Stoke City : West Ham United

Our journey took us by train from Birmingham to Stoke-on-Trent, which is not only the birthplace of Robbie Williams, but also the hometown of Stoke City, where such world-famous players as Sir Stanley Matthews, Geoff Hurst and Peter Shilton have played. Furthermore, Stoke City is known as the "loudest fan stand in England".

Stoke City's opponents were West Ham United. That was probably the reason why the police presence at the station was bigger than we had seen in England so far. We also seemed to attract attention and were immediately questioned by the police. After we managed to escape the "interrogation" (*g*), we headed towards the city centre where a shuttle bus was supposed to take us to the stadium. On the way there we passed "Harry's Pub", where there was a big poster saying "Pint: 1,50 - match days only". But you really couldn't miss it...

After a few pints we took the shuttle bus to the Britannia Stadium. The stadium is a bit outside of Stoke - but it's a really great stadium. The burgers there taste like shit, but the cider is definitely recommendable. And since the stadium is decorated in red and white throughout, you feel right at home as an Austrian anyway.

The volume in the stadium is really insane. Although I'm sure this is less due to the decibel capability of the spectators than to the good acoustics of the stadium. In any case, the "Delilah" choruses of the "Potters" were really deafening - and are also sung along by young and old. But West Ham also gave it a good go - actually even more than during our visit to Upton Park.

The game went - from my point of view - unfortunately to Stoke City. Which was mainly because West Ham were not given a clear penalty after an assault by Huth . With a penalty and red, things could have ended very differently. So Stoke celebrated a 2-1 triumph and plunged West Ham even further down the table.

As we still had to wait for our - now ritual - self-timer photo after the game, we missed all the return shuttle buses. Therefore, we started a walk, which ultimately ended in standing in the middle of nowhere and finally taking a taxi to the station ;-)