THE BOOTHEN END
"..In that corragated shed of a fortress.. where the crowd
became part of the team.."
(taken from the Poem "THE BOOTHEN END" by J Bennett)
"WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE!!!"
"..One of my regrets about the
past was that at the end of the
day I was a Butler Street boy,
that was where my season
ticket was and it was the Butler
Street stand where I would sit
for every Stoke league game. I
enjoyed it in the Butler Street
Stand , don't get me wrong,
but looking back I now wish
that I had actually spent more time on the Boothen End before it was sent crashing
to the ground. I did spend quite a bit of time on the Boothen End though, and
usually found my self there in cup games and it was always an amazing
experience..."
"..In our final ever league match against West Bromich Albion I did almost decide
to stand on the Boothen End for the final game, but in the end I opted for my seat
in the Butler Street, after all it was the Butler Street Stand where I started out and it
was the place where I wanted it to end.. On a simaler note my father chose to go
on the Boothen End for the last game as it was the first place he also ever watched
Stoke from.. fitting, I think..."
"..For any die hard Boothen Enders out there I do actually have one over you..
Whilst you all stood, sang, chanted and danced on your favorite plot of Boothen
Terracing I had the honour from my seat in the Buter Street Stand to watch you all
from a distance, I probably had the chance to see something that you all rarely saw
on each and every match day, I watched you all tightly crammed together in the
Boothen End, week in, week out all moving, bouncing, singing and swaying,
probably the best way I can describe it was that it was fucking amazing to watch,
pure and simple.. Then when a goal was scored for Stoke any Boothen Ender
would know that you always got carried by the crowd in the celebration and more
often than not when the celebration had died down it could be possible to find
yourselves a good fifteen yards from where you were origianly standing before the
goal went in. This was the beauty of terracing and since all seater stadiums have
come in it's something that I miss seeing and being a part of greatly, True, when it
happenedyou usually got completly battered and bruised in the extatic frachase of
celebration, but it was always worth it and watching you all from my seat you
always used to resemble a million tiny beans in a sauce pan that had just hit boiling
point of the hob, ready to spill out of the pan and on to the pitch.. Opposing
players never looked like they enjoyed taking corners in front of the Boothen End
due to the sheer noise that was coming out from it, The Boothen was like an
intimidating red and white monster to the opposition, or Stoke City's 12th man on
the pitch as it was often described, when the Boothen was in full voice it was as
good as a goal's start for the team.. I can always remember reading a comment by
Ex Tranmere Striker Chris Malkin in a football magazine that actually popped up in
the Oatcake Fanzine as well, "Stoke City fans are absolutely crazy", he said of the
Boothen End.. his comment can perhaps be seen on as quite disturbing in one
sense, but in an other it perfectly summed up the passion that used to emit from
our huge shed of a fortress, yep.. you lot were all mad!..."
".. The Boothen End, was it seems many fan's focal point at the Victoria Ground,
the special place where the noise came from as loud as thunder, and its the place
where whilst football would create memories for footballers on the pitch, in turn the
Boothen End's passion would create memories for the footballers, I lose count on
how many of our former players have commented on when the Boothen End used
to crank up the volume to full tilt.. No once could or ever managed to drowned us
out, it was electric and the Boom of the Boothen often used to stun opposing fans
and players in to bewilderment as th noise often hit the back of the Stoke End roof
at the opposite end of the pitch and echo back, creating an almost sureal whirl pool
of atmosphere around the Victoria Ground.."
"THE BOOTHEN ENDS VIDEO (90 MINS APPROX)"
".. Thankfully the club have noticed how important the Boothen End was for the
fans and the production on the Video, "The Boothen Ends" has to be a must
purchase for all Stoke City fans.I must admit, most videos produced by Stoke are
never that glossy in appearance but this video has to be a must own for all Stoke
fans, 90 minutes long approx it captures all the emotion, celebration, tears and joy
of that final day at the Vic against West Bromich Albion, as well as a bit of a
history lesson about how the Victoria Ground and Boothen End have matured and
grown to be what it eventually became before its death on that memorable sunny
afternoon in May 1997. Even today watching this footage is enough to make you
cry a tear as the events of that day come flooding back.."
"GOALS, MEMORIES AND MOMENTS!!!"
STOKE CITY VS WOLVES
3/4/96 (DIV1)
(2-0 Sheron, Sturridge)
A blast from the past as Simon
Sturridge belts our second Goal
against Wolverhapton Wanders in
our play off season infront of the
Boothen End. The Butler Street
Stand can be seen in the background,
seconds before it erupted in wild
celebrations...
The Boothen End explodes at the site of
Simon Sturridge's shot nestling in the back
of the net... This 2-0 victory in an Evening
Mid week Derby against Wolvererhamton
Wanders went on to push Stoke one step
nearer the Premiership as they began to
cement their place in the end of season
playoffs.
This was from the time when the Sheron
Sturridge (SAS) partnership was in its
prime and looked likely to rip open any
defence that was put before it, this was the
third game that Mike Sheron scored in as he went on to break the previous long standing
record of scoring in seven consecutive games
STOKE CITY 2 SHEFFIELD
UTD 2 (DIV 1) 20/12/95
Its Christmas time and Nigel Gleghorn
celebrates in front of the Boothen End
after equilising Mark Patterson's debut
goal for the Blades early on. Stoke took
the lead in the second half with Mike
Sheron's 2nd ever Stoke goal, a diving
header at the far post. but late on ex
Leeds Winger David White powered in
a header past Mark Prudoe to get a
draw for the visitors.. a fair result over
all. Stoke had just propelled themselves
in to the play offs at this time, and
would remain chasing them for the rest of the season when they eventually finished 4th.
SOME OF THE ALL TIME GREATS IN FRONT OF THE BOOTHEN
END
The date is the 11th September 1995, and Sir
Stanley Matthews once again lines up infront of
the Boothen End with some of his old friends..
Pictured are Sir Stan, Wilf Mannion, Tom
Finney, Nat Lofthouse, Tommy Lawton and
George Hardwick.
The reason behind this gathering of old England
Stars was for the purpose of a BBC
Documentery series called "Kicking and
Screaming"
The reason that the BBc producers chose to
host this event at the Victoria Ground was
because it happened to be the longest serving
league ground in the county amd was though to
be suitably apt to play host to such great
legends from yesteryear.
Sadly from the picture Sir Stanley Matthews,
Wild Mannion and Tommy Lawton have all passed away in recent years, most notably the
deaths of Stan and Wilf Mannion earlier this year in 2000.
MOVIN' ON
UP????
Big Fat Jez is seen here along
with Peter Coates, Lou Macari,
Mike Sheron, Larus Siggurson
and some daft sod in a Postman
Pat costume... This was taken
in front of the Boothen End as
the hype surrounding the move
to the 15 million pound
Britannia Stadium began to hot
up.. At the time it was all
smiles for Jez as he strut his
stuff on the Victoria Ground turf, but did he have any idea what disaster was about to become
of Stoke City the following season???
IT SEEMED TO GO ON
FOREVER...
No.. not Andrew Griffin's runs down the left wing as
shown here against Wolverhampton Wanders in the
final ever season at the Vic.. Look at the Boothen
End behind him in the distance. When packed like it
was this night for a big derby game against the
Wolves it was an awesome site, a sea of red and
white, stretching up from pitch level and rising back
high into the sky. Some times you could never see
how far the crowd went back, it seemed as if it went
on forever , eventually disappearing into the dark
shadows of corrugated roofing. Stoke went on to win
this match by the way, a 25 yeard shot by Richard
Forsyth at the start of the second half in front of the Boothen End secured a 1 0 win for the
Potters.
THE BOOTHEN END AS SEEN FROM THE PLAYERS WIVES BOX..
This is a view looking down from
around the area of where the players
wife's and family used to sit.. God
only knows why the club decided to
put it in this place of all places and
often anything with breasts that sat in
this box was often greated with Wolf
whistles, drooling mouths and
obscene chants from any Stoke
supporters in the Boothen End below
who'd of had a bit to much to drink in
the pub.. Then when Paul Peschisolido
joined Stoke it not only ment goals for
Stoke on the pitch, but lustful glares
from any Boothen Enders who happened to have a crush on Pesch's missus, Karen Brady..
AND THE BALLS IN THE BACK
OF THE NET!!!!
..To quote BBC Radio Stoke presenter Nigel Johnson..
and in this case two Stoke City Goal Scoring legends are
also in the back of the net aswell.. Pictured are Mike
Sheron and Mark Stein, celebrating with Ray Wallace in
the Boothen End Goal after Sheron nets the winner in a
1-0 home win against Charlton Athletic in the 1996/1997
season at the Victoria Ground.
Mark Stein was on loan at Stoke at the time, returning
from Chelsea and for a couple of months over Christmas
and new year he ended up forming a deadly partnership
up front with fellow Goal hero Mike Sheron.
