have a new raft of minor injuries, Dobbin, Vukcevic, Thor all out, Devine not fully fit enough for 90 minutes.
Started off excellently could have had four in the first seven minutes and nearly scored the team goal of the season, a sweeping move from back to front ended with Small being denied by Johannsen at the back post.
With that came the tactical goalkeeping injury, something which really should be eradicated from the game and yes we do it as well, but it is annoying and should be clamped down on.
Anyway after the injury we never really got going again, they started to get closer to us and stopped us playing, chances were minimal possibly got a bit lucky when a long throw bounced all the way to the back post, Thomas's effort hit the side netting, all squatre at thebreak.
Second period mostly Stoke, one decent save by Iversen from Thomas they forced a lot of corners and a last ditch tackle, I tink it was Offiah denied one of their lads a clear run of goal.
Storey header and a decent effort from Whiteman brought a decent save from Johansson.
Honours even, move onto the Wrexham and Osmajic ban is now over.

Stuart

North End battled to a goalless draw against Stoke City on Boxing Day in a game where both sets of defences and goalkeepers ultimately came out on top.

Stuart McCall admitted PNE could have produced more in the final third during a game with few clear-cut opportunities at either end but acknowledged the point as a positive one.





Stuart said: “I would always like us to create a little bit more than we did. It's two of the best defensive sides in the league, so the outcome was no surprise. I was just saying that to Mark Robins as well and I think you’ve seen probably two of the best goalkeepers in the league too.

“If we'd have scored in the early part of the game with a real fantastic football move - it comes to Thierry and the keeper makes a great save, that would have been one of the goals of the season football-wise.

“We know they're a better side than they were last season and it was 0-0 here last season in a real scrappy game. I thought today was slightly better, but I think over the piece, if you're coming away from home and getting a point at a difficult place to come, you accept it, but we still want to be better in possession of the ball and create a little bit more.”


North End were backed by over 2,500 fans making the trip to Staffordshire on an icy cold afternoon at the bet365 stadium and Stuart heaped praise on them ahead of another sold-out away end at Wrexham on Monday evening.

Stuart said: “It was brilliant, it was a really good atmosphere because I've been here many a time and it's been flat. I think the Stoke fans have got behind their side, they've come out in big numbers today, which they normally do on Boxing Day, but it’s a great following from us.

“It'd have been nice to get a goal for them but unfortunately, we couldn't do it. We go away again with a point but my message to them is thanks for your support, hopefully we'll see you at Wrexham and then back at Deepdale on New Year's Day where we really want to start turning these draws into wins.”

Stoke manager Mark Robins told BBC Radio Stoke:

"It is a point more than we got last Saturday, so I will take that, and I thought the performance was pretty good. We created quite a lot and were on top in all the metrics if you are a data person.

"We were on top in the game against a side who give very little away and have beaten teams up this season.

"I thought we did pretty well for nine tenths of the game, it was just the final bit, the finish, where we have been in really good positions but have failed to hit the back of the net.

"We can be happy with a lot of the elements, but you want the three points from a performance as strong as that. But we have to take it. Last three we have won one, drawn one, lost one.

"We are into the second half of the season now and we would like to do better than in the first half, and there's no reason why we can't."