Stoke & Staffordshire

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Watch our pick of standout clips from Stoke and Staffordshire

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  1. A woman with long red hair and a red and purple chequered coat, is smiling as she sits on a bench outside.

  2. A black and white old photograph of a football match. Three players in black are competing for the ball with three other players in lighter-coloured kits.

  3. A girl with pink and blonde hair. She is looking at the camera smiling and is wearing a white overcoat with a red t-shirt underneath and silver rimmed glasses.

  4. A man with grey hair wearing a dark top and purple jumper is on the left in front of a wall. A younger man with brown hair and wearing a lanyard is on the right.

  5. A building with a green sign saying Tamworth above green windows, a county crest mounted on the brickwork and a Union Jack flag flying from a pole. The building has three stories, with a taller tower section.

  6. A man with short dark hair, a blue apron and black shirt, working on a pottery creation.

  7. 'It takes a bit of pressure off' - Smit on goals

    Milan Smith (right) celebrates scoring his first goals for Stoke City Shutterstock

    Milan Smit is on loan with Stoke City for the rest of the season

    Stoke City striker Milan Smit said it was "a relief" to score his first goals for the club and is glad that pressure has now been lifted.

    The Dutch forward, 23, has had to be patient while he gets used to English football following his arrival on loan from Go Ahead Eagles at the end of January.

    But in Wednesday's 3-3 thriller against Ipswich Town, Smit played a vital role, scoring his first goal to put them in front on 35 minutes, and staying cool from the spot to convert an injury-time penalty to clinch a point.

    Afterwards, Smit told BBC Radio Stoke he was delighted to get off the mark in his eighth appearance.

    "Yeah, of course, it's a relief. When you come as a striker into a new club, you want to score as soon as possible," he said.

    "If you score your first goals, it takes a bit of pressure away.

    "I hoped that I would score a few games earlier but you have to wait and trust in what you were able to.

    "I know I can score goals. I knew it was coming, but I'm really happy that it was today."

    Smit came to Stoke having scored nine goals in 25 games in all competitions for his parent club in the Eredivisie and Dutch cup this season.

    And he said acclimatising to the English game has been tough.

    "It's a big difference. If you watch the games here the intensity is so high in 90 minutes," he said.

    "If you compare it to Holland, then the intensity is the biggest difference.

    "Everybody's talking about the physicality, of course it's a difference, but it's not the biggest difference.

    "The intensity running 90 minutes long, which I think that fits me. I'm getting used to it now, every game a bit more, so I'm settling in now."

  8. Smit has arrived - but there's still work to do

    Mark Elliot
    BBC Radio Stoke commentator

    Milan SmitShutterstock

    The Eredivisie is a good league with some big clubs and excellent players.

    Dutch football continues to produce footballers who excel at home and abroad but on this evidence, the pace of the game there can't prepare a player for life in the Championship.

    Milan Smit belatedly announced his arrival in England with two goals against Ipswich and spoke of his "relief" after getting on the scoresheet in a league he's spent more than six weeks trying to acclimatise to.

    He says the "intensity" is different in England's second tier and at times it's looked like the man who signed from Go Ahead Eagles would not overcome the shock to the system.

    Stoke manager Mark Robins revealed the relentlessness of training on top of the matches has been something new for Smit but spoke of the centre-forward now "finding his feet".

    There's still work for Smit to do as he tries to get up to speed but the goals he scored against Ipswich alongside his physical traits provide cause for optimism.

    He's still only 23 and at 6ft 3in tall, he has the physical attributes to compete and will surely look to get stronger.

    His first goal was a poacher's finish while the second was a high-pressure penalty taken with almost the last kick of the game and, taken together, they show his instincts and nerve are good.

  9. Police vehicles and a cordon at the entrance to a railway station's car park.

  10. A terraced row of derelict shops on the corner of a city centre street. The upper floors are cream in colour and the ground-floor shop fronts are black. Several curved street lights are situated in front of the buildings.

  11. Martin Murray wears a dark grey pinstriped suit jacket, white shirt and grey tie, he is smiling at camera on a sunny day outside a building that is out of focus

  12. 'Our first penalty of the season' - Robins

    Mark RobinsShutterstock

    Stoke City boss Mark Robins spoke to BBC Radio Stoke following their last-gasp 3-3 draw against Ipswich Town.

    "We were brilliant in the first half, transition moments really good, average age of 23, good performances all throughout the team, they were really aggressive and we gave them a lot of problems.

    "We didn't really give them anything - they played with the wind in the first half and we played against it - and when we came in at half-time I said 'well done, (we want) more of the same.

    "We know the wind is going to be against them, we can't drop too deep, we've got do the same things, keep putting pressure on them and use the ball well, but all the things that are pre-requisites for us, we didn't do.

    "To go 3-2 down was really disappointing. (But) Lamine Cisse gets thrown to the ground, it may look a little bit soft but it's our first penalty of the season, Smudge shows good technique and good courage and gains us a point after it looked like we'd snatched defeat from the jaws of victory."

  13. National League ball

  14. A partially-demolished building. Bricks and debris are scattered in the foreground while the interior of the partly-knocked down building is visible.

  15. A woman wearing a white jumper sitting down in the BBC Radio Stoke studio.

  16. Two mugshots - on the left is a man with short, wavy brown hair with a beard, a tattoo on his neck and a grey top. On the right is a woman with long hair - half blonde, half black - and wearing a nose ring and a grey top.

  17. A black and white picture of a smiling woman with tied-back dark hair and earrings.

  18. Injuries have derailed Stoke's season - Tchamadeu

    Tchamadeu: 'I was itching to be back on the pitch'

    Stoke City defender Junior Tchamadeu is looking for more match minutes against Ipswich Town on Tuesday (20:00 GMT) after making his first appearance for the Potters in 2026 in the 2-0 loss to Swansea City.

    The Cameroon international has been unable to play a full 90 minutes since suffering a significant knee injury at the Africa Cup of Nations in January, but came on to replace Eric Bocat in the 70th minute at the Swansea.com Stadium.

    "It's always tough when you're missing games through injury. I was itching to be back on the pitch with the boys," Tchamadeu told BBC Radio Stoke.

    "The biggest thing for me was to not rush myself back, especially because with the injury I had you have to get it right and you don't want any relapses and you don't want to come back too early and [injure] it again.

    "Thankfully I'm back available."

    Before the injury, Tchamadeu appeared in every game in the Championship for Stoke City, playing the full 90 minutes in all bar a 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough in September.

    Stoke were seventh in the Championship and a point from the play-off places the last time the 22-year-old started, but have since slipped down to 15th.

    "It's frustrating but I wouldn't say I'm surprised because we've had a lot of injuries to a lot of players who were playing at the beginning [of the season]," Tchamadeu added.

    "But to go from where we were last season to where we are now in terms of performances. I feel like we've made a massive improvement."

    The Potters host Ipswich Town having only won one of their past 10 league games. Victory and three points could boost them up to 10th position.

    "The last 10 games, we've got to stick together and try and get every result," Tchamadeu said.

    Listen to the full interview with Junior Tchamadeu and more Stoke City on BBC Sounds.

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  19. A woman takes a selfie of herself smiling. She has long black hair, with earphones in her ears and is wearing a white fluffy jacket over a blue top.

  20. A man with a bushy beard and a waxed pointy moustache is looking at the camera. He is wearing a black top

  21. A large grey building with a red sign in the corner that says Staffordshire University.

  22. A close-up of the Staffordshire Police badge on the side of a building. It is a several-pointed star with a round circle in the middle.

  23. A Google street view image of a main road with a large green sign on the left denoting a roundabout. Cars can be seen driving both ways.

  24. A general view of the the front entrance and courtyard outside Stafford Crown Court. The building has a rounded corner of red brick with the words "Crown Court" and "County Court" on it, underneath a metal sculpture of the monarch's crest.
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