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Xherdan Shaqiri on fire, Stoke City’s exciting new chapter and a Zoom call from Ed Sheeran
Stoke City Women have a new permanent home following a £250,000 investment from the club to improve facilities at Stone Dominoes’ HQ.
Stoke have been winning regularly and scoring a lot in National League North – the third tier of the women’s pyramid – this season but got a taste of the progress they still need to make when they were beaten by title favourites Nottingham Forest last weekend.
The team went semi-pro for the first time last year and the ambitions is to ultimately follow Forest’s footsteps and go full-time, with an aim of reaching the Championship and eventually Women’s Super League. They have played most home matches at Norton United or Clayton Wood in recent years but will now be based permanently at Wellbeing Park following formal FA approval – with selected matches at the bet365 Stadium.
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Stoke’s investment has built new changing facilities and upgraded the site’s utilities infrastructure while the pitch has been standardised to match the dimensions of the bet365. The first fixture at the new base went well, a 5-0 win over Hednesford Town earlier this month.
Sporting director Jon Walters, who watched that game from the sidelines, said: “This is an exciting new chapter for the team as we move to a new home with the right facilities in place, as we continue the growth journey of our women’s team. We are grateful to the owner of the site, Bob Bowers, for his support with the project which we believe, in the longer-term, can also become a development hub for the next generation of young girls in Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding areas.”
Stoke are next in action on Sunday (1pm), taking on Loughborough Lightning in the FA Women’s Cup at home. Admission is free for Stoke season ticket holders while adult tickets are available for £3 and concessions £1, cash only.
Xherdan Shaqiri catching fire in Switzerland
Xherdan Shaqiri is loving life back at hometown club Basel, spearheading their bid to become Switzerland champions for the first time since 2017.
He scored a hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Servette last time out – including a direct free-kick – and has now contributed to 11 goals in the last five games; five goals himself and setting up another six.
Sport report: “ShaqAttack is currently proving to all critics that he is an exceptional Swiss footballer. He dominates the Super League and is a key figure in ensuring that Basel can finally seriously dream of winning the Swiss championship again.
“He is currently well on his way to surpassing a record set by Servette playmaker Miroslav Stevanovic. In the 2021/22 season, the Bosnian set a new assist record. At the time, the Servette star managed a sensational 20 assists in 34 games. A mark that is anything but utopian for Shaqiri in his current form. After all, he already has seven assists and extrapolated over 38 match days, the veteran would have 21 or 22 assists.”
Shaqiri has been on a journey since leaving Stoke in 2018, playing a part in Liverpool winning the Champions League and Premier League before heading to Chicago Fire via Lyon, then heading back to Switzerland in August.
He said: “I really wanted to come home. When you're at home you can surpass yourself. That's the case for me at the moment and I'm just having a lot of fun playing football again.”
Susie Dent gets a lesson on the Stoke badge
There has been talk lately about the Stoke City badge and potential changes, which are set to be discussed and debated with supporters next year.
And the beloved and intricate old crest, which incorporated the City of Stoke-on-Trent coat of arms, got a mention on Radio 4 this week as Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt, with guest Susie Dent borrowed from Countdown’s Dictionary Corner, trying to find a link between Ipswich Town and the dromedary camel on their new show Route Masters.
We can’t quibble at Stoke being talked about any which way on national radio or TV during these years outside the Premier League spotlight and it was great research from Dennis to bring it up in the first place – but, Hugh, it’s six towns not five, it’s definitely a Dromedary camel (which has one hump) and not Bactrian (which has two), and anyone who has the cheek to say it was badly drawn hasn’t tried to draw it on a school exercise book.
He told Dent and Punt: “I decided to look up if there were any football clubs with camels in their badges – and actually there is one; Stoke City. In an old badge for Stoke City, in one of the four quarters there is a camel. This apparently is there to celebrate Hanley which is one of the five [sic] towns. It was put there to signify pottery’s origins – because Hanley is clearly in the Potteries – in Egypt.
“So, yes, I found out that Stoke City and the town of Stoke presumably had a camel on the badge but to be honest it’s a very badly drawn camel and it’s not clear whether it’s got one hump or two humps, so I went down a new route instead.”
Anyway, before Dennis is ostracised too severely – and we did honestly enjoy listening – Dent chipped in with a pottery snippet.
She said: “Can I give you a nerdy bit about pottery? It’s one of my favourite etymologies, which is to do with ostracising someone. To ostracise someone in Ancient Greek was to banish them for many, many years and they would vote someone out by writing on an ostracon, which was a little shard of pottery, and then put it in an urn. The one that had the most ostracons, little pottery shards, would be gone. That’s how you got ostracised.”
Change the channel
It is fair to say that Stoke and Preston fans weren’t particularly thrilled by the 0-0 on Tuesday night but this made us laugh.
Ed Sheeran helps to swing Delap deal
Liam Delap was apparently being watched by Juventus scouts when Ipswich Town took on Man Utd and his star is rising in the Premier League.
He was a wanted man in the summer as he looked for a permanent exit from Man City’s youth system for this next big chapter in his career following loans at Stoke, Preston and Hull, and there were lucrative offers on the table from Southampton too.
But it is believed that Ipswich fan and sponsor Ed Sheeran helped swing the deal with a Zoom call before heading out to perform with Taylor Swift.
Ipswich chief executive Mark Ashton told Soccerex in Miami: “Ed's a local man, a global superstar, sponsor of the football club and a shareholder and now officially a part of our recruitment team!
“In the summer we were trying to persuade one particular player to join the football club and realised very quickly that he was an Ed Sheeran fan. Ed jumped on a zoom call with him at the training ground just before he stepped on stage with Taylor Swift and hopefully that was a key part in getting the player over the line.”
Ashton refused to name the player but did add: “He's certainly scoring a few goals.”
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Anniversaries this week
November 28 - birthdays: Peter Beagrie (59), Marlon Broomes (47), Chic Bates (75)
November 29, 1997 - 2-1 loss to Reading: Danny Tiatto (first league appearance), Jose Andrade (final league appearance)
November 29, 2003 - 3-1 loss to Gillingham: Richard Johnson (first league appearance), Chris Iwelumo (final league appearance)
November 30, 1994 - 1-0 win over Portsmouth: Larus Sigurdsson (first league appearance)
November 30, 2002 - 1-1 draw with Gillingham: Mark Crossley (first league appearance)
December 1 - birthday: Peter Dobing (86)
December 1, 1979 - 3-1 loss to Southampton: Lee Chapman, Geoff Scott (first league appearances)
December 2 - birthdays: Graham Kavanagh (51), Kostas Stafylidis (31)
