The 1956–57 season was Stoke City's 50th season in the Football League and the 17th in the Second Division.

With Stoke now entering a fourth season of Second tier football, there was much pressure placed on both manager Frank Taylor and the squad for 1956–57. And Stoke made a great effort in an attempt to gain promotion with a fine home record and new floodlights which saw Lincoln City beaten 8–0 with Neville Coleman scoring 7. However, after this Stoke bizarrely failed to find the back of the net in six straight defeats and this poor run of form cost Stoke promotion and in the end they finished in 5th position with 48 points.

Season review

League In the 1956–57 season, with the pressure on both the manager and players, Stoke made a great effort at winning promotion back to the First Division. A string of fine home results over Notts County (6–0), Leyton Orient (7–1) and Rotherham United (6–0) raised the fans hopes. Floodlights were installed in October 1956 and the first match under the lights was in the Potteries derby against Port Vale. A crowd of 38,729 turned up to see Stoke win 3–1 to maintain their good form.

Neville Coleman was getting the bulk of Stoke goals which accumulated on 23 February 1957 when Lincoln City arrived at the Victoria Ground. That day Stoke hammered luckless Lincoln 8–0 with Coleman scoring a record seven of the goals. At this stage of the season promotion looked like it could be achieved but all of a sudden Stoke's form completely dropped, after a 1–1 draw with Sheffield United Stoke lost their next six matches and failed to score in any of them and their hopes of promotion died.

FA Cup Stoke were drawn away at First Division side Arsenal in the third round and were beaten 4–2 by the "Gunners".

Final league table

Results

Stoke's score comes first

Legend WinDrawLoss

Football League Second Division

MatchDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorers1 18 August 1956 MiddlesbroughA1–113,116Cairns (pen)2 20 August 1956 Grimsby TownH1–020,921Coleman3 25 August 1956 Leicester CityH3–123,675Coleman, Cairns (pen), Oscroft4 28 August 1956 Grimsby TownA1–417,722Bowyer5 1 September 1956 Bristol RoversA0–425,4306 3 September 1956 Doncaster RoversH1–114,497King7 8 September 1956 Notts CountyH6–018,564Kelly, Oscroft, Bowyer, Coleman (2), Cairns (pen)8 10 September 1956 Doncaster RoversA0–414,6749 15 September 1956 LiverpoolA2–047,119Kelly, King10 22 September 1956 Leyton OrientH7–119,957Kelly, King, Cairns (pen), Coleman, Oscroft (2), Bowyer11 29 September 1956 Huddersfield TownA2–216,202Oscroft, Bowyer12 6 October 1956 Rotherham UnitedH6–021,589Oscroft, Bowyer, King (2), Coleman (2)13 10 October 1956 Port ValeH3–138,729Coleman (2), Kelly14 13 October 1956 Lincoln CityA1–013,066Coleman15 20 October 1956 Sheffield UnitedH3–326,849Coleman (2), Kelly16 27 October 1956 FulhamA0–129,74817 3 November 1956 Nottingham ForestH2–132,637Bowyer, Oscroft18 10 November 1956 West Ham UnitedA0–117,50019 17 November 1956 Blackburn RoversH4–121,067Bowyer, King, Coleman, Kelly20 24 November 1956 Bristol CityA2–117,796Coleman, Kelly21 1 December 1956 Swansea TownH4–123,409Coleman, King, Bowyer (2)22 8 December 1956 BarnsleyA2–211,626Bowyer, Kelly23 15 December 1956 MiddlesbroughH3–120,679Coleman (3)24 22 December 1956 Leicester CityA2–328,178Kelly (2)25 29 December 1956 Bristol RoversH2–130,936Bowyer, Graver26 1 January 1957 BuryA1–013,180Graver27 12 January 1957 Notts CountyA0–513,62028 19 January 1957 LiverpoolH1–031,144Oscroft29 2 February 1957 Leyton OrientA2–218,705Kelly (2)30 9 February 1957 Huddersfield TownH5–127,503Oscroft (2), Bowyer, Coleman, Cairns (pen)31 16 February 1957 Rotherham UnitedA0–111,51132 23 February 1957 Lincoln CityH8–010,790Coleman (7), King33 1 March 1957 Sheffield UnitedA1–120,277Kelly34 9 March 1957 FulhamH0–224,76635 16 March 1957 Nottingham ForestA0–432,29436 23 March 1957 West Ham UnitedH0–119,87537 30 March 1957 Blackburn RoversA0–127,60038 6 April 1957 Bristol CityH0–213,39739 13 April 1957 Swansea TownA0–115,00040 20 April 1957 BarnsleyH3–011,600Bowyer (2), Graver41 22 April 1957 BuryH2–011,083Bowyer, Oscroft42 29 April 1957 Port ValeA2–218,573Graver, King

FA Cup

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorersR35 January 1957 ArsenalA2–456,173Coleman 43'; Oscroft 64'

Friendlies MatchOpponentVenueResult123456789

Squad statistics Pos.NameLeagueFA CupTotalAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsGK Bill Robertson42010430DF Alec Acton000000DF Peter Ford200020DF John McCue39010400DF Frank Mountford39010400DF Ken Thomson40010410DF Donald Whiston300030MF Bill Asprey900090MF Bobby Cairns36510375MF Edward Rayner200020MF John Sellars40010410FW Frank Bowyer3814103914FW Neville Coleman4226114327FW Andy Graver13500135FW Colin Hutchinson100010FW Joe Hutton700070FW George Kelly3013103113FW Johnny King34910359FW Harry Oscroft4111114212FW Peter Phoenix000000FW Don Ratcliffe100010FW Derrick Ward300030

References