Stoke back at Christmas

Last updated : 24 December 2005 By Tony Scholes
Luke Chadwick
From the moment Steve Cotterill arrived at Turf Moor as manager, this has been an important fixture to the Stoke fans who don't seem to have the ability or desire to move on, but this season is even more eagerly awaited following the our signings of Ade Akinbiyi, Wayne Thomas and Gifton Noel-Williams, all directly from Stoke and also of their former player James O'Connor who was signed from West Brom.

As players walked out with some regularity over the summer the Potteries club looked to be in some turmoil and things got even worse when manager Tony Pulis was incredibly relieved of his duties for not signing enough foreign players.

At that time many would have predicted a relegation battle for the boys from the Windy City, but it has been anything but that and they currently sit in fifth place in the table with a couple of points more than the Clarets.

Not as thought everything has run smoothly and there are currently problems with manager Johan Boskamp, Pulis' replacement, not speaking to director of football John Rudge. So strained is the relationship that Boskamp won't even utter the word Rudge.

Pulis had already signed Mamady Sidibe from Gillingham, as a replacement for Gifton, before losing his job but there was still considerable work for Boskamp to do prior to the season getting underway, and he wasted no time either in the home or international market.

His first signing was Peter Sweeney from Millwall, and he followed that up with the signing of Belgian defender Carl Hoefkens from Germinal. He added to that with the loan signings of Martin Kolar and Junior, both from Anderlecht and then with the season just three days away there were three more additions to the squad.

Marlon Broomes came in from Preston in a swap deal that saw Lewis Neal go the other way, Bruce Dyer (who has since gone to Millwall on loan) was signed from Watford and our former loan player Luke Chadwick, who got his first Burnley goal at Stoke, signed on a half season long loan from West Ham.

There have been more new players since the season got underway. Blackburn striker Paul Gallagher had been linked with a move to Burnley but he opted for a season long loan deal at Stoke whilst there were to be two more permanent signings in Viking's Hans Sigurdsson and Sammy Bangoura from Standard Liege. The Guinea born striker has made a dramatic start to his career in England and has already notched eight goals in just nine starts.

Much of their good form has come away from home, they have won seven times on the road and have picked up maximum points in each of their last four away games. The last time they dropped points away from home was at Southampton at the end of October.

Click HERE to see all Stoke's results this season.

They are due to lose away from home again so let's hope that comes at Burnley where they last suffered defeat in 2002, at a time when Steve Cotterill was in the away dug out, complaining over the sending off of his loan player Tommy Mooney.

Team News

Stoke won last week at Luton despite having three players out suspended. Marlon Broomes, John Halls and Bangoura were all out, but their squad is boosted with the return of all three. Not only that, Dave Brammer is able to play despite reaching five yellow cards, one of them has been withdrawn.

There will be some unfamiliar names on the Stoke team coach driving up to Burnley. Because of the number of games in such a short space of time Boskamp has called up six of his players from the youth set up. They are Robert Duggan, Josh Wilson, Robert Garrett, Adam Rooney, Matt Hazley and John Quigley.

It will be a surprise if any of them make the sixteen on Monday although the manager did say he expects some of them to feature at some time during the holiday games and they are expected to line up:

Steve Simonsen, John Halls, Michael Duberry, Carl Hoefkens, Marlon Broomes, Darel Russell, Luke Chadwick, Dave Brammer, Paul Gallagher, Sammy Bangoura, Mamady Sidibe. Subs from: Ed de Goey, Karl Henry, Kevin Harper, Lewis Buxton, Hans Sigurdsson, Peter Sweeney, Junior, Carl Dickinson.

Click HERE to see the full Stoke squad.

Steve Cotterill doesn't have the luxury of a big squad but has said that he will be using them all during the hectic four games in eight days but I'm expecting a minimum of changes for the Stoke game and that could be just the one enforced change following Nathan Dyer's return to Southampton.

It will be interesting to see how soon Nathan begins to play a part in the first team at St. Mary's but for now we concentrate on our game and I think that will mean a return to the starting line up for Wade Elliott who replaced him down at Southampton at the beginning of the month.

One alternative would be to play Garreth O'Connor there, he had probably his best spell so far when on the right hand side. Both of them will play over the next ten days or so.

Wayne Thomas came through a few minutes last week but it is too early for him to be considered for a starting place and he should be on the bench again, providing defensive cover.

We could line up: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, John Spicer, Micah Hyde, James O'Connor, Graham Branch, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs from: Wayne Thomas, Duane Courtney, Chris McCann, Garreth O'Connor, Danny Karbassiyoon, Gifton Noel-Williams, Kyle Lafferty.

Last Time

Referee Michael Jones too centre stage last season when we met Stoke at home. We led 2-0 with early goals from Ian Moore and a Robbie Blake penalty, with Moore's significantly his last league goal at Turf Moor six months before he left.

Stoke striker Ade Akinbiyi pulled one back before Jones gave us an uphill battle by sending off Duff for what he deemed a second bookable offence. With ten against eleven in the second half we conceded again to Akinbiyi within five minutes of the restart. Steve Cotterill introduced Richard Duffy for his debut and we held out for a point.

The teams were,

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Richard Chaplow, Tony Grant (Richard Duffy 54), Micah Hyde, Graham Branch, Ian Moore, Robbie Blake. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Matt O'Neill, Amadou Sanokho, Jean-Louis Valois.

Stoke: Ed de Goey, John Halls, Wayne Thomas, Gerry Taggart, Clint Hill (Steve Guppy 63), Darel Russell, Clive Clarke, Dave Brammer (Karl Henry 78), Marcus Hall, Gifton Noel-Williams, Ade Akinbiyi (Carl Asaba 85). Subs not used: Steve Simonsen, Chris Greenacre.

Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1990/91

FAC

h

2-0

12,949

Francis White

1992/93

2

h

0-2

16,667

.

..

a

1-1

21,840

Randall

1994/95

1

h

1-1

15,331

Davis

.

.

a

0-2

13,040

.

1998/99

2

h

0-2

10,575

.

..

a

4-1

10,965

Pickering Payton Little(2)

1999/2000

2

h

1-0

11,328

Payton

..

a

2-2

15,354

Payton(2 1pen)

2002/03

1

h

2-1

14,244

Gnohere Papadopoulos

.

.

a

1-0

12,874

West

2003/04

1

a

2-1

14,876

May Chadwick

..

h

0-1

12,812

.

2004/05

C

h

2-2

12,981

Moore Blake(pen)

.

.

a

1-0

15,689

Cahill

Click HERE to see more results against Stoke since our first meeting in the inaugral league season of 1888/89.