In the end the emptiness, the futility, the awful meaninglessness of the match, settled on everyone like a dark blanket of depression.

Both these great clubs were in the old third division and suddenly the magnificent Britannia Stadium down Stanley Matthews Way felt as if it had returned to its former life as a grim industrial wasteland.

The goals continued to go in, but they were only half-celebrated; it felt like a testimonial match played at a wake. It was a game that needed mercy-killing and both managers, Joe Royle and Alan Durban, trudged off to the changing rooms with their substitutes trailing miserably behind long before the final whistle. It was all rather surreal.

It was the most important match some of these footballers will ever play, yet they could not raise a gallop in the final quarter. Port Vale, Portsmouth and Bury had all won away from home and the desperate consequences of those results meant that both these clubs were relegated.

Manchester City, who finished third bottom on 48 points, were one point from safety; Stoke were two points further back.

The terrible torpor on the terraces spread on to the pitch. It stopped the flow of adrenalin, and fatigue, mental and physical, took over.

These clubs had come to Stoke to bury each other, but they ended face down in the dirt together like two last-reel gunslingers, although in this particular epic both proved equally slow on the draw.

The kick-off excitement soured into violence with a number of skirmishes before both sets of supporters, mostly, settled for sullen introspection.

The scuffles started in the Sentinel stand, which had been easily infiltrated by Manchester City supporters because Stoke's match arrangements were as mal adroit as their defence. From there it spread in a clockwise direction to the South stand and then the West stand, like a Mexican wave with menaces.

There was even a distasteful outbreak in the corporate-entertainment section, but although fighting continued after the match, by that time most supporters were too fed up to bother.

The police said there had been 300 ejections. Another 25 needed treatment and the worst fight, which involved bricks thrown, happened after the match: two suffered fractured cheekbones.

It was difficult to know exactly when the crowd became aware of events elsewhere, although when Manchester City's famous fans started chanting, rather forlornly:

"Are you watching, Macclesfield?" it was clear the news had spread.

It is the lowest Manchester City have been in their 111-year history. They are paying for the mess of 11 managers in 12 years.

Stoke: Southall, Pickering, Heath, Sigurdsson, Tweed, Keen, Forsyth, Wallace, Thorne, Lightbourne (Taaffe 57), Kavanagh. Subs Not Used: Holsgrove, Whittle. Booked: Wallace, Thorne. Goals: Thorne 62, 87.

Man City: Margetson, Edghill, Horlock, Wiekens, Symons, Vaughan, Jim Whitley (Brannan 45), Pollock, Goater (Kinkladze 73), Dickov (Jeff Whitley 90), Bradbury. Booked: Edghill. Goals: Goater 32, Dickov 49, Bradbury 64, Goater 71, Horlock 90.

Referee: M Bailey (Impington).