1954–55 Stoke City F.C. season
# 1954–55 Stoke City F.C. season

The 1954–55 season was Stoke City's 48th season in the Football League and the 15th in the Second Division.

Taylor continued to add new players to the squad as the aim for 1954–55 was to gain promotion back to the First Division. Stoke made a great start to the season winning five out of their first six matches. Taylor was able to field a settled team for the majority of the season alas Stoke could not keep up their form and promotion was missed with Stoke finishing in 5th position. In the FA Cup Stoke were involved in one of the longest cup ties as their third round encounter with Bury went on to a fourth replay with Stoke finally winning 3–2 after 9 hours and 22 minutes of football.

## Season review

### League

Stoke manager Frank Taylor continued to purchase players as he attempted to guide Stoke back into the First Division. He added the Wolverhampton Wanderers left back Jack Short to his squad in the summer of 1954. Things looked to be improving when Stoke started the 1954–55 season in fine form winning five out of six. Taylor was fortunate to be able to field a settled side but the form rate was not maintained and promotion was missed, albeit by a narrow margin, Stoke taking fifth spot just two behind promoted Birmingham City and Luton Town. During the season Stoke beat Liverpool away 4–2 their first victory at Anfield for 60 years.

### FA Cup

In the FA Cup Stoke were drawn with Bury in the third round and after four draws the tie went to a fourth replay with Stoke finally beating Bury 3–2 in extra time. In total the tie took 9 hours and 22 minutes of football and had an aggregated scoreline of 10–9. Unfortunately for Stoke it was all in vain as in the next round they were defeated by Swansea Town.

## Final league table

| Pos | Team v t e | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 3 | Rotherham United | 42 | 25 | 4 | 13 | 94 | 64 | 1.469 | 54 |
| 4 | Leeds United | 42 | 23 | 7 | 12 | 70 | 53 | 1.321 | 53 |
| 5 | Stoke City | 42 | 21 | 10 | 11 | 69 | 46 | 1.500 | 52 |
| 6 | Blackburn Rovers | 42 | 22 | 6 | 14 | 114 | 79 | 1.443 | 50 |
| 7 | Notts County | 42 | 21 | 6 | 15 | 74 | 71 | 1.042 | 48 |

## Results

Stoke's score comes first

### Legend

| Win | Draw | Loss |
| - | - | - |

### Football League Second Division

| Match | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | 21 August 1954 | Birmingham City | H | 2–1 | 27,984 | Oscroft, Hutton |
| 2 | 25 August 1954 | Nottingham Forest | A | 3–0 | 20,515 | King (3) (2 Pens) |
| 3 | 28 August 1954 | Middlesbrough | A | 2–1 | 17,820 | King, Oscroft |
| 4 | 30 August 1954 | Nottingham Forest | H | 2–0 | 22,925 | Hutton, Oscroft |
| 5 | 4 September 1954 | Port Vale | H | 0–0 | 47,000 | |
| 6 | 8 September 1954 | Leeds United | A | 1–0 | 20,000 | King |
| 7 | 11 September 1954 | Rotherham United | H | 1–2 | 27,271 | Oscroft |
| 8 | 13 September 1954 | Leeds United | H | 0–1 | 18,737 | |
| 9 | 18 September 1954 | Luton Town | A | 1–3 | 17,352 | Bevans |
| 10 | 22 September 1954 | Ipswich Town | A | 1–0 | 15,536 | Oscroft |
| 11 | 25 September 1954 | Hull City | H | 0–0 | 10,185 | |
| 12 | 2 October 1954 | Lincoln City | A | 4–1 | 13,728 | Oscroft (3), Hutton |
| 13 | 9 October 1954 | Notts County | A | 0–1 | 23,000 | |
| 14 | 16 October 1954 | Liverpool | H | 2–0 | 23,569 | Oscroft, Hutton |
| 15 | 23 October 1954 | West Ham United | A | 0–3 | 27,200 | |
| 16 | 30 October 1954 | Blackburn Rovers | H | 1–1 | 27,540 | Bowyer |
| 17 | 6 November 1954 | Fulham | A | 2–2 | 32,000 | Bowyer, Oscroft |
| 18 | 13 November 1954 | Swansea Town | H | 4–1 | 19,993 | Hutton, Malkin, Short (2) |
| 19 | 27 November 1954 | Derby County | H | 3–1 | 18,055 | Bowyer (2), Oscroft |
| 20 | 4 December 1954 | Bristol Rovers | A | 1–1 | 21,240 | McCue |
| 21 | 11 December 1954 | Plymouth Argyle | H | 3–1 | 17,397 | Bowyer, King (2) |
| 22 | 18 December 1954 | Birmingham City | A | 0–2 | 22,100 | |
| 23 | 25 December 1954 | Bury | H | 3–2 | 18,312 | King (3) |
| 24 | 27 December 1954 | Bury | A | 1–1 | 24,091 | King |
| 25 | 1 January 1955 | Middlesbrough | H | 1–2 | 19,272 | Harris (o.g.) |
| 26 | 5 February 1955 | Luton Town | H | 0–0 | 21,156 | |
| 27 | 12 February 1955 | Hull City | A | 1–1 | 10,165 | Oscroft |
| 28 | 19 February 1955 | Lincoln City | H | 4–2 | 12,363 | Bowyer (3), King |
| 29 | 5 March 1955 | Liverpool | A | 4–2 | 35,635 | King (2), Oscroft, Malkin |
| 30 | 12 March 1955 | West Ham United | H | 0–2 | 20,496 | |
| 31 | 19 March 1955 | Blackburn Rovers | A | 0–2 | 27,200 | |
| 32 | 26 March 1955 | Fulham | H | 1–1 | 7,050 | Oscroft |
| 33 | 28 March 1955 | Notts County | H | 3–0 | 8,171 | Oscroft (2), Finney |
| 34 | 2 April 1955 | Swansea Town | A | 5–3 | 12,534 | Oscroft (2), Finney, Bowyer, King |
| 35 | 9 April 1955 | Doncaster Rovers | H | 3–0 | 20,259 | Oscroft, Bowyer, King |
| 36 | 11 April 1955 | Ipswich Town | H | 3–0 | 20,551 | Oscroft, Bowyer, Malkin |
| 37 | 16 April 1955 | Derby County | A | 2–1 | 12,584 | Finney, King |
| 38 | 18 April 1955 | Rotherham United | A | 1–2 | 19,888 | Bowyer |
| 39 | 20 April 1955 | Doncaster Rovers | A | 1–1 | 9,857 | Malkin |
| 40 | 23 April 1955 | Bristol Rovers | H | 2–0 | 18,139 | Oscroft, Finney |
| 41 | 25 April 1955 | Port Vale | A | 1–0 | 40,066 | Bowyer |
| 42 | 30 April 1955 | Plymouth Argyle | A | 0–2 | 23,844 | |

### FA Cup

| Round | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| R3 | 8 January 1955 | Bury | A | 1–1 | 20,227 | King |
| R3 Replay | 12 January 1955 | Bury | H | 1–1 (aet) | 13,352 | Ratcliffe |
| R3 Second Replay | 17 January 1955 | Bury | N | 3–3 (aet) | 2,469 | Bowyer (2), King |
| R3 Third Replay | 19 January 1955 | Bury | N | 2–2 (aet) | 9,881 | Ratcliffe, King |
| R3 Fourth Replay | 24 January 1955 | Bury | N | 3–2 (aet) | 22,549 | Thomson, Coleman (2) |
| R4 | 28 January 1955 | Swansea Town | A | 1–3 | 27,892 | Malkin |

## Squad statistics

| Pos. | Name | League | League | FA Cup | FA Cup | Total | Total |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Pos. | Name | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| GK | Wilf Hall | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| GK | Bill Robertson | 41 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 42 | 0 |
| DF | George Bourne | 28 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 34 | 0 |
| DF | John McCue | 41 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 1 |
| DF | Jack Short | 25 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 31 | 2 |
| DF | Ken Thomson | 41 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 47 | 1 |
| MF | Bobby Cairns | 18 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 24 | 0 |
| MF | Frank Mountford | 40 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 43 | 0 |
| MF | Alan Martin | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| MF | John Sellars | 38 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 0 |
| FW | Stan Bevans | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 1 |
| FW | Frank Bowyer | 29 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 35 | 15 |
| FW | Neville Coleman | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| FW | Bill Finney | 11 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 15 | 4 |
| FW | Colin Hutchinson | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| FW | Joe Hutton | 19 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 5 |
| FW | Johnny King | 36 | 17 | 6 | 3 | 42 | 20 |
| FW | John Malkin | 26 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 31 | 5 |
| FW | Harry Oscroft | 37 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 38 | 21 |
| FW | Don Ratcliffe | 6 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 11 | 2 |
| FW | Derrick Ward | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| – | Own goals | – | 1 | – | 0 | – | 1 |
