The Week That Was - Essential Stoke City Build-Up & More!

Howdy everyone, welcome to The Week That Was - the perfect way to while away a few hours on the morning of a match, taking in all our build-up to the game, plus some favourites from elsewhere.

Stoke City's gonna be a long slog, no doubt about that, so get fully mentally prepared with these little nuggets we've delighted you with over the last week, in build-up to the game...

• Cult Heroes: Join David Boyle for a trip down memory lane where he profiles a player, or indeed 'cult hero' who played for both us and the opposition. Plenty of choice when it comes to Stoke City, and he picked a damn fine one in Tommy Sorensen. To have a read of this, head HERE.
• Fan Focus: Where we chat to a fan of the opposition and get their opinions on the game ahead. This week, we had the pleasure in bringing back a previous Fan Focus subject, Mark Holmes who writes for TeamTalk.com about his beloved Stoke City. To find out what he had to say, CLICK HERE.
• Preview: Yes indeedy, we also had our own preview with up to date team news from both sides. In there you'll also find predictions, betting, music, and much more! To have a read just CLICK HERE.
• Podcast: We also have a podcast you know! This week were were joined by Gary Al Smith, the man who broke the Gyan story, and he proved to be a fantastic guest. We also reviewed Chelsea, previewed Stoke City and much more. To download, or subscribe, CLICK HERE.

There's also been some tremendous other articles in what has been a very busy week, so to keep you all up to speed and dish out our best of the rest blogs, please continue reading...

Crash, bang, wallop what a week. Starting off on Monday with our pair of regular features Talking Tactics and Roker Rhymes. To Talking Tactics first though, where Chris Weatherspoon looked at all manner of stats, graphs, and wotnot to give you some comprehensive breakdown of what happened against Chelsea.

Click Here to read Talking Tactics (Chelsea)

As said, on a Monday we also have Roker Rhymes. Here Dan Williams whips us round the weeks news and events in the form of poetry. It's pretty damn good, so give it a read...

Click Here to read Roker Rhymes!

Delaying the inevitable Asamoah Gyan chat, we decided to look at something which is a rarity this season - goals. Goals at the Stadium Of Light in particular. In this week's Top Ten feature, David Boyle pinpointed his favorites, and handily provided videos for them all. Come take a look...

Click Here to read the Top Ten Goals at the SoL (with Video)

We also started a new feature, where we're gonna talk about wider issues in football. The Roker Ramble will be one of us, anyone really, who wants to talk about something away from SAFC. This week, Simon Walsh highlighted the potential introduction of The Rooney Rule in English football. Is it needed? Well, have a read and make your own mind up...

Click Here to read about The Rooney Rule

And then it had to arrive. Asamoah Gyan. Discussed at length by Michael Graham, and perhaps looking if the inability to hold on to him is a problem with the club rather than the players themselves. Steve Bruce has asked us to make our own minds up after all, so Mike did just that...

Click Here to read Captains Blog!

On a week like this one however, you can't help but know Man On The Street would be chiming in with an opinion. Hopefully he hasn't read this far down the screen, but I actually thoguht hit was pretty good this week. Very funny. Make your own minds up here...

Click Here to read Man On The Street!

Enough negativity! Time to do something nice! And so we did in the crowning of our first ever Player Of The Month. Based on our own ratings dished out, and averaged over games played, Wes Brown emerged as the victor. Well played Mr Brown, well played. To see how Brown faired, and the rest of the squad read the article...

Click Here to read Player Of The Month.

On the BBC's Total Sport programme, Steve Bruce claimed the fans are being hysterical. "Mass Hysteria" I believe was the term used on several occasions. Are we being hysterical, or is our annoyance justified? Either way, it provoked reaction from Michael Graham as you'd expect, so read his, and our, reaction here...

Click Here to read about Bruce's "Mass Hysteria" comments.

Lastly, we are indeed columnists for The Durham Times too. This week our boy Dan Williams took to the keyboard to bash out some words, and they came out looking pretty damn good in what was a very well received article. We're in it every Friday, so make sure you get a copy form your local shop next week. Until then, have a read of the latest...

Click Here to read our latest Durham Times column.

And so we take you to the rest of the blogs, as aside from writing this one, we do enjoy reading others, and here's some of our favourite bits and bobs from around the interwebs this week...

I love/hate the quizzes on Three Match Ban. An excellent site, and very enjoyable quizzes which break up the even better articles, but this one is one of the best. Can you name all these Champions League teams from there classic football shirt? If you can, you're better than me, and you might win a £100 voucher to spend on classic tops.

Take Three Match Ban's Shirts Quiz!

Over on Surreal Football, Matthew Britton make the compelling argument that nobody gives two sh*ts about your Football Manager stories. I'm not sure which side of the fence I lie on with this one, but it's another damn fine read from Surreal Football again...

Click Here to read "Your Football Manager Stories Mean Nothing"

And lastly for more on the Asamoah Gyan situation, we head to Magic Spongers, who've take a wry look at what REALLY went on. It's a corking article, so make sure you read it right now!

Read what REALLY happened between Gyan & Bruce

And that's it. Now off you pop to watch us beat Stoke, fingers crossed anyway.