Latest Apprentices

It was an early Monday morning start today with training at 9.00. We started off with a little keep ball in a tight square, the standard wasn’t bad since the pitch that we were playing on reminded me more of a place where cows would graze rather than a place where you would find the beautiful game! This was due to our usual training pitch being water logged. ..

Training started at 9am on Monday morning and we went straight in to a tight square keeping the ball one and two touch with two men in the middle trying to intercept the ball. We then went into a short passing session, moving the ball quickly to one another, and this developed into the next session where we finished with a shot on goal from one-touch build up play…

My first 3 weeks here have been great, I’ve found the people in Umea very friendly and my team mates have been really welcoming. I feel quite at home here already and everyone speaks good English so it’s easy to communicate as I haven’t learnt any Swedish yet!..

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.

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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. ..