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Post by Stalking Horse on May 4, 2011 23:01:05 GMT
Oh and Blyth Spartans is the lowest for me.
At least Birmingham were in the same division. And Liverpool/Nuneaton were about 2/3 divisions around us. BS were about 5/6 below us!!
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Post by sihanouk on May 4, 2011 23:08:55 GMT
Oh and Blyth Spartans is the lowest for me. At least Birmingham were in the same division. And Liverpool/Nuneaton were about 2/3 divisions around us. BS were about 5/6 below us!! Blythe was a low but cup shocks happen and are forgotten about next game if you win. Relegation is permanent and have a knock on to the club financially and status wise.
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Post by onionman on May 4, 2011 23:30:48 GMT
One match towards the end of the Brian Little season, can't remember who it was against, but we were losing, but we won a corner late on, so it was a chance to get back into the game.
Kavanagh, the usual set-piece specialist, was off the pitch. Such was the state of collective gutlessness of that team Brian put together, nobody would go over to take the corner in Kav's absence. They all stood there in the penalty area looking at each other, hoping someone else would do it.
There we were, losing at home to someone like Wrexham or Notts County in the third division, with our play-offs dream lying in tatters, and we had a corner which could have saved us, and nobody wanted to take it.
Eventually David Oldfield trudged over and spannered it straight to the keeper.
That was my lowest ebb.
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Post by DentySCFC on May 4, 2011 23:35:56 GMT
Crewe Alexandra (H) 0-2 Birmingham City (H) 0-7 Manchester City (H) 2-5 Reading (H) 0-4 Bristol Rovers (H) 1-4 Wrexham (H) 1-3 Burnley (H) 1-4 Nuneaton Borough (A) 0-1 Liverpool (H) 0-8 Luton Town (H) 1-3 Port Vale (H) 0-1 Rotherham United (A) 0-4 Grimsby Town (A) 0-2 Nottingham Forest (A) 0-6
For me, that defeat to Vale takes the prize.
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Post by generationex on May 5, 2011 1:17:53 GMT
One of the Stoke v Preston Boxing Day games in the late 90's. I have blotted the details from my mind but I think we lost 0-1.
We had just moved to the Brit, it was unfamiliar and it didn't feel like Stoke City really existed anymore.
We were dire, the ground was half-empty and a crisp packet caught in the vortex of a gale smacked against my head for the duration of the second half.
I trudged back to Trentham through the then barren lunar landscape that surrounded the stadium and there was no shelter from the freezing elements.
When I got home my face was pink from the wind-chill. I told my girlfriend (now wife) that if we had a kid I wouldn't take them to Stoke like my bloody Dad did, as it was a form of mental cruelty. She's a Manc and the child could just support fuckin' Man Utd and be done with it.
Our first child was born three months after we went up. He was born a Premier league baby. I have changed my mind. I will force him to support Stoke because I now know that no Man Utd fan could ever feel the sheer joy that the last three years have brought after 23 years of pain.
Good things do come to those that wait...
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Post by SamB_SCFC on May 5, 2011 3:41:14 GMT
One match towards the end of the Brian Little season, can't remember who it was against, but we were losing, but we won a corner late on, so it was a chance to get back into the game. Kavanagh, the usual set-piece specialist, was off the pitch. Such was the state of collective gutlessness of that team Brian put together, nobody would go over to take the corner in Kav's absence. They all stood there in the penalty area looking at each other, hoping someone else would do it. There we were, losing at home to someone like Wrexham or Notts County in the third division, with our play-offs dream lying in tatters, and we had a corner which could have saved us, and nobody wanted to take it. Eventually David Oldfield trudged over and spannered it straight to the keeper. That was my lowest ebb. I remember that moment! The players were so shit scared of responsibility and of encurring the wrath of our supporters that not one of them had the guts to go over and take the corner, wasting valuable time in the process and just absolutely summing up everything that was wrong with the team and the club back then I think my personal lowest ebb was the 5 minutes before O'Connor scored in that playoff second leg against Cardiff. Despite our heroic efforts it seemed as if we were destined to fall for the third year in a row in the play offs, and this time I felt the damage could be terminal. The Icelanders had been losing interest and fighting amongst themselves that season, they were clearly realising that making money from Stoke was a tougher task than they expected and a number of them wanted out. Their 5 year plan to get us into the Premiership was lying in tatters and they knew like anyone else that the only way they'd ever make any money was to get us there. Had we stayed down that season I think the Icelander's would have bailed, plunging us into a meltdown that I'm not sure we'd have recovered from. Coates had yet to make his Bet 365 millions and even if he had the wounds from his previous tenure were still too raw and supporters wouldn't have allowed him to return. If you remember there were still a significant portion of the support who saw Coates as a parasitic presence on the board leeching money from the club whilst contributing nothing with his 'golden shares'. Nobody else would have touched us with a barge pole since we had mountains of debt, a stadium we didn't own and seemingly no hope. All these thoughts were running through my head during those 5 minutes, I was convinced I was seeing the final moments of Stoke City as a competitive club and the club I knew and love may be on the verge of dying. It was the first and only time I started to question why I bothered, I was convinced that Stoke were just one of those clubs that were destined to fail. It would never be 'our time', we would never get our time in the sun when seemingly all other clubs of a similar size to us had spent some time in the top flight in my lifetime or had some tangible success. I can remember launching into an absolutely rabid rant at Earnshaw when he was subbed off in the last 5 minutes and did that stupid Ayatollah thing to the Cardiff fans. Cardiff seemed the mirror opposite of us, a club on the up with money behind them and the sky was seemingly the limit and to be frank I was a little jealous and it rubbed even more salt into the gaping wounds. Then a few minutes later O'Connor scored, the seemingly impossible had happened and Stoke had done what seemingly endless clubs had done to us and snatched something at the death from the jaws of defeat in a match that really mattered. The mental I went through at that point was unreal and will never be bettered, even if we win the Cup next weekend. An absolutely unbelievable outpouring of relief, joy, shock, ecstasy and a surging new belief rushing through me that just maybe we were actually about to do this and that this would be one of those 'times' that never happend to Stoke. It was, my faith was restored and a new chapter in our history and my personal support was born.
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Post by kiwistoke on May 5, 2011 5:39:40 GMT
My own personal one was few years ago when I was going out with a Luton girl. Her dad and her took me to Luton v Stoke but I promised to sit with them in the Luton end. We quickly went 2 up in first half and I couldn't stop myself jumping about (to obvious abuse). From then on it was a nightmare they scored 3 by half time and another 3 in second half. We lost 6-2 and I took so much abuse it was untrue. I did get some revenge though when my girlfriend had to sit in Stoke end and watch us beat Luton 5-0 with a Pesch hat trick.
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Post by id on May 5, 2011 5:54:01 GMT
A few years ago !!!! That was under Joe Jordan 17 years ago
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Post by Northy on May 5, 2011 6:39:49 GMT
one of the lowest points, and there have been many, was away at Watford in the 84/85 season I think, stood in that corner with no roof on, in the cold with about 70 other Stoke fans, but not knowing any of them, watching us get beaten again, I seriously doubted my sanity of being a football supporter that day.
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Post by Trouserdog on May 5, 2011 6:44:35 GMT
Technically, finishing 14th in the old Division Three under Bally and Paddon in 90/91 is our lowest ebb.
Things got so bad then, even most of the die-hards stopped caring.
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Post by whereami on May 5, 2011 7:13:00 GMT
losing to swansea around 2001. A nothing league game, but we still had an outside chance of automatic promotion if we could string a few results together and were playing a swansea team who hadnt won for 15 or 16 on the bounce. It shouldnt have been a suprise when we fucked it up, but it was one game too many of stoke pissing on any optimism I'd have in them. I spent the night in a punch drunk haze wondering how "via unita fortior" had any connection to the spineless shambles we were back then, and why i bothered putting myself through it.
There was also a game against huddersfield in the first year or 2 where we got a late consolation goal from a freekick, that didnt even cause a pause in the booing and "we're shit and we're sick of it" chants.
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Post by kiwistoke on May 5, 2011 7:13:09 GMT
A few years ago !!!! That was under Joe Jordan 17 years ago That makes me feel really old ! ;D
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apm72
Lads'n'Dads
Posts: 69
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Post by apm72 on May 5, 2011 7:25:15 GMT
Losing away at Gillingham in the play off semis was the worst for me, that was the longest journey home i've ever been on and i think it was under Kamara when we lost 5-1 at Oxford, bloke on my right continually sang "we're shi* and we're sick of it" - about summed it up for me where we were at as a club.
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Post by block30row19 on May 5, 2011 8:35:08 GMT
Mine without doubt was as a 16 year old going to Aston Villa and needing a win or draw to stay in the old First Division. We lost 1-0. 1977 I think. Remember how gutted I was after getting off the coach outside the old Vic then getting a PMT bus from outside the old Registar in Stoke to get a bus up to Hartshill. I was mortified in that bus shelter, felt like it was the end of the world. Anyone else remember this game?. Me and my mate were stood on the away end and it was under construction behind us to build a new stand. Not many Stokies there either for such an important game ! Blimey. Didn't realise I was such a loyal fan at such a tender age ;D 1 win in the last 15/16 games didn't exactly help us!
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Post by westendstokie on May 5, 2011 8:55:53 GMT
For those of us of a certain age then selling Greenhoff was the catalyst for decades of shite. However apart from the obvious mullerings we've had one game in recent years sticks out for me.
Someone can tart up the details but I'm thinking we lost 3-0 or 3-1 at home to Palace about 6 years ago on a freezing Feb/Mar Monday night in front of the SKY cameras when there was about 10,005 in the ground.
For about the first time I did quietly ask myself what he hell was I doing there.We seem to have moved on a tad since.
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Post by travisio92 on May 5, 2011 8:58:08 GMT
when we layed burnley in the third tier at home, and we went from 2-0 up to drawing 2-2, then Kavanagh missed a penalty. I was only a lad but for some reason that game stuck in my head as being the absolute low point. Oh and oldham 6-0 Stoke. Who the fuck are oldham?
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Post by SamB_SCFC on May 5, 2011 14:42:56 GMT
That Huddersfield game where our goal didn't stop the 'we're shit, and we're sick of it' chants was pretty grim too. I think that was in the 97/98 relegation season wasn't it? God there were some terrible times in the late 90s/early 2000s when you look back at it!
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Post by stokerstayinup on May 5, 2011 14:55:22 GMT
The binary season for me.Used to turn up at half time every match,couldn't cope with a whole 90 minutes.
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Post by sihanouk on May 5, 2011 15:27:55 GMT
when we layed burnley in the third tier at home, and we went from 2-0 up to drawing 2-2, then Kavanagh missed a penalty. I was only a lad but for some reason that game stuck in my head as being the absolute low point. Oh and oldham 6-0 Stoke. Who the fuck are oldham? That Burnley game was a decent game I thought but we should have had another pen late on for a blatant push by Peter Swann Can't remember the 6-0 v Oldham to be honest. Remember losing 6-0 at Swindon in the pissing rain.
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Post by rorymscfc on May 5, 2011 16:42:43 GMT
There was that two week spell in 1999 under Brian Little where we lost 1-4 at home to Burnley and Bristol Rovers in successive games. We looked hopeless and gutless and I really felt that the only way from there was down.
Feels like a lifetime ago now though.
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Post by 606Stokie on May 5, 2011 17:02:39 GMT
Losing at home to Cambridge 2-1
Icelanders first game to Notts county and losing 1-0 and then the trouble after
Losing 6-3 at Palace!
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Post by dastokie on May 5, 2011 19:50:25 GMT
84/85 Never again I pray
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Post by evans1863 on May 5, 2011 21:15:48 GMT
I think it was the Brian Little season, I was only 9 or so but my Dad had always drilled into me that you never leave a game early. Anyway it was a cold Tuesday night and we were 3-0 down to either Swansea or Wrexham at home when he just snapped "when they score again were going fucking home" dark days.
Walking in late and already being 2-0 down after about 6 minutes to Burnley
Oh and Gudjon playing a spasticated formation away at Wallsall in the play-offs the year before we went up
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poc1
Youth Player
Posts: 448
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Post by poc1 on May 5, 2011 21:28:58 GMT
Walsall away in play offs was worst for me. Kavanagh's goal really got my hopes up only to be cruelly dashed. That and Wigan away 1-6 are the only times i have ever left ground early. For that reason I hate Walsall's ground more than any other.
I pray we never ever play there again.
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Post by numpty40 on May 5, 2011 21:31:17 GMT
The 7-0 defeat to Brum is without doubt the worst day as a Stoke fan. There was a real feeling of despair around the ground because we were absolute shit and couldn't see anyway out of it. People knock the Icelanders but they stopped the rot and gave us a belief again. Peter Coates will rightly be remembered for what he has done for our club, but I'll always be grateful for what the Icelanders did for us.
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Post by tailgunner on May 5, 2011 21:37:08 GMT
Technically, finishing 14th in the old Division Three under Bally and Paddon in 90/91 is our lowest ebb. Things got so bad then, even most of the die-hards stopped caring. Yes this would be my choice as well and Wigan away was probably the low point in that awful season, thankfully even Alan Ball knew his time was up after this and quit. Thank God for the Kumar Brothers though as we managed to get Lou in the summer who turned it all around.
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Post by senojbor on May 5, 2011 21:38:09 GMT
Without doubt losing to the Vale at home in the league under that prick Thordarson.
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Post by numpty40 on May 5, 2011 21:41:43 GMT
"that prick Thordarson."
That prick Thordarson that we won promotion with?
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Post by evans1863 on May 5, 2011 21:45:39 GMT
"that prick Thordarson." That prick Thordarson that we won promotion with? With the resources we had it shouldnt have taken him 3 attempts. Appreciate what he did for us but I dont think he was the man to take us forward
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Post by numpty40 on May 5, 2011 21:52:18 GMT
I was just saying Thordarson wasn't a prick. Hoekstra and Shtaniuk are two of the finest footballers I've seen at Stoke and Thordarson was responsible for signing them.
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