2007–08 Stoke City F.C. season

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Stoke City 2007–08 football season

The 2007–08 season was Stoke City’s 101st in the Football League, the 41st in the second tier and fourth in the Championship.

After last season’s narrow miss on a play-off, the objective was to gain an automatic promotion position. But after a poor summer transfer wise supporters wondered what the ambition of the club was. New signings were unknown youngster Ryan Shawcross signed on loan from Manchester United and veteran forward Richard Cresswell, which hardly set the pulses racing but a 1–0 win on the opening match of the season at Cardiff City set the tone for a season to remember. Stoke didn’t really perform well in the opening few months and by the middle of November they were in mid-table, but several key loan signings saw Stoke embark on a twelve match unbeaten run.

This pushed Stoke into the top two and after a narrow defeat at Charlton Athletic Stoke won five in a row. However Stoke then hit a poor run of form winning one in their next eight matches. Wins over Coventry City, Bristol City and Colchester United saw Stoke within one point of gaining a promotion, which they would achieve after drawing 0–0 with Leicester City to gain a long-awaited return to the top flight of English football after a 23-year absence.[1]

Season review[edit]

League[edit]

The feeling around the club had improved after last season’s success in finishing 8th. The supporters were hoping that the management would bring new quality players as well as making last season’s successful loan players moves permanent.[1] But the club were left frustrated as most decided to seek employment elsewhere and by the time the start of the season had come around Stoke had only added Richard Cresswell, Jon Parkin and Ryan Shawcross to their squad.[2] Stoke’s first match of the season saw them travel to notoriously hostile Ninian Park to take on Cardiff City. Debutante Ryan Shawcross made a perfect start to his Stoke career scoring the winning goal in a 1–0 win which saw Steve Simonsen save a last minute penalty.[3] A good win against promotion favourites Charlton Athletic followed but a 3–2 defeat at Southampton brought Stoke their first defeat of the season. Three draws against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Hull City and Barnsley failed to get the supporters excited and during the next match against Plymouth Argyle with Stoke 2–1 down, some fans started venting their frustrations at manager Tony Pulis but Stoke went on to win 3–2.[4]

Stoke began to struggle, with poor home defeats to Sheffield Wednesday and then Coventry City prompted Pulis to enter the loan market again and he brought in Leon Cort and Danny Pugh.[5] This enabled Stoke to field a more settled side and they began to display the form they showed from last season and they went twelve matches unbeaten from 24 November 2007 to 19 January 2008. During that run Stoke gained some impressive victories including a 3–0 at Sheffield United and a Ricardo Fuller hat trick against promotion rivals West Bromwich Albion.[1] In the January transfer window Stoke completed the permanent signings of Cort, Pugh and Shawcross whilst former players Andy Griffin and Paul Gallagher made a return and John Eustace joined Watford with Glenn Whelan joining as a replacement.[1]

Stoke City fans celebrate following promotion to the Premier League, 4 May 2008

Stoke’s twelve match unbeaten run was ended with a 1–0 defeat away at Charlton Athletic. Stoke bounced back brilliantly beating Cardiff 2–1 and Wolverhampton Wanderers 4–2 away at Molineux.[1] Then they beat both Southampton and Scunthorpe United 3–2 and made it five wins in a row with a 1–0 win over Ipswich Town to earn Pulis manager of the month award for February.[6] But Stoke lost their form and managed just one win in their next eight matches until they won against Coventry City with three matches remaining.[1] A Mamady Sidibé double helped Stoke beat promotion rivals Bristol City and ended their efforts to gain automatic promotion leaving just Stoke and Hull fighting for 2nd place with West Bromwich Albion looking to have sealed top spot.[1] For the penultimate match of the season Stoke travelled to Colchester United who had already being relegated. However it was not an easy match as Colchester were playing their final match at Layer Road, Cresswell scored the only goal as Stoke almost secured promotion but for a late winner for Hull.[1] This took the promotion race to the final match of the season against relegation threatened Leicester City. In a tense and cagey 90 minutes the scored remained goalless and Stoke took the point they needed to gain promotion to the Premier League and a return to the top flight of English football for 23 years.[7]

FA Cup[edit]

Stoke drew struggling Premier League side Newcastle United in the third round, the match ended in a goalless draw with Stoke creating the better chances. In the replay Newcastle had appointed Kevin Keegan as manager and he inspired the “Magpies” to a 4–1 victory.[1]

League Cup[edit]

For a fourth season in a row Stoke made a first round exit to League Two opposition this time to Rochdale, losing 4–2 on penalties after a 2–2 in normal and extra time.[1]

Final league table[edit]

Updated to match(es) played on 4 May 2008. Source: The Football League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champion; (O) Play-off winner; (P) Promoted

Results[edit]

Stoke’s score comes first

Legend[edit]

Pre-season friendlies[edit]

[edit]

Match Date Opponent Venue Result Attendance Scorers Report
1 11 August 2007 Cardiff City A 1–0 18,840 Shawcross 27′ Report
2 18 August 2007 Charlton Athletic H 2–1 12,649 Fuller 57′, Parkin 78′ Report
3 25 August 2007 Southampton A 2–3 20,300 Fuller 10′, Parkin 82′ Report
4 1 September 2007 Wolverhampton Wanderers H 0–0 17,135 Report
5 15 September 2007 Hull City A 1–1 19,642 Delap 44′ Report
6 18 September 2007 Barnsley H 0–0 13,071 Report
7 22 September 2007 Plymouth Argyle H 3–2 12,533 Seip (o.g.) 10′, Fuller 66′, Lawrence 73′ Report
8 29 September 2007 Leicester City A 1–1 23,654 Fuller 15′ Report
9 3 October 2007 West Bromwich Albion A 1–1 20,048 Shawcross 27′ Report
10 6 October 2007 Colchester United H 2–1 12,395 Shawcross 8′, Lawrence 73′ Report
11 20 October 2007 Sheffield Wednesday H 2–4 14,019 Fuller (2) 12′, 41′ Report
12 23 October 2007 Crystal Palace A 3–1 14,237 Cresswell (2) 49′, 59′, Shawcross 74′ Report
13 27 October 2007 Bristol City A 0–1 15,012 Report
14 3 November 2007 Coventry City H 1–3 13,448 Lawrence 72′ (pen) Report
15 6 November 2007 Scunthorpe United A 3–2 5,521 Cresswell 26′, Hayes (o.g.) 88′, Lawrence 90′ Report
16 10 November 2007 Sheffield United H 0–1 12,158 Report
17 24 November 2007 Burnley A 0–0 11,758 Report
18 27 November 2007 Queens Park Rangers H 3–1 11,147 Cresswell 5′, Lawrence 19′, Cort 77′ Report
19 1 December 2007 Norwich City H 2–1 19,258 Cort 46′, Cresswell 89′ Report
20 4 December 2007 Sheffield United A 3–0 23,378 Cresswell 2′, Beattie (o.g.) 7′, Shawcross 19′ Report
21 9 December 2007 Watford H 0–0 15,516 Report
22 15 December 2007 Blackpool A 3–2 9,123 Fuller (2) 37′, 61′, Cort 41′ Report
23 22 December 2007 West Bromwich Albion H 3–1 18,420 Fuller (3) 5′, 38′, 66′ Report
24 26 December 2007 Barnsley A 3–3 12,398 Lawrence (3) 31′, 84′, 90+8′ (2 pen) Report
25 28 December 2007 Plymouth Argyle A 2–2 13,692 Cresswell 8′, Shawcross 57′ Report
26 1 January 2008 Hull City H 1–1 15,788 Cort 33′ Report
27 12 January 2008 Ipswich Town A 1–1 20,346 Fuller 33′ Report
28 19 January 2008 Preston North End H 3–1 15,011 Cort (2) 16′, 72′, Cresswell 28′ Report
29 29 January 2008 Charlton Athletic A 0–1 22,108 Report
30 2 February 2008 Cardiff City H 2–1 15,045 Johnson (o.g.) 39′, Fuller (pen) 57′ Report
31 9 February 2008 Wolverhampton Wanderers A 4–2 25,373 Delap 4′, Lawrence 49′, Cort 74′, Fuller 90′ Report
32 12 February 2008 Southampton H 3–2 19,481 Powell (o.g.) 27′, Shawcross 35′, Sidibé 44′ Report
33 15 February 2008 Scunthorpe United H 3–2 20,979 Lawrence (2) 53′, 63′, Cresswell 67′ Report
34 23 February 2008 Ipswich Town H 1–0 23,563 Lawrence 42′ Report
35 26 February 2008 Preston North End A 0–2 12,789 Report
36 2 March 2008 Queens Park Rangers A 0–3 13,398 Report
37 8 March 2008 Burnley H 1–1 18,432 Lawrence 90′ (pen) Report
38 11 March 2008 Norwich City A 1–0 23,471 Sidibé 58′ Report
39 15 March 2008 Watford A 0–0 18,388 Report
40 22 March 2008 Blackpool H 1–1 20,019 Cort 47′ Report
41 29 March 2008 Sheffield Wednesday A 1–1 21,857 Cresswell 21′ Report
42 7 April 2008 Crystal Palace H 1–2 15,756 Whelan 85′ Report
43 12 April 2008 Coventry City A 2–1 20,249 Lawrence 55′, Fuller 79′ (pen) Report
44 19 April 2008 Bristol City H 2–1 24,475 Sidibé (2) 14′, 36′ Report
45 26 April 2008 Colchester United A 1–0 6,300 Cresswell 45′ Report
46 4 May 2008 Leicester City H 0–0 26,609 Report

FA Cup[edit]

League Cup[edit]

Squad statistics[edit]

Transfers[edit]

In[edit]

Loan in[edit]

Out[edit]

References[edit]