Tyler Martin's Rise at Stoke City: A New Era for the Teenager
Tyler Martin’s name appeared on the Stoke City teamsheet almost quietly, but it marks a significant step for the teenager and a subtle shift in the club’s planning.
The 18-year-old midfielder, recruited from Liverpool to join the under-21s in February, has spent the summer edging closer to the senior picture, working with the first team through pre-season. With Milan Smit heading out on loan to Darmstadt in Germany, Martin now moves up a rung, taking his place among the substitutes and into the matchday spotlight.
Back when he arrived, youth coach Sam Stockley distilled the appeal in a few sharp lines: Martin 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.” That blend of pace, end product and tactical flexibility is exactly the kind of profile modern Championship squads crave, and Stoke have wasted little time nudging him towards senior football.
Unusual Openers, Old and New
For Stoke, beginning a competitive season with something other than a league fixture still feels odd, even if the club has been here before.
Recent history offers a couple of reminders. In 2020, the campaign opened with a League Cup tie against Blackpool, played out in the eerie silence of empty stands. Go back further and the memory brightens: the Europa League adventure of 2011, when a two-legged clash with Hajduk Split set the tone before the Premier League curtain lifted against Chelsea.
Roll the clock back again and the calendar gets even stranger.
In 1972, Stoke were still shaking the marathon out of their legs from the 1971/72 season – 70 matches in all – when they were sent out for what effectively became game 71. An FA Cup tie played after that season’s final, and just a week before the 1972/73 top flight kicked off, turned the usual rhythm on its head.
On August 5 of that year, Tony Waddington’s side faced Birmingham City at St Andrew’s in a third-place play-off, a fixture born from a controversial semi-final defeat to Arsenal four months earlier. Leeds had already lifted the cup at Wembley on May 6. This was the afterthought, tidying up the competition’s loose ends.
History in a Drab Package
A crowd of 25,841 turned up and watched a goalless grind. Little sparkle, few chances, and yet the game would slip into the record books.
It was settled by the first penalty shoot-out in English domestic football history.
Waddington used the occasion to blood his new signings. Geoff Hurst and Jimmy Robertson both made their debuts, a quirk of timing allowing them to play when, under normal circumstances, they would have been cup-tied. Robertson, in a neat twist, had actually been knocked out of that same FA Cup earlier in the season by Birmingham while at Ipswich.
The drama arrived from 12 yards and from the rulebook. Goalkeepers were forbidden from moving their feet before the kick, and John Farmer was booked twice for doing exactly that. He still managed to save from Tommy Carroll, who then blasted the retaken penalty over the bar. Farmer then denied Bobby Hope, only for Hope to score at the second attempt after another re-take.
Waddington lost his patience. He stormed onto the pitch to protest, but referee Vincent James stood firm, insisting Farmer had been warned enough.
At the other end, Birmingham’s Paul Cooper turned gamesmanship into an art form. He swung his arms, leaned to one side and unsettled takers, a routine that would later serve him well at Ipswich and Leicester. On this day it worked against Jimmy Greenhoff and Peter Dobing, as Stoke faltered from the spot and had to settle for fourth place – marked not by a trophy, but by a tankard.
That match closed the book on a five-year experiment with the FA Cup third-place play-off. The concept disappeared; the shoot-out stayed.
Stoke, for their part, moved on quickly. Seven days later they opened their league campaign at home to Crystal Palace – and won.
