Stoke City fan zone: Suspension of ID cards gives fans a fresh start

IN a week of change, surprise, shock and disappointment, the biggest plus point has been the club's decision to lift, for a trial period, the infamous Away Identity cards which have so split supporters over the last five years.

Since their introduction for a trip to Grimsby in February 2003, supporter behaviour at opposition grounds has undoubtedly been the best in my lifetime.

We all know that we do have a significant number of 'idiots' in our midst, but the cards, no matter what your view of how long they were in place, certainly had the dual effect of calming down the rowdier element of our fans and also, mostly, reducing the negative attitude of police up and down the country.

At the time the ID cards were introduced, Stoke fans were regularly mentioned alongside those of Millwall, Cardiff and Leeds as the most unpleasant in the country. Now, we simply do not feature in those end-of-season polls detailing arrests among supporters.

Yes, they were a bitter pill to swallow and yes, I hated having to carry my card around Big Brother fashion, worrying that I might forget it or lose it. But they have had the desired effect.

The experiment to suspend ID cards gives us a wonderful opportunity to put all of that behind us. Let's hope common sense reigns and the subject never darkens our door again.

On paper, yesterday's result looks like another bad away day. But there were enough positives for TP and his men to take out of the game.

Despite still being the Bookies' favourites to go down at an unbelievable 1/5 on – bear in mind Hull are still only 11/2 to start next season at Doncaster in the Championship despite being equal second in the Premier League – Stoke will almost certainly drag themselves out of the relegation zone if they pull off a victory against Sunderland next time out.

Without question it's games against teams such as the Black Cats at the Brit which will decide Stoke's fate, not matches at the homes of clubs who can boast approximately £100m of talent in their midst, including a £32m match-winner.

A huge plus point was the fantastic performance of Ricardo Fuller, who followed up his entertaining cameo against Spurs with a man-of-the-match run-out. It was he who brought out the first of two world class saves from Blues keeper Joe Hart, who dived low to his left to fingertip the ball around the post.

We've known this for a long time, but now it's been officially confirmed by Sky's noise boffins in a welter of statistics that Stoke fans are the loudest crowd in the Premier League, reaching average of 101.8 decibels over 90 minutes – that's as loud as an airliner taking off.

Heaven only knows what the stats are on the twin peaks of a rowdy chorus of 'Delilah' and a goal hitting the back of the Boothen End net.

Don't expect much opposition from the away end of the Brit this week as Wednesday night's visitors Sunderland, despite having something of a raucous reputation, actually finished bottom of the survey with 84.05dB, while Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger recently had a pop at his fans, who have failed to lift the team as much as he would like since the move to their swanky new Emirates Stadium.

Let's hope neither have anything at all to shout about in the next seven days and it's us raising the roof to acclaim another home victory.