MATCH REPORTS 1997/98

MAY 3 STOKE CITY - MANCHESTER CITY 2-5 (0-1)

Report by: Sharon Bennett

Oh, where do I start? It isn't easy to write a report of a match that had so much, yet in the end so little, significance. I was one of those lucky enough to have a ticket in the City end, and after all the threats of violence and warnings from Stoke (and other) fans that had been posted on Blue View during last week, I don't think I would still have gone otherwise. I couldn't eat a thing on Sunday morning, I was so nervous. I hate to think how the players must have felt.

Have you ever been to Stoke's new ground? There are various design flaws apparent from the moment you get there. Yes, it's out of town, nothing wrong with that as it must save on wear and tear of local shop windows. But why oh why do new grounds always get built without proper access? Bolton's Reebok stadium is another prime example although that isn't quite as bad, there is at least plenty of street parking within a ten-minute walk. The away fan car parks are all located together, are all obviously only used by away fans, and all have one pedestrian access - over a railway bridge then down the dual carriageway that you drive down to get there. Considering the expected trouble there was virtually no police presence anywhere before the game, and the atmosphere was eerie. Twenty-eight thousand people walking towards a football stadium in almost complete silence, spooky. Things did change once we got into the ground. The City fans who were where they were supposed to be were in fine voice before the game, not helped too much by alcoholic lubrication either as the queues at the bars were so long you'd have had to order your next drink before you'd finished the last. Not that I drank anything - far too nervous...

City started off attacking the end furthest from us. We were right on the front row, in the corner nearest the nutter Stoke fans in their Sentinel end, so couldn't tell at any point how close the ball was to the net. I'd been too nervous to listen to the team announcements as well so it took me a while to work out who was playing. Gio, Brannan and Jeff Whitley (who we saw getting off the coach looking even more scared at the prospect of playing than I was of watching) were on the bench, giving us a starting line up of Margetson, Edghill, Vaughan, Symons, Wiekens, Horlock, Jim Whitley, Pollock, Goater, Dickov and Bradbury. Even allowing for the fact that our view was crap, City looked to be well on top in the opening minutes. It took nearly 10 minutes before Stoke got the ball into our half, and that didn't last long - we soon got the ball back and attacked again. Which was when the trouble started. Fighting broke out in the corner of the Sentinel stand behind the other goal and about a dozen City fans were "escorted" out of the ground. Incidentally, there was also a Stoke fan led out past us who was led back in about 5 minutes later and allowed back into the stand. It's good to see their stewarding policy is as consistent as their ticketing. Play carried on while this was going on but a couple of minutes later it had to stop as several dozen people suddenly ran onto the pitch from the same stand, towards the City end. Now, I don't know about anyone else in the City stand at that moment, but I was scared. We were right on the front row, with only a 3 foot wall between us and the pitch, not knowing whether these were City fans running for safety or Stoke fans running to start a fight. I know any Stokies diving into the City end like that would have to be suicidal maniacs but I didn't want to be the one that got hit before they were ripped limb from limb. It didn't help when one of the lads who jumped over landed on my mum's feet and almost pushed her over - I know now it was accidental but it didn't seem it at the time. The players had all gone to the other side of the pitch in front of the McEwan's stand and were standing watching as the stewards tried to restore some order. Eventually everyone was cleared off the pitch, those who had made it to the City end were safely hidden at the back, and play restarted. The news came through that Port Vale were winning. Stoke managed to get into the match more, but never looked like creating a serious threat - it took almost the whole first half before they got a shot on target, a weak header that was easily collected by Margetson. It took just over half an hour before City managed to score. A long ball (what else?) from Horlock was chased onto by Goater, Southall had come too far out of his goal and Goater lobbed the ball over him and into the net. It seemed to take an age to go in - first we thought it was going wide; then, because of the limited view we had, we thought one of the defenders would get back and clear it, but finally it was in and we were staying up. Ah.

Nothing much else happened before half time, but we did hear from the bloke behind us with the radio that Port Vale had gone two up and Portsmouth were now one up. Oh God no we couldn't go down this way. Just before half time I dug out my trusty Walkman to catch up on the news - couldn't hear a thing as the crowd were making too much noise. By the time the referee blew for half time though the news of the other scores had filtered through to most people and we started to quieten down a bit. Some idiot then started a rumour that Bradford had equalised - where do people get off on doing this? It's thanks to some moron who did that two years ago that we played "run it into the corner for 15 minutes" against Liverpool instead of going all out to get another goal.

Brannan came on for Whitley in the second half and we could see what was going on this time as City were attacking our end. We scored very early on, Southall could only parry a shot from Goater and it fell to Dickov who made no mistake, hitting a sweet volley into the net. I could just about make out what was being said on the radio, and it was all "what a shame that City's performance isn't going to count" - very depressing. Southall made a couple of really good saves from Bradbury and Goater, not bad from an old bloke, then Margetson made a good save at the other end. Stoke were pretty clueless to be honest, you'd have thought they had nothing to play for. Their only threats came from either long throws into the penalty area (from Kavanagh) or corners (from Kavanagh), both of which our defence could cope with relatively comfortably. Usually. They did pull one back when Margetson appeared to fumble a catch - apologies to him if this isn't fair but we really couldn't see - and Thorne put the ball away. The police decided that this would be a good point to come and stand in front of the away supporters and block our view even more. Nice to see that the stewards in front of the Sentinel stand crouched down so as not to block the home fans' view but there was no chance of the police doing that for us. I'm convinced the one directly in front of me was shifting from side to side on purpose to make it even more difficult for me to see what was going on. We scored again almost straight from the kick off - strange, it's normally us that lets other teams do that. Dickov put a high ball into the area which Bradbury at last managed to head on target, fooling Southall completely who didn't even move. He must have thought it would go wide too. 3-1, there was no way Stoke could take this away from us now.

Then, at last, came the words on the radio that I'd been listening for. "We're off to Valley Parade where there's been a crucial goal." I turned round and looked at the bloke behind who was listening to the same coverage, willing it to be good news. Portsmouth were two up. Despair. We hung our heads and relayed the news to the others around us. It was all going to be for nothing. Port Vale were three up. The news had reached the Stoke fans who started taunting us with chants of "going down" - well it made a nice change from "we are Stoke". Not very inventive I'm afraid these Stokie types.

Even the police had to laugh at the "Are you watching Macclesfield?" that rang out for ages from our end, now that's a football chant. As was the "we'll buy your tickets again" which followed the Stokies' "see you all next year" - I did think the policeman in front of me, who was still doing that swaying from side to side, was going to wet himself at that one. Royle said he didn't relay the scores onto the players but neither team bothered defending after that. Goater scored another, leading to amazing celebrations from the players on the pitch (they can't have known what was going on elsewhere) but somehow resulting in him injuring himself. I couldn't see what happened (thanks to the police, again) - did he run into the post? Gio came on for him to a tumultuous reception. Thorne pulled another one back for Stoke - again, Mr. Policeman was in my way. Portsmouth were three up, Port Vale were four up and I switched the radio off. All hope had gone. We still cheered when Horlock scored City's fifth in the last minute but it was all so hollow. We were down. Relegated despite one of the best performances from a City side this year. Relegated despite their best efforts, scoring five away from home. Relegated out of the top two divisions for the first time in the club's history. Relegated to the first round of the FA Cup, to the Auto Windscreens Cup. Relegated to face teams like Lincoln, Blackpool, Walsall, Notts County, and of course the dreaded Macclesfield. Not being able to get tickets for any away games because too many of the grounds are like Crewe.

Funny though, it didn't hurt nearly as much as that day against Liverpool. I think City over the last couple of years have numbed me. I cried that day we were relegated from the Premier League (and I wasn't the only one, they must have had to mop the Kippax afterwards), but this... well this is just City. It's what we expect, it's what we know.

A final couple of flourishes from the Stoke fans - and a sterling effort from the police, who were more worried about stopping us chasing after the team down the tunnel, as if anyone could be bothered, than stopping any trouble outside the ground. There's a steep bank directly behind the away end, and when we left the stand there were about 20 Stoke fans lining the path at the top of this bank, throwing stones at the police, at City fans and at the buses that were waiting there to take City fans back to the station. We used the buses as cover and made our way to the front of the ground, through the police "cordon". From there all the way back to the roundabout where we were being picked up we didn't see a single policeman, or anyone keeping an eye on the dispersing fans. There were so many opportunities for trouble we were lucky nothing else did kick off. MoK and Le Tank Bleu said they'd seen quite a few cars getting windows smashed and side panels kicked in - we did see a few of them later on, parked up with the drivers talking to the police. As we drove away we saw the traffic on the other side of the A500 had been stopped by a police motorcyclist - looking back, there were about 20 Stokies standing on the bridge throwing things at the cars beneath. I think that'll be my lasting memory of that day.

Radio 5 called us fans "extraordinary" and they're right. I hope we'll storm back next year, winning the division in style and hopefully a cup (Auto Windscreens, how embarrassing) along the way, but even if we don't we'll still all be there, putting ourselves through the torture week after week after endless week. Roll on August...

by Svenn A. Hanssen, svenn@hanssen.priv.no