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Post by Malcolm Clarke on Oct 28, 2014 22:36:32 GMT
Overtly racist mass chanting by our fans at Oldham. Thankfully, things have changed on that front.
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Post by huuuuuth on Oct 28, 2014 22:45:09 GMT
Overtly racist mass chanting by our fans at Oldham. Thankfully, things have changed on that front. Felt like there were a lot of people in the away end who weren't really stoke fans on that day
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Post by BristolMick on Oct 28, 2014 23:13:00 GMT
Wigan 4 Stoke 0 at Springfield Park in the pouring rain, Alan Ball's last game. Desperate stuff. I was standing next to the bloke that threw the coffee ! That was when we lost 2-1 at Exeter City BM
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Post by cheadlepotter on Oct 28, 2014 23:13:29 GMT
Loss to Vale in promotion season, play-off defeats to Walsall and Gillingham, but I'll throw in an unmentioned one...
The first leg playoff defeat to Cardiff at home. I was certain a 3rd successive play-off defeat beckoned and wondered if we were ever going to get out of that division.
Thank the Lord for Oulare's arse!
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Post by lastoftheldk on Oct 28, 2014 23:26:43 GMT
That season. Losing to Norwich in front of the lowest crowd (then) ever for a top division game, a night match and I got to walk home in the very inclement weather, I new then that it was the end of a era
had been at the Blyth Spartans game as well
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Post by BristolMick on Oct 28, 2014 23:33:58 GMT
Losing 6-0 at Swindon and the couple of hundred of us there singing " I support Stoke, I don't know why they are so toss they make me cry"
Signing Vincent Pericard and playing him as our main striker..
Ricardo Fuller being hung out to dry on the wing in his last Stoke appearance.
Taking a reserve team to our most glamourous ever competitive game in Valencia.
Away games in the Prem for the first 5 years.
Almost 9 years of thinking I'd rather watch the games on ceefax.
BM
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Post by Gods on Oct 28, 2014 23:43:18 GMT
The day we left the Vic for me, a small part of me died.
It was no less a move than ditching the red and white stripes or changing the team name for me, probably worse in fact.
Where we played defined us.
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Post by metalhead on Oct 29, 2014 0:17:04 GMT
There's been a few to be fair: Birmingham 7 nil Man City cup final wasn't as much dark, but just thoughts of what could have been Relegation at home to Man City Nuneaton Borough All felt very dark. One that hurt which is lesser known is Wycombe at home when Brian Little was in charge. There were just 6000 of us in the Brit which must be one of the lowest attendances we've ever had. Surely a record? We still had an outside chance of making the playoffs with a victory and perhaps a decent run of form. Wycombe were in the relegation zone... I think? Not sure. Either way they played much better than us, and we played shite. They took the lead and we equalized with a goal from Razer and then took the lead midway through the second half. David Oldfield it was who scored I think. All we had to do was hold on and perhaps we could creep into the playoffs. I seem to remember once we took the lead, we absolutely dominated, they couldn't get out of their half and Kav got clean through and hit straight into the keepers body. Now my memory is foggy at this point, I think it's like a repressed memory due to the psychological damage that took place: so please help me out if you were there... with about 30 seconds to go, their winger or full back, I forget, absolutely smashed it across the box, somehow it hit the referee in the fucking bollocks or something like that and the ball inexplicably bounced back across the box and fell to Sean Devine who rolled it in to level with almost no time on the clock. They had hardly any fans in the ground so the few that were there were going absolutely mental and I sat in disbelief at what had just happened. My memory becomes very clear after that. I looked around the ground, thousands of empty seats, just drawn with a club about to get relegated (so we thought), playoffs now very unlikely, conceded a ridiculous goal, I seem to remember walking out in tears. I remember that. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I remember Devine peeling away celebrating. I always remember them peeling away celebrating. It had to be Devine as well, didn't it. The player we could have signed a year earlier but chose Kyle Lightbourne instead. I also remember walking despondently back to the car. That's one thing the Brit has over the Victoria Ground: you can always remember the despondent walk back to the car after you've lost. You get a good 20 minutes of silent walking to mentally digest the awful thing you've just witnessed, just long enough for it to burn its own spot in the part of your brain that stores bad football memories. As a kid, I had a soft spot for Lightbourne. I met him once and he hung around for ages to chat to kids, sign autographs, be a generally nice guy In reality, the guy was shit. I remember playing Oldham 99 season ended a 0-0 and I seem to think he missed an open goal. Thorne went up with the keeper headed back into the mixer and Lightbourne limply header over from a few yards away.
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Post by onionman on Oct 29, 2014 0:49:19 GMT
I remember that. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I remember Devine peeling away celebrating. I always remember them peeling away celebrating. It had to be Devine as well, didn't it. The player we could have signed a year earlier but chose Kyle Lightbourne instead. I also remember walking despondently back to the car. That's one thing the Brit has over the Victoria Ground: you can always remember the despondent walk back to the car after you've lost. You get a good 20 minutes of silent walking to mentally digest the awful thing you've just witnessed, just long enough for it to burn its own spot in the part of your brain that stores bad football memories. As a kid, I had a soft spot for Lightbourne. I met him once and he hung around for ages to chat to kids, sign autographs, be a generally nice guy In reality, the guy was shit. I remember playing Oldham 99 season ended a 0-0 and I seem to think he missed an open goal. Thorne went up with the keeper headed back into the mixer and Lightbourne limply header over from a few yards away. I've met him too, and you're right, he's a genuinely nice bloke. Nobody else on here ever seems to admit this, but before Thorney went on that crazy goalscoring run in 2000, I preferred Lightbourne out of the two, and I'm sure at the time that didn't seem such a crazy point of view. I remember when we signed Gunnlaugsson on loan, and the general opinion was split as to who should be dropped to make way. I think Lightbourne was expected to play against Chesterfield but got injured in training, so Thorne played, scored four and never looked back.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2014 1:10:52 GMT
As a kid, I had a soft spot for Lightbourne. I met him once and he hung around for ages to chat to kids, sign autographs, be a generally nice guy In reality, the guy was shit. I remember playing Oldham 99 season ended a 0-0 and I seem to think he missed an open goal. Thorne went up with the keeper headed back into the mixer and Lightbourne limply header over from a few yards away. I've met him too, and you're right, he's a genuinely nice bloke. Nobody else on here ever seems to admit this, but before Thorney went on that crazy goalscoring run in 2000, I preferred Lightbourne out of the two, and I'm sure at the time that didn't seem such a crazy point of view. I remember when we signed Gunnlaugsson on loan, and the general opinion was split as to who should be dropped to make way. I think Lightbourne was expected to play against Chesterfield but got injured in training, so Thorne played, scored four and never looked back. I agree about Thorne. During our relegation season in the first year at the Brit, I thought he had a very easy ride from the fans simply because Paul Stewart was a very easy target for everyone's anger. I thought Thorne hid to be honest. Can't knock him for how he played once he started banging the goals in, but It took me a long time to warm to him.
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Post by greenbaize on Oct 29, 2014 2:24:40 GMT
The lucky cockney Wanker's getting that penalty in fergy time before it was invented in 71, ten years old I was absolutely devastated, I was behind the goal at the time, tossers! I still despise them to this day.
As others have mentioned on here, Banks'y crash, the roof sailing down the Trent, and the subsequent sale of Greenhoff and relegation.
Blythe Spartans I don't think any cup upset will ever compare to this, after experiencing the highs of the 70s and believing it would always be like this, this result hit home.
Finally the wilderness years from the mid eighties when the club never seemed to show any ambition, with piss poor management from the top down.
Enjoy the ride now folks you can't beat top flight football.
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Post by deliasmith on Oct 29, 2014 2:28:29 GMT
Oddly enough I'd suggest a game we won. I was working in Cambridge and went to the Abbey Stadium in 1978-79 season with some colleagues. We beat Cambridge United 1-0; we even got promoted that season back to the top flight. But it was so depressing to stand in such a shit ground watching a truly awful game. To have sunk so low, as it seemed then, so low that we were playing this non-club at this tenth-rate ground, and in the league, not even a cup-tie. Of course, it got a lot worse later on.
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Post by onionman on Oct 29, 2014 3:06:11 GMT
I've met him too, and you're right, he's a genuinely nice bloke. Nobody else on here ever seems to admit this, but before Thorney went on that crazy goalscoring run in 2000, I preferred Lightbourne out of the two, and I'm sure at the time that didn't seem such a crazy point of view. I remember when we signed Gunnlaugsson on loan, and the general opinion was split as to who should be dropped to make way. I think Lightbourne was expected to play against Chesterfield but got injured in training, so Thorne played, scored four and never looked back. I agree about Thorne. During our relegation season in the first year at the Brit, I thought he had a very easy ride from the fans simply because Paul Stewart was a very easy target for everyone's anger. I thought Thorne hid to be honest. Can't knock him for how he played once he started banging the goals in, but It took me a long time to warm to him. Yes, that's exactly what I used to say. I used to scream at him for refusing to gamble when crosses came into the box and he seemed to lurk behind defenders as if he didn't actually want to find himself one on one with the keeper. Obviously it was a confidence crisis which lots of strikers go through, but at the time, as we were losing to the likes of Walsall and Gillingham, I didn't have much sympathy. Once he got that confidence of course he was great.
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Post by stokienorthants on Oct 29, 2014 8:45:48 GMT
When we sold Jimmy Greenhoff I was a young lad working in a local Bank and actually processed the cheque from Man U pretty sure it was for £114k the fee being £120k less 5% which in those days went to the player. Did think about ripping it up to try and stop the deal.
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Post by lancer on Oct 29, 2014 9:22:25 GMT
Our last game at the Brit. Nothing compares to it.It was almost like losing a family members or close friend. Still not over it.
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Post by mywaydesolzan on Oct 29, 2014 9:26:35 GMT
Our last game at the Brit. Nothing compares to it.It was almost like losing a family members or close friend. Still not over it. Where we playing tonight and Saturday then?
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Post by Gods on Oct 29, 2014 11:09:18 GMT
When we sold Jimmy Greenhoff I was a young lad working in a local Bank and actually processed the cheque from Man U pretty sure it was for £114k the fee being £120k less 5% which in those days went to the player. Did think about ripping it up to try and stop the deal. I forgot 5% of any transfer fee simply went automatically to the player. Just seems like it goes to some spiv of an agent now instead doesn't it? I'm not sure if that is 'progress'
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Post by metalhead on Oct 29, 2014 11:34:41 GMT
As a kid, I had a soft spot for Lightbourne. I met him once and he hung around for ages to chat to kids, sign autographs, be a generally nice guy In reality, the guy was shit. I remember playing Oldham 99 season ended a 0-0 and I seem to think he missed an open goal. Thorne went up with the keeper headed back into the mixer and Lightbourne limply header over from a few yards away. I've met him too, and you're right, he's a genuinely nice bloke. Nobody else on here ever seems to admit this, but before Thorney went on that crazy goalscoring run in 2000, I preferred Lightbourne out of the two, and I'm sure at the time that didn't seem such a crazy point of view. I remember when we signed Gunnlaugsson on loan, and the general opinion was split as to who should be dropped to make way. I think Lightbourne was expected to play against Chesterfield but got injured in training, so Thorne played, scored four and never looked back. I think as friendcalledfive says, Thorne got an easy ride mainly based on how poor Paul Stewart was. I don't remember too much of Paul Stewart but I seem to remember my dad commenting on his weight a few times. There weren't many compliments there for sure.
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Post by nenepotter on Oct 29, 2014 12:40:29 GMT
I was shocked when Stoke sold Greenhoff because I knew that meant relegation, he was the heart and sole of the club. But it wasn't till the start of the 77-78 season and I looked at the fixture list and it sunk in that Stoke were no longer a top flight club that I felt totally gutted. First game away at Mansfield and we lost
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Post by kaney78 on Nov 1, 2014 7:02:12 GMT
Any game that Gordon 'the cat ' Marshall was in between the sticks for us
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Post by OldStokie on Nov 1, 2014 12:12:20 GMT
Preston Game 1-1 draw on Boxing day. It was the most turgid shit I'd ever witnessed on a nogger ground, and believe me, I have see a lot of cack over the years. The 8-0 defeats become comical after the 1st 6 have gone in, but there was nothing comical about that 'festive game'. All the other events others have posted on here have had a touch of memorability about them, but that Boxing Day game was notable because it had nothing memorable about it except being a pile of excrement. OS.
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