Tyler Martin Joins Stoke City Senior Squad: A Rising Star

Tyler Martin’s name appeared on the Stoke City teamsheet almost quietly, but it marks a significant step in a young career already drawing attention inside the club.

The 18-year-old midfielder, who arrived from Liverpool to join Stoke’s under-21s in February, has been with the first-team group throughout pre-season. Now he steps up to the senior bench, taking his chance as Milan Smit heads out on loan to Darmstadt in Germany.

Back when Martin signed, youth coach Sam Stockley offered a clear snapshot of what Stoke believe they have on their hands. “He 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," he said in February. Those are the tools that have accelerated his rise from academy hopeful to first-team option before his 19th birthday.

Unusual Openers, Old and New

Stoke starting a competitive campaign with something other than a league fixture still feels odd, even if it has happened before.

Supporters will remember the sterile strangeness of 2020, when a League Cup tie against Blackpool opened the season behind closed doors. Go back further and the mood could not have been more different: the Europa League adventure in 2011, home and away against Hajduk Split, set the tone before a Premier League curtain-raiser against Chelsea.

Roll the clock right back and the quirks get even more striking. In 1972, Stoke were still shaking off the effects of a gruelling 70-game 1971/72 season when they were thrown into an FA Cup tie that effectively became a 71st match, squeezed in after that season’s final and just a week before the 1972/73 top flight began.

On August 5 of that year, they faced Birmingham City at St Andrew’s in an FA Cup third-place play-off, still smarting from a controversial semi-final defeat to Arsenal four months earlier. Leeds had already lifted the cup at Wembley on May 6, but this experimental extra fixture lingered on.

A crowd of 25,841 turned up and watched a drab goalless draw that only came alive from the penalty spot. History was made: it was the first penalty shoot-out in English domestic football.

Tony Waddington used the occasion to blood two new signings, Geoff Hurst and Jimmy Robertson, both making their debuts in circumstances that would normally have seen them cup-tied. Robertson’s presence carried an extra twist – he had already been knocked out of that very competition in the fourth round by Birmingham while at Ipswich.

The shoot-out itself belonged to the goalkeepers and the rulebook. At the time, keepers were not allowed to move their feet before the ball was struck. John Farmer tested that limit, and referee Vincent James booked him twice for stepping early. Farmer still managed to save from Tommy Carroll, who then blazed his retaken effort over the bar. Farmer also stopped Bobby Hope’s first attempt, only for Hope to score from his second after another re-take was ordered.

Waddington could not contain himself. He ran onto the pitch to protest, but James stood firm, insisting he had warned the Stoke keeper enough times.

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 serve him well as he moved on to Ipswich and Leicester. It worked that day against Jimmy Greenhoff and Peter Dobing, and Stoke trudged away with a tankard for finishing fourth.

That match closed the book on a five-year experiment with the FA Cup third-place play-off. The idea was scrapped, the trophy was modest, but Stoke responded in the way that really mattered: they went on to win their first league game of the new season, at home to Crystal Palace, seven days later.

Now, as another campaign begins in atypical fashion and a teenager like Tyler Martin edges into the senior picture, the club once again stands at one of those curious intersections of history and opportunity.