For years Stoke City Football Club ambled about the wilderness of the lower leagues, failing to fulfil its undoubted potential, losing a generation of supporters to apathy and mediocrity. But in May 2008, after an astonishing rejuvenation over an 18-month period, the Potters won promotion to the Premier League for the very first time. Even more amazingly, City's first top-flight season for nearly a quarter of a century saw them escape the threat of relegation and win admirers for their tenacity, fortitude and spirit. In Delilah Roars Again!, Simon Lowe chronicles the remarkable rebirth of the club in the hands of manager Tony Pulis and Chairman Peter Coates. From the dreadful 'holocaust' season of 1984-85, in which Bill Asprey's side set a new low points record for a top-flight team, through to the highs of the Lou Macari years, with players such as Mark Stein and Vince Overson, and two victories under the Twin Towers of Wembley, to the lows of the Chris Kamara and Steve Cotterill reigns, peppered with record home defeats and embarrassing defections, the story is told warts and all. A new era seemed to have dawned when the club was sold to a group of Icelandic businessmen in 1999. Promotion from the Second Division was won at the Millennium Stadium in 2002. But it was not until ownership returned to English hands in 2006 that the renaissance arrived which took the Potters back into the top flight. Backed by an incredible band of supporters - officially the loudest in the country - the club has risen, phoenix-like, to take on the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester United in the bear pit of the Britannia Stadium and win. Including comprehensive statistics of every first team game in the last 25 years, this book provides a full record of Stoke City in the modern era.
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