‘I wasn’t able to relax until we
IT’S 10 YEARS AGO THIS WEEKEND SINCE STOKE CITY THRASHED BOLTON 5-0 IN THE FA CUP SEMI-FINALS. PETER SMITH TALKS TO THEN MANAGER TONY PULIS ABOUT HIS MEMORIES OF AN UNFORGETTABLE DAY ...
KEMPY came over when we scored the fifth and said we can relax now. That’s still a remarkable sentence for Tony Pulis to say, 10 years on from one of the best days in Stoke City’s history.
The sun was shining on Wembley, Pulis and his side when they took on Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup semi-final in front of 32,047 increasingly amazed Stoke supporters.
One from Matty Etherington, a second from Robert Huth, a third from Kenwyne Jones and two in the second half from Jon Walters, meant that yes, the final nine minutes were pure bliss.
Pulis is actually standing in front of a photo of him and assistant Dave Kemp as that fifth went in that is hanging in his home study as he recalls that day.
“We wanted the players to enjoy it,” he said. “They had to work hard and stick to what we worked on and they produced. When it goes like that, it’s wonderful.
“We had some wonderful people in the dressing room and if you speak to any of them, I’m sure the best times of their careers would have been at Stoke and in that group. Robert, Matty, Ryan, Jon Walters, Glenn, Andy Wilkinson, Rory…
“That’s lovely, 10 years on, it’s lovely to know they enjoyed it as much as I did. I tried my damndest to build that.”
AN EASY TEAM TALK
The story of that afternoon actually starts with a 3-0 defeat.
On March 5, 2011, Stoke had a stinker at a West Ham side who had been in the relegation zone a week before they met again in the FA Cup quarter-final.
“It’s ironic,” said Pulis. “We lost 3-0 at West Ham and Demba Ba had scored a hat-trick. We had been in the mix to sign Demba and it was only the worry about his injuries that stopped us.
“We didn’t play very well. It was one of the odd occasions I was disappointed with the players. We gave away some sloppy goals but having had our backsides slapped it was a good motivation to have them the week after.
“We were fortunate, I was fortunate that the lads didn’t need a lot of motivating.
“Playing them back at the Britannia was a bonus. I was confident the lads would really be determined to roll their sleeves up and put things right. They did.”
Huth put Stoke in front, Frederic Piquionne equalised via a handball and Rob Green saved an Etherington penalty before Danny Higginbotham wellied in a free-kick.
Stoke had reached the semifinal for the first time in 39 years – and the draw put Man City and Man Utd in the other half while they were pitched against Bolton.
THE RISE OF STOKE CITY
Stoke were coming towards the end of their third season in the Premier League and Pulis’s fifth back in charge after Peter Coates had taken over again from an Icelandic consortium.
The team that ran out at Wembley had been together gradually during that time, rising from mid-table in the Championship.
“It was a family club and we had a good bunch of lads,” said Pulis. “They were decent lads and when we added a little bit of quality, you could bring in individual players like Pennant who you think might not get on. He slipped in no problem because of the strength of the group.
“All the way through my management career, the bedrock of a successful team is the spine. You have to work your socks off to get that in place. Once you have that, you can build around it.
“We had a group of players who loved being together. When the training ground had been built it was a job to get some of the players to go home. I had to get Kempy to go and shoo them away.
“It’d be well into the afternoon and they’d still be drinking coffee, chatting, playing pranks and up to stuff you wouldn’t believe. A real group, a real team and that goes for players who were outside the team as well. Everybody bought into what we needed as a football club to be successful.
“But the team didn’t play just because they liked each other, they put an identity into the football club and they worked at it. The building blocks had been put in place with players’ attitude.
“We had a very uncomplicated way of playing, from the outside, a very uncomplicated system – although we were definitely better than we got credit for.
“When people, players and other managers talk about that period now they talk about how difficult we were to play against and that is a great compliment.”
A SURPRISE TRIP TO LONDON
Stoke had three league games between the quarter-final and semi; a 4-0 thrashing of Newcastle, a 1-1 draw with Chelsea and a 3-2 away defeat at Tottenham.
Bubbling over in the background was the build-up to April 17.
“We played really well against Newcastle and with the realisation we were going to Wembley there was a buzz around the city,” said Pulis. “It was a great achievement for the players and the town. “We had given our fans something they hadn’t seen for about 40 years. It was a tremendous atmosphere around the city.” A difficult task, then, to try to keep focus.
Pulis said: “We trained on the Monday and Tuesday before Bolton as normal. I remember the lads came to see me to ask if we had Wembley suits. I told them where to go! It was a semi-final, we’re not having suits for a semi-final. “Actually when we turned up, Bolton had their suits on, nice grey suits with lovely roses, and that helped with the team talk. ‘Are they the same suits they think they’ll be wearing for the final? Do they think they’re there already?’
“We wanted to keep a similar routine but instead of training on the Wednesday we took them down to London, jumped on a train and then a bus to Wembley. Some of the players had never been there before and I didn’t want them walking out with any distractions.
They saw the changing rooms
and where the wives and families would be sitting, and then we went and had a nice meal at an Italian and a few drinks.
“I got Ryan in a gang of three to take charge of all the tickets and make sure that no-one had any worries. We had the Thursday off and trained on Friday and Saturday and then we knew the winners of our match on the Sunday would play Man City in the final.”
THE BIG DAY AND RICARDO’S BIG MOMENT
The M1 was shut, the London Marathon was running and Liverpool playing at Arsenal didn’t help the journeys down but the atmosphere was incredible as Stoke fans reached the stadium via plane, train, car and coach.
“The whole occasion,” said Pulis, “even driving into the game from the hotel and getting around Wembley and seeing the thousands in red and white, the noise and sights when we got to the ground was absolutely fantastic.
“For everybody who was there… they won’t forget that occasion, young and old. Walking out and hearing Delilah and all their songs. It was just fabulous.”
Pulis called on Ricardo Fuller, who had been in and out of the team and was on the bench that day, to help deliver the team talk.
Fuller later recalled in an interview with Duck magazine: “Let me tell you how nervous I was. Forget the game, I was terrified going to Wembley because of that speech. I never sweat, but on that day I had a real sweat on.
“I spent a lot of time on my phone reading inspirational speeches and sayings, things from good films. Luckily, I’d seen a speech from Nelson Mandela – it was in a Samuel L Jackson film, Coach Carter. I looked it up and started to remember a couple of lines so I would look good ... then the gaffer got all the boys together just before kick-off to listen to ‘Ric’s speech’.
“I just said, ‘Listen lads, you know the whole world thinks you are going to lose today. Everyone is against you. But remember,’ then I quoted the speech, ‘that our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are more powerful than we ever imagine.’
“The dressing room was silent, I’ve never seen anything like it, then we smashed them.”
Pulis could always turn to Ricardo.
“I wanted to pick someone,” he said. “I think Ric had been at the club for five years by that point. He’d been a massive part of it. He was on the bench and he would have been disappointed not to play but I wanted one of the players to stand up and give a talk about what it was all about, how far we’d come, how special days are there to remember when you win.
“He was brilliant. I could have picked any of them. We had Deano, Salif on the bench, Abdoulaye, Nashy was the third keeper.
“We were a very well drilled, well organised, football club. Everyone toed the lines, we had some scallywags but when it came to work, they worked their socks off. They respected the club, a lot had seen it come from nothing.”
THE PERFECT GAME
Ryan Shawcross, captain at the age of 22, led Stoke out while Pulis, in black tracksuit and baseball cap, took his place on the sidelines.
There was a game plan as they went up against Owen Coyle’s Bolton, who were slight favourites with the bookies.
“We always liked to be the underdogs,” said Pulis. “I always liked to have an angle to motivate the players. Bolton were favourites. They’d been in the Premiership a lot longer and had some very good players in their team; Muamba, Klasnic, Davies, Cahill… Zat Knight was a strong defender.
“We were fortunate we had avoided the two Manchester clubs but it was a great challenge.
“We had worked for the first part of the week on what we thought Bolton’s strengths were and how we could combat that and get the best out of Matty and Pennant.
“They were pretty direct with Davies up front who would direct a lot of good play. He could knock it back to set them up wide or flick balls on. We worked very hard on making sure Ryan and Huthy,
Rory and Glenn stayed very close together, really boxed in nice and tight, always getting around Davies.
“We didn’t want him to have any space to cause us problems – and as they were drawn into that, it made more space for us for our two wingers to exploit.
“The game itself is a blur. I can’t stand watching back any of my team’s games on replay. I just remember the atmosphere and the occasion and that we played really well. Everything we touched turned into gold. You don’t get that on big occasions very often.
“And no, I didn’t relax until the fifth goal went in.”
THE CELEBRATION
The Bolton end of Wembley was almost empty by the time the whistle went. The Stoke fans didn’t want it to end, didn’t want to leave.
“I was so delighted for everyone,” said Pulis. “I was delighted for the players and the fans and for Peter and the family.
“I think of all the years he had been at the club, working tremendously hard. You can look at what the Coates family have now but before that time, he was putting in a lot of his own money, money that the family didn’t really have, and he deserves a lot of credit.
“It was a wonderful day. The spirit at that football club at that moment was just phenomenal.”
The final, a 1-0 defeat to Man City, was overshadowed by the semi-final.
But then the semi-final really was something.
Pulis has managed other clubs but it is no secret which one has a special place under that cap.
“I don’t want to overcook it too much but I had a fabulous chairman who believed in me and backed me all the way,” he said. “Even if I didn’t get what I wanted, he always explained why. He gave me the opportunity.
“The FA Cup run, the semi-final, the final, Europe the following year, you couldn’t make it up. From where we had come from when I first arrived in 2002, all the stuff we achieved…
“To do that, you have to have people who are prepared to give up a lot.
“There were so many people behind the scenes, Winnie and John the kit people, the groundsman, all the people around the place. Every time you walked into the place there was always someone doing their job properly. They wanted to be at Stoke City, they were proud to be there.
“That all comes from good leadership at the top. You have to have a very decent chairman, we had Peter, John and Denise.
“I think you’ve also got to have an identity.
“Forget what everybody else on the outside says, people will always think they can do it better than you, but you have to recognise what you’ve got and what we had, when you look back on it now, really was wonderful.”