What a peach of a goal
Finally, seeing Stoke City live in-person
Let me begin by saying I'm exhausted and sore. As I expected the first few days of this trip have been a lot, but I have no regrets. Also, the first match was so incredible, I may be at a loss to top that story. Since then, I’ve been to two good matches–well, one good one, one underwhelming one–but it truly doesn’t compare.
After I passed out following Man United’s stunning win, I slept almost 10 hours, woke up, packed my duffle and headed to Manchester Piccadilly for my next train to Stoke. It was an uneventful ride with the most stressful part being trying to find a rubbish bin, because apparently Manchester isn’t interested in such things. This ride brought my train count for the trip to seven.
Once I got to Stoke-on-Trent, I ended up having a bit of an adventure because it turns out, the bus system works quite differently on bank holidays, and apparently Google Maps knows nothing about it. After waiting for 3 different buses, I gave up and called for an Uber. I was hoping to avoid cars this whole trip, but it would have been a long walk in the rain, and I’d already lost 45 minutes.
After I dropped my bags at the hotel, I tried again to catch a bus, using the local system’s app this time, and frankly, I don’t know what happened with that one. I watched on the app as the bus went a completely different route than indicated, and passed my stop, but two streets over. So Uber again.
This was the match that started all the plans. Finally seeing Stoke City FC live, in person, after so many years. I wanted to stop by the team shop, because shipping to the states is wildly expensive, but with the season almost over, and plans to revise the team crest underway, the offerings were meager. The only official kits for sale were for literal babies, or for XXL and up, neither of which would suit me, or my young niblings for whom I was planning to grab something. Instead, I grabbed a scarf and called it good enough.
I was a bit anxious about this match, because Stoke have had an inconsistent season and we lost to our opponents for the day, Sheffield Wednesday, in the away fixture of the season, but I was cautiously optimistic given our more recent form. Regardless, I was just happy to be there.
Bad news first, Stoke saw three injuries, two of which required the player to be subbed out, one on a stretcher. The latter two both play the same position, one where Stoke already has injury issues, so their recovery leaves question marks for our remaining matches.
Good news, I had a lovely time, despite the rain, we won 2-0, and Ben Wilmot scored a real peach of a goal. By which I mean, he scored with his butt. Really. I’ve never seen anything like it.
There had been a corner kick by Stoke, which the Sheffield Wednesday keeper caught with ease. Then, as he went to throw the ball out to his team, Wilmot did his duty of trying to block the keeper from starting a fast counter attack. The keeper threw the ball anyway, Wilmot jumped up, and the ball hit him square on the cheeks and rolled into the net.
My section at the other end of the pitch nearly missed it. I was looking for the distribution run, and only turned when I heard the crowd noise building. I assumed I would see some extracurricular dust up or something, not the ball slowly rolling into the net. A little later, when they replayed it on the screens, the crowd noise was something else. Cackles and chortles rang out around me. The rest of the match, Wilmot got some good natured jokes, and every time the poor keeper went to distribute the ball, the jeers were a little more silly.
All told, it was a great time and I didn’t get too rained on.
Trying to get back to my hotel posed new challenges, as the buses were still limited, so I tried Uber only to get canceled on twice. Then I gave up and let myself get completely fleeced by a hackney cabbie who charged me double what Uber was suggesting. At least I could change out of my half soaked jeans.
I grabbed a bite at a Vietnamese restaurant where I got to watch a crowd coming out of a matinee performance of Six, the musical. There was one very harried woman working for the whole shop, and no music playing, which made for an interesting atmosphere, but the eavesdropping was great, and I enjoyed the wait. After pho, it was back to my hotel to repack, shower, and get ready to do it all again tomorrow.