The 1965–66 season was Stoke City's 59th season in the Football League and the 35th in the First Division.

Stoke had an inconsistent season as they found themselves being able to score a good number of goals but at the same time conceded many as well, scoring 65 goals and conceding 64. Stoke's final league position in 1965–66 was 10th, a modest improvement on the previous campaign.

Season review

League The manager, chairman, directors and the supporters, all seemed happy with the squad for the 1965–66 season. But problems arose in defence as they started to concede a worrying number of goals with West Bromwich Albion hitting six while Burnley, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday all put four past a leaky Stoke defence. However Stoke were also scoring an equal number of goals themselves as Northampton Town were beaten 6–2 with Ritchie again scoring four goals. Stoke finished the season in a respectable position of 10th. At the end of the season both Jimmy McIlroy and Bill Asprey left the club after having a good careers at the Victoria Ground. The 1965–66 season also saw the introduction of the substitute, Stoke's first sub being Keith Bebbington.

Tony Waddington tried to sign Swedish international Sven-Gunnar Larsson early in the season and actually played him in a friendly against Dynamo Moscow, but permission was denied by the FA and Stoke were fined £100.

FA Cup Stoke were drawn at home to Third Division side Walsall in the third round and were to shock Stoke with a 2–0 win. Bobby Irvine played in the match and a produced a woeful performance and his mistake cost Stoke the match and also his Stoke career as he never played for the club again.

League Cup Stoke went out of this season's League Cup in the fourth round losing 2–1 away at Burnley after knocking out both Norwich City and Chesterfield.

Final league table

Results

Stoke's score comes first

Legend WinDrawLoss

Football League First Division

MatchDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorers1 21 August 1965 ArsenalA1–230,100Ritchie2 25 August 1965 ChelseaH2–228,154Viollet (2)3 28 August 1965 EvertonH1–130,014Ritchie (pen)4 1 September 1965 ChelseaA2–125,071Viollet, Setters5 4 September 1965 Manchester UnitedA1–137,603Dobing6 8 September 1965 Blackburn RoversH3–212,375Vernon, Ritchie (pen), Newton (o.g.)7 11 September 1965 Newcastle UnitedH4–025,702Vernon (2), Dobing, Bebbington8 15 September 1965 Blackburn RoversA1–09,565Bebbington9 18 September 1965 West Bromwich AlbionA2–624,374Vernon, Dobing10 25 September 1965 Nottingham ForestH1–021,079Setters11 9 October 1965 Leicester CityH1–024,025Dobing12 16 October 1965 Sheffield UnitedA2–322,649Dobing, Kinnell13 23 October 1965 Leeds UnitedH1–230,893Viollet14 30 October 1965 West Ham UnitedA0–018,57015 6 November 1965 SunderlandH1–122,814Kinnell16 13 November 1965 Aston VillaA1–022,031Burrows17 20 November 1965 LiverpoolH0–028,62218 27 November 1965 Tottenham HotspurA2–225,552Dobing, Vernon (pen)19 4 December 1965 FulhamH3–214,871Vernon, Setters, Bloor20 11 December 1965 BlackpoolA1–111,837Burrows21 27 December 1965 BurnleyH3–135,923Burrows (2), Vernon22 28 December 1965 BurnleyA1–423,216Dobing23 1 January 1966 Leicester CityA0–126,06724 8 January 1966 BlackpoolH4–120,276Burrows, Dobing, Vernon, Bebbington25 15 January 1966 Leeds UnitedA2–234,802Dobing, Palmer26 29 January 1966 ArsenalH1–321,883Ritchie (pen)27 5 February 1966 EvertonA1–224,999Viollet28 12 February 1966 Northampton TownH6–216,525Vernon, Dobing, Ritchie (4)29 19 February 1966 Manchester UnitedH2–236,667Vernon, Ritchie30 26 February 1966 Newcastle UnitedA1–326,192Burrows31 12 March 1966 West Bromwich AlbionH1–123,261Ritchie32 19 March 1966 Nottingham ForestA3–421,175Ritchie, Burrows, Dobing33 25 March 1966 Sheffield UnitedH2–017,101Ritchie, Bloor34 31 March 1966 Sheffield WednesdayA1–419,895Viollet35 2 April 1966 SunderlandA0–220,10836 9 April 1966 Aston VillaH2–015,186Burrows (2)37 12 April 1966 Northampton TownA0–120,68038 16 April 1966 LiverpoolA0–241,10639 23 April 1966 Tottenham HotspurH0–119,14840 30 April 1966 FulhamA1–125,491Bridgwood41 4 May 1966 Sheffield WednesdayH3–111,602Ritchie, Palmer, Bernard42 7 May 1966 West Ham UnitedH1–015,670Bridgwood

FA Cup

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorersR322 January 1966 WalsallH0–232,676

League Cup

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorersR223 September 1965 Norwich CityH2–112,896Vernon, BurrowsR33 October 1965 ChesterfieldA2–212,235Burrows, PhilpottR3 Replay20 October 1965 ChesterfieldH2–112,595Viollet, DobingR43 November 1965 BurnleyH0–014,413R4 Replay9 November 1965 BurnleyA1–2 (aet)13,466Dobing

Friendlies MatchOpponentVenueResult1Home FarmA2–12FeyenoordA1–13AjaxA3–54Oxford UnitedA2–55Coventry CityA1–56Stockport CountyA6–47Congleton TownA3–48Southend UnitedA3–29Crewe AlexandraA4–210Crystal PalaceA0–411Dynamo MoscowH0–212Hong Kong LeagueA7–013Hong Kong XIA4–2

Squad statistics Pos.NameLeagueFA CupLeague CupTotalAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsGK John Farmer1700000170GK Bobby Irvine1301030170GK Lawrie Leslie1200020140DF Tony Allen1701000180DF Bill Asprey20000020DF Bill Bentley50000050DF Mike Bernard31000031DF Alan Bloor29(2)2104034(2)2DF George Kinnell25(2)2004029(2)2DF Eric Skeels4101050470MF Gerry Bridgwood14(1)2001015(1)2MF John Flowers30000030MF Calvin Palmer3821050442MF Alan Philpott1(1)000112(1)2MF Maurice Setters3931050453MF John Woodward60000060FW Keith Bebbington21(1)3004025(1)3FW Harry Burrows36910524211FW Peter Dobing37(1)11105243(1)13FW Gerry Jones20000020FW Jimmy McIlroy15(2)0002017(2)0FW John Ritchie231310002413FW Roy Vernon311010413611FW Dennis Viollet3261051387–Own goals–1–0–0–1

References