To be fair mate on the above point,

1996 - 75,994 Capacity 78,022
1997 - 78,022 Capacity 78,022 - sold out two weeks before the game.
2003 - 71,212 Capacity 73,000.

That said nearly 77,000 yesterday wasn't a bad effort.

Look I realise you love Stoke but don't deride HTFC.

Thrice champions. Stoke will never do that. Never. THAT is non-plausable. They'll be doing cartwheels in the street if they just stay up. Best home attendance of 67k+. Will Stoke be getting anywhere near that in the near future? I would wager not. Will Stoke be winning any trophies this season? Naaa.

Stoke are just passengers, also rans in a league of 4 teams. In 3 years they could be where Norwich, Charlton or Leeds Utd are. Or maybe even down with Bradford in the bottom tier. So enjoy it while it lasts. It wont last forever, I'd stake my last quid on it.

Nice squad value there. You'd have to be a Stoke fan to believe that!

Now, now fellas lets leave the football talk/comparisons off this forum, I'm sure there are plenty of soccer forums for this to be debated.

Giants please

Have to disagree somewhat

I'm not deriding Huddersfield Town but they are at their natural level now. history suggests that.

as for the rest of your post well, we did cartwheels when we stayed up last year, thats true. but we have the infastructure in place to now kick on and become a truly established top flight team. we do not pay stupid money on wages, we have a home support like no other in England. thats a fact.

as for going back to the dim and distant well if that gives you comfort then so be it. the 3 times in a row was a phenomenal achievement and the whole town should be proud of that.(the current interest in the team suggests otherwise) as for the attendence, lets look at season averages for HTFC through the years and not at one large cup tie v nal, most teams can point to one game when everyone turned up. I do believe they had 50,000 at Vale Park once.

the way the game is heading it is vital that any club in the lower leagues with visions of becoming a premier league club does so now as the difference between the leagues is now a chasm. Hudds Town need to act NOW !

when Stoke missed out on promotion in 1996/7 to Leicester it cost us 3 million pounds. now the cost of missing out is at least 50 million including parachute payments. thats the cost of the far east tv deal signed a few years ago.

in 3 years we have become a club bought for 7 million into one worth around 100 million, as we have no debt and lots of tangible assets. all brought about by SKY. now if all that money finishes lots of teams would be in lumber as they pay stupid wages out every week. well we dont do that. remember benite carbone at bradford !!

5 years ago i would almost agree that Hudds and Stoke were almost on a level playing field. Now however its a different statosphere........

This thread started badly and then deteriorated. Time to lock it and get on with supporting the Giants.

The last thing we want to do is alienate another Giants fan even if he does support Stoke