Stoke City: Narcis Pelach cannot ignore Derby County importance given Port Vale factor | OneFootball

Stoke's games against the Rams always promise an intense affair

Stoke City have had to contend with not having any Potteries derby game with Port Vale for over 20 years, but have found some new rivals in the meantime, and they face one of those this weekend in the form of Derby County - an early-season crunch game for both sides.

Narcis Pelach has been head-coach at the bet365 Stadium for over a month now, but they have struggled to get going under his watch as yet, with just one win from his opening eight games in charge in both league and cup.

The Potters have been languishing in the bottom-half of the Championship since relegation from the Premier League in 2018, and while Pelach is the latest man tasked with returning the club to former glory, there are certain games that the fans will have circled in the fixture list as must-wins for a multitude of reasons, not just on-pitch success.

Stoke's famous rivals are cross-city neighbours Port Vale, but despite the Potters' struggles in recent years, the Valiants are still yet to catch-up, and have been bouncing between the third and fourth-tiers since Stoke were promoted back to the First Division (second-tier) in 2002.

Since 1919, the two clubs have only been in the same league for 22 seasons, and so Stoke have had to find different teams to play out rivalries with, as Wolves, West Brom, and even Arsenal have took part in some fierce battles over a number of years with the Potters.

This weekend sees another rival, Derby, return to the bet365 Stadium, in a huge game that is set to test each side's Championship credentials for the season ahead.

Stoke City's rivalry with Derby County has been heightened in recent years

The Potters and the Rams are both a relatively similar size of club, from similar areas in the Midlands, and have each punched above their weight at times in their history, while consistently staying a rung or two below some of the biggest clubs in the country.

Their seasonal records are very alike, as a result, with both clubs being one of the founder members of the Football League in 1888, and Stoke completing 62 seasons in the top-tier of the system to Derby's 65 over the same time-frame, as well as the Potters playing 47 seasons in the second-tier, to the Rams' 54.

The two clubs met perennially in the top-flight throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and while they would have been intense affairs, the Potters were still used to meetings with Port Vale, and Derby's focus has almost always been on East Midlands neighbours Nottingham Forest.

Clashes between the two became much more sporadic in the 1990s, then more common in the 2000s, but soon Stoke's ten-year stay in the Premier League meant they only faced off once from 2008 to 2018, in a 2012 FA Cup game that saw the Potters win 2-1 at Pride Park.

That wait for a league clash was bound to raise excitement, but events prior to the two clubs' face-off in November 2018 were more than enough tonic for a feisty affair, after Gary Rowett had controversially left his position at the Rams to become Stoke boss ahead of the new campaign just five months earlier.

Both sets of fans goaded each other throughout the game, and Derby supporters waved around inflatable snakes to signify their thoughts about Rowett's move, but that wasn't enough to stop a 10-man Stoke prevailing 2-1, with another ex-Rams favourite, Tom Ince, grabbing the winner.

Meetings between the pair since have maybe not reached such a level of hostility, yet Stoke supporters clearly did not forget too quickly about their previous encounters, as they taunted Rams supporters about the possibility of the club going into administration in a game between the two at Pride Park in 2021.

Derby were relegated from the second-tier in 2022, but are back now after two seasons away, and while their main rivals Forest flourish in the top-flight, and Stoke's, in Port Vale, are longstanding lower-league sufferers, the two clubs will be more than ready for a crunch clash against an old rival come Saturday.

Stoke need all three points in this fixture for numerous reasons

Narcis Pelach will know that he is under pressure to guide his team to a win at the bet365 Stadium this weekend, but the history books are working against him, with Stoke's recent record against the Rams making pretty dismal reading.

Following on from that 2018 victory, the Potters have won just once in the last seven meetings with Derby, and lost in both of the last two occasions that they met in 2021.

Pelach cannot ignore the rivalry factor that surrounds this game, as a result, but is also in dire need of a victory mainly for points' sake, with Stoke currently only one point and three places above the drop zone.

He has called on Potters supporters to "bring the energy" against Derby, but that will be matched by a 3,000-strong travelling support along the A50, with the Rams in decent form too, after going four games unbeaten to sit in 12th place.

Stoke have shown that they are capable of putting a newly-promoted side to the sword already this season, with a 6-1 thrashing of Portsmouth, but it promises to be a much closer game, and a much more tense atmosphere in ST4 this weekend.

Pelach will do well to remember that, despite this not being Stoke's main rivalry, it is one that matters to supporters all the same. His side have to be up for the fight for three points and bragging rights.