Ok, well maybe I exaggerate slightly, but the point remains that in years gone by, we were actually a powerful force in English football, regularly making forays into the latter rounds of the two cup competitions. For those of us raised on Division 2 football and Martin Carruthers, this all seems a little hard to believe I know.
In the past twenty or so years, our record in the cup competitions, has been pretty awful to say the least. The League cup in recent years has seemingly been an opportunity for Stoke to aid the smaller North West clubs in progressing to the next round. Rochdale, Oldham, Macclesfield, these titans of the modern game regularly prove too much for Stoke to handle in the junior cup competition. There have been some bright spots however. Drawing with Liverpool at Anfield. Beating Man United in the first leg at the Vic. We even dumped Chelsea out in late 90's which was also a bonus. That's all I can really recall however.
In the FA cup, our record is hardly any better. Not including the past two seasons, take a few seconds now to try and remember a memorable FA cup victory. I tried. You know what I came up with? 2-0 at home to Lewes. That's it. That's my total enduring memories of 'the magic' of the FA cup. Upon browsing our record, the forgotten memories come flooding back. Telford, Nuneaton Borough, even the Vale proved too much for us. EVEN WEST BROM BEAT US. That's right, even our perennial scalps, the baggies, beat us in the cup. It even took us a replay and a penalty shoot out to beat Tamworth.
This year however, for the first time in a long while, we were treated to some degree of Cup magic. It may not be a cup run that will be talked about for years to come, but it certainly was an enjoyable ride while it lasted.
We overcame York in the third round with relative ease. Their was the typical early scare as York went ahead, but three goals, including a sublime free kick from Etherington, was enough to comfortably see us through.
Next up were Arsenal at the Brit. I'm always more confident when we draw teams at home, as I'm sure most teams are. You always sense that at home, it's always possible we can get a result against anyone on our day. Unlike when we play away from home of course where the opposite applies and we can lose to anyone on any given day. Arsenal came into this game with a number of injury worries and a typically weakened team as priorities lay elsewhere. That's not to take anything away from the teams performance however as we still faced a team including Fabregas, Campbell, Traore, Walcott, Denilson in it's starting line up and saw the likes of Eduardo and Ramsey come on for most of the second half.
As the game went on, Arsenal rapidly ran out of ideas and were simply no match for our physical game, and with about five minutes to go, somehow, we were 3-1 up and cruising. I could scarcely believe my eyes. It was so comfortable, even I wasn't overly worries about us giving the lead away. We were the team on top and we even had a fourth goal disallowed late on. A comfortable 3-1 win at home over Arsenal, that's one for the record books.
I actually said after the game, that with Arsenal and Man United now out, the only teams we wanted to really avoid were Chelsea (more on them later) and Man city. Naturally, we went on to draw the blue half of Manchester away in the fourth round. Typical.
As it turned out, this was one of the most enjoyable away days of the season so far. A lacklustre home support were easily out sung, as the travelling Stoke fans were in typically fine voice, with a wide array of witty (kind of) songs aimed at poor Wayne Bridge over the John Terry shenanigans.
It was a close game, and one that was only broken up in the first half thanks to a comically bad own goal from England's Ryan Shawcross (as he shall henceforth be known). Wright-Phillips latched onto a through ball and reached it just before the on coming Tommy Sorenson. Flicking the ball forwards, he and England's Ryan Shawcross gave chase to a ball that was seemingly bouncing harmlessly out of play. England's Ryan Shawcross took no chance though and in attempting to shepard the ball out, manged only to crumple gracelessly to the ground, keeping the ball in play with his head, and in doing so laying it off right into SWP's path who gratefully slotted it home. One destined for the Christmas blooper videos come December.
Stoke gave as good as they got though and almost pulled level through a spectacular Danny Higginbotham strike from about 30 yards out. We were directly behind Higgy as he struck this, and a sweeter strike you won't see all season.
The second half saw Stoke looking lively, whilst City looked progressively more and more toothless. With their wealth of attacking talent, you expected to be bombarded with wave after wave of flowing football but alas it was never to be. Eventually the Potters equalised through a Rory long throw and a clinical header from Fuller.
As the game wore on, City missed a couple of good chances and Santa Cruz in particular wasted a golden chance for the home side. In the several games I've seen him play for City now, I'm yet to understand what exactly Santa Cruz brings to the side. Maybe with a run in the side he'd look slightly sharper, but he seems completely innocuous at times and it's a relief in anything when he is brought on for Adebayor or Tevez.
Ultimately the lads held on for a good away draw, and the travelling supporters celebrated as if we'd won the game. Taking the tie back to the Brit gave us a great chance of progressing to the Quarter finals and for once what ITV commentators would call 'the magic of the FA cup', was surrounding me.
The second leg was a tight affair for the most part, with both teams going all out for the win. It took a silky move between Tuncay and the returning Dave Kitson to break the deadlock on 79 minutes as the rejuvenated striker showed what he is capable of and deftly slotted home Tunny's flick from close range. The Brit erupted, but the celebrations didn't last long as Craig Bellamy showed his quality to slam home a knock down from Adebayor just two minutes later.
With the two sides cancelling each other out, the game was evenly poised, but a few minutes after he set up his team's goal, Adebayor was shown red by referee Steve Bennett for raising his arm in England's Ryan Shawcross's face. I actually missed this at the time, and to be honest it seemed fairly innocuous. Replays later showed that the Togolese forward did raise his arms to fend off England's Ryan Shawcross, and certainly caught him in the face. It was perhaps a harsh red card as there was little or no intent, but by the letter of the law he had to go. Let's see it as karmic justice for a certain questionable refereeing decision that occurred in our last meeting with the blues (it still smarts Wiley).
Once he had gone, there was only one team going to win, and despite holding out to force extra time, two quick goals from England's Ryan Shawcross (nope, still not tired of it) and Tuncay saw Stoke stride into the lead and never really look like losing it.
When the final whistle went, Stoke fans celebrated their first FA cup quarter final in decades and spent the rest of the weekend eagerly awaiting the draw.
I would put good money on the fact that every Stoke fan uttered the phrase "anyone but Chelsea" in the run up to this draw. Anyone else and you really fancied our chances of getting a result.Sure enough though, the draw rolls around and with crushing inevitability, we wind up drawing Chelski. Of course. Who else would it be. At Stamford Bridge too. Perfect.
At home and as I've already said, you always give us an outside chance against anyone. At the Bridge though, against an in form Chelsea, it was always an uphill task.
Ultimately, it proved one top 4 team too far. We were by no means over run by Ancelotti's boys, but at the same time, we never looked too dangerous. An early chance powered in from the edge of the area by Whitehead was cleared off the line. Not too long after, a similar chance fell to Frank Lampard up the other end and unfortunately, his chance ricocheted into the goal and past a helpless Sorenson. I always think that Frank must be a real whizz at pinball. His knack for guiding the ball into the goal whilst ensuring it hits the maximum number of bodies on the way in must be transferable to something.
As the game wore on, we struggled to create chances and when Chelsea doubled their lead it was game over. The boys hadn't disgraced themselves, but were ultimately beaten by a superior Chelski team.
Ah well. Que sera, sera. We had a good run and it was fun while it lasted. We'd finally rekindled a bit of the magic of yesteryear and kept our interest in the FA cup going longer than that typically gloomy January weekend like normal. For once I could take part in that tense, if not slightly over blown, experience of a new rounds draw and it's numerous possibilities and permutations. Only one game shy of Wembley still represents a good achievement for Stoke and is a sure sign of progress.
Maybe this is the start of a glorious new era of Cup endeavour from the Potters. Maybe we can go that extra step or two next season and give our fans a trip to Wembley. (I could rant here about the absolutely shite decision by the FA to have the semi finals at Wembley which not only devalues the final itself, but also benefits no one but the assorted London bigwigs and sponsors who get two days out in the hospitality lounge rather than one. I could make that rant here.....but I won't). Who knows, next year, could really be our year.
...................Mind you, we could just lose away at Rochdale.
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