The game was quite poor (the referee sent Adebayor off for a nothing! I had heard that the bet365 Stadium was a ground that generated a loud atmosphere and that Stoke fans are famous for there noise, it's also one of the shorter away trips of the season! The atmosphere in the first half was pretty flat and all us Chelsea fans were making the majority of the noise, but in the second half from about 60 minutes the Stoke fans started to sing and they got louder and louder, by far and away the best home fans I have ever seen despite there not being a lot of them in an open stadium! I'd recommend this ahead of the stadium parking which was 10. Nice views, big enough to be impressive and good leg room. This is where it scores low, no pubs near to the ground, apart from a Harvester on one of the roundabouts nearby, but decided against it and headed straight into the stadium. For a total of 8, I had a cracking night out and I would suggest hoppers look for other ways to do the 92 without the hassle. It was a shame about the results, I would like to go next season and hopefully see Chelsea win. The third ticket wasnt to popular to sell and we thought we might have to sell it on the day. ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS, Your email address will not be published. My friend was driving elsewhere after this game so as I had booked a train for an hour after the game finished and this time I was told by a steward there was no shuttle bus at all for away fans and if that was true (I have no reason to disbelieve the steward) then I knew I had walk the 2 miles to the railway station, luckily I arrived at the station with just over 10 minutes to spare. We stayed north of Stoke in Hanley and travelled to the ground by bus. We drove down from out home in Manchester. I found the separate gated/fenced compound to the away end intimidating and not a very friendly welcome. We never really did that much after conceding for the second time and went on to lose 2-0. But more of that anon. We apologised and he said he would add us to the list again. Four decent stands, though the position of the ground standing four square to the elements means that the slightest breeze can feel like a gale, and today was no exception. After the match all traffic goes south which means you avoid all the congestion by the stadium. It is only about a five minute walk from the station. I noticed whilst in there that there were already fans of both clubs, mingling together without a hint of trouble. This made the Mackems go ballistic. Stewards helpful and friendly as were the police. Stoke City is the oldest professional Football League club, having initially been founded in 1863 as Stoke Ramblers. The only issue was that I had to discard my bottle top of my 500cc emergency drink bottle. With visitors below and home fans above it was potentially a recipe for trouble. Items in the Price Guide are obtained exclusively from licensors and partners solely for our members research needs. The Victoria Ground hosted its final Stoke City league game on this day in 1997, Get Stoke transfer latest, team news, match updates and analysis delivered straight to your inbox. County held on to get the win and the prospect of promotion when they faced Peterborough 10 days later. There was few problems getting to and from the stadium. Sticky Palms has witnessed a 0-0. . There were even two Police on the train to Manchester, which seemed well over the top. Owen Pavey for providing the BET365 Stadium layout diagram. Ex Swan Sam Clucas opened the scoring for Stoke in the second half and ran the length of the field to celebrate Adebayor-style in front of the Swans fans which predictably wasn't well received and heated up a quite sedate atmosphere. I make no further comment about the circumstances other than to say that neither party emerged well out of the episode. The toilets were a bit to small though and were cramped after the game. We parked about a mile away from the stadium, but I couldn't be any more specific than that, I much prefer getting the train to and from Stoke as it's not great going by car. 1. I live in Manchester so had a fairly good idea of how to get the ground on the M6. It was a singularly unpleasant 90 minutes, made even more so after a late strike from Mark Stein, (more of whom later), put Stoke back into the game. Would definitely go by train again, even though the town centre itself offers so few options for food etc. Picking ourselves up after the goal we played the same way again and Stoke didn't have two touches in a row, we scored to make it 1-1 huffed and puffed but it wasn't to be. Continue past the stadium for approx 1 mile and the Screwfix site is on the left. The only pie, or food of any type left at half time was a pretty boring meat and potato variety, better though was beer, cider, wine and spirits being sold even though there were signs saying no alcohol at half time! Stoke. We were still well positioned, lying 3rd in the table, and when the teams lined up there was another debutant, Mark Lillis, A great servant, for 6 years, In that period he fought off challenges for the No.1 shirt from Dave Redfern; Phil Kite; John Keeley, Matt Dickins and Ian Ironside, and averaged getting on for 40 games a season. The away end was located in its usual spot in the South Stand and the allocation was fairly small given the date and time of the kick off. Half Time Score: Stoke City 0-0 Norwich City The last official match at the ground was played on the 4th of May 1997. The Victoria Ground is no more. The away end nice and spacious, with a very good view and it's easy to drum up an atmosphere. Easy! We didn't get anything to eat or drink before the game as we met up with a friend in the concourse before heading up to our seats at about 2:40pm. Stoke hit back in the second half and equalised. Like lots of out of town stadiums, there is little sense of occasion as you approach. First impressions once inside were slightly disappointing. . And that September afternoon there were a few isolated instances of projectiles launched from above landing in the terraced area. The game was fantastic, very end to end, open, feisty. We headed off around 11am from Ickenham after a brief stop at a garage and the usual Tesco extra for the essential supplies. in 2nd place, a couple of points behind leaders, (but later to be Times change and progress is made and we move on in all walks of life.". Inside the ground they have a range of pies, all priced at 2.90 but I have personally had much nicer pies elsewhere than the Chicken Balti that I sampled. Developer St Modwen has been. The police coverage got lighter and lighter as I approached a side street where my car was parked. Click below to begin your paid subscription. After being met by Police motorcyclists on the A500 we were escorted up to the stadium and then led straight into the away fans compound behind one end of the ground. The Britannia Stadium or newly named "bet365 stadium" is a fairly tidy ground with two stands behind the goals of equal size and stands either side of you, the left of which had two tiers. At the other end of the pitch stood the Boothen End, an impressive covered terrace which housed the more vociferous of the Potters support. With the match ticket, travel, food etc, it probably cost me less than 35, which is not too bad for a day at the football. Even then there was a rivalry between the duo though. Though I read the club are working on filling them in, hopefully improving the overall internal look. The bar on one side had several screens showing the early kick off Premier League game and an outside area with a small overflow bar. This was my first ever visit to Stoke City. After having a mooch around the ground, we stopped to admire the brilliant Sir Stanley Matthews statue. Keep fighting Carl. The pixelated screen had been in use in good times and bad over the preceding 11 years since the club had upped sticks from the Victoria Ground - and was to be replaced by a 9x5 metres LED giant that would in turn make way when a corner was filled in three years ago. I find the bet365 Stadium a bit like Anfield in that the atmosphere never quite lives up to what you expect and hope (in comparison to, say, Middlesbrough, where the atmosphere generated by the home fans is always great). [2] During World War II the Butler Street Stand was used as an army storage camp. As always, its always better when we win but this wasnt a bad day. Football rivalries are as old as the game itself, and certain of these meetings can almost be said to convey a vitriolic hatred. It was the 36th game of a campaign which eventually encompassed 67 in total, and ended up with a League Cup Semi-Final and of course promotion to Tier 2. As we had pre booked tickets on the 19:10 train so decided not to risk waiting for a bus, but decided instead to walk along the canal and through the town to the station. New Users/How to Create a User Account User Login allows you to access your saved Shortlist of properties. [2] By 1930 Stoke had added 'City' to their name and the Boothen End was terraced and later covered, and consequently the ground lost its oval shape. Me and my two sons set off at about 12:30pm and the journey was straight forward enough until the last 20 minutes or so as we there weren't a lot of sign posts indicating where exactly to go to get to the ground. Ground floor office suite Stoke-on-Trent (0.4 miles) Longton (2.2 miles) . I asked the police outside the railway station about the bus service. Summary of overall thoughts of the day out : Any Premier league away win is brilliant and enjoyable. As a middle aged fella in not exactly the tip top health this could not have gone better: very decent pub; excellent transport; excellent policing and stewarding; fantastic view and atmosphere in the ground and a 2-0 win. After the game we werent sure where we had to catch bus back to Hanley. It was a great atmosphere which was sustained throughout the match. The first season at the new ground was a bad one as Stoke were relegated from the First Division, losing 5-2 at home to Manchester City on the final day of the season, with the visiting side also going down after the relegation-threatened sides above them all won their final games. It sits slightly up on a hill. Those Were The Days. What you did before the game pub/chippy etc, and were the home fans friendly? It was a good day, not a lot to do around the Britannia which was a shame, so it wasn't really a day out, more of travel, football, travel. Summary of overall thoughts of the day out: Fantastic day out, perfect for taking young children! The away section took up most of the particular stand and the rest was took up by Stoke fans. I have never been to Stoke before and curiosity got the better of me. We were held in the ground for a while and then on the coach park for a little while longer. It cost 5 to park there, but after the game, it took 45 minutes to get out of the car park and then we still had to join a long queue of traffic going up to the main road. In the second half Stoke scored first taking the lead, but Schurrle had another great goal, but late on in the 90th minute Stoke won the game with a fantastic strike. Two bites and I threw it away. It was a pleasure to meet so many Stoke fans before the match and it was a good match for neutrals. We lost the game 2-0 but the fans stuck with team and really deserve better as Niall Quinn once said "if Sunderland produced a team as good as the fans, they'd be in Europe every year" which I'm sure few people can disagree with. We put our name down for table for 3 and were told to wait 20 minutes and to go to the bar which we did (wearing our QPR colours). They didn't seem to have one group of home fans who got behind the team when they weren't playing too well. Season Date Result Against Stadium Competition; 1892-1893: 15.10.1892: 4 - 0: Nantwich: Nantwich Road: FA Cup 1st Qualifier: 29.10.1892: 9 - 0: Newtown: Anfield: FA . A very early goal from Chris Beaumont put County in the driving seat with a two goal lead on aggregate. Other than that the day was pretty average. There were some Police on board were very helpful and we had some good banter with them. The Boothen and East stands hold 6,006 and 8,789 people respectively. The stressful journey to the ground and lack of a shuttle bus going back to the station was more than compensated by the one nil victory, which might have been the first time I have seen us win at Stoke, especially as it was the first points and goal I had seen us secure away from home this season (at the fourth attempt!). Had a great day / week end, football was good, food and drink was reasonable. It was the same when the game ended there were just two rounds with the second arriving at Stoke railway Station just in time for the 17:50 London train. Only after the game to not get a place on the one solitary bus going back as the Staffordshire police (who were/are responsible for this service) did not put enough buses on and we ended up walking back to the station with other Bournemouth fans in the same situation. We didnt try a pie but the burgers were fine and not too badly priced. And it is not the only old feature from Stoke HQs past and present to extend its life beyond the Potters. Developments continued in the following 20 years and by the 1930s the stadium had lost its oval shape and the Boothen End was fully terraced. But this may change soon as I believe that Stoke are going to fill in one of the corners during the Summer. Annoyingly there was no bitter on sale (as we were in the Marstons Stand) so had to settle for lager which wasnt great. If you require hotel accommodation in the Stoke-on-Trent area then first try a hotel booking service provided by Booking.com. Al cumplir 119 aos, los directivos del Stoke City tomaron la decisin de demolerlo ya que se haba transformado en el escenario ms antiguo de la Premier League y era necesaria una inversin para construir un nuevo estadio que se encontrara a la altura de la liga ms importante a nivel mundial. In its early days Stoke City had played at the Victoria Cricket Ground and Sweeting's Field before it moved to the Victoria Ground in 1878. [2] Above the changing 'hut' was the directors box, a rather primitive building but could hold around 12 people. From behind I could a commotion and a speedy glance in the rear view mirror saw an phalanx approaching, clad in the red and white of our hosts that evening. With visitors below and home fans above it was potentially a recipe for trouble. There was a little bit of a queue trying to get away from the stadium, probably took half hour to reach the main road leading to the motorway. The Norwich fans were in full voice but got jittery as other scorelines came through. It gets packed so we ended up braving the elements in the beer garden on a December afternoon. Stoke v Albion is a fixture that has existed since the inauguration of the Football League and has developed over recent years as a needle game between the two sides. There are return buses after the game back to Glebe Street from behind the Sentinel (East) Stand. 3. Im led to believe that during League games its split between home and away fans, but with it being a pre-season game, the home fans were just housed in their other two bigger stands. Everything including the attending police were light hearted with lots of banter. Stoke played a strong team but didn't look up for it at all. A couple of Rotherham fans did show their colours after removing their jackets and got told by bar staff to cover them up as no away fans are normally allowed in. Last Edit: Aug 1, 2010 at 5:05pm by wigginbird - Back to Top. Quite easy. I know the Stoke fans are situated immediately to the side of our supporters but have never had any problem with them or felt that they have been over the top. The police operation and buses used to transfer visiting fans to/from the ground were good. A good unplanned day out. Boro fans showed some disquiet to the team and manager as they went in for half time and during the second half. The home fans were subdued, no doubt puzzled by a lacklustre home team performance. I would agree it is pretty good but when we scored our first and second, the Stoke fans seemed more interested in abusing the ref. All the Stoke fans that we spoke to were nice enough. It was a Saturday, sunny and warmnot Tuesday, wet and cold. Input your search keywords and press Enter. The stadium isn't particularly pretty and the lack of corners certainly take away from the ground. We took the scenic route, along the Trent-Mersey canal. As the stadium is out of the way, there aren't very many places nearby to eat or go for a drink. I think he missed 2 of our goals and was wearing an all brown 2-piece hoody tracksuit.