From the publisher:
Delilah – Stoke Lads 1990-92 is a photographic series by photographer Tony Davis that focuses on the supporters of Stoke City Football Club during matches at the historic Victoria Ground in the early 1990s.
The limited edition A5 zine contains 40 black and white photographs across 40 pages, and a anecdotal information by celebrated photographer and lifelong Stoke City fan Tom Oxley.
It was the 90s, and Stoke City’s fans were revelling in the electric atmosphere only derby days generate.
Photographer Tony Davis was right there in the thick of things at the Victoria Ground, first for the visit of Birmingham City in September 1990, and then the Potteries local showdown with Port Vale in October 1992.
Davis remembers the tension before the games, the feeling that different rivalries would “kick off” at any time. Second and Third Division football, he says, away from the multi millions of the Premier League.
“Proper football; proper fans. You had standing terraces in parts and could turn up at five to three and pay on the gate. Stoke is a proper lads team. The fans had a reputation to protect and they were right up there with other notorious groups of supporters.” Tony Davis
“A match day at The Vic was on another level. The close proximity to the town meant people were able to keep drinking right until kick off. The new ground is so far out of the way, without the infrastructure. Now you have to plan the time getting there, and crucially, the buzz fades. It’s such a shame that all the new grounds lack the old intimacy. I know they’re safer and ‘progress’ etc… but give me the old ground over the new any day of the week.”Tom Oxley
Over the years Davis has compiled a deep archive of pictures that capture British football culture in the 80s, 90s, and 00s as well has being well known for his rave photography, his work with the British Culture Archive and Café Royal Books.
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