EPL Talk » Stoke City

What A Difference A Year Makes At White Hart Lane

Paul Bestall — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:01:34 +0000

With the season starting slightly earlier this year due to the World Cup, most teams in the Premiership have played 8 league games already. Last season, the 8th round of matches was played two weeks later, on the weekend of October 18th/19th. By the end of it, Tottenham were staring up at every other team in the league with a lowly 2 points. A 2-1 loss against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium had left Spurs trailing Newcastle by 4 points and Stoke and Fulham by 5.

A club in disarray, the fans in despair, the players lacking leadership on or off the pitch, things were not looking good. Not since 1988* had Tottenham propped up the table, ironically on Halloween. That season was to shadow a remarkable turn around in events at White Hart Lane as the week continued to get worse as Udinese beat Spurs on the Thursday 2-0 with a implosion in the last 15 minutes. Juande Ramos cut a depressed figure on the touchline in Udine, a man completely at a loss to explain what was happening or it seemed able to arrest the decline.

Daniel Levy’s reign as chairman had seen plenty of ups and downs during the course of the 7 years that had led to this point. Ramos was supposed to be the marquee managerial signing to move Spurs onwards from the work of the underrated and under appreciated Martin Jol. It was fast becoming a disaster of epic proportions as the club lurched from crisis to crisis. After 5 managers in that time, Levy was under enormous pressure to finally deliver, yet here they were, bottom of the league, winless, shapeless and facing relegation.

After the defeat in Italy, Ramos made the usual “We can play our way out of trouble” statements, but they rang hollow in the ears of the Spurs fans. Other than a well deserved point at Stamford Bridge, there had been nothing to cling to in the way of optimism. No-one else could see where the win was going to come from, the team looked beyond help. On Saturday, October 25th as the fans prepared for another inevitable defeat the next day against Bolton, things couldn’t get much worse.

As Match of the Day finished, I flicked over to Sky Sports News, just to see if perhaps anything at all had happened. As the image flicked on, the newsfeed at the bottom of the screen suddenly went in to to overdrive. “Tottenham have sacked Juande Ramos, Gus Poyet and Daniel Comolli with immediate effect…..Harry Redknapp has been confirmed as the new manager of Spurs …. Discussion with Redknapp next on Sky Sports News.” Then the adverts kicked in. Damn it!

I’d had a drink, who wouldn’t when you’re team was bottom of the league and playing like Worksop Town. I rewound the pictures and watched it again. Yep, still said the same. I shot to the PC, went on the BBC football site. It was the top story, Breaking News. The I checked the Guardian, yep, same there. It was true. I ran to the bedroom and woke my better half up, she told me to stop winding her up. I insisted it was true, and probably to simply placate me, she got up and went downstairs with me to see for herself.

Chelsea fans don’t believe a lot, though living with a Spurs fan means you get used to false dawns on a seasonal basis. Sitting down, SSN burst in to life once more, BOOOOOOOOOM went the special effects, WHOOOOOOOOOOSH went the graphics and then it was confirmed by the presenters clearly excited that people would actually be watching for once late on a Saturday night. Redknapp was indeed the new manager of Spurs. I let out a hearty cheer! My other half wasn’t impressed at all, ” Oh no, I’ve always really liked Harry. What has he done that for!” Time for another drink I decided, my despair transformed in minutes to optimism! Ah the joy’s of football eh!

As managerial announcements go, for me, its quite possibly one of the oddest I’ve ever come across, late on a Saturday night, less than 24 hours before a team is due to play a match. I bet every newspaper editor was cursing Levy throughout the United Kingdom. Yet, in the 38 League games Redknapp has managed Spurs in now, his record reads Played 38, Won 19, Drawn 8 Lost 11.With this season’s excellent start, Redknapp has assured that for the first time in 4 seasons, Spurs are not playing catch up after a slow start. 16 points from 8 games is Tottenham’s best ever start to a Premiership season.

No Spurs fan thinks that we’ll win the League, or finish in the top 4, but after the year of hell that was the Ramos era, it’s a whole lot better. The oddity of Ramos’ tenure, Spurs won the League Cup, their first trophy in 9 seasons and a 5-1 victory against Arsenal, yet it will always be viewed as a dreadful year. Two shots of sunlight do not make a summer, but at least Harry’s got Spurs fans smiling again.

There is still plenty of work to do at Tottenham, the centre half issue needs resolving due the injuries King and Woodgate now have. The midfield have to learn to be able to play without Modric against big teams and not let Palacios do all the running, Keane needs to keep performing as he did against Burnley and Hull City. Defoe needs keep running and not get downhearted and the players outside the first 11 need to knuckle down and try and force themselves into Redknapps plans rather than whining to the media. Then maybe a top six place wouldn’t be out of the question, anything else would be a bonus.

*Spurs became the first team to be bottom of the First Division on Halloween in 1988 and not be relegated, actually finishing 6th as Gascoigne and Waddle combined to drag them up the table. The following season saw Spurs finish 3rd with Lineker joining the team as Waddle went to Marseille.

Two Wins In A Calendar Year Isn’t Mischief Making

Paul Bestall — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:02:10 +0000

Hull City Chairman Paul Duffen has ridden to the defence of his beleaguered, battered and bruised manager after another capitulation on Saturday saw Hull brushed aside 6-1 at Anfield. 7 games into the season and Hull City have just 4 points, with a solitary win against Bolton and a point gained away at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Since the turn of the year, Hull have now played 24 Premiership games, winning just two, and losing 17.

Now that’s not relegation form, that’s dead and buried form. 11 points from a possible 72 is an astounding return and one that beggars belief. Already this season they’ve conceded more than 4 goals in three different matches and that for me sets alarm bells ringing. I’m completely at a loss as to how Brown can address this dreadful run of form. It’s not the worst Premiership record, as recent history will testify with Derby County’s year of hell probably cemented in the record books for some time to come, but surely someone at Hull City must be worried.

Now, I’m still surprised as to how far Phil Browns star has faded since the Tigers burst on to the Premiership scene last year. People seem to be enjoying Hull getting mauled every week so they get to see Browns saddened face after every match. I’m not one of them, I actually really feel for Brown and the Hull fans. When you’re facing what appears such an insurmountable task, even little hiccups seem like mountains in the black light of football induced depression.

It makes you face every game with a level of pessimism that even the Grim Reaper may think a tad depressing. Going to a match begins to resemble spending two hours on death row, where even the prospect of contracting the black death seems preferable to watching your team get stuffed once again.

Fair play to Hull City’s chairman, he stopped short of giving the dreaded vote of confidence, but even Brown must realise something has to give eventually. I’m certainly not advocating any manager getting sacked, especially one that has taken a club to a level they have never been to before but sometimes you have to hold your hands up, say enough is enough and walk away. The chairman’s statement included one of those comments were you think Hmmmmm.

“Only a few points separate us from the middle of the league, and I am really pleased with the signs I see developing in the squad” Now it’s easy to be churlish about a Chairman when he comes out with a statement like that. Is it damage limitation? Is it spin? Is it delusion? Or is it a manager receiving a level of support that should be applauded.Duffen knows that Hull City are in the Premiership more or less due to Brown’s skills as a manager.

All the additional revenue, coverage and publicity is down to a manager taking an unfancied team in to the Premiership. Moments like this don’t come around very often and after 104 years of trying, you tend to give the man who got you there a little more support than perhaps other club chairman may do. Bigger clubs than Hull City have treated better managers worse than the support Phil Brown is currently getting.

Hull are about to embark on a run of six games that will show everyone exactly where Hull City are in the scheme of things. A run of 4 home games against Wigan Athletic, Portsmouth, Stoke City and West Ham United book ending away games at Fulham and Burnley will offer us an exact dissection of Hull City in the scheme of things. Once that run is over, things may look a whole lot rosier than they currently do at the K.C. Stadium. I just hope Phil Brown doesn’t get the karaoke machine out!

Legends Of English Football: #1 Sir Stanley Matthews

Paul Bestall — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:26:39 +0000

“The man who taught us the way football should be played” Pele

Well if you’re going to start a series like this, there is only one person to start with in my opinion, Sir Stanley Matthews, the wizard of dribble. Matthews is a name that will always be mentioned as one of the greatest footballers of all time, never mind a legend of the English game. He was probably the first superstar footballer that we had as the growing medium of television began to creep into houses up and down Britian.

Born in 1915, in Hanley near Stoke on Trent, Matthews was a prodigious talent and was playing for England schoolboys when spotted by Stoke City. He signed for them in1932 and by the following season had become a mainstay of the Potters side. His England debut followed in 1934, even scoring one as England beat Wales 4-0. His reputation and talent touched all that saw him, and by 1935 at 20, he was easily the biggest footballing star in the country.

Matthews had three abilities that would bamboozle opponents, he was lightening fast, could cross a ball on to a sixpence from the wing and made the ball seem to stick to his foot. If anything, Matthews created the position of winger by the power of his own talents. He looked set to take the world by storm, and after scoring a hatrick for England in another 4-0 win, history was beckoning. He almost left Stoke City in 1938 but a crowd of nearly 4,000 fans came to the ground and begged him to stay.

By the time he was 24, in 1939, Sir Stan had played 256 games for Stoke City when World War II broke out. For the next 6 years, Matthews was a member of the Royal Air Force, but played in numerous friendlies for Manchester United, Blackpool and Arsenal as well as still representing England. For most players, losing those prime years could have been the end for their careers but Matthews hadn’t finished. In 1947, he joined Blackpool, aged 32 for £11,500 and the manager at the time hoped he could get another 2 or 3 seasons out of him.

By the end of that season, he’d won the inaugural Footballer of the Year award and a runners up medal in the F.A.Cup. He was still playing for England and infamously against Italy beat his marker by so much distance, whilst wasting time in the corner, stopped to put his hair back into place. The legend became that Matthews had pulled a comb out of his shorts pocket and combed his hair, such was the time he had waiting.

Far from giving Blackpool 2 or 3 seasons, he actually spent 15 seasons at the Seasiders, reaching another F.A. Cup final in 1951, but once again Blackpool contrived to lose once more. The feeling was that the nations favourite footballer would never win a domestic honour, but in 1953 he finally earned his reward. Nowadays, the 1953 final is known as “The Matthews Final” but Blackpool looked dead and buried at 3-1 down shortly after half time but Matthews had other idea’s.

Even at 38, Matthews’ skill had not diminished and he took the game by the scruff of the neck, tearing Bolton to shreds with his pace and dribbling. With 22 minutes left, he crossed the ball to his partner in crime, Stan Mortensen to make it 3-2 and Blackpool were back in it. With time running out, Matthews kept going and Blackpool managed to win a free kick which Mortensen smashed home to bring them level.

Everyone thought they were going to have extra time, but Sir Stan had other idea’s, he broke free in the final minute and tearing down the wing for last effort. He seemed to take too long but at the last second he crossed the ball to the onrushing Perry who fired the winning goal home and finally get Matthews a medal his career so richly deserved. In 1956 he won the first European Footballer of the year award at 41!

This is a player that continued to play for his country until he was 42! His England career of 23 years will probably never be beaten and even as he moved in to his mid 40’s, he was still a regular for Blackpool. At 46 when most players are long retired, he returned to Stoke City and amazingly scored the goal that guarenteed them promotion in 1963! He also won the Footballer of the Year award again that season. Can you imagine a Second Division player achieving that these days?

He finally retired in 1965, just after his 50th birthday but felt that he retired too early. His final appearance in a football match was in a testomonial in 1981 aged 66. Matthews was also the only footballer to be knighted whilst still playing, such was the warmth that was felt toward the man. Sir Stan passed away in February 2000, 3 weeks after turning 85.

He put his longevity down to daily runs and never touching alcohol as a player, and he never received a booking or a red card in his entire career. Renowned as a gentleman, his influence far outweighed the skinny lad from Stoke on Trent born during World War I. A true legend, not just of English football but of the World game.

“I grew up in an era where he was a god to those of us that aspired to play the game. He was a true gentleman and we shall never see his like again” Brian Clough

795 games for Stoke City and Blackpool, scoring 81 goals
54 games for England, scoring 11 goals
Never booked or sent off
Missed 6 seasons due to the Second World War

The Premiership Will Hold No Fear For Burnley Fans

Paul Bestall — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:10:11 +0000

So less than 24 hours after Promotion to the Premiership and the usual round of tired cliches and articles about “brave little Burnley” are beginning to pop up on-line and in the press. Do they never learn, Do they know the football history attached to this club? Burnley fans will probably laugh in the face of these doom mongers and pessimists, they’re just glad that they still have a club to support and after you’ve faced that, you can cope with anything.

Back in the 1986-1987 season, The Football League had finally bowed to pressure and allowed relegation to the Football Conference for the first time. Previously, the side that finished last had to seek re-election from the rest of the League, a ludicrous situation, similar to asking turkeys to vote for Christmas. The only amazing thing about that was that some clubs were actually removed from the League, giants such as Barrow, Workington and New Brighton.

Burnley went in to the final game of the season knowing that they could face relegation to the Conference if results went against them. As it was both Lincoln and Torquay failed to win and Burnley finished 3rd bottom, a lowest low for a side that had reached the Quarter Finals of the European Cup back in 1960-1961. This is a side that had won the First Division twice as well as the FA Cup and almost won the double in 1962, finishing runners up in the League and the F.A. Cup and only left the First Division back in 1976, ironically relegated with Sheffield United.

To face that possibility that a side that had played European Football could really find themselves out of the league within a generation must have been terrifying for the fans of the Clarets. To face that fact and to overcome it puts the fans of Burnley in an ideal position to deal with Premiership football and the pressures that come with it. They’re not scared of anything that the top tier can throw at them, after the rollercoaster history they’ve had in the last 25 years alone, next season will be a delight for Clarets fans.

This is a side that have been at the top end of English football before, in fact in the 1960’s, they were one of the big English teams, challenging for trophies and finishing in the top 10 5 times under the legendary Burnley manager Harry Potts. Oddly from 1967 until 1970 they finished 14th every season, back when the top division had 22 clubs.

Of course, next season will be a massive challenge for Burnley, but no more so than the one faced by Hull City and Stoke City this season and their exploits in this season’s Carling and F.A. Cup competitions will stand them in good stead. They have nothing to fear with promotion, the manager Owen Coyle has been earning plaudits all season with the expansive football his side plays and they’ll be looking forward to bloodying the noses of more estabilished Premiership sides next season.

By winning the Championship Play Off Final through Wade Elliott’s super strike, Burnley have become the 42nd side to play at least a season in the in Premiership now. As a founding member of the Football League, some would say it’s been overdue to see them return to the top flight after an absence of 32 years, but they’ve not gained promotion through sympathy, they’ve played their way up.

This is a side with history, both good and bad behind it, and they’ll be relishing next season more than most fans. The fact that they can play a bit too, will make it an interesting season at Turf Moor and good luck to them.

Liam Lawrence’s Timely Goals

Ethan Armstrong — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:01:19 +0000

Yes, yes: Football is a team sport and all that… but lately it feels like Liam Lawrence is keeping Stoke City clear of the drop all by himself. Two dazzling goals to secure key points for his side will standout as the highlights of Stoke’s late climb from the danger zone.

The first was a deft piece of in-the-box maneuvering 15 minutes from time in a tense match against Blackburn Rovers. Lawrence connected with James Beattie’s flick on. His first touch scooped the ball to the left, putting him inside the full back. His second touch was a left-footed strike past Paul Robinson. Britannia Stadium erupted after 75 minutes of deadlock.

In Stoke’s 2-1 victory over Hull on Saturday, Lawrence had a hand in the first goal, taking a 41st minute corner to create the chance for Ricardo Fuller, but it was his second, stunning goal that clinched another year in the Premiership for the Potters.

With 72 minutes gone, Fuller found Lawrence out wide right. With a defender in front of him and 25 yards to goal, many would have expected Lawrence to try to beat the defender to create a cross or at least run in and seek a more reasonable distance (and angle) to goal. But Lawrence saw his shot and launched it. The ball sailed into the left side of the net past Boaz Myhill. Stoke supporters checked their programmes to make sure Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard hadn’t snuck into the starting eleven.

The goal gave Stoke a two-nil lead, but it would later prove to be the match-winner after Andy Dawson took one back for Hull with a closing moments free-kick.

If your only knowledge of Stoke was these two fantastic goals, you might assume Liam Lawrence has been banging them in all year. But these beauties were his second and third goals of the season. Before the Rovers match on 18 April, Lawrence hadn’t scored since Stoke’s first home match, a 3-2 win over Villa on 23 August when Lawrence converted a penalty.

Lawrence was voted Stoke City Player of the Year in 2007/2008 when his 14 league goals helped with Stoke’s promotion campaign. Known as a scoring midfielder, his play was inspiring and influential. But in the Premier League the goals had not been coming for the 26-year-old midfielder. In fact, he only scored three during his last stint in the Prem as well when he came up with Sunderland in 2005/2006.

But Lawrence makes a good argument for quality over quantity. Or rather, timeliness over quantity.

Stoke have had decent form all season, but the lower half of the league table has been congested with many sides who had a good view at both relegation and safety as the season wound down. Liam’s lone goal in the match against Blackburn gave Stoke supporters hope they would pull above danger. But Stoke couldn’t cement their position in the subsequent losses against Fulham and West Ham.

Now, with his scorcher against Hull, Lawrence has given his club a sure place in the next EPL season.

Between scoring 15 goals in a season and getting relegated or scoring two pivotal goals to keep your club alive, there isn’t a striker in the world who would have trouble choosing which he’d prefer.

Lawrence’s scoring has been sparse. But the quality is boundless when he finds his moments.