Club Guide
Team: Stoke City FC |
Stadium and Pitch: 7/10
The Britannia Stadium was opened in 1997 and was at the time state of the art; now ten years on its merely average but is still a great Championship ground and would put one or two Premiership grounds to shame.
Upon entering the stadium it reminded me of Riverside Stadium and Pride Park when they were first built before they both updated their grounds. Visiting supporters were handed their own stand with a huge double tiered stand to the left and a sweeping one tiered effort to the right and in front of us with the corner filled in.
I believe that they do plan to fill in one of the other corners to make the capacity to 30,000 but no doubt this won't be until they reach the dizzy heights of the Premiership.
The Britannia was a nice ground and would visit again but when they built it in the coldest place on earth is not understandable - maybe they didn't think about this at the time.
Programme: 7/10
The Potters match day magazine's main feature was to celebrate on loan defender Ryan Shawcross (from Manchester United) who was named Coca-Cola Championship Player of the Month for October 2007.
However I was eagerly impressed with City offering twelve pages to the opposition with two match reports included; one from the past (1986) and the other the last time the Blades travelled to the Britannia during the 2005-06 promotion winning campaign.
Also the Potters gave an insight into Blades midfielder Lee Hendrie who spent some time on loan at Stoke last season with a three page interview.
One feature that I did enjoy that wasn't Blades related was the 'Potters Fanzone' which allowed 'Joe Public' to give their view of the team with a series of questions and get the opportunity to name their best ever eleven.
Performance and Result: 7/10
:: Stoke City 0-1 Sheffield United ::
Bryan Robson and Sheffield United extended their run to six league games unbeaten whilst Stoke City lost their third successive game at home. Chances were few and far between for the visiting team but City came under fire in 43rd minute when Gary Cahill headed home following a scrambled corner.
This was only a minute after the Blades stroke the post via David Carney after being put through by Danny Webber. The home side did have their chances too; with Ian Bennett tested mainly in the last ten minutes when it was a back to the walls job for United.
In the end United held on after wave after wave of City corners which were eventually scrambled away; for their efforts the Potters deserved a point (at least) but Bryan Robson's team somehow kept a clean sheet and claimed there second win on the road for the 2007-08 season in front of the Sky camera's.
Atmosphere: 6/10
It was a real poor show by the city faithful, only 12,000 making the ground less than half full - very disappointing in a City where unlike Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and even Bristol don't have a rival club to compete with. their home fans barely made a chant and the game was sadly marred by violence in the away end when a Stoke City fan obtained a ticket in the visiting supporters section - were not sure if he has woke up yet?
Overall: 27/40
:: Previous Visits to Britannia Stadium ::
- 10.11.2007 - Stoke City 0-1 Sheffield United