Stoke City FC

Stoke City Football Club, commonly called Stoke, are an English football club based in the city of Stoke-on-Trent. They currently feature in the English Premier League (for the 2008-2009 season) and are the second oldest club in the Football League in England.

Stoke City play their home matches at the Britannia Stadium, which has a capacity of 28,383. The clubs bears the nickname the Potters after the pottery industry in the city.

Stoke City was founded in 1863 and are the second oldest club in the English football league. They were formed as Stoke Ramblers and were formed by students of Charterhouse School. The club played its first documented match in October 1868 against EW May XV at the Victoria Cricket Club.

In 1878 Stoke Ramblers merged with Stoke Victoria Cricket Club and came to be known as Stoke Football Club. In 1885 the club turned professional and were one of the 12 founding members of the Football League in 1888. But Stoke didn’t manage to gain any success at all.

In 1928 the club was renamed as Stoke City FC and in the 1930s were graced by a certain legend Stanley Matthews.

In the 1960s, manager Tony Waddington was a huge figure in turning the club into a known one. In March 1972 Stoke City won their first major trophy when they won the League Cup by beating Chelsea 2-1 in the final at Wembley Stadium.

The team played in the English first division in the 1984-1985 season but got relegated.

In 1997-998 Stoke City, after enduring years of decline, began to dream again as they moved into the Britannia Stadium after spending almost 120 years at the Victoria Ground. They invested money into the club and gradually started progressing.

Stoke City won promotion to the English Premier League at the end of the 2007-2008 season and shall now be featuring in the English Premier League for the 2008-2009 season.

Stoke City foster massive rivalry with Port Vale and their supporters are also known to be connected with hooliganis.