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1978–79 Stoke City F.C. season

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Stoke City
1978–79 season
ChairmanThomas Degg
ManagerAlan Durban
StadiumVictoria Ground
Football League Second Division3rd (56 points)
FA CupThird round
League CupQuarter-final
Top goalscorerLeague: Brendan O'Callaghan
(15)

All: Brendan O'Callaghan
(16)
Highest home attendance24,912 vs West Ham United
(3 March 1979)
Lowest home attendance15,116 vs Millwall
(26 August 1978)
Average home league attendance19,125

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.[1]

Season review

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League

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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.[1] 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.[1] They were rarely out of the top three but neither were promotion rivals Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace and Sunderland.[1] 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.[1] 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.[2]

FA Cup

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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.[1]

League Cup

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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.[1]

Final league table

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 Crystal Palace (C, P) 42 19 19 4 51 24 +27 57 Promotion to the First Division
2 Brighton & Hove Albion (P) 42 23 10 9 72 39 +33 56
3 Stoke City (P) 42 20 16 6 58 31 +27 56
4 Sunderland 42 22 11 9 70 44 +26 55
5 West Ham United 42 18 14 10 70 39 +31 50
Source: [citation needed]
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted

Results

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Stoke's score comes first

Legend

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Win Draw Loss

Football League Second Division

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Match Date Opponent Venue Result Attendance Scorers
1 19 August 1978 Cambridge United A 1–0 7,489 Richardson 87'
2 23 August 1978 Cardiff City H 2–0 16,001 Smith 75', Busby 85'
3 26 August 1978 Millwall H 2–0 15,176 Busby 77', Crooks 82' (pen)
4 2 September 1978 Oldham Athletic A 1–1 11,267 Richardson 46'
5 9 September 1978 Orient A 1–0 6,587 O'Callaghan 84'
6 23 September 1978 Preston North End A 1–0 14,051 Kendall 24'
7 27 September 1978 Brighton & Hove Albion H 2–2 22,201 Crooks 45' (pen), O'Callaghan 50'
8 30 September 1978 Crystal Palace H 1–1 19,079 Irvine 5'
9 7 October 1978 Fulham A 0–2 12,534
10 14 October 1978 Burnley H 3–1 18,437 Richardson 14', Kendall 28', Irvine 55'
11 21 October 1978 West Ham United A 1–1 27,859 Richardson 87'
12 28 October 1978 Sheffield United H 2–1 21,285 O'Callaghan 7', Crooks 74' (pen)
13 4 November 1978 Sunderland A 1–0 25,170 O'Callaghan 87'
14 11 November 1978 Cambridge United H 1–3 19,024 Busby 62'
15 18 November 1978 Millwall A 0–3 6,925
16 22 November 1978 Oldham Athletic H 4–0 17,170 O'Callaghan 14', Irvine 19', Crooks (2) 66', 78'
17 25 November 1978 Blackburn Rovers A 2–2 10,841 O'Callaghan 65', Crooks 76' (pen)
18 2 December 1978 Leicester City H 0–0 15,590
19 9 December 1978 Newcastle United A 0–2 23,447
20 16 December 1978 Wrexham H 3–0 18,358 Crooks (2) 40', 72', Roberts 75' (o.g.)
21 23 December 1978 Bristol Rovers A 0–0 7,897
22 26 December 1978 Charlton Athletic H 2–2 20,841 McGroarty 30', O'Callaghan 53'
23 30 December 1978 Notts County H 2–0 21,394 Irvine 3', O'Callaghan 80'
24 20 January 1979 Brighton & Hove Albion A 1–1 23,071 O'Callaghan 29'
25 6 February 1979 Luton Town A 0–0 6,462
26 10 February 1979 Crystal Palace A 1–1 23,315 Irvine 84'
27 24 February 1979 Burnley A 3–0 13,756 O'Callaghan 63', Randall 86', Crooks 90'
28 28 February 1979 Preston North End H 1–1 18,177 O'Callaghan 64'
29 3 March 1979 West Ham United H 2–0 24,912 Doyle 9', Randall 85'
30 10 March 1979 Sheffield United A 0–0 20,512
31 14 March 1979 Orient H 3–1 16,189 Irvine 20', Crooks (2) 30', 65'
32 24 March 1979 Cardiff City A 3–1 14,869 Randall 16', O'Callaghan 43', Crooks 68'
33 27 March 1979 Sunderland H 0–1 24,021
34 31 March 1979 Blackburn Rovers H 1–2 17,021 O'Callaghan 15'
35 4 April 1979 Fulham H 2–0 15,243 Smith 63', Randall 65'
36 7 April 1979 Leicester City A 1–1 17,502 Busby 44'
37 14 April 1979 Charlton Athletic A 4–1 9,084 Richardson 24', Randall 47', O'Callaghan 82', Irvine 86'
38 16 April 1979 Luton Town H 0–0 19,214
39 17 April 1979 Bristol Rovers H 2–0 18,671 Busby (2) 4', 27'
40 21 April 1979 Wrexham A 1–0 20,215 O'Callaghan 44'
41 28 April 1979 Newcastle United H 0–0 23,271
42 5 May 1979 Notts County A 1–0 21,579 Richardson 88'

FA Cup

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Round Date Opponent Venue Result Attendance Scorers
R3 6 January 1979 Oldham Athletic H 2–0 15,991 Abandoned due to heavy snow
R3 17 January 1979 Oldham Athletic H 0–1 16,554

League Cup

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Round Date Opponent Venue Result Attendance Scorers
R2 30 August 1978 Sunderland A 2–0 12,368 Irvine 3', Doyle 34'
R3 3 October 1978 Northampton Town A 3–1 11,235 Dodd 10', O'Callaghan 52', Kendall 90'
R4 7 November 1978 Charlton Athletic A 3–2 18,667 Irvine 1', Busby 20', Crooks 88' (pen)
Quarter-final 13 December 1978 Watford H 0–0 26,070
Quarter-final Replay 9 January 1979 Watford A 1–3 21,419 Richardson 67'

Friendlies

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Match Opponent Venue Result
1 Torquay United A 2–1
2 Northwich Victoria A 3–1
3 Leek Town A 5–0
4 Exeter City A 1–0
5 Plymouth Argyle A 0–2
6 Shrewsbury Town A 1–1
7 Wolves H 0–3
8 Eastwood Hanley A 5–0

Squad statistics

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Pos. Name League FA Cup League Cup Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
GK England Peter Fox 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
GK England Roger Jones 41 0 1 0 5 0 47 0
DF England Danny Bowers 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0
DF England Trevor Brissett 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
DF England Alan Dodd 34(4) 0 1 0 5 1 40(4) 1
DF England Mike Doyle 41 1 1 0 4 1 46 2
DF England Paul Johnson 7(1) 0 0 0 0 0 7(1) 0
DF England Paul Anthony Johnson 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
DF England Jackie Marsh 24 0 0 0 3 0 27 0
DF England Geoff Scott 37(1) 0 1 0 4 0 42(1) 0
DF England Denis Smith 38 2 1 0 5 0 44 2
MF England Jeff Cook 1(2) 0 0 0 0 0 1(2) 0
MF Republic of Ireland Terry Conroy 3(4) 0 0 0 1(1) 0 4(5) 0
MF England Adrian Heath 1(1) 0 0 0 2 0 3(1) 0
MF Scotland Sammy Irvine 41 7 1 0 4 2 46 9
MF England Howard Kendall 40 2 1 0 5 1 46 3
MF England Kevin Sheldon 0(1) 0 0 0 0 0 0(1) 0
MF England Paul Richardson 40 6 1 0 5 1 46 7
MF England Mike Tune 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
MF England Steve Waddington 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
FW England Viv Busby 8(10) 6 0(1) 0 1(2) 1 9(13) 7
FW England Garth Crooks 38(2) 12 1 0 4(1) 1 43(3) 13
FW Northern Ireland Jimmy McGroarty 3(1) 1 1 0 1 0 5(1) 1
FW Republic of Ireland Brendan O'Callaghan 40(1) 15 1 0 5 1 46(1) 16
FW England Paul Randall 20 5 0 0 0 0 20 5
Own goals 1 0 0 1

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.
  2. ^ "Pitch-invading Sunderland fans heartbroken by Stoke City at Notts County". Stoke Sentinel. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
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