IT’S CRUNCH time next Wednesday as Albion and Stoke City go head to head at the Britannia Stadium.
Both sides will be desperate for points in order to top the mini-league of four at the bottom of the table come May.
In that respect, there will be no love lost between fans on the night but should any rival supporters get together in a pub after the game they can share similar stories.
Stoke’s fortunes over the last ten months have somewhat mirrored Albion’s. Promotion from the Second Division, the manager leaves in the summer, a new manager comes and goes, the season starts with a weaker squad than the one that won promotion, a season long battle against relegation and always in the background is talk of money – or a lack of it – hampering progress.
Swap Peter Taylor for Gudjon Thordarson, Martin Hinshelwood for Steve Cotterill and Steve Coppell for Tony Pulis and things are really not much different.
The big difference between the clubs is where they play. Stoke’s Britannia Stadium is an impressive out-of-town facility which does the club proud and is just what Albion are trying to achieve with Falmer.
Whether Albion and Stoke will be visiting each other’s ground next year remains to be seen. Stoke’s 1-0 win at home to Walsall on Wednesday kicked off a run of three home games on the trot, culminating in Wednesday’s clash.
Rob Stanway, editor of the website stokecity-mad.co.uk, said: “Stoke are desperate to pick up at least seven points from these three home games and Brighton is the most vital as a mini-league seems to have evolved at the foot of the division.
“Brighton seem to have just hit form, and have surprised us all by moving up from 24th when everyone thought they were dead and buried. It will be a tight match.
“In my opinion Stoke do have the quality to stay in Division One but have been unlucky and have lacked not only a proven goalscorer but also a leader figure.
“Chris Greenacre was a good signing for us and he can put away goals, however it is taking him time to adjust to this division. Chris Iwelumo is great at winning headers and has recently looked very good at getting shots in and there is our latest signing Lee Mills from Coventry who although is strong and can score goals doesn’t always play as well as he can.
“But that’s been the case with all the players this season really. It doesn’t help when the squad is actually weaker than the one that won promotion in Cardiff last season.
“We lost the quality of Arnar Gunnlaugson, Tony Dinning and Deon Burton and our only signing was Chris Greenacre. Tony Pulis has been able to bring some good players in – keeper Steve Banks, striker Lee Mills and leftback Marcus Hall, who are all at Stoke until at least the end of the season.”
Things did look good for the Potters last summer when the the highly-rated Cotterill left Cheltenham to replace Thordarson as Stoke manager but he didn’t stay long before accepting an offer to work alongside Howard Wilkinson at Sunderland.
Stanway said: “The season so far hasn’t gone terribly well. Steve Cotterill’s shock departure left Stoke completely lost and a losing streak left us in a bad position.
“Unfortunately it has taken Tony Pulis time to start getting points in the bag and it doesn’t help when players come out not ‘up for’ the game. Stoke have fell and fell until hitting rock bottom not so long ago, a position we hope never to return to.
“Lack of investment by the board is certainly showing but it’s not easy when the club faces administration anyway – something which our chairman strongly denies but Stoke Holding (the owners) did attempt to take over our neighbours Port Vale recently and ground share at the Britannia, no doubt eventually leading to a merger – a move which thank god, didn’t go through.”
Wednesday’s win against Walsall has given Stoke hope and Stanway says it is not all doom and gloom.
“Everyone is hoping that Stoke can pull off survival and to be honest, I don’t think it is beyond them, or Tony Pulis,” said Stanway.
“I was walking away from the ground after our match against Walsall and I looked up at the stadium and thought, this club is way too big to go down. A great stadium, a great supporter base and hopefully we will be among the Division One fixtures next season. It all depends on this game.”
