Stoke City 2013/2014

stoke-city-stadium

Stoke City quick review - season 2013/2014

Stoke City Football Club are an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that play in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, they are the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts County.

The club play in the Premier League after winning promotion in 2008; prior to this Stoke had not participated in top flight football for twenty-three years. Their first, and to date only, major trophy was won in the 1972 Football League Cup Final, when the team beat Chelsea 2–1. The club have won the Football League Trophy on two occasions, first in 1992 and most recently in 2000. The club's highest league finish in the top division is 4th, which was achieved in the 1935–36 and 1946–47 seasons. Stoke have competed in European football in 1972–73, 1974–75; and most recently in 2011–12. Stoke played in the FA Cup Final in 2011, finishing runners-up to Manchester City and has reached three FA Cup semi-finals, in 1899 then consecutively in 1971 and 1972.

Stoke's home ground is the Britannia Stadium, a 28,384 all-seater stadium reduced to 27,598 after segregation. Before the stadium was opened in 1997, the club was based at the Victoria Ground, which had been their home ground since 1878. The club's nickname is 'The Potters', named after the pottery industry in Stoke-on-Trent and their traditional home kit is a red and white vertically striped shirt, white shorts and stockings.

While much of the support that the club enjoys is from the local Stoke-on-Trent area, there are a number of exile fan clubs, notably in London and stretching from Scandinavia to countries further afield such as Australia and the USA. A capacity 28,000 crowd regularly turn out to see them in the Premier League.
Stoke have had problems in the past with football hooliganism in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and early 2000s which gave the club a bad reputation, this was to the actions by the "Naughty Forty" firm which associated itself with the club and was formed by supporter Mark Chester. Mark Chester reformed himself and now works as a youth inclusion promoter. In 2003 the BBC described Stoke City as having "one of the most active and organised football hooligan firms in England". In response to these criticisms, the club introduced an Away Travel ID scheme; this was subsequently suspended in 2008 as a result of improved behaviour and an enhanced reputation. More recently, Stoke City's fans and their stadium have been perceived as loud, friendly, passionate and modern, welcoming as guests Sugar Ray Leonard and Diego Maradona. There is in the media now "genuine admiration for the volume and volatility of the club's loyal support".

It is not clear where Stoke's original playing fields were located. Their first pitch was certainly in the site of a present burial ground in Lonsdale Street, although there is evidence that they also played on land near to the Copeland Arms public house on Campbell Road. In 1875 they moved to Sweetings Field, which was owned by the mayor of Stoke, Alderman Sweeting. It is estimated that as many as 200–250 spectators were attending home matches at Sweetings Field, paying one penny for admission. Stoke were to stay at Sweetings Field until a merger with the Stoke Victoria Cricket Club in March 1878, when Stoke moved to the Victoria Ground.

The first match to be played at the Victoria Ground was a friendly against Talke Rangers in the 28 March 1878; Stoke won 1–0 in front of 2,500 fans. The ground was originally an oval shape to cater for athletics, and this shape was retained for the next 30 years. Major development work began in the 1920s, and by 1930 the ground had lost its original shape. By 1935 the ground capacity was up to the 50,000 mark. A record crowd of 51,380 packed into the Ground on 29 March 1937 to watch a league game against Arsenal.

In November 2008 a group of Stoke fans were forced by the Greater Manchester Police to leave Manchester before a league match against Manchester United. The Human Rights group Liberty took up the case of the fans, and Manchester police eventually apologised for their actions and the fans were awarded compensation.

Stoke's local rivals are Port Vale, based in the Burslem area of Stoke-on-Trent. As the two clubs have regularly been in different divisions there have only been 46 league matches between the two sides, with the last match being in 2002. Regardless of the lack of games, the Potteries derby is often a tight and close game of football with few goals being scored. Stoke have won 19 matches whilst Vale have won 15.

With Stoke City's rise to the Premier League coinciding with traditional rival Port Vale's relegation to League Two, and a hard-fought promotion battle with another West Midlands outfit West Bromwich Albion, rivalry with West Brom fans has increased. Another rivalry exists with fellow West Midlands club Wolverhampton Wanderers.