Stoke City’s Under-21s faced city rivals Port Vale in the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday night, the senior Valiants running out 4-0 winners.
The Potteries derby, pitting Stoke City up against city rivals Port Vale, has been a frozen conflict for years.
The last time the two sides met competitively was in the old Second Division on 10 February 2002, according to 11v11, and the result was a 1-0 win for the Valiants.
Since then, Stoke and Port Vale have ebbed away in different directions, the former mostly in the top two tiers of English football, the latter in the bottom two.
However, Tuesday night brought both clubs together in action once again, albeit featuring the Championship side’s Under-21s, in a Checkatrade Trophy second-round clash at Vale Park.
In front of 7,940 fans, the experienced Valiants were too strong for Stoke’s academy side, running out comfortable 4-0 winners.
Tom Pope opened the scoring on six minutes when he ran into the box to head home a Cristian Montano cross, before the provider turned scorer to double their lead on 41 minutes.
Montano then grabbed his second of the night just two minutes later, a healthy half-time lead subsequently strengthered on 67 minutes through Luke Hannant for a stunning scoreline.
A number of Stoke fans took to Twitter after the game to voice their thoughts on the embarrassing defeat, with some being supportive:
A few others, a little less so:
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