Stoke City Football Club is a football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Founded in 1863, Stoke is the oldest club in the Premier League, and the second oldest professional football club after Notts County.
Stoke play their home fixtures at the Britannia Stadium, a 28,000 all-seater stadium. The stadium was opened in 1997; prior to this date Stoke had played at the Victoria Ground, which had been their home ground since 1878 (a record of 119 years currently shared with Wolverhampton Wanderers). The club's nickname is The Potters (after the pottery industry in Stoke-on-Trent) and its home kit consists of a red & white vertical-striped shirt with white shorts and white socks.
Prior to their 2008 promotion, Stoke had not participated in top flight football since the 1984-85 season, in which they were relegated with a total of 17 points, a record low total for twenty-one years. Stoke's first major trophy was won in the 1972 League Cup Final, when they beat Chelsea 2-1. The club have won the Football League Trophy on two occasions, firstly in 1992 and most recently in 2000.
Stoke won promotion to the Premier League after a goalless draw with Leicester City on the last day of the 2007–08 season, which was enough to keep them in 2nd place of The Championship and earn automatic promotion. The promotion will earn Stoke £35 million for the 2008–09 season, and a minimum of £60 million over the space of three seasons.
Their first top flight match was at the Reebok Stadium where they were beaten by a dominant Bolton Wanderers team 3–1, with Ricardo Fuller scoring Stoke's only goal in the last minute. Following the result, bookmaker Paddy Power paid out on Stoke to be relegated after just one game. However, in their first Premier League home match, Stoke picked up all three points against Aston Villa in a close 3-2 win. Following defeats against Middlesbrough[53] and Everton, Stoke managed to pick up a surprise point against Liverpool at Anfield. Stoke further added to their points tally almost a month later in a 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur.Store successive wins at home to Sunderland and Arsenal saw them reach a league high of twelfth place.
Stoke picked up eight points in November with a further win against West Brom and draws against Hull City and Wigan Athletic, though they also suffered a 5-0 defeat away to Manchester United, their worst defeat of the season.
In December, the club were knocked out of the Carling Cup by Derby County in the Quarter-Finals, but then claimed an unlikely point away at Newcastle United as they came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2: the result saw them climb to 13th in the table. The following month they were knocked out of the FA Cup by League One side Hartlepool United in the 3rd Round.
Post a Comment