Stoke City

Betting Odds from Ladbrokes and Coral

	Ladbrokes	Coral
To Win the League	50/1	40/1
To Get Promoted	14/1	14/1
To be Relegated	3/1	11/2

QPR travel to Stoke on Saturday December 9th and the return game is on the final day of the season, Sunday May 6th.

Below is the guide to Stoke with my opinion on how they will fare this season as well as the view of a Stoke fan. I also have a guide to the Britannia Stadium, how to get there etc as well as previous results and match reports from recent encounters between the two sides.

Stoke City Squad

Last Season

It was a brand new era for Stoke City last year with a new foreign manager coming in and big money spent on Bangoura to get the goals up front.

Things started well enough with the side playing good football and results were encouraging Paul Gallgher was banging in the goals during his loan spell up front but the home form wasn't good enough for them to sustain a playoff challenge.

Off the filed problems began to grow with the manager falling out with the director of football and speculation continued all season as to what was going on.

The soap opera overshadowed what was happening on the pitch and the end result was a change of manager at the end of the season.

Stoke sat around mid table for most of the season never really putting together a run to challenge at the top but managing to steer clear of any relegation danger. In the FA Cup Stoke did well making it as far as the fifth round before losing to Birmingham.

How Will they fare?

Stoke have established themsleves in the Championship over the last few years and they will be hoping the return of popular manager Tony Pulis will push them to push for promotion.

Pulis will have his work cut out to achieve that with Vincent Pericard the only addition so far this summer. Pulis has had his share of problems already with star striker Sam Bangoura refusing to come back to pre season training and he looks likely to be on is way by the end of the month.

His departure will be a big blow to the club as he was an excellent player for them last year and replacing his goals is a tough task.

Pericard and Sidibe are capable of scoring goals but they'll need more if they are to challenging for the top six. John Eustace is a good player and if he stays fit they'll be a tough side to face.

Saying all that though I think they'll struggle this year, they should have too much about them to go down but I think they'll be sucked into a relegation battle if they don't replace Bangoura.

PREDICTION: 20th

Stoke City Fans View

I asked Stoke City fans on an unofficial message board for their thoughts on the new season and here is what they had to say.

How do you think Stoke will fare this season?

Mid Table with a late push for the playoffs

Who are your players to watch out for?

Clint Hill and Carl Dickinson

Is your Manager the right man for the job?

I'm happy he's back and that seems to be the general consensus

Which three teams will be promoted this season?

Sunderland, West Brom and Southampton

Which teams will be relegated?

QPR, Southend and Barnsley

How do you think QPR will fare this season?

relegated

What's The Ground Like

The away end at Stoke is pretty decent although you wouldn't know it was a modern stadium when you first walk in. The facilities behind the goal are pretty poor although they do serve beer, which is a plus.

The view from the away end is excellent though and it holds 4,800 so you should have no problem getting a ticket. Getting away after the game is a nightmare though. You are in an enclosed end with the coaches and need to walk through a gate and through the Stoke fans to get away.

If you win Stoke fans usually attack you and we had bricks, sticks and anything that was around thrown at us in some of the worst scenes I've seen outside a stadium and if they can;t get at the fans they just attack the players.

The police and stewards were hopeless and this has happend twice now this fixture won't be near the top of my list for away trips this season.

Previous Results

Ranger's recent games against Stoke have been pretty memorable. Our first game back in Division two was against Stoke and was seen by many as a top of the table clash. Stoke sold out the away end and t was a brilliant atmosphere. Andy Thomson gave us a 1-0 win and we all left the stadium with renewed optimism for the future.

The away trip was also one of the better ones football wise although as mentioned before the scenes afterwards were not so pretty.

Stoke were just above Rangers in the playoffs and the home side dominated in the first half. Rangers held on though defending well until Andy Thomson was brought on in the second half.

He caused them several problems and we began to get on top before Gavin Peacock scored a late winner to make sure we did the double over the side who would eventually win promotion via the playoffs.

In 2004/05 the games were again rather hostile. We travelled to Stoke on the back of five wins in a row and the game proved to be very similar to our last visit. Stoke were on top early on and should have gone ahead before tempers reached boiling point.

Gerry Taggert held onto the ball as we won a free kick and as Bircham, tried to wrestle the ball off him he was caught in the face by a trailing arm. Whether it was intentional or not is up for debate but the referee sent him off and Bircham was the one blamed. What followed was some of the most amazing scenes I’ve ever seen at a football mach.

Fans tried to attack QPR players with bottles and various other objects being thrown on the pitch. A fight between the Stoke and QPR players broke out in the tunnel and Stoke were desperate to get revenge against Bircham.

To make matters worse Kevin Gallen gave Rangers a 1-0 lead and the home crowd and players had lost the plot. The Stoke keeper Ed de Goey was giving hand signs to the QPR fans and when Bircham was taken off Akinbyi ran 40 yards to try and provoke a reaction out of Bircham and the Stoke fans were throwing plenty of loose change towards the QPR midfielder.

We held on for the win and managed to get out of the stadium alive as the locals all seemed to be complete lunatics looking for a fight. As I say not the friendliest of away days.

The home game was far less eventful. Andrew Davies and Simon Royce made their debuts after signing on loan and the Sky cameras were in town to capture the occasion. Lee Cook scored the only goal of an uneventful game to five us a fourth 1-0 win in a row over Stoke.

Last season it all kicked off again. Rangers went to Stoke needing a win and got one with Furlong and Langley getting the goals in a narrow 2-1 win. The game was overshadowed though when Stoke fans got onto the pitch and attacked SimoN Royce. The disgraceful scenes were continued outside as QPR fans were attacked and nine months on Stoke still haven't been punished by the football league for this incident.

The return game saw Stoke finally beat us. Gareth Ainsworth missed a penalty with Rangers 1-0 up and we ended up slipping to a 2-1 defeat.

Click on the match for a report of the game from this web site.

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