With the Capital One cup final drawing ever closer, as well as our Premier League game tomorrow, we thought we would bring the best of both worlds with the winners of League Cups or related (you’ll see why) that have played for both Sunderland and Arsenal. Just to add that bit of excitement for you before Wembley way is full of fans, punters and of course, cheesy chips!
After last night’s disappointing postponement thanks to ridiculous and dangerous high winds, I felt compelled to look back at how we faired in previous postponed and rescheduled games for the same reason. Note; I’m just including match postponements, rather than abandoned games such as that infamous home match against Fulham. Do you remember any of these? Have I missed any out?
After the fabulous mid-week win in the first leg of the Captial One Cup semi-final comes the mundane return to battling at the bottom of the Premier League. The fans are rightly buzzing at being on the brink of a visit to Wembley Way and hopefully the players will be able to carry that into a crucial basement battle.
After that fantastic extra time triumph over Chelsea on Tuesday night, we go into the crucial home fixture with Norwich on Saturday with at least something to cheer. However, having marked the West Ham and Norwich games as ‘must win’, a draw at the Hammers means we really need three points on Saturday to keep our slim survival hopes alive. Really, really need three points!
Despite the fact the most fans didn’t expect many points to be harvested from back-to-back home games against Chelsea and Spurs, the manner of the latest defeat seems to have left fans a little more gloomy than before (if such a thing were possible). Today we play West Ham United and with that at the forefront of our minds it seems quite apt that we take a look at past results and a player who lost his way at both clubs.
This week proved difficult to conjure up with a topic for the history piece, but little did I know that it had been slapping me in the face for days, may be even weeks leading up to this fixture – Gavin McCann.
When writing this week’s historical piece there wasn't a shortage of players to choose from, Stoke have had a number of our former players in their ranks at one time or another. In the end though I have chosen to go for Kenwyne Jones, a player I both loved and hated in equal measure.
The epic 1973 FA Cup victory has long been written into the annals of history. Sadly it is so distant that the majority of current fans were not even born or too young to appreciate the full scale of the achievement. Although I was fortunate enough to attend the heroic final, there is also a particular game I remember in the cup run against Manchester City, who were favourites after knocking Liverpool.
So we beat the Mags and it was incredible. Now this should kick start our season and help catapult us up the table – right? Well, let’s have a quick look at what history tells us…
It's one of football's oldest clichés; when it comes to derby games, the form book goes out the window. So how true is it? Well, looking at one of English football's fiercest derbies - Sunderland against Newcastle - suggests that, like all good clichés, there is an element of truth in it but it doesn't tell the full story.
