No water, no pegs – Graham Kavanagh opens up on Stoke City’s move to Britannia Stadium 25 years on

The biggest surprise for Graham Kavanagh 25 years ago this weekend was probably that Stoke City were actually running out to play a game at their new home.

The £14.7m Britannia Stadium had been under construction by Mowlem for just under 12 months and Kavanagh, who had been the last Stoke player to score at the old Victoria Ground, would score the first goal there too. There have been more than 850 goals on that pitch since then but not many have been hit more sweetly than that one.

It was no shock that it would be Kavanagh in that team to take that honour – but actually being there was to anyone who had seen the work in progress.

‘IT’S LIKE A SPACE STATION’ Stoke City fan’s review of first night at Britannia Stadium v Rochdale

Kavanagh said: “I remember when I was at Middlesbrough and we moved to the Riverside in 1995. In the week prior to our first game we never thought it was going to be ready. On the Thursday before the match we had a walk around the pitch and there were workmen everywhere going at it 24/7.

“At the Brit in the week before it was in an even worse condition! It was nowhere near ready.

“To get it done on time enough so we could play was a shock but the pitch was lovely, the stadium was lovely.

“It was an unusual time. Everything was fresh and new and nobody knew what to expect.

“Basically it felt odd because it wasn’t the Vic and it did take time for everyone to acclimatise – and even if moving was the right thing to do, it was also a factor in the club’s demise because all the investment had to be channelled into that rather than the playing squad.”

Stoke had been playing at the Vic since March 1878 but the Taylor Report, written in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster, required all clubs in the top two divisions to play in all-seater arenas.

A renovation and upgrade was too difficult so, in January 1996, the club announced it was going to move a mile south to the site of the former Stafford Colliery, which had closed in the 1960s. A plaque was later installed at the ground commemorating North Staffordshire’s mining heritage.

Work began on September 2, 1996 and the ground could be seen taking shape through the gap between the Boothen End and Butler Street at the Vic, where Kavanagh scored with a brilliant chip against West Bromwich Albion on the final day of 1996/97 in May.

The pitch had been seeded in March and work on plumbing and electricity started in June while the 28,000 seats were being installed – and talismanic top scorer Mike Sheron was sold to Queens Park Rangers for £2.5m to help foot the bill.

Torrential rain pushed the completion date back and what should have been the first home game against Bradford on August 16 had to be switched to Valley Parade.

So the first game came against Rochdale in a League Cup first round second leg, with Stoke defending a 3-1 first leg lead. A safety certificate was issued at 2pm and a crowd of 12,768 were taking their seats by 7.45pm when the Tannoy announcer proudly strolled out onto the pitch to say: “Welcome to Rochdale County.”

There were no showers, toilets nor pegs in the changing rooms but at least the lights did not go off like had happened at Derby’s new Pride Park two weeks previously.

There was a clamour to enter the history books as the first scorer and Kavanagh got it after 85 minutes. He tested the strength of the new nets with a 20-yard right-foot rocket. Rochdale put a small dent in the celebrations when Alex Russell pounced a minute from the end to level the scores on the night.

“It was nice,” said Kavanagh this week.

“It was a decent goal, one of those that came out to me nicely and it shaped and moved the way you want into the corner.

“The previous season we’d played West Bromwich Albion in the last game and I’d been the last Stoke player to score at the Vic and then became the first to score at the Brit. I didn’t imagine I would have that kind of landmark on my CV and to be able to do it was very special.”

The official opening would come three days later with a league home game against Swindon in front of 23,000 fans.

New Prime Minister Tony Blair had to pull out of cutting the ribbon but there was an unveiling of club mascot Pottermus, and performances from champion ball juggler Rob Walters, a Tom Jones sing-a-like and a Brazilian-style Samba band while six sky divers who delivered the match ball to Sir Stanley Matthews.

Matthews, then 82, was asked to score in front of the North Stand but his shot didn’t quite cross the line and he politely declined a suggestion he should make a darting run to blast it home.

Richard Forsyth opened the scoring when the real thing kicked off but Wayne Allison and Chris Hay turned the game on its head to make it a 2-1 defeat and set the tone for a horrible season that would end in relegation, confirmed along with final day opponents Manchester City on a sunny, miserable day nine months later.

Kavanagh said: “The club most definitely needed the new ground but the Vic had been brilliant in terms of its intimacy and volatility. Opposition didn’t like to go there. The Brit was vast in comparison and the stands seemed away from the pitch. There wasn’t that connection. Even the stand behind the goal being called the North Stand made it just feel a bit soulless.

“People had found their way together on the old Boothen End but were sitting apart and it felt like there were groups here and there singing rather than everyone together. In big games it came to life but it would be a really disjointed season. It was one of pure frustration really.

“The season was a shambles. We’d lost Lou Macari as manager and Chic Bates was more of a coach who didn’t seem comfortable making decisions that were going to cost players. Then we had Chris Kamara come in, then Alan Durban.

“We signed a lot of free transfers, tried the Scottish market and brought in Dick Schreuder from Holland. The recruitment wasn’t what we expected given the excitement of the stadium. Dick was very knowledgeable and technically gifted. He had a different way of looking at the game but it just took a long time to adapt because it was second balls and physical.

“Over the course of time it was really disappointing and still hurts now looking back.”

It would have been hard to imagine then that the atmosphere at that stadium would become so famous, a decade after relegation when Stoke finally got to play there in the most watched division in the world.

“Incredible,” said Kavanagh. “But that’s what Stoke fans can do. They’re very passionate and very knowledgeable. They want to see guts, hard work and commitment and you give them that and results then they will be like a part of the team. Hopefully it will happen again soon.”

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