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Norn Iron

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Apologies to Havana and Peg but I couldn't wait till the official thread.

We arrived in Stoke from Belfast via Manchester Airport a couple of hours ago. We're staying with hardcore Stoke fans. The general thought is that the knives are out for Gary Rowett (manager).

If the team is boring after twenty minutes then we are to expect plenty of chants aimed at their manager. Stokies dislike his tactics and negative football. They don't attack and would rather pass sideways or backwards (Tony Fitzpatrick trademarked this)!

I predict a nil nil result. If only we could score against 11 men then I'd be more positive. 

Finally, my 18 year old son is coming to the game. The good news? He'll be buying my my first ever pint from him before the match. The bad news? He's a Stoke City fan (he was born here).

He refuses to support BCFC but at least he supports Stoke. In Norn Iron, he could've supported Man Ure etc so I was happy he adopted his birth city's team.

Looking forward to the official thread!

 

 

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I love these real threads and well done for getting to the game. I know ticketing wasn't the easiest for tomorrow but with empty roads one would have liked to see a proper Red Army, maybe 3000, wanting to go to a ground which for 8(?) previous years has been hosting Premier football. 

Expect a lot of criticism from all quarters about our away support but you are certainly showing some great effort. Happy New Year! 

Also nice to hear more and more managerial names proving as unpopular as Rowlett has proved in past 2 years 

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12 hours ago, Norn Iron said:

Apologies to Havana and Peg but I couldn't wait till the official thread.

We arrived in Stoke from Belfast via Manchester Airport a couple of hours ago. We're staying with hardcore Stoke fans. The general thought is that the knives are out for Gary Rowett (manager).

If the team is boring after twenty minutes then we are to expect plenty of chants aimed at their manager. Stokies dislike his tactics and negative football. They don't attack and would rather pass sideways or backwards (Tony Fitzpatrick trademarked this)!

I predict a nil nil result. If only we could score against 11 men then I'd be more positive. 

Finally, my 18 year old son is coming to the game. The good news? He'll be buying my my first ever pint from him before the match. The bad news? He's a Stoke City fan (he was born here).

He refuses to support BCFC but at least he supports Stoke. In Norn Iron, he could've supported Man Ure etc so I was happy he adopted his birth city's team.

Looking forward to the official thread!

 

 

Quality post, apart from the predicted result.  I see City winning 1-0, and perhaps even Rowett being sacked in the days after the match.  Are you sitting with the Stoke masses?  Keep quiet when City score that winning goal!

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4 minutes ago, reddogkev said:

Quality post, apart from the predicted result.  I see City winning 1-0, and perhaps even Rowett being sacked in the days after the match.  Are you sitting with the Stoke masses?  Keep quiet when City score that winning goal!

My son is sitting with the Stoke Massive. I'm standing with the Cider Boys!

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A browse through the Stoke forum (the Oatcake) is fun. It makes OTIB seem like a bed of roses, full of loyal believers in comparison, though the parallels are clear. Rowett is widely hated, the football condemned as negative and virtually all the players treated as donkeys. There is a big debate over whether Bojan should have the team built around him or got rid of. There is a big list of potential replacements for Rowett, with LJ getting some favourable mentions- but equally some negative ones.

In other words, football fans and forums are all alike.

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8 minutes ago, Norn Iron said:

I have tried but failed to send photos of The Sentinel's (Stoke's Bristol Post) headlines. Six pages on 'Under fire Rowett' and 'We're desperate to do well' Ryan Shawcross.

If someone could tell me how to upload the photos, that would be great. 

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/stoke-city-gary-rowett-future-2373556

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/stoke-city-bolton-gary-rowett-2373620

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/stoke-city-bolton-ryan-shawcross-2373549

 

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13 hours ago, Norn Iron said:

Apologies to Havana and Peg but I couldn't wait till the official thread.

We arrived in Stoke from Belfast via Manchester Airport a couple of hours ago. We're staying with hardcore Stoke fans. The general thought is that the knives are out for Gary Rowett (manager).

If the team is boring after twenty minutes then we are to expect plenty of chants aimed at their manager. Stokies dislike his tactics and negative football. They don't attack and would rather pass sideways or backwards (Tony Fitzpatrick trademarked this)!

I predict a nil nil result. If only we could score against 11 men then I'd be more positive. 

Finally, my 18 year old son is coming to the game. The good news? He'll be buying my my first ever pint from him before the match. The bad news? He's a Stoke City fan (he was born here).

He refuses to support BCFC but at least he supports Stoke. In Norn Iron, he could've supported Man Ure etc so I was happy he adopted his birth city's team.

Looking forward to the official thread!

 

 

I sympathise with your problem concerning your son’s choice of club.

My eldest was born in Derby and supports Derby County . 

Isewater number 2 was born in Nottingham and evidently supports ...

Newcastle . :dunno:

In fairness to both they always look out for City news and will never change their allegiance.

 I still , somehow , feel that I’ve failed as a Father .

13 hours ago, Norn Iron said:

Apologies to Havana and Peg but I couldn't wait till the official thread.

We arrived in Stoke from Belfast via Manchester Airport a couple of hours ago. We're staying with hardcore Stoke fans. The general thought is that the knives are out for Gary Rowett (manager).

If the team is boring after twenty minutes then we are to expect plenty of chants aimed at their manager. Stokies dislike his tactics and negative football. They don't attack and would rather pass sideways or backwards (Tony Fitzpatrick trademarked this)!

I predict a nil nil result. If only we could score against 11 men then I'd be more positive. 

Finally, my 18 year old son is coming to the game. The good news? He'll be buying my my first ever pint from him before the match. The bad news? He's a Stoke City fan (he was born here).

He refuses to support BCFC but at least he supports Stoke. In Norn Iron, he could've supported Man Ure etc so I was happy he adopted his birth city's team.

Looking forward to the official thread!

 

 

Prépare to be merged.

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13 hours ago, Norn Iron said:

Apologies to Havana and Peg but I couldn't wait till the official thread.

We arrived in Stoke from Belfast via Manchester Airport a couple of hours ago. We're staying with hardcore Stoke fans. The general thought is that the knives are out for Gary Rowett (manager).

If the team is boring after twenty minutes then we are to expect plenty of chants aimed at their manager. Stokies dislike his tactics and negative football. They don't attack and would rather pass sideways or backwards (Tony Fitzpatrick trademarked this)!

I predict a nil nil result. If only we could score against 11 men then I'd be more positive. 

Finally, my 18 year old son is coming to the game. The good news? He'll be buying my my first ever pint from him before the match. The bad news? He's a Stoke City fan (he was born here).

He refuses to support BCFC but at least he supports Stoke. In Norn Iron, he could've supported Man Ure etc so I was happy he adopted his birth city's team.

Looking forward to the official thread!

 

 

Could be worse. Bloke I worked with is a gashead . Cadbury Heath Banjo island tote ender diehard . Hates the shit with a passion. His son is now a season ticket holder down the gate . :rofl2br:

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16 minutes ago, MrBibs said:

See you in there. 920 sold which isn’t bad at all, particularly as we could have sold a fair few more with easier purchasing options.

I'll be wearing an Adidas navy blue City player trenchcoat jacket thingy! 

You're right about the ticketing options. 920 is good considering most will still be partying in the early hours!

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18 minutes ago, Norn Iron said:

I'll be wearing an Adidas navy blue City player trenchcoat jacket thingy! 

You're right about the ticketing options. 920 is good considering most will still be partying in the early hours!

Grey beard and 2 overly enthusiastic 15 year olds! Will look out for you.

@Hampshire Red - Surprising that with 920 we’ll have the smallest away following so far at Stoke. I’m sure we’ll make decent noise. Our away support is always pretty positive

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We will be in the Harvester having a meal etc. It's right next to the ground. The ground is slightly isolated from housing and civilization because it's built on waste land. Major roads (A500 and A50) border the ground. I'll ask our hosts for away friendly pubs and will let you know.

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Taken from football ground.com

 

 

Next to the stadium is a Holiday Inn and a Harvester Pub/Restaurant that do allow in away fans and has Sky Sports. You can also park at the Harvester itself for a cost of £3. A bit further away on Dennis Viollett Road (off Sir Stanley Matthews Way) is a Power League complex that also has a bar, which also allows in away supporters, shows Sky Sports and you can even park in their car park for £4.50. Further down Sir Stanley Matthews Way (and turning left along Eastern Rise) is the Longton Rugby Club, which has two bars also showing SKY Sports. Parking is also available at £5 a car. It is around a 20 minute walk to the away turnstiles from the Club. Otherwise alcohol is available on the concourses at the back of the away end, in the form of Carlsberg lager (£4.20 pint), Marstons Pedigree Bitter (£4 pint), Cider (£4.20, 500ml bottle) and Smirnoff Ice (£4.20, 275ml bottle), plus small wine bottles and miniature spirits (all £4.30) but queues can be lengthy, especially if there is a big support. 

Darryl Sears informs me; 'Down on the nearby canal there are two canal boats, one called the Boatcake, which mostly sells oat cakes and the other called the Bargain Inn Booze which sells beer and lager, which costs £2 a can or bottle. Both sets of fans were drinking there on the canal path without any problems'. To find these outlets, then with the away entrance behind you, turn right and go past the club store and then go straight across the car park in front of you. At the bottom left point of the car park, you should be able to see a couple of bridges and a pathway going down towards them. The canal is below the second bridge, where there is a pathway down to it.

If arriving by train then Police are normally on hand giving out leaflets and directing fans to either the Terrace Bar on Leek Road, or the Venue Bar (at nearby Staffordshire University). The Terrace Bar is only five minutes walk from the railway station (turn right out of the station entrance, left at the crossroads and the pub is down on the left) and also shows Sky Sports and offers food too. The Venue Bar (or to give it its full name the Leek Road Venue Bar/Verve) can be accessed before reaching the Terrace Bar by turning right off Leek Road (opposite Boughey Road) and walking down the pedestrianised pathway. The Bar is within a small complex further down on the left.  The shuttle bus to the ground (return cost £4 adults) that runs from near the station, also stops at the pub and returns after the game. It leaves for the match around one hour before kick 

 

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9 hours ago, Hampshire Red said:

920 will be one of the smallest away followings to Stoke this season despite it being a public holiday and a 3pm K.O. 

We can dance around the subject, make excuses but it's poor, very poor. 

Lets at least make it vocal and supportive of every player and the team. See you there 

It's piss poor but a sign of how boring we are to watch. Suprised it isn't more still. I would go up if it was POTD.

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On 30/12/2018 at 21:22, Norn Iron said:

Apologies to Havana and Peg but I couldn't wait till the official thread.

We arrived in Stoke from Belfast via Manchester Airport a couple of hours ago. We're staying with hardcore Stoke fans. The general thought is that the knives are out for Gary Rowett (manager).

If the team is boring after twenty minutes then we are to expect plenty of chants aimed at their manager. Stokies dislike his tactics and negative football. They don't attack and would rather pass sideways or backwards (Tony Fitzpatrick trademarked this)!

I predict a nil nil result. If only we could score against 11 men then I'd be more positive. 

Finally, my 18 year old son is coming to the game. The good news? He'll be buying my my first ever pint from him before the match. The bad news? He's a Stoke City fan (he was born here).

He refuses to support BCFC but at least he supports Stoke. In Norn Iron, he could've supported Man Ure etc so I was happy he adopted his birth city's team.

Looking forward to the official thread!

 

 

Good evening! A happy new year to you all! Tomorrow's game will be an interesting one, you are right in saying the knives are out for rowett but he only has himself to blame for the negative dull as dishwasher football and tactics he employs each and every game passing sideways and backwards we rarely shoot we have had an average of 3 shots on target in recent games and we have only just about got over the line in wins Vs Ipswich and Millwall so there is hope for your lot tomorrow when you play us as we are woeful if you have  a degree of pace you could expose our carthorse of a backline if it wasn't for butland this season we would be worser off than we currently are!  What has really turned the fans after the Weekend was the way he slammed the fans to the media for our chanting for bojan who most fans feel should be playing as we cry out for some creativity and he even tried accusing the fans also for booing the players when really it was aimed at him I feel it's the beginning of the end for rowett he's lost alot of the fan base and we want him out  and a defeat tomorrow could Well see him sacked! Don't be surprised if you hear the home support give rowett dogs abuse tomorrow that toxic atmosphere could well give your team a boost! Good luck for the rest of the season (just not tomorrow of course!)?? ?

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Thanks Peg for your kind words on the genuine, 100% official thread.

Wow! What a performance. Firstly, let's forget statistics because they mean nothing apart from one which shows how many goals were scored.

My son,  the Stokie fan, thought we played and defended well. 

Watch the ten minutes of video from a Stokie (who was able to use the English Language at its basic level and that was before his appalling disabled person's analogy). It shows quite a few moves by Stoke that were so pedestrian it was if we'd been transported back to the 1930s.

The first ten minutes was  dominated by Stoke. They should have scored but they didn't know how. The penalty was described by LJ as harsh. He didn't have the view that we did, however. Even my wife, who unfortunately is registered blind, would have given it. Fammy was trying to defend but the player turned past him with the ball. Our Centre Forward caught his trailing leg and down he went. 

Maenpaa's save was down to his left. It was well struck and would've gone into the back corner of the net had he blasted it but he went for placement instead. A good save nevertheless.

The header by Fammy wasn't seen by everybody as we were watching Adam Webster trundling back to the tunnel entrance. I saw the header but whilst Fammy was celebrating, I was more interested in Webster's body language. He was shadow punching on absolute delight by the corner flag!

Much has been said about the singing. It's not often City fans get applauded by the home contingent but they did when "You're going to be sacked in the morning" was chanted.

Having lived in Stoke for ten years prior to moving to Norn Iron, I have never heard the Britannia/Bet 365 stadium be so devoid of atmosphere or singing. They didn't even sing Delilah.

To see the ground empty by a quarter once we scored our second, was testament to what Potter fans have been saying. They really are fed up with the style of play (3-5-2) hence why they chanted 4-4-2 to Gary Rowett. We still scored after he did change the formation.The potter fans voted with their feet. They've had enough. We suffered like they are currently when Tony Pulis engineered the most boring, inept style of play I be ever seen from a City team. It was funny, therefore, to hear another chant directed at the Stoke fans, you can get "You should've kept Tony Pulis"!

Another irony was that it was Jack Butland, the motm from the October match with his three world class saves, help gift the second goal to Callum O'Dowda.

We played as a team. Personally, I would love to see Joe Allen in our team. He's our missing link in making our team more fluid and attacking.  Allen would get the ball and would often run sideways before passing it to a 'winger' . O'Dowda, Eliasson and Paterson would benefit greatly from this kind of support. Liam Walsh demonstrated this type of play, however, in the previous home fixture so to have two similar players would be great in that specific midfield playmaking/attacking role. One would be back up to the other. 

Will we get promoted? Who knows but the play off final date should be pencilled into your diary.

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