If this is the year Stoke return to the top flight, then they can reflect on 23 wilderness years peppered with some truly awful memories. Martin Spinks investigates
1) 1989 – Swindon 6, Stoke 0 and Mick Mills sacked
as manager
TRAVELLING Stoke fans were dancing the Conga by the end of a miserable evening. Well, it was that or jump off the nearest wall.
There was no way back for Mick Mills after this result and he was given his cards that night to end four years of solid and relatively successful stewardship of a previously sinking ship.
His demise in the October of 1989 had come just a few months after he was given the best part of a million to spend in the summer to build what was intended to be a promotion-seeking outfit.
Stoke left the old First Division by the trapdoor six months later after Mills had been replaced by number two Alan Ball.
2) 1991 – Wigan 4, Stoke 0 and Alan Ball sacked as manager
ACTUALLY, some might put this day in the top 10 of best moments of the last 23 years, such was Bally’s unpopularity as manager.
This was the Wigan of Springfield Park, not the JJB and the Premier League remember, so a truly awful result in what is now League One proved to be the final straw for Ball.
He was virtually dismissed on the spot by chairman Peter Coates. with the announcement of his managerial death sentence made on the steps of the courthouse, so to speak.
3) 1993 – Lou Macari leaves for Celtic
NO-ONE really blamed him at the time for taking a once-in-a-lifetime chance to manage his boyhood club. He’d have been a fool to turn it down.
And such was his enduring popularity that Macari, pictured, was welcomed back with open arms for a second spell after his acrimonious departure from Celtic.
Mind you, a catalogue of mind-numbing games under Joe Jordan played no small part in the clamour for Macari’s return.
Peter Coates has recently said that losing Macari was his worst stroke of luck as chairman of the club because, he remains convinced, the canny Scot was on course to guide Stoke into the Premier League during that first spell as manager.
4) 1996 – Stoke 0, Leicester 1 (First Division play-off semi-final second leg).
HAVING drawn 0-0 at Filbert Street, hopes were understandably high that Macari’s Stoke could outfox Martin O’Neill’s Leicester in the return at the Victoria Ground.
There were 21,000 packed into the old place to witness a possible passage to Wembley.
But Gary Parker struck the only goal just after half-time to condemn Stoke to another decade plus outside the top flight.
So near, yet so far.
5) 1998 – Stoke 0, Birmingham 7.
A TRULY humiliating afternoon that ultimately condemned Chic Bates to the sack and, with the help of Chris Kamara’s ill-fated appointment soon after, effectively condemned Stoke to relegation on the last day against Manchester City.
Crowd trouble followed the final whistle as the club threatened to tear itself apart like no other time over the past 23 years.
Sparked by The Sentinel’s publication of players to be transfer-listed – before the players themselves had been told – Stoke subsequently produced a performance so woeful that it was tantamount to a sit-down protest.
Stoke did lose more heavily to Liverpool in a League Cup tie a couple of years later, but the consequences were far more devastating on this occasion.
6) 2000 – Gillingham 3, Stoke 2 (Second Division play-off semi-final second leg)
PERHAPS the real damage was done in the final seconds of the first leg when Andy Hessenthaler’s long-ranger had reduced Stoke’s lead to 3-2 going to The Priestfield.
Despite the controversial dismissals of both Clive Clarke (43 minutes) and Graham Kavanagh (55) by trigger-happy Rob Stiles, Stoke hung on grimly into extra-time and even threatened an unlikely equaliser.
But goals in the 102nd and 118th minutes, for a Gillingham outfit including Carl Asaba and Adrian Pennock, condemned Stoke to a courageous defeat.
What a pity, because Stoke had built up a real head of steam in Gudjon Thordarson’s first season as manager and anything seemed possible at that time... but it would be another two years before City were back in the second tier of English football.
7) 2001 – Walsall 4, Stoke 2 (Second Division play-off semi-final second leg)
TWELVE months on, same old story. With the tie goalless from the first leg at the Britannia, Stoke nosed in front to open up the possibility of that elusive play-off final.
But Gudjon Thordarson’s enterprising selection that night horribly backfired as The Saddlers rode off into the sunset.
Graham Kavanagh’s crestfallen face epitomised those of his colleagues at the end of what transpired to be his very last game for the club.
8) 2002 – Steve Cotterill leaves, George Burley comes and goes.
THE club was in turmoil as it lived out the public humiliation of losing not one, but two managers.
Cotterill invited the bile of all Stoke fans, it seemed, by upping sticks to join Howard Wilkinson at Sunderland after only 13 games in charge at Stoke.
But even worse was to follow when Burley was sat next to chairman Gunnar Gislason for a night game – only to change his mind the following morning and scarper back to East Anglia to leave TV camera crews filming an empty press conference originally designed for his unveiling.
The Icelanders were in favour of jetting back home for a re-think, but domestic pressure was brought to bear for the immediate appointment of the man next in the queue... Tony Pulis.
9) 2005 – Tony Pulis sacked and Johan Boskamp appointed
THE bizarre decision to sack an experienced British manager and replace him with an unknown foreigner was a reckless last throw of the dice by the Icelanders.
Pulis had his problems with the owners, but had only recently signed a new contract when the axe fell.
And within hours it was revealed that Johan Boskamp was charged with the task of dipping his toes into English football for the first time with only a few weeks to build a squad for the following season.
The big Dutchman will be remembered as an entertaining interlude for what proved to be the final season with the Icelanders at the helm.
Sadly, in the grand scheme of things 2005/06 will also be regarded as 12 months down the drain.
10) 2007 – QPR 0, Stoke 0
COME the last game of last season there was a genuine feeling that Stoke could sweep through the play-offs and reach the promised land after 22 years in the wilderness.
Only problem was, they didn't actually make the top six. Results elsewhere meant even a victory at Loftus Road would have proved academic.
And so it was back to the drawing board for another 12 months, at least.
Next week the top 10 moments 1985-2008.
Courtesy of
WhyDelilah.co.uk