1934–35 Stoke City F.C. season

Stoke City

1934–35 season
Chairman	Mr A.McSherwin
Manager	Tom Mather
Stadium	Victoria Ground
Football League First Division	10th (42 Points)
FA Cup	Third Round
Top goalscorer	League: Tommy Sale (24) All: Tommy Sale (24)
Highest home attendance	45,349 vs Arsenal (6 October 1934)
Lowest home attendance	9,965 vs Huddersfield Town (4 May 1935)
Average home league attendance	22,349
Home colours
← 1933–34 1935–36 →

The 1934–35 season was Stoke City's 35th season in the Football League and the 21st in the First Division.

Stoke had an unprecedented amount of funds available as the chairman announced that they had recorded a £13,422 profit. The results on the pitch were similar to last season this time in reverse order with Stoke having a good first half but a poor second half to the campaign. Stoke finished in 10th position with 42 points.^[1]

Season review

League

Chairman Sherwin went on record in the summer of 1934 by saying never before in its history has the club been in such a good position financially, Stoke had just made a profit of £13,422.^[1] There was a considerable talk of more ground improvements to be made to the Victoria Ground, but some fans wanted the money to be spent on the development of younger players.^[1]

Stoke started the 1934–35 season by losing 4–1 at Sheffield Wednesday but then quickly made amends by beating Leeds United 8–1 in their opening home match with Stanley Matthews scoring four goals which earned him his first England call up.^[1] Another local star to emerge from the youth team was forward Freddie Steele who used to work for Downings Tileries before becoming a professional footballer.^[1] Stoke started the campaign well and for one week in October they sat top of the table. They remained in the top five until February but a disappointing run of results towards the end of the season saw them finish in mid-table position of 10th.^[1]

FA Cup

Stoke were embarrassed in this seasons FA Cup losing 4–1 away at Swansea Town.^[1]

Final league table

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	F	A	GA	Pts
1	Arsenal	42	23	12	7	115	46	2.500	58
2	Sunderland	42	19	16	7	90	51	1.765	54
3	Sheffield Wednesday	42	18	13	11	70	64	1.094	49
4	Manchester City	42	20	8	14	82	67	1.224	48
5	Grimsby Town	42	17	11	14	78	60	1.300	45
6	Derby County	42	18	9	15	81	66	1.227	45
7	Liverpool	42	19	7	16	85	88	0.966	45
8	Everton	42	16	12	14	89	88	1.011	44
9	West Bromwich Albion	42	17	10	15	83	83	1.000	44
10	Stoke City	42	18	6	18	71	70	1.014	42
11	Preston North End	42	15	12	15	62	67	0.925	42
12	Chelsea	42	16	9	17	73	82	0.890	41
13	Aston Villa	42	14	13	15	74	88	0.841	41
14	Portsmouth	42	15	10	17	71	72	0.986	40
15	Blackburn Rovers	42	14	11	17	66	78	0.846	39
16	Huddersfield Town	42	14	10	18	76	71	1.070	38
17	Wolverhampton Wanderers	42	15	8	19	88	94	0.936	38
18	Leeds United	42	13	12	17	75	92	0.815	38
19	Birmingham	42	13	10	19	63	81	0.778	36
20	Middlesbrough	42	10	14	18	70	90	0.778	34
21	Leicester City	42	12	9	21	61	86	0.709	33
22	Tottenham Hotspur	42	10	10	22	54	93	0.581	30

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

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	25 August 1934	Sheffield Wednesday	A	1–4	18,000	Liddle
2	27 August 1934	Leeds United	H	8–1	24,555	Matthews (4), Johnson (2), Sale (2)
3	1 September 1934	Birmingham	H	2–0	29,642	Sale, Tutin
4	3 September 1934	Leeds United	A	2–4	20,000	Sale, Liddle
5	8 September 1934	Derby County	A	2–0	18,220	Sale, Turner
6	15 September 1934	Manchester City	A	1–3	60,000	Johnson
7	22 September 1934	Middlesbrough	H	2–0	19,768	Matthews (2)
8	29 September 1934	Blackburn Rovers	A	1–0	10,127	Davies
9	6 October 1934	Arsenal	H	2–2	45,349	Sale (2)
10	13 October 1934	Portsmouth	A	1–0	18,000	Sale
11	20 October 1934	Aston Villa	H	4–1	33,744	Sale, Johnson, Liddle (2)
12	27 October 1934	Chelsea	A	2–0	25,000	Sale (2)
13	3 November 1934	Sunderland	H	0–3	27,737
14	10 November 1934	Leicester City	A	3–0	25,000	Sale (2), Matthews
15	17 November 1934	Everton	H	3–2	29,127	Liddle, Johnson (2)
16	24 November 1934	Grimsby Town	A	1–3	12,125	Turner (pen)
17	1 December 1934	Preston North End	H	3–1	21,455	Sale (2), Johnson
18	8 December 1934	Tottenham Hotspur	A	2–3	30,000	Matthews, Davies
19	15 December 1934	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	1–2	18,000	Sale
20	22 December 1934	Huddersfield Town	A	4–1	4,037	Sale (2), Davies, Liddle
21	25 December 1934	West Bromwich Albion	A	0–3	38,531
22	26 December 1934	West Bromwich Albion	H	3–0	18,219	Liddle, Johnson, Steele
23	29 December 1934	Sheffield Wednesday	H	1–1	19,387	Liddle
24	5 January 1935	Birmingham	A	0–0	30,000
25	19 January 1935	Derby County	H	1–1	25,006	Liddle
26	26 January 1935	Manchester City	H	2–0	24,453	Ware, Johnson
27	2 February 1935	Middlesbrough	A	0–2	12,000
28	9 February 1935	Blackburn Rovers	H	3–1	20,646	Davies, Sale (2)
29	20 February 1935	Arsenal	A	0–2	30,529
30	23 February 1935	Portsmouth	H	1–2	15,014	Johnson
31	2 March 1935	Aston Villa	A	1–4	25,000	Johnson
32	9 March 1935	Chelsea	H	0–1	13,186
33	16 March 1935	Sunderland	A	1–4	30,000	Ware
34	23 March 1935	Leicester City	H	3–0	15,000	Matthews (2), Turner (pen)
35	30 March 1935	Everton	A	0–5	20,346
36	6 April 1935	Grimsby Town	H	0–0	13,439
37	13 April 1935	Preston North End	A	2–5	13,000	Robson (2)
38	19 April 1935	Liverpool	A	0–5	20,000
39	20 April 1935	Tottenham Hotspur	H	4–1	11,653	Sale (3), Liddle
40	22 April 1935	Liverpool	H	1–1	20,305	Sale
41	27 April 1935	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	1–2	17,489	Almond
42	4 May 1935	Huddersfield Town	H	2–0	9,965	Davies, Turner (pen)

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
R3	1 January 1935	Swansea Town	A	1–4	20,200	Matthews

Squad statistics

Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
GK	Freddie Houldsworth	2	0	0	0	2	0
GK	Norman Lewis	36	0	1	0	37	0
GK	Ken Scattergood	4	0	0	0	4	0
DF	John Bamber	3	0	0	0	3	0
DF	Joe Buller	1	0	0	0	1	0
DF	Bob McGrory	42	0	1	0	43	0
DF	Charlie Scrimshaw	1	0	0	0	1	0
DF	Billy Spencer	41	0	1	0	43	0
MF	Jack Lewis	2	0	0	0	2	0
MF	Peter McArdle	1	0	0	0	1	0
MF	Wilf Mayer	1	0	0	0	1	0
MF	Harry Sellars	40	0	1	0	41	0
MF	Arthur Turner	39	4	1	0	40	4
MF	Arthur Tutin	41	1	1	0	42	1
FW	John Almond	1	1	0	0	1	1
FW	Harry Davies	35	5	1	0	36	5
FW	Joe Johnson	38	11	1	0	39	11
FW	Bobby Liddle	38	10	1	0	39	10
FW	Stanley Matthews	36	10	1	1	37	11
FW	Billy Robson	3	2	0	0	3	2
FW	Tommy Sale	35	24	1	0	36	24
FW	Frank Soo	9	0	0	0	9	0
FW	Freddie Steele	9	1	0	0	9	1
FW	Harry Ware	4	2	0	0	4	2

References

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

See also

• 1934–35 in English football
• List of Stoke City F.C. seasons