Think it's obvious that Stoke will come to "spoil" the game so hopefully Silva has a plan for that. Can't be too over confident as I think it has the same sort of vibe around it as the Brighton match - lets hope we keep eleven men on the pitch! Amazingly - despite being a far, far better team this season - Mazzarri has managed to better our results against Man City at home and Chelsea away by 1 goal. Therefore by reversing that logic, hopefully Silva can better his turgid 0-1 defeat in this fixture last season! Would love a swashbuckling, convincing 3 or 4 nil romp, but would happily settle for a 1-o win via a shinner from Capoue/Mariappa/Britos/anybody, as long as we win! Then we can pretend it's the sign of a good side when we're victorious after a below-par performance.
If Mapps scores that is definitely a sign of something, and possibly the apocalypse. Wouldn't complain though. About him scoring, that is.
Stoke are on poor form but cannot be underestimated in any game. They did beat Ase but then again so did we. Grey is due a couple of goals and Rich is going to want to make up for the last game so for once a good performance against Smeg City is justifiably needed.
The sign of a good side is one that scrapes a win playing badly. 4-0 to the ‘Ornets. Crouch with 4 OGs.
I like how you could suspend you disbelief and possibly think that he might watch football until he says “presumably” my bubble is burst
Last season Hughes came with a game plan of winding up Holebas, Britos Mazarri and anyone else who was easy offended and skeptical to a booking. It worked. This time I can't see those tactics working. Their in a rut and I can see us making things a lot worse for the Potters 4 - 1 Richarlison x2 Deeney and Doucoure, Berahino with a late Consolation.
As long as Richarlison and Doucoure play we'll ******* destroy them, amazed some of our fans think otherwise. Watford 4-0 Stoke
Is the dislike of James Corden because ha has done well? I like Gavin and Stacey and still like Corden to be honest. Stoke are on of those sides who are either very decent or utter bobbins. An early goal for us and reckon we will win easily. I reckon they will target Richarlison with a lot of niggly fouls but he seems capable of living with the rough stuff. 2-0
It's a game we should win therefore we will lose. This has Crouch header from a corner in the 76th minute written all over it. Watford 0-1 Stoke Plus Merse has predicted us to win, so it means we will lose.
Well in that case, This has Charlie Adam red card all over it. I can see him going after Richarlison all game.
Seeing Charlie Adam's shorts riding up his crack last season is an image which will haunt me to my dying days.
Stoke dressing room before the game: Hughes: “Right lads, I want us to get back to our swift passing game, one touch stuff, knock it around and make them chase the game, ha, ha, ha, just kidding. Right, Charlie, you give that Richardson fella a big kick up the calf in the opening 5. Let him know the sort of afternoon he’s in for. Those pussy refs never book anyone on the opening 20 anyway. The rest of you, you all know your order for kicking him right? Get the rough stuff out of the way by half time and we’ll be alright. Now onto that stroppy left back of theirs. Apparently he’s only had one red card this season in that haribo cup so he’s due. Needle him, pull his shirt, tell him Gibbs would walk into the Watford side. We’ll be up against 10 men within the hour. I’ll take care of the 4th official so, lastly, ensure you get in the refs face. When they go down I want them hurt. When you go down I want them booked. So anyway, in summary, same as last week.”
Excellent. Liked the Haribo comment. That Charlie Adams look like a pub footballer with his big beer belly stretching his football shirt. Dirty, horrible bunch of game spoilers. Shikira might be nippy and have close ball control but he’s a fouling cheating fcker. The year we promoted, a couple of Stokies said ‘oh that’s an eAsy six point then’. Arrogant tossers, have they already forgotten that only a few years before, they were in the Championship regularly playing us? Big time Charlie’s.......
Not that anyone cares now, but the year they got promoted was the year lester and soton went down and we scraped into the playoffs with a 1_1 draw at Blackpool. I won’t remind you of how we faired in the playoffs vs Hull City. We started that season so well too...
Mildly pleased at the way that the football thread about a small northern town, who are poppimg down this afternoon for a kick-about, has turned into a thread about East Anglian folk. I shows that we are now too big a club to discuss playing lesser sides. Bodica has has been referred to by several different names over the years. Historians don’t know if this was like a Prince thing when he kept changing his name or just a Candi Staton/Dionne Warwick/Kim Bassinger prounouciation thing. I only go as far back being taught she was Bodiccea, but then I daydreamed a lot at school.Wiki says the the Taffs called Buddug, she has previously been called Voadicia which sounds like a succulent that Monty Don might recommend to over-winter in a heated greenhouse. Another bloke for years ago thought her name to be Bonduca. She and her followers, the Icini City Firm, killed a lot of innocent people including Romans and English and her behaviour is comparable to many modern day fascist groups. Edit: oops, nearly forgot, WFC 0 Stoke 1
Nothing expected of them, pressure's off, they can just go out and show what they can do. Meanwhile, we have the full self-entitled confident expectation of three glorious points easily won hanging over us, with a crowd notoriously ready to turn in an instant. Richarlison misses another sitter. The fickle adulation starts to turn into boos and groans. We should never have let Amrabat go. Oh no, not Watson coming on again! Boooo! Oh Booooo! 0-1 defeat.
What a glorious afternoon awaits on the shoutbox! I’ve got my Fickle Fan bingo sheet lined up ready. A simple grid system with all of the forum’s catch phrases so that when a matching post appears, I can tick it off. Here’s a sampler: Gomes is making mistakes. Gomes is getting old, he needs to retire Marriappa isn’t up to Premiershiplevel, he should be playing in League 1. Holebas is always caught out of position and allowed Shakira to wriggle free. Britos is crapp and just too slow. Fouls the player too often. Don’t dive in, Just stand up. WTF has Gray done this half. The useless racist scummer. Bring on Deeney. Richy goes down at the slightest touch. He’s got a reputation now and refs don’t give him anything.fck off back to Brazil. Cleverly isn’t suited to that role. Why play 3 at the back. FFS it doesn’t suit us. Bobby P’s too nervous since his injury. Think it fried his brain. Dacourre will go to a big club for a big fee in the summer.
it will be a horrible ugly game, with Stoke getting as many men behind the ball as possible. They'll commit lots of fouls in our half to break up and slow down play and hit us with set plays and counter attacks. One of those clubs that we always beat away and always lose to at home. 0-1
They will bring Imbula out from cold storage and he will play like Bobby Charlton/Zidane,having not played like anyone since the last time we played them. The mad family behind me will self combust and disappear in a haze of abuse for Doucoure,Gray and Pringles.
Can you download transcripts of the shoutbox? Imagine what's said in there is probably best kept in there but would be interesting to read in game comments after the game. Other mbs don't have shoutboxes so you can read all their comments after the final whistle. Quite funny sometimes.
Check out this beacon of cheerfulness from a Stokie: https://www.olbg.com/blogs/post.php?id=413114 I particularly enjoyed this paragraph: The midfield is painful as well. I like Joe Allen, but next to him, Darren Fletcher is starting to look like another whose age is catching up with him. What’s the alternative though? Ibrahim Afellay was a quality player in his day but is another who is the wrong side of 30, has knees made of Weetabix, and has lost a few more yards of pace since his latest operation (I’ve lost count of the number of knee ops he’s had now- in fact, we’ve renamed the treatment room at the Bet365 ‘Afellay’s quarters’). The Dutchman looks like Usain Bolt compared to Charlie Adam though, who was never the most mobile, but now shuffles unsteadily around like a drunk Rab C Nesbitt, yelling incomprehensibly to nobody and maiming anyone who comes within 5 yards of him.
