Stoke City Songs and Famous Chants: From Delilah to Hello, Hello, We are the Famous Boothen Boys

Football supporters love to sing in appreciation of the players that take to the pitch to represent them and the management team responsible for getting the best out of those in the team. They also love to engage in songs and chants that poke fun at their opponents, especially if any of these songs or chants add to the atmosphere within the football ground. On that front, Stoke City fans are no different to any other set of supporters, regularly using their voices to be heard wherever it is that they’ve travelled in order to watch their football club take on an opponent in an attempt to win the match.

Stoke-on-Trent is based in the Staffordshire region of the Midlands, so the club’s rivals are often considered to be the likes of West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers; teams that have long operated at a similar level of success to the Potters. Then there is Port Vale, who tick the box of being so local to Stoke City as to be an obvious rival based on their geographical location. The result of this is that supporters will often sing songs or engage in chants aimed at mocking those rivals, even during matches that they’re not actually playing against one another.

We will offer you a selection of the various songs sung by Stoke fans here, but bear in mind that the list is far from exhaustive. If you are a supporter of the club or have simply watched them play and know that there are other songs that are sung on the terraces, you will almost certainly be right. It is also worth noting that songs and chants go in and out of fashion, often based on who is playing for the Potters or who they’re playing against.

Delilah

Even if you’ve never watched a Stoke City match in your life, there is a very good chance that you know the song Delilah. That is thanks to the fact that it was a smash hit for Tom Jones in the 1960s, based on lyrics written by Barry Mason to music written by Les Reed. Such was the popularity of the tune at the time, Reed and Mason actually won an Ivor Novello award for the Best Song Musically and Lyrically in 1968. Not that that’s what the Stoke City supporters are thinking about when they decide to belt it out during a football match, of course.

The song was also used by the Welsh rugby side, at one point leading to criticism from Senedd Member Helen Mary Jones, who said that the lyrics glorify violence against women. Exactly when the song was first used by Stoke fans remains disputed, with some claiming that it was first sung at an away game against Derby County on the 11th of April 1987, whilst others claim that Potters fans first began singing it in the 1970s. Some of the lyrics of Delilah were adapted slightly for use at football stadiums, but generally it remains largely the same, with the altered lyrics not suitable for kids:

At break of day

when that man drove away

I was waiting…

Oh, oh, oh, oh…

I crossed the street to her house

and she opened the door

Oh, oh, oh, oh…

she stood there laughing!

Ha, ha, ha, ha!

I put my dick in her hand

And she laughed no more!

Oh, oh, oh, oh…

Why, why, why, Delilah?

So, before you come

To break down the door,

Forgive me Delilah,

I just couldn’t take anymore!

Oh, oh, oh, oh….

Why, why, why, Delilah?

(Clap, clap clap)

The Song for Million Manhoef

Nine times out of ten, new songs for players, managers or the club in general tend to come from the buses and trains that take supporters up and down the country for away matches. Sometimes, though, they get suggested on an online forum and taken up from there. In the case of the song for the Dutch player Million Manhoef, it was the latter where a chant was created to show the winger some love, with one user suggesting it and saying that he’d settle for ‘a mini roll’ as payment. Other members of the forum soon suggested that it was something that deserved to catch on.

Here’s how it goes:

He’s Dutch,

He’s flash,

His name’s a lot of cash:

Million,

Million!

We Are Stoke

Much to the disappointment of many supporters of Stoke City, the club’s fans aren’t the most inventive when it comes to the songs and chants that make their way onto the stands for the matches that the Potters take part in. Some of them have been sung for years, with very little room for new ones to be added to the songbook, whilst others simply lack any kind of imagination. One of those that fits into the latter category is that of We Are Stoke, which repeats that line over and over again as follows:

We are Stoke.

We aaaarrrrreeee Stoke!

We’ll Be With You

The truth of the matter is that more than a few of the songs sung by Stoke fans are now quite antiquated in nature, but they’re brought out on a regular basis because they offer at least a slight chance for supporters to contribute towards the atmosphere. Here is how the We’ll Be With You song goes:

City, City!

Tell the lads in red and white,

Everything will be alright.

City, City!

You’re the pride of all of us today.

We’ll be with you,

Be with you,

Every step along the way!

We’ll be with you,

Be with you,

By your side we’ll always stay…

City Are the People

Stoke City supporters are just like every other set of fans up and down the land, insomuch as they are more than happy to find a mix between supporting their team and having a dig at the opposition. City Are the People is a song that does just that, whilst throwing a swear word or two in there to ensure that everyone knows that the fans are really cool. Here’s what this one sounds like:

Who are the people?

We are the people!

Who are the shit?

They are the shit!

Give me a C!

Give me an I!

Give me a T!

Give me a Y!

What have we got?

We’ve got the best team in the land!

City ’Til I Die

There are teams up and down the country that have supporters who sing a variation on this song, changing the words slightly in order to best represent the team that they follow. In the case of Stoke City fans, here’s the version that they opt for:

City ‘til I die!

I’m City ‘til I die!

I know I am,

I’m sure I am,

I’m City ‘til I die!

(Repeat)

Down the Boothen Road

If you want a sense of a song that is very much from a time long gone, there is a solid argument that Down the Boothen Road might well be the best example of it. It is very much from another period of Stoke’s past, but it is still brought out every now and then in order to lend a bit of an atmosphere to matches. This is what supporters sing:

Ho the lads,

Should of seen ‘em coming!

All the lads in red and white,

The other fans were running!

All the lads and lasses,

Smiles upon their faces,

Walking down the Boothen Road,

To see the City Aces!

Hello, Hello, We are the Famous Boothen Boys

It is fair to say that football has long been a sport enveloped in toxic masculinity, in spite of the success of the likes of the Lionesses in recent years. That can be seen in the manner in which Delilah is used by Stoke City fans, including the adaptation of the lyrics to be even more derisive than the original ones are, as well as in the fact that another of the songs belted out by supporters of the Potters directly references them being the ‘Boothen Boys’. The Boothen End, of course, is a stand at the stadium that Stoke play their home matches in, where both men and women stand.

Here is how the chant goes:

Hello! Hello!

We are the Boothen boys,

So if you are a Vale fan

Surrender or you die!

We all follow the City.