Warnock’s post-match complaints about facilities missed

FANS are back in grounds, albeit in small numbers. Cause for celebration... or so I thought.

Stoke City played in front of 2,000 Wycombe supporters in the away win in Tier Two on Wednesday night, the first opportunity for fans to return to football stadia.

But, of course, at home at the bet365 Stadium, being in Tier Three, we still cannot attend. That was a crying shame on Saturday as we would have witnessed one of the best team performances in recent years.

In a match which was predicted to be incredibly close, despite the 1-0 scoreline by which Stoke won, there was only one team making chances, one team that could win that game. Michael O’neill outsmarted his opposite number Neil Warnock by playing the pace of Jacob Brown up front to stretch their defence in place of Sam Vokes, who’d played his role in the midweek away win.

Brown, Campbell and Mcclean all played their part in creating chance after chance. It wouldn’t have been unfair to score at least another two goals, but City lacked their clinical finishing of earlier in the season, so we were left to suffer another nailbiting over-extended injury time Alamo scenario as Boro belatedly threw on attackers to try and nick a draw.

The reason why there were seven minutes of injury time was that Middlesbrough consistently fouled Stoke players from first whistle to the last.

It was entirely predictable given Warnock’s regular modus operandi, but somehow this felt more insidious, downright nasty. In the technical area, Michael O’neill had a face like thunder as he witnessed first Sam Clucas in the very first minute, then followed by Danny Batth and Nick Powell limping out of the game, and possibly the next few hectic weeks, following bad fouls. And there were plenty of other naughty challenges that, happily, didn’t cripple their recipients.

So, it was hilarious that

Warnock completely ignored what had happened on the pitch to launch into full misdirection mode directly after the final whistle by firstly haranguing the referee, then giving an interview on the pitch in which he accused Stoke City of asking his players to change in terrible facilities which included a flood on the floor and blocked toilets.

Accusations which he then repeated in his press conference.

So, apparently, instead of its previous nickname of the ‘Bearpit’, the Bet365 Stadium should be renamed the ‘Pigsty’.

Funnily enough, Warnock didn’t want to answer questions about his failed team selection or tactics or the Potters’ complete dominance.

He’s as bad a loser as Arsene

Wenger; with similar eyesight. Worse, in fact, as he pretends to be a tough guy, having given an interview before the game dismissing the likes of Wenger’s Arsenal as ‘Southern Softies’ for failing to cope with playing at the then Brit.

Diddums. Let Warnock be forever known by his new nickname of the ‘Poundland Wenger’. You all know his old one…

Now, let’s not be the ones to falsely cast metaphoric stones.

We can’t pretend that we Stokies don’t like a full-blooded committed challenge. Nor that we didn’t revel in the Pulis years, which saw us portrayed, sometimes inaccurately, but often live up to being ‘overly physical’. We weren’t shrinking violets. But when it’s done to you it’s not so much fun. Except when what Neil Warnock had his players deliver on Saturday went way beyond the bounds of what TP ever did. It was completely unacceptable.

The other thing which raised its ugly head over the weekend - and is definitely not acceptable - is racism. Very, very sadly with the return of fans to the stands, at Millwall the pre-match taking of the knee by players and officials was met with boos by racist fans. By all accounts Millwall supporters prearranged this appalling, racist nonsense in advance over social media, so it shouldn’t be difficult to identify them and root them out, not least because the club will know exactly who they sold tickets to.

And why boo your own players for a positive showing of their beliefs that all people

are equal? It’s bizarre. And chilling. Where does it lead? The players across the board have been at pains to say over and over again that they don’t take a knee for political reasons. They do it to make a point about racism being unacceptable.

Let’s be clear, being antiracist isn’t a political choice. It’s merely supporting a human right.

In a year which has offered a huge range of challenges to our society, this is one which we can actually do something about.

One of the things I have learned by following the various arguments over the course of this debate is that it’s not enough as a white person in the 21st century to not be racist myself.

You have to take a positive and proactive stand when you are exposed to racist language, behaviour or bullying.

OK, it won’t have happened to you, but don’t just ‘walk on by’.

We need to call out the racists. It is, after all, a criminal offence.

And when the happy, blissful day comes that Stoke fans are allowed back into the bet365 Stadium we need to make a positive contribution to recognising our players’ support for taking the knee. Because we actually invented it.

Taking a knee began, literally and metaphorically, in the Potteries.

Yes, quite incredibly Colin Kaepernick, who started the movement in the 21st century by taking a knee during the national anthem before an NFL match, was inspired by a famous design by Stoke-onTrent’s Josiah Wedgwood.

Known as Wedgwood’s Medallion, first produced in 1787 and featuring a black man on one knee with the inscription ‘Am I Not a Man and a Brother?’, the work of art became a key symbol of the Abolitionist movement, leading to the ending of slavery in the mid-19th Century.

It was widely distributed and reproduced on the lids of gentleman’s snuff boxes and even in ladies’ brooches or hair fastenings, as well as in medallion form, as support grew for ending the slave trade throughout Wedgwood’s life.

It was referred to by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and leading abolitionist Thomas Clarkson credited the medallions with ‘turning the case of our countrymen to the case of the injured Africans and of procuring a warm interest in their favour’.

And yet non-whites have suffered racism on a daily basis ever since. It simply has to stop.

If a local, white, 18th century industrialist’s recognition of the hideousness of the slave trade and the importance of racial equality isn’t enough to inspire you to vocally support our players’ stance, then, quite frankly, you’re not a Potter and shouldn’t come back.

And we should certainly take issue – in the right way of course – with opposing fans who display such appalling behaviour as booing ‘the knee’.

The decent folk amongst our fanbase, of which there are multitudes, following the example of our great, enlightened forefather, will no longer tacitly let this happen.