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.
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. 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. They were rarely out of the top three but neither were promotion rivals Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace and Sunderland. 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. 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.
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.
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.
Final league table
Results
Stoke's score comes first
Legend WinDrawLoss
Football League Second Division
MatchDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorers1 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 FulhamA0–212,53410 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 MillwallA0–36,92516 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 CityH0–015,59019 9 December 1978 Newcastle UnitedA0–223,44720 16 December 1978 WrexhamH3–018,358Crooks (2) 40', 72', Roberts 75' (o.g.)21 23 December 1978 Bristol RoversA0–07,89722 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 TownA0–06,46226 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 UnitedA0–020,51231 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 SunderlandH0–124,02134 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 TownH0–019,21439 17 April 1979 Bristol RoversH2–018,671Busby (2) 4', 27'40 21 April 1979 WrexhamA1–020,215O'Callaghan 44'41 28 April 1979 Newcastle UnitedH0–023,27142 5 May 1979 Notts CountyA1–021,579Richardson 88'
FA Cup
RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorersR36 January 1979 Oldham AthleticH2–015,991Abandoned due to heavy snowR317 January 1979 Oldham AthleticH0–116,554
League Cup
RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorersR230 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-final13 December 1978 WatfordH0–026,070Quarter-final Replay9 January 1979 WatfordA1–321,419Richardson 67'
Friendlies MatchOpponentVenueResult1Torquay UnitedA2–12Northwich VictoriaA3–13Leek TownA5–04Exeter CityA1–05Plymouth ArgyleA0–26Shrewsbury TownA1–17WolvesH0–38Eastwood HanleyA5–0
Squad statistics Pos.NameLeagueFA CupLeague CupTotalAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsGK Peter Fox10000010GK Roger Jones4101050470DF Danny Bowers00001010DF Trevor Brissett00000000DF Alan Dodd34(4)0105140(4)1DF Mike Doyle4111041462DF Paul Johnson7(1)000007(1)0DF Paul Anthony Johnson20000020DF Jackie Marsh2400030270DF Geoff Scott37(1)0104042(1)0DF Denis Smith3821050442MF Jeff Cook1(2)000001(2)0MF Terry Conroy3(4)0001(1)04(5)0MF Adrian Heath1(1)000203(1)0MF Sammy Irvine4171042469MF Howard Kendall4021051463MF Kevin Sheldon0(1)000000(1)0MF Paul Richardson4061051467MF Mike Tune00000000MF Steve Waddington20000020FW Viv Busby8(10)60(1)01(2)19(13)7FW Garth Crooks38(2)12104(1)143(3)13FW Jimmy McGroarty3(1)110105(1)1FW Brendan O'Callaghan40(1)15105146(1)16FW Paul Randall2050000205–Own goals–1–0–0–1
References
External links