[Lord Snooty]

Stoke City v Huddersfield Town
The Carabao Cup 2nd round
Tuesday 28th August 20:00 ko
at the bet365 Stadium

Huddersfield Town visit Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium on Tuesday night for our first League Cup fixture of this season. Now that we're a Premier League club we don't take part in the 1st round so this will be a 2nd round match. Stoke also got a bye as they finished top of the relegated clubs.
This will be our third meeting in under a year and David Wagner will be facing his third different Stoke manager. Mark Hughes was in charge for their visit to the JSS on Boxing Day. He didn't last much longer as Paul Lambert was the manager by the time we went down there, less than a month later, for the return fixture. And now following Lambert's departure after he couldn't keep them up, Gary Rowett is in the Potter's hot seat.
Both teams, as is normal with this competition, are likely to make changes. One definite change will be Jonathan Hogg missing for Town, suspended following his red card in the match with Cardiff City on Saturday. Another will probably be Ben Hamer, who went off injured early on in that match to be replaced by Jonas Lössl. But who will be the substitute keeper?
The two players who swapped clubs in the summer are also both doubtful for this match. Tom Ince has a hamstring injury, whilst Ramadan Sobhi injured his knee in training on Friday. We could see first games of the season though for the likes of Elias Kachunga, Danny Williams and new signing World Cup winner, Erik Durm.
For the Potters, Ashley Williams is available after missing the last game through suspension.

A brief history of Stoke City: They were founded in 1863 as Stoke Ramblers, the second oldest professional club (behind Notts County) and founder members of the Football League. Stoke-on-Trent gained city status in 1925 and so the club name became Stoke City.
They had by now moved into their home at the Victoria Ground in 1919, where they would stay until the move to what is now known as the bet365 Stadium in 1997. In 1932 a young 17 year old winger made his debut, he would go on to be one of the world's greatest players, Stanley Matthews. Although they didn't win owt, they were now in this pre war period considered to be one of the country's top clubs.
In the first season after the war they came closest they have ever come to a league title when they lost their final game of the season to allow Liverpool to take the title. This may or may not have been due to the club selling Matthews to Blackpool shortly before. He would return in 1961 and helped them to promotion back to the first division and then in 1964 they reached their first cup final, the League Cup, losing to Leicester City.
Here's a picture of him playing against Huddersfield Town at the Victoria Ground.

They did eventually win summat in the 70s. Their first major trophy arrived in 1972 when they won the League Cup, beating Chelsea 2-1 with goals from Terry Conroy and George Eastham. This was under the management of Tony Waddington who was in charge of the Potters from 1960 to 1977.
When he left they jumped on the managerial merry go round and things deteriorated so much that the next trophy they won was the Football League Trophy, meaning they had dropped to the 3rd division by the time they beat Stockport County in the 1992 final. They moved to the new stadium in 1997 and won it again in 2000, beating Bristol City 2-1. Won the play offs the following year, beating Brentford (who had beaten us in the semis) in the final and eventually won promotion to the Premier League in 2008 with Tony Pulis in charge and had been there until relegation at the end of last season.
In 2011 they reached their first ever FA Cup final, but lost 0-1 to Manchester City.

Head to Head



Stoke lead in the overall head to head with 27 wins to Town's 21, with 25 draws.

Only one stand out match to report on. It was of course during the famous Great Escape season as Peter Jackson and Terry Yorath plotted our survival strategy from what looked like certain relegation. This would be our first win of the new era, kick starting a run of 5 wins in 7 games, including the famous 1-0 win at Maine Road. This match however didn't get going until the second half when new signing Lee Richardson scored in the 46th minute. Stoke equalised but then Marcus Stewart put us back in front. As injury time took hold, the crowd were desperate to see this first win of the season, but Stoke were pressing for an equaliser. They sent the keeper up for a corner, but as the ball cleared it fell to Paul Dalton. He was still in his own half but there was an open goal ahead. 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 did the double over them that season and instead of us going down, which looked nailed on early on, it was Stoke who got relegated, alongside Reading and Manchester City. That away game was a 2-1 Town win and was my one and only visit to the Britannia Stadium. Goals came early that day for us, we were 2-0 up in quarter of an hour, Paul Barnes opening the scoring before Stewart added another. They got a consolation in the 90th minute.
A couple of seasons before, we played them at home over the New Year weekend and it wasn't that memorable a 1-1 draw, apart from our goal which was an own goal from their keeper, Mark Prudhoe, who made a complete arse of a back pass and sliced it into his own net. He later denied it was his own goal as he completely missed the ball. Either way, mate. It's your cock up.      

I went once to the Victoria Ground. That was for a dull League Cup 0-0 draw in the early 80s. Stoke won the replay at Leeds Road 2-0.
And I saw another dull goalless draw with them in 1971, an FA Cup replay. After we drew 3-3 at theirs, we drew at home and then lost the second replay at Old Trafford (neutral venues back then). The only remarkable thing about that goalless game was the size of the crowd, with 40,363 squeezing into Leeds Road for what would be the second highest of the season, beaten only when the "Champions of Europe" came visiting.

Last season in the Premier League, we drew at home with players who have now swapped sides scoring in a 1-1 draw. Tom Ince scoring his first Town goal in the 10th minute. Substitute Ramadan Sobhi scored the equaliser for the Potters in the 2nd half.
The match at theirs was their last home win (before they beat Hull on Saturday) and that was back in January. They won 2-0 with goals from Joe Allen and Mame Biram Diouf.


So what's happening down Stanley Matthews Way?  Managed nowadays by Gary Rowett, the former Cambridge Utd and Burton Albion defender.
He started his playing career as part of Cambridge Utd's best ever team that got to the 2nd division (Championship) Play Offs in 1992, losing in the semis to Leicester City. Success didn't last long at the Abbey Stadium and when they were relegated a couple of years later, Rowett was transferred to Premier League Everton. He didn't make it there, playing only four times in two seasons and was sent out on loan to Blackpool and then sold to Derby County. He had three seasons there, making it back to the Premier League. Then transfers to Birmingham, Leicester and finally Burton Albion.
He ended his playing career in the Conference with Burton, but returned there when the club had been promoted to the Football League as assistant to Paul Peschisolido after Nigel Clough had quit to join Derby. Rowett became full time boss after the 2011/12 season and led them to the Play Offs in his first season in charge, losing to a Nahki Wells inspired Bradford City. And the following season they got beat by Fleetwood Town in the Play Offs.
He left Burton in October 2014 to take over at one of his former clubs, Championship strugglers Birmingham City, who were next to bottom. He more than saved them, taking them to 10th that season and then making them genuine promotion candidates, before new owners came in and replaced him with Gianfranco Zola, who took them back to the foot of the table.
So Rowett's next move was back to another of his old clubs, Derby County, taking them to 9th and then to the Play Offs in his first full season (last season), where they were beaten by Fulham. And that was the end of his Derby time as he was soon appointed as the new Stoke boss, to which life has so far been a struggle with the team landing in the bottom three after a heavy home defeat to Wigan Athletic last week.

Club connections:- There are some current club connections. Tom Ince came to us last summer from Derby County for what was reported to be around £8m. He only scored two league goals for us, the one against Stoke and famously the last minute winner at home to Watford. Add to that his extra time goal in the 4-1 FA Cup replay win at Birmingham City and it doesn't look a very good return for all that dosh. Well he came close a lot, had millions of shots on target and contributed greatly to a massive season for us. And as for the dosh, we made a profit on the transaction when he went off back to the Championship in the summer.

Ramadan Sobhi: left the Egyptian World Cup training camp to come and sign for us. The transfer fee was said to be £5.7m. He then went off to Russia and made three substitute appearances for his country, all in vain as they lost them all and got knocked out at the group stage.
Still a young 21 years of age he has almost a hundred top flight games (Egyptian and English Premier Leagues) under his belt. He made his debut for Al Ahly at the age of 16 and went on to win the Egyptian League twice and the Cup twice before his big money move to Stoke City in 2016. He only scored two league goals for them in his two years there, one against West Brom and the other of course, against us on Boxing Day. We've not seen much of him yet, hopefully we will in this game.

Benik Afobe has been around a lot of different places since he came to us as a raw 17 year old on loan from Arsenal, making his debut as a sub in a 2-0 win at Hillsborough in December 2010. He scored 8 goals for us that season, including two at Brighton in the last ever game at that old running track where they used to play. And also two at another running track in Sheffield where Rotherham used to play in our run to the area final of the Football League Trophy.
Oh and he played in the Play Offs for us......but we won't dwell on that.
After us, he returned to the Arsenal and had more loans out at Reading, Millwall, Bolton, Sheffield Wednesday and famously scoring twice in the League Cup at Stadium MK as Man Utd got humbled 0-4 by the Dons. It was probably the performance there that led to his £2m transfer to Wolves in January 2015.
He had a year at Molineux before a big money move to the Premier League in the next January transfer window. It was a £10m transfer to Bournemouth. Two seasons later, he went back to Wolverhampton on loan and helped them win promotion to the Premier League. As a thank you to the lad, they signed him on a permanent deal, only to flog him again a few days later, back to the Championship with Stoke, initially on a 6 month loan, but with a £12m deal due to go through in January.
He has also made an international transfer. Having played youth level footy for England, last year he transferred to DR Congo, the birthplace of his parents.

Dean Whitehead retired from playing at the end of last season after his final appearance as an 87th minute sub in the game at home to Arsenal. It was his 63rd game for Town, but he'd had a lot more sat on the bench, obviously sharing wisdom with the rest of the coaching staff, which led to the boss offering him a seat on the bench permanently as a member of that staff.
He started his career at Oxford Utd, very close to his home town of Abingdon, making his debut in the Football League Trophy in 1999. He stayed there for 5 seasons before a move to Championship side Sunderland beckoned. He was an immediate success there, winning Player of the Year as the Black Cats won promotion to the Premier League. With Deano as skipper they yoyoed between Prem and Championship for 4 years, before manager Roy Keane decided to ship him out to Stoke City, who by now were themselves a Premier League club. He played in central midfield for Tony Pulis at Stoke, having been a right back at Sunderland and scored 5 goals in his time there, one of which was at Old Trafford, making him the first Stoke player to score there for over 30 years. He also played in the FA Cup final for them in 2011, a 0-1 defeat to Manchester City.
In 2013 he went and joined Middlesbrough, helping them to the Play Offs where they got beat by Norwich in the final. And then after two years there, he came to us. Always popular with players and fans, although he never scored a goal for us.

Other than those four from the current teams, I can't think of many more. There was Diego Arismendi who came and played 9 very forgettable times for us on loan from Stoke in 2012. Any more? Answers on a postcard please to.......



Recent form: Town are 19th in the Premier League with 1 point, Stoke are 16th in the Championship with 5 points.

Results so far this season:

Town 0-3 Chelsea
Man City 1-6 Town (Stankovic)
Town 0-0 Cardiff

Leeds 3-1 Stoke (Afobe pen)
Stoke 1-1 Brentford (Afobe)
Preston 2-2 Stoke (Pieters, Crouch)
Stoke 0-3 Wigan
Stoke 2-0 Hull (McClean, de Wijs og)


Stoke's line up at home to Hull City on Saturday:

GK: Jack Butland

LB: Erik Pieters
CB: Bruno Martins Indi
CB: Ryan Shawcross
RB: Cuco Martina

LM: James McClean
CM: Oghenekaro Etebo
CM: Joe Allen
RM: Mame Biram Diouf

AM: Saido Berahino
FW: Peter Crouch

But it'll probably be a completely different XI anyway, for what it's worth.


Town's League Cup record: is really poor, considering what a big club we are.  

Our best season was back in the 1967/68 season, the season I first started watching. We reached the semi finals then, losing to Arsenal over two legs, but I didn't see any of these games, probably because I was only 7 and my dad obviously thought I was too young for night matches.  

Anyway, to get to that stage we beat Wolves at home 1-0, Norwich away 1-0, West Ham at home 2-0, and Fulham 2-1 at home in a replay after a 1-1 draw down at theirs.
In the semi final we went down to Highbury for the first leg and narrowly lost 3-2, with goals from Trevor Cherry and Colin Dobson. Back at Leeds Road for the second leg we drew level on aggregate when Tony Leighton scored early on, but Arsenal scored three times to make it 6-3.

We had a famous win at Bellend Road in 1982/83, which was a 3rd round match. Third division Town had won two legged encounters over Doncaster Rovers and Oxford Utd and then beat the "Champions of Europe", Leeds United 1-0 with a second half goal from David Cowling, which in those days of Town being in their massive shadow, was a thing to celebrate. We lost 1-0 at Arsenal in the next round.

We have only got as far as the 4th round on three occasions. In the 67/68 and 82/83 seasons already mentioned, and in 1999/2000.

That last one was the year we won down at Chelsea in the 3rd round, a famous win and a famous goal coming from Kenny Irons. Earlier we had beaten Scunthorpe Utd and Notts County, both over two legs. And then we went out in the 4th round, beaten at home by Wimbledon 2-1 after extra time.

Since then our record has been appalling. This century we have only reached the 3rd round three times. In 2003/04, our post administration season under the guidance of Peter Jackson, we beat Derby at home and Sunderland away before losing at Reading. In 2013/14, home victories over Bradford City and Charlton Athletic gave us hope of a cup run, only to be dashed by a 1-0 defeat at Hull City. And last season when we beat Rotherham at home (rd2) and then lost at Crystal Palace.

We have been embarrassed by lower league opposition, the likes of Oldham, Rochdale, Mansfield, Notts County and Shrewsbury have all given us a rotten kick up the arse.

So the only managers to get us to the 4th round of the League Cup are all club legends. Ian Greaves, Mick Buxton and errm *cough cough* Steve Bruce.   David Wagner is already a legend. Will he be able to get us a decent cup run this season?

Apologies if you've read most of this before. A lot of it is copied from last season's thread.

[Lord Snooty]

Plenty tickets left at £15 each if you fancy going. Town tickets say they don't yet know if it will be possible to pay at the turnstiles.

[theo_luddite]

Nice one M'lud. A lot of these newer stadiums don't have the facility to pay at the gate as you need a bar code on the ticket to get in. Most can sell tickets on the day however at the ticket office. Some (and I can't remember if Stoke are one of them) have an away fans ticket office too.

Bit of a hike from the station to the ground and back and several pubs in the city centre are home fans only. The one round the corner from the station (The Glebe?) don't mind where you come from as long as you behave. I had a pint in Ye Olde Bull and Bush just further up the street from the 'spoons pub that was definitely Stokies only.

[jjamez]

Does anyone know if there is many parking places nearby. Heard its in the middle of nowhere

[WakeyTerrier]

Nightmare of a place to park and get away from.
My advice would be to park further away and save yourself being sat in traffic
https://www.stokecityfc.com/sites/defaul...E%20v1.pdf

[Lord Snooty]

Only been once but seem to remember being parked miles away.

[Lord Snooty]

The draw for the next round, should we by chance be in it, will take place on Thursday on Sky, at around 7 o'clock.

[theo_luddite]

jjamez, you are probably well on your way but this is one suggestion from the Footbal Ground Guide
Alternatively park in Stoke City Centre and take the Bet365 Stadium Shuttle Bus:

Robert Hardy a visiting Norwich City supporter informs me; 'We've been to watch the Canaries play at the Britannia Stadium on numerous occasions, and have tried parking at several places in the vicinity of the ground. Although there's a good choice of places to park - usually charging about £5, we've always found that getting away after the game is a total nightmare. You just seem to get stuck in never ending queue's of traffic trying to get away, and it takes an eternity to get anywhere. For a change, I tried instead using the shuttle buses from Glebe Street near Stoke Railway Station, and was well rewarded for my effort. I found a nice bit of on street parking nearby at the former PMT bus garage, walked around the corner, and paid just £3 return on the bus, which had us at the ground in about 5 minutes or so. After the game, the buses back to Stoke line up behind the Novus Stand - which is just a short walk from where the away fans are situated. From the final whistle blowing, and walking out of the ground, I was back to my car in 20 minutes. Getting out of Stoke and back onto the A500, was also completed in a matter of minutes. An absolute piece of cake, and far less hassle!'

Post Code for SAT NAV: ST4 4EG

[jjamez]

Its ok theo, I didn't get out of work on time

[theo_luddite]

Me neither, then again - I wasn't exactly rushing either, a bit like Town on Saturday.