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The Bet365 Stadium (stylised as bet365 Stadium) is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City. The stadium was previously called the Britannia Stadium but was renamed on 1 June 2016 when the club entered into a new stadium-naming-rights agreement with its parent company, Bet365.[4] It has a capacity of 30,089 following the completion of expansion works in 2017.[5][6]

The stadium was built in 1998 at a cost of £14.8 million as a replacement for the Victoria Ground. Former player Sir Stanley Matthews' ashes were buried beneath the centre circle of the pitch following his death in February 2000; he had officially opened the stadium on 30 August 1997.[7] In European competitions it is known as the Stoke Ground due to UEFA regulations on sponsorships.[8][9]The all-seater stadium cost nearly £15 million to build and brought the club up to standards with the Taylor Report of January 1990 to end 115 years at the Victoria Ground. Along with the possibility of converting the Victoria Ground into an all-seater stadium, relocation was being considered by 1995 and by early 1996 the decision to build a new stadium elsewhere had been confirmed.[10]

Construction of the stadium was underway during the 1996-97 season.[11] In August 1997 it opened its doors for the first time as the Britannia Stadium thanks to a £1 million, 10-year sponsorship deal with the Britannia Building Society which was instrumental in the overall funding of the project. Another £4.5 million was given as a grant by the Football Trust.[11]

The stadium's opening did not go according to plan, as from the outset there was concern about getting there, as the plans covered only one access road from the nearby A50, and as a result, spectators arriving from the city or the motorway had to travel up the A50 for over a mile to a roundabout at Sideway and double-back the other way, which caused huge congestion.[10] The stadium was officially opened by club legend Sir Stanley Matthews, then aged 82. After he died in March 2000, his ashes were buried beneath the stadium's centre circle and a statue showing different stages of his career was put up in his honour outside the ground.[12] On 27 August 1997, Rochdale were the visitors for the historic first-ever competitive match a 1–1 draw in the League Cup watched by 15,439 – and four days later the first-ever league game took place against Swindon Town before a crowd of 23,859.[11] The first season at the new ground was a bad one as Stoke were relegated from the First Division, losing 5–2 at home to Manchester City on the final day of the season, with the visiting side also going down after the relegation-threatened sides above them all won their final games.

The club's supporters protested against chairman Peter Coates, who stood down afterwards, only to return in 2006.[11]

Four seasons of third-tier football followed with Gunnar Gíslason taking control of the club in November 1999.[10] In May 2006 he sold control of the club back to Peter Coates, and soon after the club obtained full ownership of the stadium in a deal worth £6 million following the previous joint-partnership with the Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Stoke-on-Trent Regeneration Ltd.[13] The name of the ground was changed to the Bet365 Stadium in June 2016.[14]

MANAGER
MICHAEL O'NEILL

O'Neill retired from playing football in 2004 and began a career in financial services.[10] A year later he took a part-time role as assistant manager at Cowdenbeath, working with Mixu Paatelainen.[10]

Brechin City
O'Neill became manager of Scottish side Brechin City in April 2006. He won the Second Division Manager of the Month award in both December 2007[15] and October 2008.[16] O'Neill was released by Brechin City to join Shamrock Rovers on 13 December 2008.[17]

Shamrock Rovers
At the press conference when unveiled as Rovers manager, he cited Gordon Strachan as his main managerial influence.[18] He was awarded the Irish Soccer Writers Manager of the Month award for July 2009 and eventually guided The Hoops to second place in the 2009 League of Ireland.

In October 2010, he guided Shamrock Rovers to win the 2010 League of Ireland title, their first league championship since 1994.[19] O'Neill led Rovers to the 2011 Setanta Sports Cup and then made history by being the first manager of a League of Ireland team to reach the group stages of a European competition.[20] Rovers defeated Partizan Belgrade in the play-off round of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League.[20] Shamrock Rovers retained their league title in the 2011 season.[21][22] New contract talks between O'Neill and Shamrock Rovers stalled[23] and he left the club in December 2011.[24] O'Neill won the Soccer Writers Association Personality of the Year award for 2011.[25]

Northern Ireland
O'Neill was appointed manager of Northern Ireland on 28 December 2011, with one report stating he was "the first Catholic in 50 years to manage Northern Ireland".[5][26][2] However, this is almost certainly untrue, since previous managers Lawrie Sanchez (2004–07) and Lawrie McMenemy (1998–99) were both educated in Roman Catholic schools.[27][28] O'Neill's first game in charge ended in defeat with a 3–0 loss to Norway.[29] In his next game an inexperienced Northern Ireland team were beaten 6–0 by the Netherlands in Amsterdam.[30] During their 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification, Northern Ireland earned some creditable results, including a 1–1 draw away to Portugal and a 1–0 home win against Russia.[31]

In November 2013, O'Neill agreed a new two-year deal with Irish Football Association to remain as Northern Ireland manager.[32]

Northern Ireland qualified for their first ever European Championship, Euro 2016 in France after beating Greece 3–1 at Windsor Park on 8 October 2015.[33] It was the first time in 30 years that Northern Ireland had qualified for a major tournament. At the tournament itself he led the side to the second round, losing narrowly to Wales[34] but recorded a surprise victory over Ukraine in the group stages.[35]

In January 2018, O'Neill turned down an offer to become manager of Scotland following discussions with the Scottish Football Association.[36]

O'Neill initially continued as Northern Ireland manager after his appointment by Stoke City in November 2019.[37] He had intended to stay on for UEFA Euro 2020 playoffs, which had been scheduled for March 2020, but these were postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic.[38] With the Euro 2020 playoffs delayed at least until the autumn of 2020, O'Neill resigned as Northern Ireland manager on 22 April.[38]

Stoke City
O'Neill was appointed manager of EFL Championship club Stoke City on 8 November 2019.[37] He joined Stoke with the side bottom of the 2019–20 EFL Championship table after struggling under the management of Nathan Jones.[39] O'Neill won his first match in charge of Stoke, 4–2 away at Barnsley on 9 November.[40] Stoke began to improve and secured vital victories over Wigan Athletic, Luton Town, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town, helping the team move out of the relegation zone at the turn of the year.[41] In the January transfer window O'Neill cancelled the loans of Cameron Carter-Vickers, Mark Duffy and Scott Hogan, whilst also letting Peter Etebo, Badou Ndiaye and Ryan Woods leave on loan. Into the team came Northern Irish midfielder Jordan Thompson from Blackpool, center-back James Chester on loan from Aston Villa and young midfielder Tashan Oakley-Boothe from Tottenham Hotspur.[42] Stoke beat Hull City 5–1 on 7 March 2020 moving the team three points above the drop with nine remaining matches.[43] The Championship was suspended on 13 March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[44]

Championship squads returned to training on 25 May with the intention to finish the season behind closed doors.[45] Stoke's preparations for the season restart were disrupted after O'Neill tested positive for coronavirus on 9 June which caused a training match against Manchester United to be cancelled.[46] Stoke won four of the remaining nine matches to avoid relegation and finish in 15th position, finishing eight points clear of the relegation zone.[47]

Due to the ongoing pandemic the 2020–21 season began later in September with matches continuing to played behind closed doors. O'Neill brought in a number of free transfers including James Chester, Morgan Fox, Steven Fletcher and Mikel John Obi with Jacob Brown the only arrival to have been bought.[48] Stoke began the season well with Tyrese Campbell in decent form, winning eight of their first 16 matches and were just outside the play-off places at the beginning of December.[49] However a number of injuries to key players most notably to Tyrese Campbell saw goals dry up and the team went nine games without a win at the turn of the year.[50] Stoke were unable to put a sustained run of results together in March and April and ended the season in mid-table.[51]

LAST TIME OUT



Form guide pointless as no game for three weeks

FAMOUS STOKE PERSON

Enoch Arnold Bennett
(1867 - 1931)
Enoch Arnold Bennett was born on 27 May 1867 at 90 Hope Street, Hanley. He was the son of Enoch Bennett, a Burslem man who was at the time a pawnbroker, seeking to improve his station in the pursuit of a career in law (which he subsequently attained). He was the husband of Sarah Longson, a daughter of a Derbyshire family.

Arnold Bennett was the eldest of six surviving children. From the time Arnold was eight years old, the family changed residences from Dale Hall, Burslem to Middleport and eventually settled in a newly built house at 205 Waterloo Road, Burslem.

Bennett was educated at Swan Bank Wesleyan Chapel, Burslem, the Endowed school at the Wedgwood Institute in Queen Street and the Orme Middle School which was to become Wolstanton Grammar School.

Upon leaving school it was intended that Bennett should become a lawyer but already he had experienced the stirrings for journalism, social correspondence and short-story writing. In 1889 he left the Potteries for good to make his home in the capital where for a time he worked as a solicitors clerk. By 1893 he had become a journalist and within three years he was the editor of the London periodical Woman.

Bennett`s first novel, "A Man From The North", was published in 1898 and foretold the writer's exploration of environmental biography which resulted in the creation of his fictional town Bursley. His written works contained lightly concealed descriptions of Burslem, forming a fictional gazetteer of this important Potteries town.

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MACS VIEW

Wonderful after nearly three weeks we are back in action against a personal view only best side we have played this season, they have dipped a bit in recent weeks the loss of Powell a major blow, still have no idea how we will play under Lowe however the there were signs against Barnsley probably will be more entertaining
Transfer window looms anyone know if Josh Harrop is still alive?
As for our Covid postponements less than impressed especially there was a chance those games would have ended up behind closed doors any way we have vaccine passports now truly wonderful

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Stoke City 1 Wilmott Preston North End 2 Potts Hughes

Stoke City line-up: Davies; Wilmot, Batth, Chester, Fox; Clucas, Allen, Vrancic (Brown, 75); Campbell (Doughty, 69), Fletcher (Surridge, 52), Ince. Subs not used: Bonham, Smith, Brown, Oakley-Boothe, Wright-Phillips.

PNE line-up: Iversen; van den Berg, Bauer, Hughes; Potts, Browne, Whiteman, Johnson (Ledson, 88), Earl; Riis (Sinclair, 80), Evans (Maguire, 89). Subs not used: Ripley, Lindsay, McCann, Rafferty.

Attendance: 20,002 (1,603 PNE fans)

Referee: Mr J Simpson

Fifth visit to the Bet 365 fifth win, still one of the coldest grounds in the world but always win there, first game for 20 days since our enforced Covid break and a well deserved win against a City side who looked a shadow of the side they were at Deepdale earlier in the season.
Was hard work actually getting into the ground, wave your phone at the girl on the Covid section, doesn't look at your phone gives you a pink wrist band, through the search and then have a dog bat-rking at your nadgers allegedly looking for drugs
Potts at wing back was an interesting choice apparfently played at right back for Carlisle.
There wasn't a lot in the first half thought we shaded it although in truth neither keeper had much to do.
Inc looked dangerous for 15 minutes before fading like he usually does when he plays against us, Campbell got into a couple of good positions and wasted them. Whiteman shot easily dealt with by Davies probably our only effort on target. Earl selling Ince a dummy was the highlight.
Needed something special to get the game going and within 30 seconds we got and how, at times you have to just say nothing anyone could do about that as Wilmott from about 40 yards hit a first time shot which absolutely flew into the net, wonderful strike out of context with anything that had gone before. For ten minutes we were all over the place nearly went two down following an almighty goalmouth scramble but from that moment the game changed, Began to dictate, Johnson and Earl linking well and it was from that source we scored, a non too shabby effort either, Johnson to the back post and Brad Potts scissorkick smashed the ball home, he celebrated by diving into the away end, possibly to make a point.
We looked the more likely side to score the winner and that duly came about ten minute from the end, Whiteman corner Hughes heads home
The aftermath



Apart from save at his near post Iversen was untroubled as we took the points, nine points from the play offs with games in hamd surely not, the Championship is wide open this season could be a fun ride

Stoke City manager Michael O'Neill told BBC Radio Stoke:

"We were in a very good position in the game, I thought first half we played well, our final ball was poor, we got into good areas but didn't make enough of that.

"We go ahead, and it's a great goal from Ben, and have chances possibly to make it 2-0, and then we lose a poor goal. We've got to defend the goal better, we didn't get pressure on the ball at any point in the build-up.

"Then I think our play deteriorated, we found it difficult after that, we had to make substitutions to get energy into the team, which whilst it brought us energy I think it diluted a little bit of our quality at times.

"But we lose a goal off a set piece. It's a corner, we should defend it better and that's the differential in the game.

"But the concerning thing is we're ahead in the game again and we come away with nothing."

Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"The players, credit to them, they've stuck by what we've asked them to do over the time.

"We've had a tough period of being off with the Covid situation, the training ground was shut, they've had four days of work into them into what we wanted to do and it's paid off.

"I thought the two goals were well-worked, thought we could have scored early doors. When they score a worldy strike you think 'is that just it, is that going to seal the game?'

"But no, fair play to our lads, they had that character and that resilience to keep going and get two good goals."

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