A beginner's guide to Stoke City

Stoke City Football Club are, of course, the reason for our existence! We have no intention at present of filling this website with a load of detailed information about SCFC as there are other sites that do a much better job of this (check out the links given at the end of this page). But for the benefit of newcomers, and in particular anyone looking at this site from outside the UK (hi there!), here is a short intro....

Stoke City are one of the oldest clubs in England, and therefore one of the oldest in the world. Our date of formation is believed to be 1863 (one year younger than Notts County) although there is a bit of controversy about this as the records from this time are a bit ropey, and some authors reckon we were actually formed in 1868. What is not in doubt is that we were one of the founder members of the football league in 1888.

The club is based in the city Stoke-on-Trent in the county of Staffordshire (about halfway between Birmingham and Manchester for those who know their English geography). It is an industrial city famous for its pottery industry, hence our nickname of 'The Potters'. The city has a population of about 250,000 and is strictly speaking made up of five towns, one of which is called Stoke, where the football club is based. One of the other towns plays host to another football league club - Port Vale. There is a rivalry but this is not as strong as in other cities. This is probably because Stoke City has always been a bigger club in terms of support and has almost always played in a higher league.

Stoke City play at the 28,000 capacity Britannia Stadium, which was opened in 1997. The stadium name sounds patriotic at first sight, but it is actually named after our sponsor - the locally based Britannia Building Society.

Up to 1997 Stoke City played at the Victoria Ground which had been our home since 1878. The club record attendance was set in 1937 when 51,380 crammed in for the visit of Arsenal. By the mid 1990s, whilst the ground at that stage was still considered to be better than most, the post-Hillsborough Taylor report required us to convert the standing areas to seating. The nature of the ground was such that this was going to be difficult, and with finances at the club not in the best shape, the club were happy to accept an offer from the local council to move to a new site just over one mile away from the Vic. It was sad to move, and some supporters feel that it was not necessary, but the majority accepted that it was time to move on and consoled themselves in the much improved facilities.

From a Southern Stokies point of view, the location of the new ground is frustrating - it is right next to the railway but there is no station nearby! We often see a London bound train pass beneath us as we set out on the long walk (or bus ride) to Stoke station.

So now for the important bit - what have we won. For starters, we won the Football League Cup in 1972 (beating Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley) ......... and, er, that's about it. We have spent a very large chunk of our history in the top division of English football, and have only rarely fallen below the 'second' division (ie. what has now been rebranded as 'The Championship'). We have won a few divisional championships along the way but we have never won the league itself (i.e. what is now the Premiership) although we came within one match of doing so in 1947 when all we had to do was win our last match but fluffed it!

In recent years we have won the Autoglass trophy, Auto Windscreens shield and a promotion play-off final. These were great fun at the time but we don't shout too loudly about them as they are competitions for second and third division clubs - and we should not have been in the 2nd division in the first place! The last 20 years have been amongst the worst in our history, both on and off the pitch. We have not been in the top division since 1984/85 (and we don't like to talk about that infamous season). However, as I write this in summer 2004, things are looking much better than they have done for many years, and the premiership goldmine is almost within reach!

Despite our inability to win major trophies, we have a proud history and many famous players and managers have graced our club. Without any doubt, Stoke City's most celebrated player was the 'wizard of the dribble' - Sir Stanley Matthews. Stan was born and bred in Stoke and played for the club in two long spells at the start and end of this career. And what a career - England international and regarded as the world's best player at the time - and the first footballer to receive a Knighthood. Most incredibly of all, Stan was still playing for Stoke at the age of 48! Stan was our club President during the 1990s and missed few matches at this time. Sadly, Sir Stan is no longer with us in person, but he is always in our thoughts (even for those like me who never got to see him play) as we approach the stadium along 'Stanley Matthews Way' and cast our eyes to the excellent statue erected in his honour at our newly built stadium.

There are other famous names of course......... Gordon Banks, Neil Franklin, George Eastham, Alan Hudson spring to mind ..... and there are the 'local heroes' who may not be so famous elsewhere but are are held in reverent esteem by followers of Stoke City ........ Tony Waddington (manager), John Ritchie, Denis Smith, Lou Macari (manager) and others ........ and there are many very famous players who have had relatively brief spells at the club ....... Peter Shilton and Geoff Hurst among them. Apologies to supporters reading this who don't agree with my choice of characters to namecheck - but that is part of the beauty of being a football supporter - there is always something to argue about!

So yes, we are proud of our history. There is more to it than winning trophies - our supporters tend to follow the club out of respect for history of the club, or quite simply local pride - a sense of community that you can no longer get at Manchester United PLC! We are a proper football club, and long may it stay that way!

If you would like to find out more about Stoke City Football Club, including a more detailed history, check out the Stoke City FC official website.uk or the Oatcake fanzine website or look out for one of many books written in recent years. We also recommend Old Stokie's website for an alternative and 'genuine' view of SCFC.

Neil Chadwick, July 2004