‘Yobs have made me question loyalty’

I AM now in my 70th year and have been a Stoke City supporter since I was old enough to choose for myself between Vale and Stoke.

I never thought that I would ever consider not sticking with my team.

However, the moronic actions of so many so-called fans on Tuesday night has given me serious cause to consider my loyalty.

That will not worry the thugs who perpetrated the mayhem on Tuesday, in fact, I am poised for the usual barrage of filth that they have tossed in my direction in the past when I had good reason to criticise the club’s direction under Mark Hughes. Who was right then?

One particular Facebook group is home to most of these neanderthals.

I resigned from that bunch when they were boasting of the ‘fun’ that they had destroying Vale Park and the surrounding area.

It is not clever to destroy something that decent people have worked so hard to build.

In my teens we regularly went to Vale Park to urge on the other local team when The Potters didn’t have a match.

It was not being disloyal, it was having pride in our city and its two professional clubs.

Three years ago I retired to Cyprus. I have not lived in Stoke-on-trent since I went away to study in 1968, but every week kept an eye on how the team was doing and watched them whenever I could.

Since Tuesday, the words Stoke City have become poisonous, even here. I find it impossible to disagree with the criticism. DAVID MORRIS CYPRUS