The last time West Ham met Stoke City in the league was on the 5th March 2011, was a 3-0 victory at home.
That day we lined up with Green, Tomkins, Upson, Da Costa, Bridge, Noble, Parker, Hitzelsperger, Piquionne, Ba and Cole.
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Facing us was a Stoke side that lined up with Begovic, Wilson, Huth, Shawcross, Pugh, Pennant, Delap, Whitehead, Whelen, Walters and Carew.
In our relegation battle of a season, this game was some light rest to the poor campaign as we celebrated back-to-back wins for the first time in over a year. That season we played Stoke 4 times, in each cup competition and the league twice. In those competitions we were beaten by Stoke in the F.A Cup quarter final, just a week after this fixture. Also in the League Cup, that season we made it to the League Cup Semi Finals, beating Stoke on the way.
We outplayed Stoke that day, not giving them a way into the game at all, if I remember correctly, we didn’t even let Rory Delap take throw ins for Stoke as we put advertising hoardings along the side lines to stop this skill. On paper, you could look at the side the we put out that day and it does seem bizarre that we finished last that season, but then again we had a manager who was tactically inept and the large bulk of the squad were not cut out for the job to keep us up.
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On that day, the player that every West Ham fan would love to have back at the club, Demba Ba opened the scoring followed by the highly enigmatic Manu Da Costa providing a bullet header to give us a 2-0 lead after just 30 minutes. Then, later in the second half the German general, Hitzelsperger pumped the ball in with his hammer like strike to seal the victory in the 83rd minute. The game ended with West Ham’s last win in the season and the season ended in despair.
The best outcome to sit here today is the West Ham that played that day is long gone, and with Allardyce in control of this West Ham side, I don’t feel that the way that we entered our last spiral of decline, we will do so again.
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