The 1966–67 season was Stoke City's 60th season in the Football League and the 36th in the First Division.

England won the 1966 World Cup and one of the winners, Gordon Banks joined Stoke in April 1967 in what was a master stroke signing by Tony Waddington he also brought in Arsenal winger George Eastham. On the pitch Stoke continued to finish in mid table this time in 12th spot.

Season review

League 1966 saw Albert Henshall return to the club as chairman and England won the World Cup, two of Alf Ramsey's squad would sign for Stoke within the next twelve months. In the summer of 1966 Waddington secured the services of former Newcastle United winger George Eastham from Arsenal for £35,000. The other was goalkeeper Gordon Banks who was snapped up for a bargain £52,000 from Leicester City in April 1967. Matt Gillies, the Leicester manager was coming under considerable pressure to play his young reserve Peter Shilton and decided to sell the 29-year-old Banks to Stoke. It is widely considered that this was a 'steal' as Banks carried on to play for England for another five years. Banks left English football in 1972 and ironically Stoke signed Shilton as his replacement.

Stoke had a fine, enterprising squad in 1966–67 and they ran up some fine results, beating eventual champions Manchester United 3–0 as well as Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest, Everton and West Bromwich Albion all before October. However, with Stoke looking forward to a potentially great season the fans were shocked when John Ritchie was sold to Sheffield Wednesday for £70,000 in November 1966. Whilst Wednesday paid a lot of money for Ritchie it came as a surprise as a month before Stoke had sold unsuccessful reserve striker John Woodward to Aston Villa for £30,000. But Ritchie's departure was soon forgotten as the team battled on holding on to a mid-table position.

FA Cup Stoke failed to make it past the third round losing by two goals to nil against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

League Cup Walsall again proved to Stoke's cup bogey side beating Stoke 2–1 at Fellows Park.

Final league table

Results

Stoke's score comes first

Legend WinDrawLoss

Football League First Division

MatchDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorers1 20 August 1966 Nottingham ForestA2–121,949Dobing, Palmer2 24 August 1966 Tottenham HotspurH2–033,086Burrows, Ritchie3 27 August 1966 FulhamH1–226,333Burrows4 31 August 1966 Tottenham HotspurA0–237,9835 3 September 1966 EvertonA1–044,005Dobing6 7 September 1966 Manchester UnitedH3–044,337Ritchie (2), Palmer7 10 September 1966 West Ham UnitedH1–127,274Dobing8 17 September 1966 Sheffield UnitedH3–021,374Dobing (2), Wagstaff (o.g.)9 24 September 1966 West Bromwich AlbionA1–025,483Ritchie10 1 October 1966 Leeds UnitedH0–028,98711 8 October 1966 Sheffield WednesdayA3–128,047Dobing, Ritchie, Burrows12 15 October 1966 SouthamptonH3–225,554Dobing, Ritchie, Palmer13 25 October 1966 SunderlandA1–223,320Viollet14 29 October 1966 LiverpoolH2–037,933Dobing, Ritchie15 5 November 1966 SouthamptonA2–323,270Viollet, Ritchie16 12 November 1966 Manchester CityH0–127,80317 19 November 1966 BlackpoolA1–016,172Burrows18 26 November 1966 ChelseaH1–128,446Dobing19 3 December 1966 Leicester CityA2–426,079Burrows, Vernon20 10 December 1966 Aston VillaH6–120,232Burrows (3), Vernon, Dobing, Eastham21 17 December 1966 Nottingham ForestH1–223,304Burrows22 26 December 1966 BurnleyA2–029,990Burrows, Setters23 27 December 1966 BurnleyH4–338,402Burrows (2), Dobing, Bridgwood24 31 December 1966 FulhamA1–424,851Vernon25 7 January 1967 EvertonH2–127,650Dobing, Palmer26 14 January 1967 West Ham UnitedA1–133,293Burrows 27 22 January 1967 Sheffield UnitedA1–221,486Dobing28 4 February 1967 West Bromwich AlbionH1–126,211Dobing29 11 February 1967 Leeds UnitedA0–337,37030 25 February 1967 Sheffield WednesdayH0–227,16431 4 March 1967 LiverpoolA1–248,591Dobing32 18 March 1967 SunderlandH3–017,171Palmer, Dobing, Burrows 33 24 March 1967 Newcastle UnitedA1–339,408Burrows 34 25 March 1967 Aston VillaA1–220,996Mahoney35 27 March 1967 Newcastle UnitedH0–117,80236 1 April 1967 ArsenalH2–214,606Burrows, Dobing37 12 April 1967 Manchester CityA1–325,753Dobing38 15 April 1967 BlackpoolH2–012,259Burrows, Mahoney39 22 April 1967 ChelseaA0–123,97340 29 April 1967 Leicester CityH3–117,870Dobing, Burrows, Mahoney41 6 May 1967 ArsenalA1–324,611Bridgwood42 13 May 1967 Manchester UnitedA0–061,071

FA Cup

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorersR328 January 1967 Manchester UnitedA0–263,497

League Cup

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorersR29 September 1966 WalsallA1–213,600Ritchie

Cleveland Stokers Stoke were one of a number of teams exported to the USA to play in the United Soccer Association in 1967 to help promote the sport in the country. Stoke represented Cleveland, Ohio and went under the name of the Cleveland Stokers and finished 2nd in their group.

In the travelling Stoke party included the likes of Gordon Banks, Peter Dobing, George Eastham, Maurice Setters and Roy Vernon as well as manager Tony Waddington. The team started well going undefeated in their first seven matches defeating Washington Whips 2–1, Boston Rovers 1–0, San Francisco Golden Gate Gales and Dallas Tornado both 4–1. They then suffered back to back 2–1 defeats to New York Skyliners and Houston Stars before a 2–0 win over Toronto City put them back on track for a play-off place. However a goalless draw with Detroit Cougars and a 3–1 defeat in the final match against Vancouver Royals saw the Stokers miss out on a play-off spot by a single point.

MatchDateOpponentVenueResultScorers1 27 May 1967 Washington WhipsA2–1Setters, Vernon2 31 May 1967 Chicago MustangsH1–1Bernard3 3 June 1967 Boston RoversH1–0Setters4 7 June 1967 Los Angeles WolvesH0–05 10 June 1967 San Francisco Golden Gate GalesH4–1Dobing (2), Setters, Vernon6 13 June 1967 Washington WhipsH2–2Dobing, Eastham7 17 June 1967 Dallas TornadoA4–1Dobing (2), Skeels, Burrows8 25 June 1967 New York SkylinersH1–2Bloor9 27 June 1967 Houston StarsA1–2Burrows10 1 July 1967 Toronto CityH2–0Dobing, Burrows11 5 July 1967 Detroit CougarsA0–012 9 July 1967 Vancouver RoyalsA1–3Dobing

Friendlies MatchOpponentVenueResult1Home FarmA2–12Cork CelticA4–13LimerickA3–14PortsmouthA1–15Oldham AthleticA5–06MillwallA2–17Exeter CityA2–28Plymouth ArgyleA1–29RangersH3–110England XIH5–7

Squad statistics Pos.NameLeagueFA CupLeague CupTotalAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsGK Gordon Banks40000040GK John Farmer3401010360GK Harry Gregg20000020GK Paul Shardlow20000020DF Tony Allen2200000220DF Bill Bentley6(1)000006(1)0DF Alan Bloor30(1)0101032(1)0DF Calvin Palmer3851010405DF Eric Skeels4001010420MF Mike Bernard4(1)000004(1)0MF Gerry Bridgwood24(1)2001025(1)2MF George Eastham4111010431MF John Mahoney1130000113MF Alan Philpott23(3)0100024(3)0MF Maurice Setters2811010301MF John Woodward1(1)000001(1)0FW Harry Burrows421710104417FW Peter Dobing411910104319FW Gerry Jones20000020FW John Ritchie1480011159FW Dennis Viollet33(1)2101035(1)2FW Roy Vernon2041000214–Own goals–1–0–0–1

References