1976 MZ ISDT replica

saturday see's the ram's playing host's to premiership opposition stoke city at pride park, stoke are currently eighth in the prem. while we are enjoying mid-table obscurity in eleventh in a league below them in the championship, a good chance then to see how we fair against a big, strong premiership team, in all honesty, we were well out of our depth and only had three shot's on goal all of the match, stoke are a big physical side and muscled derby out of the game, we certainly could have done without the histrionic's of the premiership player's going to ground at the slightest of touches and getting free kick's, appealing to the referee for our player's to be booked and the aforementioned mr clattenburg awarding the blatant offside goal by jerome, what really galled me was his little chat's, smiles, wink's and even pat's on the bottom with the stoke player's, we faced an uphill battle as it was without capitulation from the match officials, especially the two good penalty shout's for a 'last man' foul, [not even a booking, nevermind a sending off] and a more blatant handball in the area than i have ever seen, good game though and it show's just how far we have to go to stand a chance in the prem, stoke bought a really good following, over five thousand, bit dissapointed with the attendance overall though, especially as it was a cup match against a premiership side, 22,000, [still more than stoke get at home though], we had to sit in the west stand lower teir as our upper section was closed, presumably because of poor ticket sales, what was interesting was the amount of old school hooligan element in attendance, i clocked many 'old faces' from the old baseball ground 'c' stand crew, we were two row's down from the hospitality suites and i must admit, i did laugh when some suited and booted stoke city businessmen who were getting a bit loud through 'dutch-courage' got a straightner from one of the derby boy's, he stood up straight in front of them and gave it 'em double-barrelled stylee, 'fucking shut it you chip eating cunt's' they chose to watch the second half from behind the safety of the sliding glass door's in their box, fair play to stoke though, i hope they go on to do well in the cup and i thought their song was brilliant concerning their european tour in the europa league, 'we're going to valencia, you're going to peterborough...........' football humour at it's very best..............