Stoke Ramblers put in an encouraging performance but were undone by some sloppy defending early on in the game.
After the first ever game for the Stoke fans team ended in a 10-0 defeat away at Preston, although the home keeper got Man of the Match in that particular game, there was weekly training sessions set up and the gates thrown wide open, and they remain open, for anyone to join up and have a game. The response was fantastic with over twenty players turning up to every session so far.
A new name was chosen, Stoke Ramblers being the first ever name given to the full Stoke City side, and a kit has been chosen by the side since this mornings match to add even more professionalism.
Nine changes were made from the side that started at Preston and it showed that the team had never played together before as three quick goals put the side on the backfoot.
Fifteen minutes into the game some early changes were made, rolling subs meant that every player was able to get a fair amount of game time, and the introduction of some fresh legs meant Stoke were able to compete more in the game and, although creating goalscoring chances of their own still proved to be an issue, the defence and midfield were able to protect their own goal well and restricted the opposition to shots from distance for the remainder of the half.
The second half carried on in the same vein, with few clear goalcoring chances created by either side, but the Ramblers keeper had to be alert to get down and save a one on one effort aswell as saving another well struck effort that looked destined for the back of the net.
The Ramblers got their first ever goal late on when an inswinging corner managed to sneak in at the near post, much to the disbelief of the corner taker himself, as the Ramblers had the fact they won the second half to take forward and build on.
Preston A, at home, is currently the next confirmed game, on October 9th, with kick off likely to be 2pm.
To keep upto date with everything to do with the side, or to just post anything you like about Stoke Ramblers, the official Stoke Ramblers board is here http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tno=501&fid=496&sty=2