Stoke City v Birmingham: A look back to when Blues won 7-0 at Stoke City

Buoyed by a vital victory last time out, this weekend Birmingham City head to Stoke City – scene of one of Blues’ best ever victories nearly a quarter of a century ago.

Fresh from a crucial 3-0 home win over Luton Town, which ended a four-match run without a Championship victory and gave Lee Bowyer’s side greater breathing space over the sides battling to avoid relegation, Blues now turn their attentions to facing a Stoke side looking to reignite their play-off aspirations.

Matches against the Potters have often been fiery encounters which yield mixed emotions for Blues fans, but one fixture that lives long in the memory bank is the crushing 7-0 victory at the Britannia Stadium in January 1998.

BirminghamWorld takes a look back at the match, which remains Blues’ joint record away league victory and one of the finest moments during Blues legend Trevor Francis’ spell as manager.

There is a certain irony in the fact that Blues’ sensational second tier win – which was Stoke’s tenth game without a victory – ended with the home fans invading the pitch and staging a protest against the club’s owners.

Of course, Blues supporters know that feeling only too well, with protests currently taking place against owners Birmingham Sports Holdings Limited, most recently on Saturday when the throwing of tennis balls on to the pitch caused the match to be temporarily halted in the first half.

Anyway, back to 1998 and a Blues demolition job. The visitors surged into a 2-0 lead inside nine minutes thanks to two goals from skilful midfielder Bryan Hughes – the second of which was a brilliant curling strike from 20 yards.

Striker Nicky Forster made it 3-0 eight minutes before the break and shortly into the second half it was 4-0 when forward Paul Furlong netted.

Winger Jon McCarthy extended the advantage just before the hour mark – which sparked some Stoke fans to invade the pitch - and two more goals from Furlong including a sublime chip over Potters keeper Carl Muggleton completed his hat-trick and the scoring.

As the final whistle approached, Blues fans taunted the Stoke faithful by chanting the home side’s famous anthem ‘Delilah’.

This was Birmingham City’s biggest away win in 104 years.

Stoke finished the season second-bottom and were relegated to the third tier alongside, incredible as it now seems, Manchester City.

Highly unfortunately for Blues, they finished seventh in what was then known as the First Division - one place outside the play-off places on goals scored only as Sheffield United edged them out.

The Blues line-up versus Stoke was: Ian Bennett, Jon Bass, Simon Charlton, Steve Bruce (Michael Johnson 51), Gary Ablett, Chris Marsden, Jon McCarthy, Martin O’Connor, Paul Furlong, Bryan Hughes, Nicky Forster (Peter Ndlovu 80). Sub not used: Kevin Francis.

Message from the editor:

Thank you for reading. BirminghamWorld is Birmingham’s latest news website, championing everything that is great about our city - reporting on news, lifestyle and sport. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going.