1978–79 Stoke City F.C. season

Stoke City
1978–79 season
Chairman Thomas Degg
Manager Alan Durban
Stadium Victoria Ground
Football League Second Division 3rd (56 Points)
FA Cup Third Round
League Cup Quarter Final
Top goalscorer League: Brendan O'Callaghan (15)
All: Brendan O'Callaghan (16)
Highest home attendance 24,912 vs West Ham United (3 March 1979)
Lowest home attendance 15,116 vs Millwall (26 August 1978)
Average home league attendance 19,125
Home colours

The 1978–79 season was Stoke City's 72nd season in the Football League and the 25th in the Second Division.

Alan Durban continued his good start at Stoke and they were involved in a promotion race from the start of the campaign. It proved to be a very exciting season with four clubs all keeping pace with each other meaning that it went down until the final match of the season. Stoke needed to beat Notts County at Meadow Lane to gain promotion and despite a large Stoke away following it seemed that County would spoil the party but with just two minutes remaining Paul Richardson scored the winning goal and Stoke took the final promotion position in the most dramatic way.[1]

Season review

League

With all close season in which to work out the future, Alan Durban turned to his old club Shrewsbury Town and paid £60,000 for midfielder Sammy Irvine and paid £50,000 for Manchester City's experienced defender Mike Doyle.[1] The 1978–79 season started well with Stoke winning five of their first six matches. Paul Randall arrived from Bristol Rovers as Stoke maintained their good form.[1] They were rarely out of the top three but neither were promotion rivals Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace and Sunderland.[1] This meant that the race for promotion went all the way to the final day of the season and Stoke knew that they had to win their last League match away at Notts County to gain a return to the First Division.[1] Backed by well over 14,000 fans, Stoke came out victorious albeit late on, Paul Richardson's header two minutes from time deciding the match and earned Stoke 3rd spot in the table, finishing a point above Sunderland.[1]

FA Cup

Stoke suffered misfortune in this season's FA Cup when, having taken a 2–0 lead in their third round tie at home to Oldham Athletic, a heavy blizzard caused the match to be abandoned. In the rematch Oldham claimed a 1–0 victory.[1]

League Cup

Stoke had a useful run beating Sunderland, Northampton Town and Charlton Athletic all away before losing 3–1 to Watford at the quarter final stage.[1]

Final league table

PosClubPWDLFAGDPts
1Crystal Palace42191945124+2757
2Brighton & Hove Albion42231097239+3356
3Stoke City42201665831+2756
4Sunderland42221197044+2655
5West Ham United421814107039+3150
6Notts County421416124860–1244
7Preston North End421218125957+242
8Newcastle United42178175155–442
9Cardiff City421610165670–1442
10Fulham421315145047+341
11Orient421510175151040
12Cambridge United421216144452–840
13Burnley421412165162–1140
14Oldham Athletic421313165261–939
15Wrexham421214164542+338
16Bristol Rovers421410184860–1238
17Leicester City421017154352–937
18Luton Town421310196057+336
19Charlton Athletic421113186069–935
20Sheffield United421112195269–1734
21Millwall421110214261–1932
22Blackburn Rovers421010224172–3130

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

Results

Stoke's score comes first

Legend

Win Draw Loss

Football League Second Division

MatchDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorers
1 19 August 1978 Cambridge UnitedA1–07,489Richardson 87'
2 23 August 1978 Cardiff CityH2–016,001Smith 75', Busby 85'
3 26 August 1978 MillwallH2–015,176Busby 77', Crooks 82' (pen)
4 2 September 1978 Oldham AthleticA1–111,267Richardson 46'
5 9 September 1978 OrientA1–06,587O'Callaghan 84'
6 23 September 1978 Preston North EndA1–014,051Kendall 24'
7 27 September 1978 Brighton & Hove AlbionH2–222,201Crooks 45' (pen), O'Callaghan 50'
8 30 September 1978 Crystal PalaceH1–119,079Irvine 5'
9 7 October 1978 FulhamA0–212,534
10 14 October 1978 BurnleyH3–118,437Richardson 14', Kendall 28', Irvine 55'
11 21 October 1978 West Ham UnitedA1–127,859Richardson 87'
12 28 October 1978 Sheffield UnitedH2–121,285O'Callaghan 7', Crooks 74' (pen)
13 4 November 1978 SunderlandA1–025,170O'Callaghan 87'
14 11 November 1978 Cambridge UnitedH1–319,024Busby 62'
15 18 November 1978 MillwallA0–36,925
16 22 November 1978 Oldham AthleticH4–017,170O'Callaghan 14', Irvine 19', Crooks (2) 66', 78'
17 25 November 1978 Blackburn RoversA2–210,841O'Callaghan 65', Crooks 76' (pen)
18 2 December 1978 Leicester CityH0–015,590
19 9 December 1978 Newcastle UnitedA0–223,447
20 16 December 1978 WrexhamH3–018,358Crooks (2) 40', 72', Roberts 75' (o.g.)
21 23 December 1978 Bristol RoversA0–07,897
22 26 December 1978 Charlton AthleticH2–220,841McGroarty 30', O'Callaghan 53'
23 30 December 1978 Notts CountyH2–021,394Irvine 3', O'Callaghan 80'
24 20 January 1979 Brighton & Hove AlbionA1–123,071O'Callaghan 29'
25 6 February 1979 Luton TownA0–06,462
26 10 February 1979 Crystal PalaceA1–123,315Irvine 84'
27 24 February 1979 BurnleyA3–013,756O'Callaghan 63', Randall 86', Crooks 90'
28 28 February 1979 Preston North EndH1–118,177O'Callaghan 64'
29 3 March 1979 West Ham UnitedH2–024,912Doyle 9', Randall 85'
30 10 March 1979 Sheffield UnitedA0–020,512
31 14 March 1979 OrientH3–116,189Irvine 20', Crooks (2) 30', 65'
32 24 March 1979 Cardiff CityA3–114,869Randall 16', O'Callaghan 43', Crooks 68'
33 27 March 1979 SunderlandH0–124,021
34 31 March 1979 Blackburn RoversH1–217,021O'Callaghan 15'
35 4 April 1979 FulhamH2–015,243Smith 63', Randall 65'
36 7 April 1979 Leicester CityA1–117,502Busby 44'
37 14 April 1979 Charlton AthleticA4–19,084Richardson 24', Randall 47', O'Callaghan 82', Irvine 86'
38 16 April 1979 Luton TownH0–019,214
39 17 April 1979 Bristol RoversH2–018,671Busby (2) 4', 27'
40 21 April 1979 WrexhamA1–020,215O'Callaghan 44'
41 25 April 1979 Newcastle UnitedH0–023,271
42 5 May 1979 Notts CountyA1–021,579Richardson 88'

FA Cup

Main article: 1978–79 FA Cup
RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorers
R36 January 1979 Oldham AthleticH2–015,991Abandoned due to heavy snow
R317 January 1979 Oldham AthleticH0–116,554

League Cup

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorers
R230 August 1978 SunderlandA2–012,368Irvine 3', Doyle 34'
R33 October 1978 Northampton TownA3–111,235Dodd 10', O'Callaghan 52', Kendall 90'
R47 November 1978 Charlton AthleticA3–218,667Irvine 1', Busby 20', Crooks 88' (pen)
Quarter Final8 December 1978 WatfordH0–026,070
Quarter Final Replay9 January 1979 WatfordA1–321,419Richardson 67'

Friendlies

MatchOpponentVenueResult
1Torquay UnitedA2–1
2Northwich VictoriaA3–1
3Leek TownA5–0
4Exeter CityA1–0
5Plymouth ArgyleA0–2
6Shrewsbury TownA1–1
7WolvesH0–3
8Eastwood HanleyA5–0

Squad statistics

Pos. Name League FA Cup League Cup Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
GKEngland Peter Fox 10000010
GKEngland Roger Jones 4101050470
DFEngland Danny Bowers 00001010
DFEngland Alan Dodd 34(4)0105140(4)1
DFEngland Mike Doyle 4111041462
DFEngland Paul Johnson 7(1)000007(1)0
DFEngland Paul Anthony Johnson 20000020
DFEngland Jackie Marsh 2400030270
DFEngland Geoff Scott 37(1)0104042(1)0
DFEngland Denis Smith 3821050442
MFEngland Jeff Cook 1(2)000001(2)0
MFRepublic of Ireland Terry Conroy 3(4)0001(1)04(5)0
MFEngland Adrian Heath 1(1)000203(1)0
MFScotland Sammy Irvine 4171042469
MFEngland Howard Kendall 4021051463
MFEngland Kevin Sheldon 0(1)000000(1)0
MFEngland Paul Ricardson 4061051467
MFEngland Steve Waddington 20000020
FWEngland Viv Busby 8(10)60(1)01(2)19(13)7
FWEngland Garth Crooks 38(2)12104(1)143(3)13
FWNorthern Ireland Jimmy McGroarty 3(1)110105(1)1
FWRepublic of Ireland Brendan O'Callaghan 40(1)15105146(1)16
FWEngland Paul Randall 2050000205
Own goals 1001

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.