Tyler Martin's Rise at Stoke City: A New Chapter

Tyler Martin’s name on the Stoke City teamsheet might have slipped under the radar for some, but inside the club it has been coming for a while.

The 18-year-old midfielder, who arrived from Liverpool to join the under-21s in February, has been pushed into the senior picture over the summer and now gets his chance on the bench. His promotion comes as Milan Smit heads out on loan to Darmstadt in Germany, a move that opens a door for one of the club’s most highly regarded youngsters.

Back when Martin signed, youth coach Sam Stockley did not hold back in his assessment. “He is dynamic and quick, has an eye for goal and is versatile in terms of his ability to play through the middle and in wide areas," he said. Those are the kind of traits that get you fast-tracked when a first team squad is being reshaped.

Martin has been working with the senior group throughout pre-season, learning the pace, the physicality, the standards. Now he steps into the real thing.

Stoke’s season, though, begins in a way that still feels slightly odd in these parts. The club is so used to opening up with a league fixture that anything else feels like a quirk of the calendar, even if it is not completely unheard of.

There was that League Cup tie against Blackpool in 2020, played out in front of empty stands and echoing seats. Go back further and you hit the Europa League adventure in 2011, when Hajduk Split home and away came before a Premier League curtain-raiser against Chelsea. European nights first, domestic grind later.

And then there is 1972 – the strangest of all.

Stoke had just staggered out of a 70-game marathon in 1971/72, only to tack on one more. The FA Cup third-place play-off against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s on August 5 came after the cup final itself and just a week before the new top-flight season began. Technically, it was the 71st game of the old season, played on the eve of the next.

Leeds had already lifted the trophy at Wembley on May 6. Stoke, still smarting from a controversial semi-final defeat to Arsenal four months earlier, were left to scrap for bronze.

A crowd of 25,841 turned up and watched a drab goalless draw. The drama arrived late. The match was settled by the first penalty shoot-out in English domestic football history.

Tony Waddington used the occasion to blood his new signings. Geoff Hurst and Jimmy Robertson both made debuts that, under normal rules, would have been impossible; they would have been cup-tied. Robertson had actually been knocked out of that same competition in the fourth round by Birmingham while at Ipswich.

The laws of the day added an extra layer of tension. Goalkeepers were not allowed to move their feet before the kick was taken. John Farmer tested that rule and paid for it. He was booked for stepping off his line twice. He saved from Tommy Carroll, only for the penalty to be retaken and Carroll to blaze the second attempt over. Farmer then stopped Bobby Hope’s effort, but Hope scored from his re-take.

Waddington snapped. The Stoke manager ran onto the pitch to protest, furious at what he saw as nitpicking against his goalkeeper. Referee Vincent James stood firm, insisting he had given Farmer ample warning.

At the other end, Birmingham’s Paul Cooper turned gamesmanship into an art form. He swung his arms, leaned to one side, and messed with the takers’ heads. The routine would become a trademark as his career took him to Ipswich and Leicester. On this occasion it worked against Jimmy Greenhoff and Peter Dobing, both denied from the spot.

Stoke’s consolation? A tankard for finishing fourth.

That match quietly closed the book on a five-year experiment with FA Cup third-place play-offs. The idea never returned.

Stoke, though, moved on quickly. Seven days later they opened the league season at home to Crystal Palace – and won. Now, as another campaign begins in unorthodox fashion and a teenager like Tyler Martin steps into the frame, you are left wondering: which of today’s footnotes will look like history in 50 years’ time?