On a day when thousands took to the streets of the nation’s capital for the London Marathon, it was up the road at Wembley where Stoke City went the extra mile to put in the performance of a lifetime - hitting Bolton for five in the most one-sided FA Cup semi-final in more than 70 years.

The stage was set... ©JW

It’s only today that I have returned to work, and as I sit here with a strained voice and a grin as wide as Huth’s shoulders, I’m struggling to put the emotions of the day into words that make any sense. I’ve been a Stokie for twenty odd years now, and I’m sure many are feeling the same way as me today and are having to pinch themselves that they aren’t going to encounter a talking animal at any minute and realise it’s all a dream. It’s not a dream, it happened. Stoke City are in an FA Cup final having dished out one of the most savage beatings ever witnessed at the semi-finals of this, the most famous domestic cup competition in the footballing world.

Walking up to Wembley... ©JW

The game against Bolton was simply unreal, having encountered a nervy ten minutes of being on the back foot, we managed to press forward on the big Wembley pitch and following an awful pass across the back line, Matty lashed the ball home having acted swiftly to the opportunity…delirium. What an amazing start to the game. I was worried now that Bolton would come back into it and sure enough they put pressure on the back line of an elated City most likely still pinching themselves. We managed to weather the storm and then the ball was cleared for Rory’s first throw of the day… Out came my video camera, the ball was flung in, it was headed away, the camera was stopped, then Wilko launched it back into the air and before I could complain to the bloke next to me that he had put no pace on it, Huth had lashed a shot from twenty odd yards into the same area Matty had scored, 2-0!!!

Magic Matty... ©JW

This really was fairytale stuff, but I’m a Stoke fan, these things don’t go to plan, the Bolton comeback would happen, wouldn’t it? I refused to let myself get carried away, if Bolton got one goal they would have the momentum to get another and then they would go on and push for a thir…….. GOAL!!!!!!! Pennant robs the woeful Petrov and ran the length of the pitch before executing a great pass into Kenwyne who coolly slotted home to make it 3-0, was this really happening?!

KJ makes it 3... ©JW

The fans were delirious, everyone hugging strangers and jumping and dancing in disbelief that someone would turn around at any point and say, ‘Sorry lads, there’s been a mistake’, they didn’t and we went into the break 3-0 up and cruising to our first ever FA Cup final. Some Bolton fans took this as their cue to exit, and who could blame them, we looked unstoppable (…and the M1 would be a nightmare going back)

The half-time interval, drinks and toilet aside, was taken up by a strangely muted realisation that we were 3-0 up after 45 minutes of an FA Cup semi-final. Stoke?! The second half started with Bolton making two changes and Stoke came out with the same determination and application that saw such an amazing opening spell. A lot of the tension had cleared and we were able to relax a bit more knowing we had such an impressive cushion of a lead. Bolton had clearly had a rollicking and the impact of our wingers on the day was getting up their noses as both Matty and Jermaine were unceremoniously floored by two poor challenges from the frustrated opposition.

Still more chances came our way and we could have had at least another two goals, then I started to panic, it’s when you miss chances like these that you tend to conce….. GOAL!!! Super Jonny Walters is set free by the impressive Huth and once again he runs the length of the pitch before cutting inside his marker to drill home into the bottom corner past an outstretched Jaskelainen, 4-0!!! You’ll be glad to hear at this point I let myself dare to dream that we were going to be coming back on the 14th May.

Jon makes it 4... ©JW

It was a party atmosphere, dads and lads, mums and daughters, Batman, Robin, Bonita, all jumping and dancing in celebration of the spectacle unfolding before us, this was unbelievable. We started stroking the ball about to the cries of ‘Olé’ with confidence and verve, creating more and more chances on goal, there were chants of ‘we want five’. Walters was clearly listening as he bundled home with the game coming to a close - it was 5-0, we were walking in a Wembley wonderland and the players, staff and fans were loving every last second of it.

FIVE!!! ©JW

The final whistle was met with an almighty roar and the PA nipped in with ‘We’ll Be With You’ quicker than the remainder of the Bolton fans could get out of their seats. Then followed a full rendition of Delilah as we gazed on the emptied West Stand and celebrated with our soldiers in red and white, it was a sight and a feeling to behold and I just stood there taking it all in and videoing it as I knew it would all become a blur after I left.

I took the next day off so I could watch the game again and get all the papers to see the reaction of the national press, before going out for these I switched on Sky Sports News to watch the coverage of it, as the minutes passed I saw Arsenal v Liverpool highlights/interviews/reactions THREE times, as well as Celtic's goals TWICE, and then finally after over an hour, we got a mention and a small piece talking about how it was a historical event for the club and that was it. Granted, later in the day they had some more interviews from the ground but the morning left me wondering if Stoke City winning 5-0 at Wembley was really going to buried by the sporting media in favour of a story about a manager not shaking another’s hand?!

Gladly when I picked up the papers it was a different story and whilst many focused on how poor Bolton were and were asking the question, ‘What happened to them?’, a fair few gave us the credit we deserved. In fact, in the reports that followed there was a pretty obvious and almost audible backtracking from many a pundit/reporter jumping on the ‘Stoke can actually play’ bandwagon, including Mr Patrick Barclay who has been one of our biggest critics since we came up, a man so bought in to Wenger's philosophy and rhetoric he would gladly fashion his own side parting had nature been a bit kinder;

"There's more to Stoke than meets the sky.... to call them a long-ball side, physical and especially aerial, would be simplistic..."

Much like his favoured manager, the hypocrisy of his latest offering is staggering and no doubt normal service will be resumed when Stoke host Arsenal in a few weeks time.

I’ll not let this take anything away from our performances of late, to be honest, when both wingers have been on the pitch this is exactly how we play and we have done so for much of the season bar a post-Christmas slump. I guess it takes time to break a stereotype down and I should be happy that we’re starting to get the recognition we deserve, the media perceptions almost feel like a bit of a pantomime and whilst we as a team have often used them to instil a backs-to-the-wall mentality, it still hurts to see the same lazy comments over and over again.

So, much like Sunday, let us enjoy our time in the Sun, look forward to May 14 and the chance to beat the richest club in the world, we’ve done it before and we can do it again, they will be concentrating on finishing in the top four and us? Well, we only ever score five in our games at the new Wembley…

We sold all OUR tickets... ©JW

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