1921–22 Stoke F.C. season

Stoke

1921–22 season
Chairman	Mr E.Reynish
Manager	Arthur Shallcross
Stadium	Victoria Ground
Football League Second Division	2nd (52 Points)
FA Cup	Third Round
Top goalscorer	League: Jimmy Broad (25) All: Jimmy Broad (27)
Highest home attendance	27,015 vs Port Vale (24 September 1921)
Lowest home attendance	5,000 vs Bury (21 January 1922)
Average home league attendance	15,200
Home colours
← 1920–21 1922–23 →

The 1921–22 season was Stoke's 22nd season in the Football League and the fourth in the Second Division.

After almost being relegated to the third tier last season Stoke improved dramatically and finished in 2nd position gaining promotion to the First Division.^[1] Key to Stoke's success was the early season signing of the Broad brothers Tommy and Jimmy with the later scoring 27 goals.^[1]

Season review

League

After the disappointments of last season, there was another conscious effort to strengthen the squad for the 1921–22 season, and a wealthy director John Slater proved to be the most ambitious as he spent a lot of his own money to bring to the club the Broad brothers, Tommy and Jimmy.^[1] Jimmy was an out-and-out centre forward who came in after having scored 37 goals in 48 matches for Millwall.^[1] Tommy on the other hand was a pacey right winger who signed from Manchester City.^[1] The idea of developing young talent was also coming to the fore, with the appointment of Tom Brittleton as player-coach, which was met with approval from the clubs supporters.^[1]

The season turned out to be one of the best the club had experienced up to that time and promotion was gained to the top-flight, Stoke finishing runners-up to Nottingham Forest.^[1] Eleven home draws probably cost Stoke top spot but nevertheless their form throughout the season was very good and the team was well supported by the fans with an average attendance of 15,000.^[1] Jimmy Broad was top scorer with 25 league goals and he also became the first Stoke player to score four goals in a Football League match, achieving this feat in a 5–1 home win over Crystal Palace in early December.^[1] Stoke also achieved an unbeaten league run of 15 matches from 27 December to 8 April.^[1]

FA Cup

The Cup also provided Stoke with some success as they beat local rivals Port Vale 4–2 in an epic cup tie in Burslem.^[1] Arthur Watkin scored a hat-trick in front of 14,471 tie at The Old Recreation Ground.^[1] Stoke then saw off Northampton Town 3–0 in a replay before 43,689 fans turned out to see Stoke take on Aston Villa in the third round.^[1] The match ended goalless and in the replay Villa ran away with it and scored four without reply.^[1]

Final league table

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	F	A	GA	Pts
1	Nottingham Forest	42	22	12	8	51	30	1.700	56
2	Stoke	42	18	16	8	60	44	1.364	52
3	Barnsley	42	22	8	12	67	52	1.288	52
4	West Ham United	42	20	8	14	52	39	1.333	48
5	Hull City	42	19	10	13	51	41	1.244	48
6	South Shields	42	17	12	13	43	38	1.132	46
7	Fulham	42	18	9	15	57	38	1.500	45
8	Leeds United	42	16	13	13	48	38	1.263	45
9	Leicester City	42	14	17	11	39	34	1.147	45
10	The Wednesday	42	15	14	13	47	50	0.940	44
11	Bury	42	15	10	17	54	55	0.982	40
12	Derby County	42	15	9	18	60	64	0.938	39
13	Notts County	42	12	15	15	47	51	0.922	39
14	Crystal Palace	42	13	13	16	45	51	0.882	39
15	Clapton Orient	42	15	9	18	43	50	0.860	39
16	Rotherham County	42	14	11	17	32	43	0.744	39
17	Wolverhampton Wanderers	42	13	11	18	44	49	0.898	37
18	Port Vale	42	14	8	20	43	57	0.754	36
19	Blackpool	42	15	5	22	44	57	0.772	35
20	Coventry City	42	12	10	20	51	60	0.850	34
21	Bradford Park Avenue	42	12	9	21	46	62	0.742	33
22	Bristol City	42	12	9	21	37	58	0.638	33

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 Second Division

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	27 August 1921	West Ham United	H	2–0	15,000	Watkin, J Broad
2	29 August 1921	South Shields	A	1–1	4,000	J Broad
3	3 September 1921	West Ham United	A	0–3	20,000
4	5 September 1921	South Shields	H	2–1	8,500	J Broad (2)
5	10 September 1921	Clapton Orient	H	0–0	15,000
6	17 September 1921	Clapton Orient	A	0–1	10,000
7	24 September 1921	Port Vale	H	0–0	27,015
8	1 October 1921	Port Vale	A	1–0	24,996	J Broad
9	8 October 1921	Bradford Park Avenue	H	0–1	12,000
10	15 October 1921	Bradford Park Avenue	A	4–2	10,000	J Broad (2), Watkin, T Broad
11	22 October 1921	Leeds United	A	2–1	10,000	J Broad, Tempest
12	29 October 1921	Leeds United	H	3–0	15,000	J Broad, T Broad, Whitehurst
13	5 November 1921	Hull City	H	0–0	10,000
14	12 November 1921	Hull City	A	1–7	9,000	Watkin
15	19 November 1921	Notts County	H	0–0	6,000
16	26 November 1921	Notts County	A	0–0	10,000
17	3 December 1921	Crystal Palace	H	5–1	9,000	J Broad (4), Groves
18	10 December 1921	Crystal Palace	A	2–0	12,000	J Broad (2)
19	17 December 1921	Rotherham County	A	0–0	6,000
20	24 December 1921	Rotherham County	H	1–1	6,000	J Broad
21	26 December 1921	Fulham	A	1–2	17,000	Clarke
22	27 December 1921	Fulham	H	3–0	20,000	Tempest, Watkin, Groves
23	31 December 1921	The Wednesday	H	1–1	12,000	Groves
24	14 January 1922	The Wednesday	A	1–0	10,000	Groves
25	21 January 1922	Bury	H	1–0	5,000	T Broad
26	4 February 1922	Leicester City	H	1–1	9,000	T Broad
27	8 February 1922	Bury	A	1–0	7,000	Watkin
28	11 February 1922	Leicester City	A	4–3	21,000	Groves (2), J Broad, Tempest
29	25 February 1922	Derby County	A	4–2	8,000	Groves, J Broad, Twemlow, Mellor
30	4 March 1922	Coventry City	H	2–2	16,000	Groves, J Broad
31	6 March 1922	Derby County	H	1–1	11,000	J Broad
32	11 March 1922	Coventry City	A	1–0	25,000	Groves
33	18 March 1922	Barnsley	A	2–2	10,000	J Broad, Watkin
34	25 March 1922	Barnsley	H	1–0	14,000	Tempest
35	1 April 1922	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	1–1	20,000	Tempest
36	8 April 1922	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	3–0	10,000	Tempest, J Broad (2)
37	14 April 1922	Blackpool	A	2–3	17,000	J Broad, Groves
38	15 April 1922	Nottingham Forest	H	1–1	20,000	J Broad
39	17 April 1922	Blackpool	H	1–1	20,000	Tempest
40	22 April 1922	Nottingham Forest	A	1–3	12,000	Whitehurst
41	29 April 1922	Bristol City	A	0–2	15,000
42	6 May 1922	Bristol City	H	3–0	16,000	Groves, Watkin (2)

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
R1	7 January 1922	Port Vale	A	4–2	14,471	Watkin (3), Tempest
R2	28 January 1922	Northampton Town	A	2–2	16,000	Watkin (2)
R2 Replay	2 February 1922	Northampton Town	H	3–0	30,000	Tempest, J Broad (2)
R3	18 February 1922	Aston Villa	H	0–0	43,689
R3 Replay	22 February 1922	Aston Villa	A	0–4	26,540

Squad statistics

Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
GK	Tom Kay	6	0	0	0	6	0
GK	Percy Knott	15	0	2	0	17	0
GK	Jimmy Lee	21	0	3	0	24	0
DF	Tommy Howe	1	0	0	0	1	0
DF	Bob McGrory	41	0	5	0	46	0
DF	Alec Milne	41	0	5	0	46	0
MF	Ewart Beswick	17	0	4	0	21	0
MF	Tom Brittleton	14	0	5	0	19	0
MF	George Clarke	42	1	5	0	47	1
MF	Bill Dickie	12	0	0	0	12	0
MF	Billy Poole	6	0	0	0	6	0
MF	Dickie Smith	35	0	2	0	37	0
MF	Fred Wilkinson	3	0	0	0	3	0
FW	Jimmy Broad	41	25	5	2	46	27
FW	Tommy Broad	32	3	4	0	36	3
FW	Fred Groves	28	12	5	0	33	12
FW	Tommy Little	4	0	0	0	4	0
FW	Syd Mellor	8	1	0	0	8	1
FW	Albert Moore	1	0	0	0	1	0
FW	Dai Nicholas	6	0	0	0	6	0
FW	Louis Page	1	0	0	0	1	0
FW	Victor Shore	3	0	0	0	3	0
FW	Sam Spencer	1	0	0	0	1	0
FW	Billy Tempest	41	7	5	2	46	9
FW	Charlie Twemlow	1	1	0	0	1	1
FW	Arthur Watkin	35	8	5	5	40	13
FW	Albert Whitehurst	6	2	0	0	6	2

References

1. Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.

See also

• 1921–22 in English football
• List of Stoke City F.C. seasons