[Lord Snooty]

Stoke City v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Wednesday February 15th - 19:45 ko
at the Victoria Ground

Huddersfield Town travel to the Potteries for a game with Stoke City at the Britannia 365 Stadium on Wednesday evening for another game of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

I wrote a few notes for this thread on Sunday morning, not expecting Town to have a new manager in place. I never expected it to be Option 4, with a touch of Option 2 for Wednesday night. I'm gonna leave these notes in rather than start again, but I'll give us all a glimpse of that classic half time rant at Shrewsbury.


Option 1:
A lot has happened since the defeat at Wigan. We now have a new manager, (insert name here). And Leigh Bromby has been given the heave ho after some terrible decisions over the last six months.

Option 2:
We still don't have a new manager and the team will once again be led by Narcís Pèlach, as Bromby still searches for a new Head Coach.

Option 3:
Following the shock departure of the entire coaching staff at Huddersfield Town, maverick owner Dean Hoyle has appointed Jonathan Hogg as player/manager for the rest of the season. He will be assisted from the sidelines by club legend and ambassador, Andy Booth for this game until Deano can persuade Michael Hefele to return from West Brom.

Option 4:
It's a big welcome back to the club for Neil Warnock, who has come out of retirement for one last gig, abandoning his Town Hall tour to try and revive the club he achieved promotion with in 1994/95. He will be assisted by Town legends Ronnie Jepson and Kevin Blackwell.

Option 5: What a few days for Huddersfield Town this has been. The Qatari Royal Family suddenly pulled out of the move to buy Manchester United and instead have bought Town for a pound with the promise to plough billions of pounds into making the club the biggest in England, one hundred years after we were before. They have started by making Jose Morinho the new manager and he will take charge of this game at Stoke.

Option 6:
Dramatic news coming from the Millers Oils High Performance Complex today. Mark Fotheringham has turned up this morning and taken the training session. It would appear that Town have been unable to pay his severance fee and so he has been reinstated as Head Coach and will lead the team at Stoke on Wednesday night.

Tickets:

Adults – £25
Over 65s - £19
Under 18s - £15
Under 11s - £12

Prices for disabled supporters:

Adult - £19
Over 65s - £19
Under 18s - £15
Under 11s - £12

There are eight disabled parking passes available at £10 each. Disabled parking is located directly behind the away end.

Please email dlo@htafc.com to book car parking or if you require headsets.

Tickets will be removed from sale at 1pm on Wednesday 15 February 2023.

Official coach travel is available for this fixture, costing £19 per-person.

Coaches depart from the St Andrew’s Road car park at 4.15pm on match day.


A brief history of Stoke City: formed in 1878 as Stoke FC from a merger by Stoke Ramblers and Stoke Victoria Athletic Club. They didn't add City to the name until 1925.

They played at the Athletic Ground, later to be known as the Victoria Ground and would be their home until 1997. In 1888 they were one of the 12 founding members of the Football League. However, they struggled, finishing bottom of the league in the first two seasons and after the second they failed to get re-elected and were replaced by Sunderland. They were out of the FL for only one season though and were back in the following year when the 2nd division was formed.

The club went bust and resigned from the League in 1908, but were reformed soon after. They won re-election back into the FL in 1915, but the war meant they had to wait until 1919 to take up their place. They won promotion in 1922 as runners up to Nottingham Forest and were back at the top table for the first time since 1890. It didn't last long though as they were back down again straight away. And they went down again to Division Three North in 1926, relegated in their first season as Stoke City. Towards the back end of the season they had bought Charlie Wilson from us and it was his 25 goals that helped them win promotion back as champions at the first attempt.

In March 1932 a young 17 year old made his Stoke debut in a match away at Bury. That boy was named Stanley Matthews and would become one of football's most famous names. He scored his first goal in the next season in a 3-1 win at neighbouring Port Vale as the team won the 2nd division championship and then made his England debut soon after.

After a couple of mid table finishes, they had a 4th place finish in 1936, one point and one place behind us and under the management of Bob McGrory who had played for them for 14 years, clocking up over 500 appearances. He would go on to manage the club until 1952, an association with the club of 31 years.

There was talk of Matthews leaving in 1939 and meetings were held to prevent this happening. However, the war came along and nothing happened on the transfer front. After the war though, with Stoke setting up a realistic title challenge, Matthews did leave and joined Blackpool towards the end of the season. Without him, they faded badly and ended up in 4th position, which equalled their highest ever league position, but the Wizard of the Dribble was gone and the team struggled in the next few seasons.

They got relegated in 1953 as Town went up and Matthews won himself an FA Cup winners medal in one of the most famous matches of the era. McGrory resigned and the struggles continued until things started to change in the 60s when Tony Waddington became manager. His biggest coup was persuading Matthews to return. He was 46 years old by then, but was still the biggest draw in football. His second debut for Stoke was at the Victoria Ground in October 1961 against the mighty Huddersfield Town and the crowd was treble the previous home attendance figure when 35,974 turned up to see his return.

They won promotion in the following season, with Matthews scoring the second goal in the match that clinched it, a 2-0 win at home to Luton Town. The following season they finished 17th in the first division, but had a good season in the Cups. They reached the 5th round of the FA Cup. Over 40,000 turned out for the match against Swansea Town, because Matthews was playing. Of course, he scored in a 2-2 draw, which they lost the replay 0-2. He only made 9 appearances in that season. In the 1964 League Cup they made it all the way to their first major Final. They met Leicester City over two legs and the first match at the Victoria Ground was drawn 1-1 with Keith Bebbington scoring for Stoke. In the 2nd leg at Filbert Street, Leicester took an early lead but Stoke soon equalised through ex Busby Babe and survivor of the Munich Air Disaster, Dennis Violett. It wasn't to be though for the Potters as Leicester went 3-1 up on the night before George Kinnell scored a late consolation.

Matthews finally hung up his boots in 1965, shortly after he had celebrated his 50th birthday and shortly before Her Maj gave him a knighthood. Waddington pulled off another coup when he signed World Cup winning goalkeeper, Gordon Banks from Leicester, who had played against them in that 1964 League Cup Final. He was in goal when they finally won their first major trophy, the 1972 League Cup, beating Chelsea 2-1 in the Final at Wembley. His England rival Peter Bonetti was in the Chelsea goal, beaten in the 5th minute by a Terry Conroy goal. Peter Osgood equalised just before half time. Banks of England made many fine saves in the second half, but it was George Eastham who scored the winner, giving Stoke the win. Sadly Banks had to retire later that year when he lost an eye in a road accident.

They played a ridiculous 70 matches that season. They took part in the Texaco Cup, a competition for British and Irish clubs who hadn't qualified for Europe, and they also played in the Anglo Italian Cup which was tagged on at the end of the regular season. Add to that the FA Cup run to the semi finals, where they were beaten in a replay by Arsenal and the League Cup run to Wembley which had 11 games in it. They beat Southport in the first round, then Oxford Utd after a replay. Manchester Utd were next and that went to a 2nd replay. Bristol Rovers were beaten 4-2 in the quarter final, but then the semi final against West Ham was a four match epic. Firstly, the two normal legs were drawn on aggregate, the replay at Hillsborough was goal less and then the 2nd replay, played at Old Trafford was won 3-2. Right back Jackie Marsh played in 69 of the 70 games. What would modern managers think of that?

John Farmer, who had been ousted when Banks was signed, took over in goal, but after a couple of seasons, history repeated itself when Waddington went back to Leicester and signed the England keeper. This time it was Peter Shilton and it cost them £325,000, a record fee for a goalkeeper.

The League Cup win had seen them qualify for the UEFA Cup, but they lost on aggregate in the first round to FC Kaiserslautern. In 1973/74, they finished 5th in the league which qualified them for the competition again. But again, it was early elimination. This time it was Ajax who beat them, but only on the away goals rule. Denis Smith scored in a 1-1 draw in Stoke, but a goalless away leg meant they were out.

This golden age for the club though was coming to an end. Waddington resigned in March 1977 and they were relegated at the end of that season. They came back up though in 1979 under the management of Alan Durban. They stayed up until 1985 when they were relegated with what was at the time a record low number of points, 17. That has since been beaten buy Sunderland, Derby and another club I can't just think of.  

Peter Coates became chairman of the club in 1989, appointed World Cup winner Alan Ball as manager and took them down to the third division for the first time in 63 years. They then reached their lowest point when they finished in 14th in the third tier. Lou Macari took over when Ball was kicked over the stand in 1991 and got them to the Play Offs. We finished a place above them and a Huddersfield v Stoke final would've been immense. However, it ended up being Peterborough v Stockport.  

That defeat against Stockport must've hurt, but they had a chance to get revenge a few days later when the two teams lined up at Wembley for the Final of the Autoglass Trophy. This time the Potters came out on top, with Mark Stein on target in a 1-0 win. And it was Stein who would be top scorer in the following season as they went up as champions of what was now being called Division Two after the Premier League came into being and caused everything else to get renamed.

Stein was sold to Chelsea. Macari left to manage Celtic and Joe Jordan took the manager's job. Both of them didn't last long in their new jobs and when Jordan was sacked, they reappointed Macari after his departure from Parkhead. They made it to the 1996 Play Offs but were beaten over two legs in the semis by Leicester. They started the next season well, but faded to finish in 12th. The last game at the Victoria Ground was played against West Brom, which they won 2-1.

Macari resigned at the end of the season and was replaced by his assistant Chic Bates for the new era at the Britannia Stadium. He didn't last long and was replaced by Chris Kamara, who only lasted 14 games before the board persuaded Alan Durban to return. He was unable to turn fortunes around though and Stoke once more found themselves heading for the 3rd tier.

An Icelandic consortium took over the club from Peter Coates and appointed their first overseas manager in Gudjon Thordarson. It paid off well as the Potters won the FL Trophy again. Now known as the Auto Windscreens Shield they beat Bristol City 2-1 at Wembley in 2000. They reached the next two Play Offs, but lost in the semis both times, beaten by Gillingham and Walsall. They made it three in a row when they reached the 2002 Play Offs but were more successful this time. They finished a place above us, we had Macari in charge of us by now and a Huddersfield v Stoke Final would've been immense. We failed to get past Brentford though and so it was they who played the Potters at the Millennium Stadium. After disposing of Cardiff City in the semis, Stoke beat Brentford 2-0 with goals from Deon Burton and a Ben Burgess own goal.

Despite all this, Thordarson was sacked and replaced with Steve Cotterill. He only lasted four months and shortly after his departure, Stoke went on another golden era when they appointed Tony Pulis as his replacement. It wasn't immediate success though and Pulis got booted out after a couple of seasons, but when Coates bought the club back off the Icelanders, he brought him back as boss in 2006.

After finishing 8th in his first season back, he got them up to the Promised Land of the Premier League in 2008 as runners up to West Brom. They played at the top level for ten years and in 2011 reached their first ever FA Cup Final. They lost it 0-1 against Manchester City for whom Yaya Touré scored the winner. Despite the defeat, they had qualified for Europe for the first time in 37 years and this time it was the Europa League. They had more than one match this time though, getting through the qualifying rounds, through the group stage and into the round of 32, where they were beaten 0-2 on aggregate by Valencia.

They were now firmly secured in the Premier League as a hard to beat on a wet Wednesday night team, but Pulis resigned in 2013 to be replaced by Mark Hughes and then Paul Lambert, who couldn't prevent them getting relegated from the Premier League in 2018, the year we miraculously survived. Since then they have flirted with relegation to League One, but have so far managed to stay up.

Head to Head



Stoke lead the head to head with 31 wins to Town's 23, with 27 draws.

A lot has changed since August when the two sides met at the McAlpharm in game number three of the Championship season. We had Danny Schofield in as the new Head Coach and they had the former Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill in charge. We won 3-1 to give Danny his first win as Town manager, a result that lead to the dismissal of the Stoke boss soon after. Sadly Danny didn't last much longer and was replaced by a Scottish numpty. Yuta Nakayama opened the scoring, only for Lewis Baker to score for Stoke shortly after half time. But then the awesome two some up front, Danny Ward and Jordan Rhodes each scored to give the scoreline some substance. Only once since then (a 3-3 draw at Luton) have we scored thrice in a match.

Back in time to Easter 1920 and a double header on the Monday and Tuesday. We had just survived the financial crisis and the unwelcome takeover bid by the newly formed Leeds Urinals and we were heading full steam towards our first ever promotion. Stoke, having been founder members of the FL in 1888, were just back in the 2nd division after they had gone bust in 1908, reformed and then re-elected. This therefore was the first time we had spent time together in a league table and the first meeting took place at the Victoria Ground. We won it 1-0 with a goal from Sammy Taylor, his 26th of the season. Stoke came up to Leeds Road the following day and Taylor bagged his 27th and 28th goals and Frank Mann added a third as we won 3-0. Now the significance of these two victories is this. It was the start of a run of 8 consecutive victories that took us to the end of the season and a runners up position behind Spurs. Now tag on to that the first three games of the next season in Division One, which were all 1-0 wins, that makes 11 consecutive league victories, a club record that still stands today. Just like our much loved unbeaten run of 2011 though, there was a loss in there when we got beat in the FA Cup Final by Aston Villa, but as far as league games go, it's eleven. Wouldn't it be nice to do that again?

In 1933/34 and after a 2-2 draw at Leeds Road, Stoke got their first win against us at their place, beating us 3-0. Their first goal was scored a young man called Stanley Matthews. Tommy Sale and Frank Soo got the others. Soo was the first player of Chinese origin to play in the FL and the first to play for England (just wartime international matches though, so not counted as proper England caps).

Matthews became the most famous footballer on the planet, playing for the biggest club in the world, Blackpool, and clocking up loads of England caps. He famously won the FA Cup with the Tangerines, but then in the early 60s, at the age of 46, he returned to Stoke. His first game back for the Potters was a home game against Huddersfield Town. There were traffic jams for miles around as the fans flocked back to see their returning hero and they weren't disappointed as we rolled over and let Jimmy Adam and Tommy Thompson (2) score goals.

In 1970/71, the season we were back in Division One. We played each other five times, twice in the league and an epic FA Cup 4th round clash that went to a 2nd replay. We lost at the old Vic in October 1-3, with Frank Worthington getting ours. The first FA Cup match was also down there and Frank scored again, as well as Les Chapman and Brian Mahoney in a 3-3 draw. The replay came on the following Tuesday night at Leeds Road (programme image above). A crowd of 40,363, including me and my dad turned up for what was possibly the worst match I've ever seen. It was 0-0 from the first minute to the last, so we went to a 2nd replay, at Old Trafford. We didn't go to that one as Jimmy Greenhoff scored the only goal of the game. Stoke completed the league double, winning 1-0 at Leeds Road with a Terry Conroy penalty.

In 1997/98, Peter Jackson and Terry Yorath were about to star in The Great Escape. Brian Horton had been sacked and we only had 5 points, all from draws as we still hadn't won a game. Hadn't won a league game that is. Oddly we had beaten Bradford City in the League Cup and beaten West Ham in the first leg of the second round (we eventually lost on aggregate). So when Stoke polled up to the MacAlpine, Jacko had been in charge for 5 games with only a point at home to Portsmouth to show. Optimism was at a low. We took the lead just after half time, Lee Richardson firing home his first for the club. But on 79 minutes, right back Andy Griffin equalised, much to our annoyance. Can we not hold on to a bloody lead?! But hold on, up popped the legend Marcus Stewart a minute later to stick our noses back in front. So into injury time, we gave away a corner. The Stoke keeper came up for it and we all knew they were bound to score the way our season was going. But no! The ball got cleared to Paul Dalton out on the right wing. There was an open goal gaping wide at the south side of the ground. Dalton was still in his own half as he took the ball on and with Jacko chasing him up the touchline shouting "SHOOT!", he eventually did just as the covering defender made a last ditch tackle. The ball seemed to take an eternity to reach the goal but it did and just as the defender looked like he would get back, the ball crossed the line and nestled in the back of the net to send the home fans wild.

We won down at theirs later in the season. It was their first season at their new ground and weren't having a great time. Chic Bates had been manager when they came up to ours and he had been replaced by their former player Chris Kamara. We scored twice early on through Paul Barnes, against his old club and the legend Stewart. It was a magnificent performance and despite Danny Tiatto pulling one back in injury time, we held on for the win that took us out of the bottom three. The Great Escape was definitely on. On the other hand though, poor old Kammy got potted soon after and the Potters went down. Ah well, Stoke's loss was Soccer Saturday's gain.

In 2019/20, we had just been relegated from the Prima Donna League and had dismissed Jan Siewert after a dismal start to the season. Danny Cowley had taken over as manager and the visit to Stoke would become his first victory when Juninho Bacuna scored late on to give us a 1-0 win.

So we had the first win of the Jacko era against Stoke. The first victory of the Cowley era against Stoke. Can we possibly have the first victory of the (insert name of new manager here) era?





So what's going on down at the 365? Managed nowadays by Alex Neil, the Hamilton Accies legend.

Stoke in popular culture: I'm fairly sure Chaffers used these before, but you can have them again. It's Keith Brymer Jones from the Pottery Showdown on Channel 4.








Recent form - last 6 matches:

Wigan 1-0 Town
Blackpool 2-2 Town
Town 1-1 QPR
Coventry 2-0 Town
Hull 1-1 Town
PNE 3-1 Town (FA Cup)

Stoke 0-0 Hull
Luton 1-0 Stoke
Stoke 3-1 Stevenage (FA Cup)
Stoke 4-0 Reading
Sheff U 3-1 Stoke
Hartlepool 0-3 Stoke (FA Cup)


Town are 23rd in the Championship table with 28 points. Stoke are 19th with 34.

Leading scorers:

Terriers:
Jordan Rhodes (6)
Danny Ward (3)

Potters:
Lewis Baker (6)
Jacob Brown (6)

[ritchiebaby]

Thank goodness it was only a brief history!!! Well done, Snooty.

[Lord Snooty]

Yes, I could've done a whole chapter on the 1910s decade.

[jjamez]

Didn't that bacuna goal signal the end of a one Nathan Jones' reign in the potteries?

[theo_luddite]

Been reading some comments in The Smoke Sentinal. No love lost in Throw-Down-Town for Mr. Jones, but no surprise there. Some of them were even daft enough to suggest we'd be "Calling Mr. Jones" and talking to him about our job.

Their stress levels suddenly changed a bit later when they heard Colin was back in Town. Their potters wheels suddenly went full reverse circle and their clay walls all went wibbly. They've now gone for a lie down with a damp sponge. One set of fans or the other will no doubt have glazed eyes after an evening in the kiln on wet Wednesday.

Speaking of Mr. Jones - https://www.theguardian.com/football/202...ue-history

---

Very apt that first vid by the way Snoots , oh and my bro's called Keith

[Lord Snooty]

Just had a check on Wikipedia, jjamez. The Jones boy lasted another month after we beat them.

[Devongone]

I spent a year in Stoke. It felt like a lifetime.

At the time they had rival gangs of skinheads, one wore pink socks, the other lime green. The chief occupation of both was chasing and if possible beating up students.

Saw Vinegar Joe (Elkie Brooks) and was momentarily happy. Got chased by the skins for about two miles up the never-ending Leek Road.

Pottery isn't all Grayson Perry and Johnny Vegas. There was more to worry about than whether Rose might crack your teapot in the firing.

[theo_luddite]

Aye - there's a right bunch folk with oatcakes for brains that live in Stoke.

Devon ... there has to be a euphemism in there somewhere, I've heard it called some things in the past but "crack your teapot in the firing" ..... ?
Pass the crumpets, and the butter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkLRZzukcJc

[Lord Snooty]

[WakeyTerrier]

Cardiff wining last night did us no favours what so ever, I think the bare minimum tonight has to be at least a point which will just about keep us in touch with Cardiff. I say bare minimum because at some point we need to win games and with 16 to go we are quickly running out of time