STOKE City are 150 years old this year, so what better way to mark the occasion than by recalling their finest players?
Supporter Doug Underwood, aged 79, today selects his favourite line-up from the Potters stars he has seen play over the years.
DREAM TEAM: Doug Underwood has been a Stoke fan since 1939 and has chosen the players he loved to watch and admired.
We'd love you to do the same. Just tell us how long you have been following the Potters, name your best Stoke City team and manager, and then give the reasons for your choices.
The best response will win a framed and signed poster of Stoke skipper Ryan Shawcross, plus a signed copy of a fabulous pictorial of the Potters entitled Stoke City: A Nostalgic Look at a Century Of The Club.
DOUG Underwood saw his first Stoke City game in 1939 when his father and grandfather took him to the old Victoria Ground.
The die-hard Stoke fan, from Weston Coyney, said: "My early memories of Stoke are sitting on my dad's shoulders watching Stanley Matthews coming down the wing.
"The noise of the crowd was incredible. The cheers of the crowd would get louder and louder as Matthews beat his man before rising to a crescendo when he crossed the ball.
"He's in a my Stoke City dream team, and what a team it is. "There's not a team in the Premier League that would be able to touch this lot."
The best ever. Whereas some keepers dived all over the place, Banks didn't have to because his positional sense was so good.
He'd be my right-back, but could play on either side. A classy footballer and always very cool under pressure. He distributed the ball very well.
The finest centre-half to ever kick a ball. When he came off the field he only had a dirty forehead and a few spots on his white shorts.
A tremendous Stoke City player who always gave his all for the Potters at left-back. Strong, forceful and another player who deservedly got picked by England.
I once saw him score a hat-trick against Don Revie's Leeds when he made Jack Charlton look like a Sunday League player. When Peter Dobing made his mind up to play well, no-one could get near him at inside-right.
As he'd come up from London, we were a bit sceptical about him at first! But he was brilliant from his very first game, against Bill Shankly's Liverpool..
The finest player there has been. In his first spell he played against some of the best full-backs you have ever seen and still he gave them the run around.
When I did National Service I was with some lads who had never seen him play, so went to watch him in London one weekend.
They couldn't believe how good he was. One of the lads was a rugby fan and said Stan moved faster with the ball at his feet than Willie Horne, a great rugby league player of the time, could run with the ball in his hands.
I was invited to meet Stan at his home in Penkhull, having written to journalist Les Scott, who was writing Stan's biography.
When I went there I had palpitations because I was meeting the bloke I had idolised watching my first games sitting on my father's shoulders.
Stan was fantastic and very modest and we spoke about football for 45 minutes. He was a lovely man; he was everything everyone had said about him.
He's as good a young goalkeeper as I have seen. We have been lucky with our keepers over the years, although I never really took to Peter Shilton. But I really rate Begovic.
What a player this Northern Ireland international was. Signed from Burnley, he was a tremendous inside-forward who, along with Stanley Matthews got Stoke promoted in 1962-63.
A very strong centre-forward who knew where the goal was and was a great header of the ball. Peter Crouch is good at holding the ball up, but not as good as Ritchie was.
I want him managing my dream team, but only on the condition he doesn't tell Alan Hudson and Stanley Matthews to start helping out in defence!
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