1949–50 Stoke City F.C. season

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
← 1948–49 1950–51 →

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

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

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

References

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

See also

• 1949–50 in English football
• List of Stoke City F.C. seasons