1949–50 Stoke City F.C. season

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Stoke City
1949–50 season
Chairman Mr H. Booth
Manager Bob McGrory
Stadium Victoria Ground
Football League First Division 19th (34 Points)
FA Cup Third Round
Top goalscorer League: Frank Bowyer (15)
All: Frank Bowyer (15)
Highest home attendance 41,635 vs Sunderland (27 December 1949)
Lowest home attendance 17,297 vs Middlesbrough (3 December 1949)
Average home league attendance 27,215
Home colours

The 1949–50 season was Stoke City's 43rd season in the Football League and the 29th in the First Division.

In June 1949 Stoke legend Freddie Steele left the club after spending 17 years with the club scoring 159 goals. And Stoke failed to find a suitable replacement and struggled throughout the season and ended up in a relegation battle. There was no end of season improvement in results and Stoke only stayed up due to the poor form of the relegated bottom two Birmingham City and Manchester City.[1]

Season review

League

With the great Freddie Steele now moved on to Mansfield Town, the simmering unrest continued with Neil Franklin eager to move his family away from the Stoke-on-Trent area for health reasons.[1] The local air at this time was far from clean due to the pottery industry at its peak and with kilns belching out smoke and fumes.[1] With Steele gone manager Bob McGrory searched for a replacement and went out and spent £3,000 on Verdi Godwin from Manchester City, hoping that he would help the club find their goalscoring touch.[1]

Franklin re-signed for the club in time for the 1949–50 season and his presence bolstered the defence whilst the forward line was struggling.[1] By the end of October Stoke had just two wins to their name and were in deep relegation trouble so McGrory smashed the clubs transfer record by paying £9,000 to Celtic for Leslie Johnston.[1] However whilst Johnston was a fine footballer in Scotland he was not really up to the standard in English football and although he scored 22 goals in 92 games he was not the right player for the number 9 shirt.[1] On 15 October Frank Baker broke his leg for the fifth time in two years and he decided to retire.[1]

By January there had been a modest improvement in performances out on the pitch and McGrory made his best signing for some time, persuading Freddie Steele who was now player-manager at Mansfield to part with young up and coming forward Harry Oscroft, Stoke handing over £8,000 plus Verdi Godwin who scored just twice in 23 matches.[1] Soon after Oscroft's arrival, Stoke's defence started to leak goals and FA Cup finalists Arsenal put six past them at Highbury without a Stoke reply.[1] Stoke managed just three points from their remaining eight matches this season and narrowly avoided relegation.[1]

FA Cup

47,000 fans saw Stoke's cup run end at the third round losing 1–0 at home to Second Division Tottenham Hotspur.[1]

Final league table

Pos Club P W D L F A GA Pts
1 Portsmouth 42 22 9 11 74 38 1.947 53
2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 42 20 13 9 76 49 1.551 53
3 Sunderland 42 21 10 11 83 62 1.339 52
4 Manchester United 42 18 14 10 69 44 1.568 50
5 Newcastle United 42 19 12 11 77 55 1.400 50
6 Arsenal 42 19 11 12 79 55 1.436 49
7 Blackpool 42 17 15 10 46 35 1.314 49
8 Liverpool 42 17 14 11 64 54 1.185 48
9 Middlesbrough 42 20 7 15 59 48 1.229 47
10 Burnley 42 16 13 13 40 40 1.000 45
11 Derby County 42 17 10 15 69 61 1.131 44
12 Aston Villa 42 15 12 15 61 61 1.000 42
13 Chelsea 42 12 16 14 58 65 0.892 40
14 West Bromwich Albion 42 14 12 16 47 53 0.887 40
15 Huddersfield Town 42 14 9 19 52 73 0.712 37
16 Bolton Wanderers 42 10 14 18 45 59 0.763 34
17 Fulham 42 10 14 18 41 54 0.759 34
18 Everton 42 10 14 18 42 66 0.636 34
19 Stoke City 42 11 12 19 45 75 0.600 34
20 Charlton Athletic 42 13 6 23 53 65 0.815 32
21 Manchester City 42 8 13 21 36 68 0.529 29
22 Birmingham City 42 7 14 21 31 67 0.463 28

Key: P = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GA = Goal average; Pts = Points

Results

Stoke's score comes first

Legend

Win Draw Loss

Football League First Division

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Match Date Opponent Venue Result Attendance Scorers
1 20 August 1949 Bolton Wanderers A 0 – 4 29,333
2 22 August 1949 Liverpool H 0 – 0 27,205
3 27 August 1949 Birmingham City H 3 – 1 28,069 Bowyer (2), Godwin
4 31 August 1949 Liverpool A 1 – 1 38,097 Bowyer
5 3 September 1949 Derby County A 3 – 2 29,305 Bowyer, Sellars, Kirton
6 5 September 1949 Burnley A 1 – 2 25,062 Bowyer
7 10 September 1949 West Bromwich Albion H 1 – 3 36,815 G Mountford
8 12 September 1949 Burnley H 1 – 1 25,077 Bowyer
9 17 September 1949 Manchester United A 2 – 2 42,614 F Mountford (pen), Godwin
10 24 September 1949 Chelsea H 2 – 3 28,650 G Mountford, F Mountford (pen)
11 1 October 1949 Newcastle United A 1 – 4 49,903 Bowyer
12 8 October 1949 Fulham H 0 – 2 24,904
13 15 October 1949 Manchester City A 1 – 1 31,151 F Mountford (pen)
14 22 October 1949 Charlton Athletic H 0 – 3 20,740
15 29 October 1949 Aston Villa A 1 – 1 30,000 Sellars
16 5 November 1949 Wolverhampton Wanderers H 2 – 1 40,111 Sellars, F Mountford (pen)
17 12 November 1949 Portsmouth A 0 – 0 33,257
18 19 November 1949 Huddersfield Town H 0 – 0 20,038
19 26 November 1949 Everton A 1 – 2 30,000 Peppitt
20 3 December 1949 Middlesbrough H 1 – 0 17,297 Bowyer
21 10 December 1949 Blackpool A 2 – 4 17,000 Peppitt, Johnston
22 17 December 1949 Bolton Wanderers H 3 – 2 19,023 Johnston, Bowyer (2)
23 24 December 1949 Birmingham City A 0 – 1 20,000
24 26 December 1949 Sunderland A 0 – 3 50,246
25 27 December 1949 Sunderland H 2 – 1 41,635 Bowyer, F Mountford (pen)
26 31 December 1949 Derby County H 1 – 3 25,989 Whiston
27 14 January 1950 West Bromwich Albion A 0 – 0 34,840
28 21 January 1950 Manchester United H 3 – 1 38,901 G Mountford (2), Bowyer
29 4 February 1950 Chelsea A 2 – 2 45,097 Johnston (2)
30 18 February 1950 Newcastle United H 1 – 0 31,399 Oscroft
31 25 February 1950 Fulham A 2 – 2 30,000 G Mountford, Bowyer
32 4 March 1950 Manchester City H 2 – 0 29,986 G Mountford, Bowyer
33 11 March 1950 Huddersfield Town A 0 – 4 18,702
34 18 March 1950 Everton H 1 – 0 22,125 Bowyer
35 25 March 1950 Wolverhampton Wanderers A 1 – 2 38,388 Whiston
36 1 April 1950 Portsmouth H 0 – 1 26,456
37 8 April 1950 Charlton Athletic A 0 – 2 28,000
38 10 April 1950 Arsenal A 0 – 6 30,064
39 15 April 1950 Aston Villa H 1 – 0 20,590 Meakin
40 22 April 1950 Middlesbrough A 0 – 2 32,000
41 29 April 1950 Blackpool H 1 – 1 17,797 Johnston
42 6 May 1950 Arsenal H 2 – 5 22,225 Oscroft (2)

FA Cup

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Round Date Opponent Venue Result Attendance Scorers
R3 7 January 1950 Tottenham Hotspur H 0 – 1 47,000

Squad statistics

Pos. Name League FA Cup Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
GK England Dennis Herod 20 0 1 0 21 0
GK England Norman Wilkinson 22 0 0 0 22 0
DF England Neil Franklin 34 0 1 0 35 0
DF England Eric Hampson 1 0 0 0 1 0
DF England Roy Jones 1 0 0 0 1 0
DF England John McCue 35 0 0 0 35 0
DF England Harry Meakin 5 0 1 0 6 0
DF England Billy Mould 7 0 0 0 7 0
DF England Cyril Watkin 37 0 1 0 38 0
MF England Roy Brown 0 0 1 0 1 0
MF Scotland Jock Kirton 15 1 0 0 15 1
MF England Frank Mountford 37 5 0 0 37 5
MF England John Sellars 40 3 1 0 41 3
MF England Edward Wordley 1 0 0 0 1 0
MF England Donald Whiston 4 2 1 0 5 2
FW England Frank Baker 11 0 0 0 11 0
FW England Bill Barker 1 0 0 0 1 0
FW England Frank Bowyer 42 15 1 0 43 15
FW England Bill Caton 9 0 0 0 9 0
FW England Verdi Godwin 22 2 1 0 23 2
FW Scotland Leslie Johnston 27 5 1 0 28 5
FW England John Malkin 28 1 1 0 29 1
FW England George Mountford 32 6 0 0 32 6
FW England Alexander Ormston 5 0 0 0 5 0
FW England Harry Oscroft 16 3 0 0 16 3
FW England Syd Peppitt 9 2 0 0 9 2
FW England Reginald Pickup 1 0 0 0 1 0

References

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See also