32 years of hurt

[rower]

today marks the 32nd anniversary of our Wembley triumph over Chelsea,
Thankfully I always remember it coincides with the wifes birthday,so I got her a card this morning just to keep her sweet(ish)

rower

[JoeinOz]

Is she old enough to remember our finest hour?

[Hooky]

This is EXACTLY WHAT I WAS ON ABOUT IN MY REVIEW OF WINGERS BOOK


Hurt..............fuck off, we've had some good times since then.

just cos we haven't won a "MAJOR" trophy doesn't mean they have been years of hurt

[JoeinOz]

I think Rower was just using that line to emphasise that our finest hour was a long time ago.

OK not all of it has been hurt but most of it as. Whenever the threat of success has reared its head the club has often staved it off successfully. I got that line from a piss take book about SOT and its appropriate.

[Lakeland Potter]

Dave, hurt depends on the point of view of the observer. To someone who can't remember 1972 there have been some ups. To someone who can (like winger or me) who can remember the League Cup and challenging for the championship and drawing at Ajax (with Greenhoff hitting the post) - everything since has been "hurt". Not that some things wern't good at the time but they don't really register on the rader of a Stokie who lived through the 70's.

[JoeinOz]

When we won it back in 72 the feeling must have been that it as the first of many. If that sodding peanut or ice cream seller or whatever it was hadn't played Radford onside a few weeks later. Who knows what would have happened.

Five years later we were relegated.

[Hooky]

well recalibrate your bloody Radar's then

I discussed this with a fellow stokie my age, after I had posted what I said on my Review, and he agreed wholeheartedly with me.


Whilst its great that we won it, I expect it felt no better to your generation than winning @ the MadStad in the Playoff Final or winning the Championship in 1992 did to my generation.

[JoeinOz]

Not sure Dave. The point is that we have won the autoglasswindshield thing twice but in our heart of hearts we know that we won it because we had got relegated. We were playing in a division below what is our level in the grand scheme of things. Also outside supporters of the clubs in it few people in the wide world of nogger give too much of a toss about it. My favourite time of supporting Stoke was the 91-93 period of Lous. I loved winning the title and still regard that season as one of the best times in my life. BUT even saying that it was only to get us back where we had been with Mid Table Mick 4 years before. Ditto the Millstad.

I don't want to ruin anything but certain things have to be kept in perspective. I just have this burning desire that one day we will return to the top flight. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

[Lakeland Potter]

Believe me it did feel better Dave. If you look at the old archive footage of the welcome the teams got when they got back to Stoke it meant more to the whole population as well. It was a national Trophy - third in importance behind the Championship and the FA cup but above all others - and it felt that way.

I think the way I felt before the League cup final tells it all. Before the Mil Stad I was nervous but that was about it, before the League Cup in 72, I couldn't hold my food down and was physically sick if I tried to eat - I was starving by the time we got out of Wembley.

And by the way, I was 26 at the time of the League Cup - so it wasn't just the nerves of a child.

[guernseydave]

Mr ID (almost the highest poster on the M/B )

You shouldn't set your sights so low. It pains me greatly to hear so many Stokies tell me their finest times supporting Stoke City was when we were managed by that Litigatious Scots git. I'm with Jo and the retiring Bottom poker

Yes there have been some highs but not that many

GD

[JoeinOz]

250,000 lined the streets of SOT to welcome them home. At that point that must have been close to the entire population of SOT. It was the biggest gathering North Staffordshire had ever seen.

We got into Europe because of it too. Jammy Kasierslautern!

[Lakeland Potter]

And Lo - there was light.

To what do we owe the pleasure of a visit by the great GD?

Nice to see you here to grace our humble board! ;D

[Hooky]

As I'm only 28 ... they are my Highs......The best team I have seen in the mighty red n white was the 1992/3 team & The 1995/6 team .... both managed by Lou. Though I have to say that the current team is getting almost on a par with that 1995/6 team... in fact remove those 8 consequtive away defeats and this team is probably on better form at the same level.


P HW HD HL HGF HGA AW AD AL AGF AGA Points GD
Sunderland 46 13 8 2 32 10 9 9 5 27 23 83 +26
Derby 46 14 8 1 48 22 7 8 8 23 29 79 +20
C Palace 46 9 9 5 34 22 11 6 6 33 26 75 +19
Stoke 46 13 6 4 32 15 7 7 9 28 34 73 +11
Charlton 46 8 11 4 28 23 9 9 5 29 22 71 +12
Leicester 46 9 7 7 32 29 10 7 6 34 31 71 +6
Ipswich 46 13 5 5 45 30 6 7 10 34 39 69 +10
Huddersfield 46 14 4 5 42 23 3 8 12 19 35 63 +3
Sheff Utd 46 9 7 7 29 25 7 7 9 28 29 62 +3
Barnsley 46 9 10 4 34 28 5 8 10 26 38 60 -6
Port Vale 46 10 5 8 30 29 5 10 8 29 37 60 -7
West Brom 46 11 5 7 34 29 5 7 11 26 39 60 -8
Tranmere 46 9 9 5 42 29 5 8 10 22 31 59 +4
Southend 46 11 8 4 30 22 4 6 13 22 39 59 -9
Birmingham 46 11 7 5 37 23 4 6 13 24 41 58 -3
Norwich 46 7 9 7 26 24 7 6 10 33 31 57 +4
Oldham 46 10 7 6 33 20 4 7 12 21 30 56 +4
Reading 46 8 7 8 28 30 5 10 8 26 33 56 -9
Grimsby 46 8 10 5 27 25 6 4 13 28 44 56 -14
Wolves 46 8 9 6 34 28 5 7 11 22 34 55 -6
Portsmouth 46 8 6 9 34 32 5 7 11 27 37 52 -8
Millwall 46 7 6 10 23 28 6 7 10 20 35 52 -20
Watford 46 7 8 8 40 33 3 10 10 22 37 48 -8
Luton 46 7 6 10 30 34 4 6 13 10 30 45 -24


73 points..could beat that this year and still not make the play-offs it looks a tighter division this time round

[guernseydave]

My dear PP,

I do 'pop by' occasionally

Mainly to lurk though

GD

[StuttgartStokie]

I've been following Stoke since just before the holocaust season. So its been all down hill since then.

Highs are few and far between.

Mick Mills' run over Christmas, for a moment it felt like we might get promotion.

Championship year 92/93.

Play-offs 95/96 - it didn't really feel like a high, it just felt too good to be true.

Not so highs

Autoglass both times felt like the consolation prize, we'd fucked up promotion before one, the other we'd still got to get promoted and ultimately failed.

The Play-offs win felt like a relief rather than a high.

Basically, we've not been living off the fat of the land for the last few years.

[jimmygscfc]

I'll take Leicester's 6th place and 71 points now and sneak in through the play-offs!!!

As for the League Cup...I was a fresh-faced 14 year old at Wembley and the Final can't be taken out of the context of what went before...those semis and replays against West Ham were epic (particularly the second replay at Old Trafford) and made winning the cup all the more satisfying. Suffice to say, if you weren't there or old enough to remember, you can't appreciate it. And to think, we had our best years to follow in '73, '74 and '75

[lurcherthelurker]

If people can say that sucess is winning a 2nd div playoff and a autoglass win, then they really should set their sights higher, as another one who was about in '72, to see us in the 2nd division was heartbreaking, so to see is get out of it was nothing special IMO.
Only now should we start to look forward to what can be possibly this season, but definately the end of next season, where if we carry on as we are will be in the premiership for the 5/6 season. that is where we were 17 or 18 years ago, so for me, we have spent 17/18 years as relative failures.
Remember at school in the 70's ribbing my mates that we were going to tonk them. but there aint too many people this way who support the likes of Walsall,Plymouth, Wigan werent even about then!! neither were Wycombe apart from FA cup days.

If people are happy with autoglass wins as sucess, then go and support Colchester or Southend

Rex

[rower]

ID !
32 years of hurt is simply just a quote from 3 lions (30 years of hurt).
Yes there has been some high points over the years since 1972,but really nothing to match winning a major trophy,it`s a totally different ball game when the world notices that you have won an English major cup.I wonder how many people even in Scotland noticed that we won the Autoglass thing twice.
I suppose you think that England winning nothing since 1966 is ok,because since then they won the home internationals a few times..bollocks matey it means jack shit .
rower
PS...Joe ..it would be rude of me to tell you how old she is but We won the only meaningful trophy in our history on her 6th birthday

[Olgrligm]

It was on a day just like this too

[Olgrligm]

Referring to the day of the cup final ,or so i'm told.

[A-teen_six_T3]

looking at that league table, some strange teams in div 1 at the time, look at where they are now..... southend,luton, hudersfield,oldham, fail did nt 2 bad next year too, that was me 2nd greatest season as a stoke fan, the best been the promotion winning seaosn, just cus of the glitz and brilliant day in cardiff, but that loss to liester in 96 hurt so bad, i was only a small lad, of about 8 or 9, but i cryd all night (yea men do cry to)

but ive had more great days been a stoke fan then bad 1s,

so no its not 32 years of heart, its 32 years off a rollercoster, expericing good and bad times, as a 17 year old ive seen stoke lift 4 trophies, 92 promotion,92 autoglass,2000 autiwindscree,2002 promotion, brilliant days