
This page is my little
world of info on Stoke City Football Club. I have lived through their worst period in
their entire history along with some of their best times. I am not old enough to have seen
Sir Stanley Matthews play, although I did meet him and will treasure the memory. I am
however old enough to have seen Gordon Banks, Geoff Hurst, Peter Shilton and Jimmy
Greenhoff play and I will long remember some stunning games at the Victoria Ground.
Latest good news for 'The Potters' was 16 April 2000 - Stoke won the Auto Windscreen Shield with a 2-1 win over Bristol City. Click here or the picture for more details.
Stoke Football Club is the second oldest
league club in existence, formed in 1863 by former pupils of the Charterhouse School.
In the early days Stoke played a number of friendly games against local sides, and it was
in one of these matches they recorded a 26-0 victory over local side Mow Cop. However,
unlike some sides who net a few goals against teams such as the Dagenham Girl Pipers, this
is not recorded as their biggest victory. That honour goes to West Bromwich Albion who
were defeated 10-3.
Stoke turned professional in 1885 and three years later in 1888 they were invited to be one of the 12 clubs that were to form the inaugural 'Football League'. |
The 12 original members of the Football League ACCRINGTON |
My support for the Potters started before I was Born. Although all my family originate from the Potteries, my father was an 'egg chaser'. Although he vaguely follows the fortunes of Stoke City he is more at home watching the rugger. My mother, on the other hand is a true Stokie. When she was still sporting pony tails and hadn't the misfortune of meeting my father, she would spend all her time watching the boys in red & white and then meeting them round the back of the 'Vic' for a quick photo.
Many Great Players have graced the Victoria Ground
including The Greatest of them all, Sir Stanley Matthews CBE
In
1967, Stoke signed the Worlds greatest goalkeeper Gordon Banks.
Other great players to play for stoke include: Geoff Hurst the only man to score a
hat trick in a World Cup Final and Freddie Steele who scored 7 goals in a game for England
which is still a record.
On March 4th 1972 Stoke captured their first major trophy in 109 years,
beating hot favourites Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley to clinch the League Cup crown.
In the 1974-75 season, Stoke missed out on the coveted League title by just four points, during a season which saw four key players all sidelined with broken legs.
Some of my favourite players. |
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| I've now met my three boyhood hero's. Sir Stan, not only the World's greatest footballer but a thoroughly nice bloke as well. Sir Geoff Hurst and Gordon Banks - the World's greatest goalkeeper. Gordon tells the story of his great save against Pele as a bit of a fluke - apart from this, he's a wonderfully decent chap - the save was the best piece of footballing skill ever filmed. | |
GORDON BANKS OBE![]() Born December 1937. |
Considered by many people as the greatest goalkeeper ever, Gordon Banks joined Stoke City in the summer of 1967, from Leicester City, aged 29 years, for a mere £52,000. He made 293 League outings for Leicester City, and played for them against Stoke City in the 1964 League Cup final, and in two losing FA Cup finals. He won the first of his 73 full England caps in April 1963 (against Scotland) having already played twice for the Under-23 side. A year before joining Stoke City he gained a World Cup winners' medal when England defeated West Germany at Wembley. He made 37 appearances for England while with Leicester. He made a further 36 appearances for England while with Stoke City making him Stoke's most-capped player at full international level. He was awarded the OBE in 1970. He played a total of 246 senior games for Stoke, gaining a League Cup winners' tankard in 1972, when he was also named both Footballer of the Year and Sportsman of the Year. On October 22, 1972, Banks was involved in a road accident, when his Ford Granada was involved in a head-on collision with a van. The accident cost him his sight in his right eye and forced him into an early retirement from League football in this country. He went on to play football in America for Fort Lauderdale Strikers. He also had spells coaching at Stoke City, Vale Park before becoming general manager of Telford United. He later ran his own sports promotion agency. |
PETER SHILTON MBE,
OBE![]() Born September 18, 1949. |
Peter Shilton, rated as one of the best goalkeepers in the world, joined Stoke City in November 1974 from Leicester City for a fee of £300,000. He made 120 appearances for the Potters before being transferred to Nottingham Forest for £270,000 in September, 1977. 'Shilts' became the first footballer in history to appear in 1,000 Football League games, playing professional football for an amazing 31 years. He made 125 appearances for England at full international level, and was captain of his country on 15 occasions. |
SIR GEOFF HURST |
Geoff Hurst of course has left an
indelible mark on the history of football both in this country and in the game worldwide,
as he was the first and to date the only man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup Final
starring in the 4-2 win over West Germany in the 1966 World Cup Final at Wembley. He was signed by Stoke in August 1972 for £75,000 from the League Cup windfall profits and with one eye on the possible retirement of John Ritchie. He was almost 31 at this time but he maintained his very high standards and Stoke were blessed with Hurst, Ritchie and Jimmy Greenhoff as strikers over this period. Made his debut for Stoke in the F.A. Cup Third Place Play off game at St. Andrews against Birmingham City in August 1972 (it had been carried over from the previous season). In his younger days he played cricket for Essex in the County Championship. When at Stoke he owned a pub in Whitmore and had insurance interests later becoming a director of Motorplan. Hurst was knighted in 1999 |
SIR
STANLEY MATTHEWS CBE![]() February 1, 1915 - February 23, 2000 |
SIR STANLEY MATTHEWS CBE The son of Hanley's famous boxing-barber, Jack Matthews, Stan was the greatest footballer the world has ever seen. Born in Hanley, on leaving school he did general office work, while also on the ground staff at the Victoria Ground. He turned professional on his 17th birthday, having represented England at schoolboy level in 1929. He made his League debut for Stoke on March 19, 1932. Occupying the right-wing position throughout his career both as a club player and England international, he won the first of his 54 full England caps in September 1934 (Wales), scoring in the 4-0 win at Cardiff. During World War Two, Matthews appeared in 24 wartime and five Victory internationals, and also represented the Football League, the Football League XI and the FA XI. His first stay at Stoke ended in 1947, when, aged 32, he moved to Blackpool for £11,500. There he helped them to with the FA Cup in 1953, and scored 17 goals in 379 appearances for the Seasiders before returning to Stoke City in October, 1961, for a fee of £2,500. Matthews was 46 years old at the time, yet he still went on to play for a further four years for The Potters. Promotion was gained back into the First Division in 1963 and two years later on February 6, 1965, just five days after his 50th birthday, he retired from competitive football with well over 800 games under his belt, 701 in the Football League (332 with Stoke and 369 for Blackpool). His record at Stoke is 355 senior appearances and 62 goals. He is the oldest player ever to win a full England cap, aged 42 years, 103 days. He was knighted in 1965, having received the CBE nine years earlier). After leaving Stoke, Matthews toured the world, coaching in many countries including the Far East. In 1967-68 he returned to manage Port Vale, before going to live in Malta, where he took charge of Hibernians. He later lived in Canada before returning to the Potteries in the late 1980s to live. In 1989 he was appointed president of Stoke City Football Club. He was presented with the Midlands Sports Personality of the Year in 1994. |
TONY WADDINGTON |
Tony Waddington, the Stoke manager who brought Sir Stanley Matthews back to the Victoria Ground after a spell at Blackpool. Waddington, who remained at Stoke for 17 years was in charge during Stoke's League cup win in 1972. Possibly Stoke's most successful manager. He made his reputation by bringing to the club ageing stars who were nearing the end of their career. He signed 46-year-old Stanley Matthews from Blackpool for £3,000 launching the most successful period in the club's history. His teams gained a reputation for being 'veterans' as he signed such players as Jimmy McIlroy, Eddie Clamp, George Eastham, Alex Elder, David Herd, Roy Vernon, Geoff Hurst and Dennis Violet. His most audacious signings were goalkeeper Gordon Banks, fresh from England's 1966 World Cup triumph, Peter Shilton who succeeded Banks as England's goalkeeper, and Alan Hudson, from Chelsea, who went on to produce legendary performances. The club reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1971 and 1972 and went on to play in Europe. However, with the departure of their leading players, the club were relegated in 1977 and Waddington left. He was appointed associated director of Stoke City in 1993, a position he held until his death in 1994. |
| MARK
STEIN |
O.K. so Steino doesn't quite have the history of most of my hero's but, when Premiership Champions 'Manchester United' visited the Victoria Ground for a cup game, Stein's 2 brilliantly taken goals sent them away with a defeat and a quote from the comentator which still remains clear in my mind. " Schmeicel, beaten all ends up by a glorious goal from Mark Stein " |