I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO RETURNING FOR A SERIOUS TILT AT PROMOTION
WHILE we are all able to enjoy our new-found freedoms and meet friends, go for walks together and gather in outdoor spaces, our footballers grind on through a punishing and relentless schedule.
After cramming in three internationals in the past two weeks, Stoke’s stars are now back to the churn of playing in front of empty stands, sometimes, as at Ashton Gate on Friday, with horrible piped crowd noise being pumped in to try and affect some kind of ‘atmosphere’.
Thankfully, it didn’t inspire the home team and Stoke ran out easy winners in a decent performance, when they could easily have just given up the ghost this campaign, especially with the new, additional injuries picked up over the international break.
But Michael O’neill would never let that happen. He is building for a proper promotion challenge next season and will be using the rest of this campaign to set things up nicely.
Solidly mid-table this season, with a fair wind we could end as high as eighth. Seven games remain in the next five weeks, starting at home against Millwall, the reverse fixture of which was the opening match of the campaign, way back in September. At that point most Stokies would have taken a top-half finish with the promise of more to come. That’s what we’ve had, just, frustratingly, with an undertone of what ‘might have been’, given far better fortune on the injury front.
While there is promise on the pitch, off it, Spring is also bringing renewed hope that for us fans, some of those outdoor gatherings can take place in football stadia. Around 8,000 will attend the Carabao Cup Final later this month as the first of some ramp up test events which, all being well, will lead to significantly larger crowds attending the Euro 2020 matches taking place in these Isles during the summer.
The natural end point of all that will be a full Bet365 Stadium at some point next season, assuming everything continues to go well with the country’s approach to managing COVID-19.
Just thinking about walking across the bridge over the canal and railway line, oatcake and scarf in hand, puts joy in my heart.
Translating that back to Good Friday, how lovely it would have been to have enjoyed the delights of Bristol’s harbourside before wandering over to Ashton Gate to watch as comfortable an away win as Stoke have had in recent season against a fairly dismal Bristol City side, who only created one opening against City’s new, tighter defensive quartet of Danny Batth, James Chester, Harry Souttar and Adam Davies, who has not conceded since returning to the side three games ago.
The lovely weather is helping these possibilities feel closer, more tangible. The nightmares of the last year or so (three to four years if you’re thinking about Stoke’s onpitch displays) are beginning to fade away, with any luck.
We can all look forward to a better future, with the sun in the sky and that spring in our collective steps.
So, this Easter we really can be
thankful on two fronts; for the rebirth of both our football club under the stewardship of Michael O’neill and
the impending return of supporters to grounds.
Happy Easter everyone!