Don’t ever let anyone tell you Stoke City fans aren’t a passionate lot who love their club and their players. Due to an outpouring of support on the recent Premier League Footballer of the Week, I feel it necessary to give Mr. Fuller and the proud people of Stoke their full amount of credit that’s rightfully owed to them.
Listed as only an option in the poll that awards the top footballers of the week on EPL Talk, the Jamaican International Ricardo Fuller, having only played some 25 minutes during Saturday’s 1-0 away win, received by far the most votes in a landslide of support. Some 370+ mad Potters let their collective voices be heard as they refused to go quietly into a night that saw players from top 4 or potential top 4 clubs awarded the accolades.
If you haven’t seen it yet, Ricardo Fuller scored a solo goal to rival any of the other goals scored this past weekend or this past season for that matter. Having sat on the Stoke bench for the majority of the match, Fuller was introduced to a 0-0 game in the 67th minute. Stoke boss Tony Pulis looked the brilliant tactician as his second half substitution scored the only goal of the game with in two minutes of his introduction.
- Then the Villain, Now the Hero
Having been sent off in the same fixture last season for slapping his own team mate Andy Griffin, this time, Fuller emerged the conquer. When Fuller received a long ball at the edge of the West Ham box, he had it all to do. With the ball at his feet, Fuller ran straight at West Ham defender Manuel Da Costa before turning him inside out and cutting inside towards goal.
Once he had skinned one West Ham defender, he pulled the same trick on England International Matthew Upson by continuing his run towards goal and cutting inside again thus losing the on-rushing Upson in the process. Fuller’s brilliance was in avoiding not one, but two defenders and then creating the space he needed for an unobstructed, close range blast upon the helpless Robert Green in the West Ham goal.
1-0 to the Potters and a happy Stoke City claimed three points when the match looked set for a 0-0 draw. Stoke City currently sit 11th in the Barclays Premier League table with a game in hand. If they were to win the vital extra game, Tony Pulis could realistically see his well organized, tough to break down side finish in the top ten after finishing a modest 12th last season upon their return to the top-flight.
Stoke City have fantastic support home and away. To view their matches on TV is to witness one of the loudest and most passionate grounds in all of England. They love their club and they love their players. If you don’t agree with them, well, fine. Just be prepared to hear about it in the form of immense support from the fans and supporters of Stoke City.
One of your better articles Jesse
It’s nice to be noticed and not brushed under the carpet. I appreciate that it is difficult to concentrate on little more than the top 4 as they have the most followers, but appealling to the lowest common denominator can stunt one’s growth in my opinion. Although you could argue that opininions are like arseholes, everybody has got one.
Given all the talk about TV coverage and MOTD over here something you ought to try and catch is Football Focus – another BBC production shown around lunchtime on Saturdays, or the Football League show – another BBC production about the Championship, League 1 & 2. I’m not sure but I think both of these are available on the BBC I Player.
I guess it’s difficult from your position to gain an understanding of some of the lesser lights in the Premiership, beyond knowing about the Delap throw for example, but you also have to keep people coming back so I guess the articles on the top 4 are designed for this.
I love some of the stuff that appears on here about Fulham for example but beyond that it’d be nice to see the odd article about smaller teams or maybe interesting or in form players playing for those teams. It’d make a nice niche for someone to write about on here and spread the love for the Hull’s, Bolton’s, Stoke’s and Fulham’s of this world. No matter how looked down upon we are, we are as important to the league structure as any of the top teams. The same goes for those teams that will be promoted at the end of this season.
My tip for a game to watch outside the EPL coming up soon is the Cardiff vs Swansea match, both are in the Championship play-off positions and there is no love lost between them. Has the potential for turning into WW3 and the atmosphere should be good.
ICK
Good call on showing clubs outside of the top 4 some well deserved respect. It is time that the media realized that the world does not revolve around them and that there are 16 other teams in the EPL.
The gap between the top 4 and the rest is increasing due to the disparity in the distribution of wealth within the EPL let alone the divisions below where clubs are folding on an annual basis.
Stoke’s forte is the strong relationship between chairman, manager and fans. We also have a team that will work there balls off week in week out and on occasion we are blessed with the spectacle that was provided this weekend by Ricardo Fuller.
We are football as it should be, forget your multi million pound primadonas, we are a team made up of assembled waifs and strays according to our manager with a fan base that has suffered the highs and lows of the last twenty years and is now where it should be.
Wow. no chelsea articles but when a reader bullies and bullies about a ricardo fuller goal instantly someone writes an article. Manutalk.com is a great website.
I think it’s a good thing that more and more articles on the non-big 4 teams appear on this site. Stoke City are a very committed team that deserve a lot of resepect from us. People who label them as playing dirty football probably have never seen any of their games. I really hope that Stoke can make it to the top 10 at the end of this season.
But I totally agree with your comment regarding the lack of Chelsea articles. We always see Liverpool, Arsenal and ManUtd articles, but rarely do we see some in-depth analysis of Chelsea. (There were a couple after Chelsea’s exit of the Champions League, but that’s pretty much it until now, if I am not mistaken.) I know you guys talk about the Chelsea matches in the EPL podcast, but still, I think that there should be more articles on Chelsea. Just my two cents
J and JDubo, if you or anyone else is interested in writing articles about Chelsea for EPL Talk, more info is available at http://www.epltalk.com/get-published/
It’s not on purpose that Chelsea has been snubbed.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Well done Jesse, a decent piece about the Potters at last.
One thing you should mention is that if any football fans want to visit a PROPER football club, that is owned and run by a local family and in a strong financial position, then they should call into Stoke City.
The atmosphere you hear on the TV is nothing like really being there. If you get the chance then get over and join in the fantastic atmosphere at the “Bearpit.”
I have noticed the increase in interest from the other side of the pond in terms of the numbers of T shirts, etc. that I send over from http://www.stoketshirts.co.uk . There is also a Stoke City Supporters club in New York should people feel like meeting up to watch a game. Our other big US connection is our official link with the Austin Aztecs who are owned and run by Phil Rawlins, a Stoke City director.
Keep it Stoke Jesse and as we sing in the Potteries, “We’ll be With You”
Taarraar Duck!
Well thanks for that Jesse. My post on the Prem player of the week galvanized some Stokies to also post and its great that you were magnanimous enough to write this.We are fiercley proud of our club and last season developed a somewhat seige mentality after the purists unfairly labelled us and one betting site had us relegated and paid out after one game. We aim to stick around and develop our play given we may get a few quid by staying in the Prem. Ta for the write up youth. Seeey thee!