Today was the day that we were going to get told about our future at the Club. We got in early at 9:00am only to be told that we weren’t getting the news until after dinner so it was an anxious few hours waiting around. Finally the time had come to found out the verdict and what our future was to be at Stoke City.

Match: Stoke City Reserves vs Wolverhampton Wanderers Reserves

I found myself with a start in this Reserve game against Wolves. We were again fielding a young side. Wolves had a fairly well experienced team on show and it was evident with their early dominance and possession but it was us had the first and best chance of the first half.

Match: Stoke City vs R.A.F

Again I started on the bench in what was a very young team consisting of mainly schoolboys who have been offered an apprenticeship for the upcoming season.

Match: Stoke City Reserves vs Port Vale Reserves

We were in on Wednesday for a short session because on Thursday we had a Reserve game against Port Vale and a lot of the Youth team would be involved in the match either in starting or on the bench.

Match: Stoke City vs Huddersfield Town

Match day and I had made the bench and was told that I was coming on for around half an hour. Half time came and the game was 0-0.

Back in full-time training with the lads ahead of yet another game tomorrow against Huddersfield at home and I was hoping that I would get into the squad and make an appearance in the match.

Match: Barnsley vs Stoke City

I travelled away with the lads up to Barnsley although not playing because Banko wants me to do the warm-up before the match and also to do some running after the match to help to get my fitness levels up.

Preparation day for the match tomorrow against Barnsley so it wasn’t a hard session and we finished after dinner. Me and Banko went up to the Dome and played some head tennis to keep ourselves occupied for the afternoon.

Match: Stoke City vs Middlesbrough

Today the lads had a game against Middlesbrough. I did some running at a better pace beforehand as my ankle has felt better and stronger every day.

Monday it was more running and more ball work to see how much further my ankle could take me. We did some longer passing but still not striking the ball full-on as I didn’t feel comfortable about it.

On Wednesday we started mobilising my ankle through massage and working it round the full range of movement providing there was no pain apparent. I also started walking and jogging today just to get the movement back in the ankle.

After the weekend and the injection on Friday, my ankle started to feel less sore but I was told to carry on resting up doing absolutely nothing up until the Wednesday when we would start to get some mobilisation in the ankle and start back running.

After consulting the both the physio’s at the club and the club doctor I decided to have a cortisone injection into my ankle where I was still experiencing pain. Surprisingly the injection didn’t hurt too much

Match: Manchester United vs Stoke City

Probably the most glamorous fixture in our season, United away and this would be a good time to put in a good performance. The conditions at Carrington were awful and it was the windiest game that I’ve been involved in.

Match: Stoke City vs West Bromwich Albion

We were hoping to get our own back over a team we thought we could have beat the last time round but didn’t. We had also played our worst game to date at their place.

Match: Liverpool vs Stoke City

We started very well and dominated the opening periods of the game. We managed to carve open a couple of good chances but couldn’t convert either of them until we were awarded a free kick to the right of the penalty area out wide.

Again we were up at the Dome this morning to make our final preparations in time for the game tomorrow night. We went through all of our set plays and Ady gave us more information in detail about their players and how he wanted us to approach the game.

Up the Dome again due to the very wet weather, we started to prepare for the game on Thursday by doing some work on our shape and Ady going through what tactics they would play on the night.

After the postponed game on Saturday all of our attention was now set on Thursday’s Youth Cup game away to Southend United. So today we set about training with a good tempo, but were all shocked that Ady had set out running drills for both the morning and the afternoon.

Usually I would be writing that we’d done ‘just the usual… shape and set plays’ but after a pitch inspection today and thanks to the constant rain over the past few days tomorrow’s scheduled home game against Crewe Alexandra has been postponed due to a waterlogged pitch!

College, and a welcome rest after yesterdays running giving all the boys the chance to get rid of some of the lactic acid in our muscles after all that running!

A rather hard day today in comparison to the last two, not only did we have a double session but we also had some running drills set out in the morning. Not many complaints about the running with this being the first running drill since the start back of training.

An easy day today with having College in the afternoon. But like yesterday Me, Jimmy and Tucker were across with the first team training until it was time for us to go back to get showered and fed before going to College.

Had a double session today, involving possession and a couple of small sided games. Myself, Jimmy and Tucker went across with the first team in the morning to train with them and then it was back with the lads for the afternoon.

Match: Blackburn Rovers vs Stoke City

A rather early start with being away at Blackburn which is always good on a Saturday morning! My prediction was also proved correct it was an extremely tough game and once it had settled down after a hectic opening ten minutes we managed to take the lead!