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Post by Scrotnig on Aug 24, 2019 23:00:56 GMT
For those not old enough to have lived through it meaningfully, or for those who just like nostalgia, this article tells the story of that horrible season very nicely: liquidfootball.net/2017/08/19/stoke-city-the-holocaust-season/The big difference of course is that back then the squad was poor because we were skint. The excuse this time cannot be that. Note that my avatar has long contained a 'pinstripe' top that featured in the holocaust season (and the one before). 84/85 statsGrim.
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Post by onionman on Aug 24, 2019 23:03:07 GMT
Our team that lost to 9-man Millwall was worse. Ben Petty, Lee Collins and an unfit Richard Forsyth. What’s that, just over 20 years ago? Since then we’ve had at least a couple of decent players even if we’ve been generally rubbish.
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Post by str8outtahampton on Aug 25, 2019 12:01:08 GMT
Our team that lost to 9-man Millwall was worse. Ben Petty, Lee Collins and an unfit Richard Forsyth. What’s that, just over 20 years ago? Since then we’ve had at least a couple of decent players even if we’ve been generally rubbish. For me, that's the benchmark. That, and the FA cup home game v Walsall in 1966 (?). I cannot recall much of the game, but I do remember there were a number of spot welders looking for distressed brass monkeys in need of reconstructive testicular surgery. However, to say we lost is an understatement. We were outfought, outmuscled and outplayed. And it's not like they had two men sent off in the dying moments. They played a very large part of that game with 9, and a larger part with 10. For anyone who thinks it cannot get any worse. It probably can. That's what this club (and in truth most clubs) does (do) to you. It's an abusive relationship. Decline of biblical proportions? Yes. Have we hit the bottom? Quite possibly not. Does the club have any clue as to how the decline can be arrested? I honestly doubt it. Will it get better? Almost certainly.
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Post by lordb on Aug 25, 2019 12:31:37 GMT
When did we last field a weaker starting line up than that? A bizarre mix of lower league players and a few youngsters who may or may not make footballers. You'd have to go back to our league 3 days wouldn't you? We have some of the richest owners in the game and we ended up fielding a pub side. It's quite bizarre, I wish someone could explain it to my satisfaction? Even the holocaust season team wasn't this bad. I'm sorry to say it but if we don't get rid of Jones NOW, this team will eclipse the holocaust team's "performance" by the end of the season. What's the record low for points in the second tier? I'm up for us doing worse than that if we don't get rid now. No that side was much worse. Can see the comparison with 1997-98 though.
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Post by ParaPsych on Aug 25, 2019 12:37:56 GMT
It's like some of you have forgotten Dave Rowson even existed. I can guarantee Parapsych hasn't GD He's definitely what we need at the base of the diamond.
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Post by stokeson on Aug 25, 2019 12:46:57 GMT
May times.the promotion season when before the 2nd leg of the playoff semi good old Coates sold Kav and Thorne . Not since Bet365 thats for sure....
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Post by stantheman on Aug 25, 2019 13:05:48 GMT
I've seen us play in 3 different divisions, but can't remember anything this bleak. Alan Ball took the remnants of Mick Mills squad, a squad that never mounted a serious challenge but could on occasions actually play some tidy stuff, and managed to turn them into an ugly bunch of animals that couldn’t string three passes together. The last two performances have seen us do nothing constructive with the ball and we can’t even get ugly and in people’s faces. We are a faceless entity at the minute. We have nothing about us whatsoever. At least with Ball we were aggressive if nothing else. We've been dreadful many times in the 40 years I've been watching Stoke but the issue now is the tens of millions that have been squandered over the last three seasons on players,many of whom we couldn't give away to get their colossal salaries of our wage bill
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Post by stroller on Aug 25, 2019 13:15:11 GMT
We've had poor teams and bad runs in the past and Stokies rightly displayed their anger, particularly with Ball, Kamara and Rowett. But currently there seems to be nothing but apathy and a feeling of inevitable doom in the stands............very unstokie. Full marks for the support at the start yesterday but by the end we were ironically cheering tame shots.
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Post by marylandstoke on Aug 25, 2019 20:43:08 GMT
You need to have seen the clips on the big screen before kick off of our games v Dirty Leeds. Greenhoff, Ritchie, Pejic, Hudosn etc. smashing them with some fantastic goals. Unlike the twatting pile of dog shyte my poor 6 y.o. Grandson and I witnessed today. Stoke City FC your team is a fucking embarrassment. That, my friend, is child abuse. You now need to tell him Santa and the Tooth Fairy don’t exist, along with our midfield.
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Post by tpholloway1 on Aug 25, 2019 20:59:43 GMT
My biggest worry is that whilst this may be the worst Stoke team I've seen (and believe me, there's some competition there) I can't remember us falling so quickly, even the Butler Street roof saga didn't seem this drastic. It wasn't so long ago that we were an "established" Premier League team, now we're struggling at the bottom of the Championship. I think the board owe us an explanation.
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Post by numpty40 on Aug 25, 2019 21:21:10 GMT
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Post by SamB_SCFC on Aug 25, 2019 21:46:01 GMT
I knew he reminded me of someone and that's it! Think that's why 97/98 keeps coming into my head. There are so many similarities between the teams with the blend of talented players who aren't giving it their all and are underperforming mixed with some players who are just absolutely shit.
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