1956–57 Stoke City F.C. season

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

Stoke City
1956–57 season
ChairmanMr G. Taylor
ManagerFrank Taylor
StadiumVictoria Ground
Football League Second Division5th (48 Points)
FA CupThird Round
Top goalscorerLeague: Neville Coleman
(26)

All: Neville Coleman
(27)
Highest home attendance38,729 vs Port Vale
(10 October 1956)
Lowest home attendance11,083 vs Bury
(22 April 1957)
Average home league attendance22,146

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.[1]

Season review

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League

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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.[1] A string of fine home results over Notts County (6–0), Leyton Orient (7–1) and Rotherham United (6–0) raised the fans hopes.[1] Floodlights were installed in October 1956 and the first match under the lights was in the Potteries derby against Port Vale.[1] A crowd of 38,729 turned up to see Stoke win 3–1 to maintain their good form.[1]

Neville Coleman was getting the bulk of Stoke goals which accumulated on 23 February 1957 when Lincoln City arrived at the Victoria Ground.[1] That day Stoke hammered luckless Lincoln 8–0 with Coleman scoring a record seven of the goals.[1] 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.[1]

FA Cup

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Stoke were drawn away at First Division side Arsenal in the third round and were beaten 4–2 by the "Gunners".[1]

Final league table

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GAv Pts
3 Liverpool 42 21 11 10 82 54 1.519 53
4 Blackburn Rovers 42 21 10 11 83 75 1.107 52
5 Stoke City 42 20 8 14 83 58 1.431 48
6 Middlesbrough 42 19 10 13 84 60 1.400 48
7 Sheffield United 42 19 8 15 87 76 1.145 46
Source: [citation needed]
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal average; 3) Goals scored

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 18 August 1956 Middlesbrough A 1–1 13,116 Cairns (pen)
2 20 August 1956 Grimsby Town H 1–0 20,921 Coleman
3 25 August 1956 Leicester City H 3–1 23,675 Coleman, Cairns (pen), Oscroft
4 28 August 1956 Grimsby Town A 1–4 17,722 Bowyer
5 1 September 1956 Bristol Rovers A 0–4 25,430
6 3 September 1956 Doncaster Rovers H 1–1 14,497 King
7 8 September 1956 Notts County H 6–0 18,564 Kelly, Oscroft, Bowyer, Coleman (2), Cairns (pen)
8 10 September 1956 Doncaster Rovers A 0–4 14,674
9 15 September 1956 Liverpool A 2–0 47,119 Kelly, King
10 22 September 1956 Leyton Orient H 7–1 19,957 Kelly, King, Cairns (pen), Coleman, Oscroft (2), Bowyer
11 29 September 1956 Huddersfield Town A 2–2 16,202 Oscroft, Bowyer
12 6 October 1956 Rotherham United H 6–0 21,589 Oscroft, Bowyer, King (2), Coleman (2)
13 10 October 1956 Port Vale H 3–1 38,729 Coleman (2), Kelly
14 13 October 1956 Lincoln City A 1–0 13,066 Coleman
15 20 October 1956 Sheffield United H 3–3 26,849 Coleman (2), Kelly
16 27 October 1956 Fulham A 0–1 29,748
17 3 November 1956 Nottingham Forest H 2–1 32,637 Bowyer, Oscroft
18 10 November 1956 West Ham United A 0–1 17,500
19 17 November 1956 Blackburn Rovers H 4–1 21,067 Bowyer, King, Coleman, Kelly
20 24 November 1956 Bristol City A 2–1 17,796 Coleman, Kelly
21 1 December 1956 Swansea Town H 4–1 23,409 Coleman, King, Bowyer (2)
22 8 December 1956 Barnsley A 2–2 11,626 Bowyer, Kelly
23 15 December 1956 Middlesbrough H 3–1 20,679 Coleman (3)
24 22 December 1956 Leicester City A 2–3 28,178 Kelly (2)
25 29 December 1956 Bristol Rovers H 2–1 30,936 Bowyer, Graver
26 1 January 1957 Bury A 1–0 13,180 Graver
27 12 January 1957 Notts County A 0–5 13,620
28 19 January 1957 Liverpool H 1–0 31,144 Oscroft
29 2 February 1957 Leyton Orient A 2–2 18,705 Kelly (2)
30 9 February 1957 Huddersfield Town H 5–1 27,503 Oscroft (2), Bowyer, Coleman, Cairns (pen)
31 16 February 1957 Rotherham United A 0–1 11,511
32 23 February 1957 Lincoln City H 8–0 10,790 Coleman (7), King
33 1 March 1957 Sheffield United A 1–1 20,277 Kelly
34 9 March 1957 Fulham H 0–2 24,766
35 16 March 1957 Nottingham Forest A 0–4 32,294
36 23 March 1957 West Ham United H 0–1 19,875
37 30 March 1957 Blackburn Rovers A 0–1 27,600
38 6 April 1957 Bristol City H 0–2 13,397
39 13 April 1957 Swansea Town A 0–1 15,000
40 20 April 1957 Barnsley H 3–0 11,600 Bowyer (2), Graver
41 22 April 1957 Bury H 2–0 11,083 Bowyer, Oscroft
42 29 April 1957 Port Vale A 2–2 18,573 Graver, King

FA Cup

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Round Date Opponent Venue Result Attendance Scorers
R3 5 January 1957 Arsenal A 2–4 56,173 Oscroft, Coleman

Friendlies

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Match Opponent Venue Result
1
H
4–1
2
H
3–1
3
H
5–0
4
Schwenningen
A
1–3
5
A
4–0
6
A
4–3
7
A
4–2
8
A
4–3
9
A
1–2

Squad statistics

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Pos. Name League FA Cup Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
GK   Bill Robertson 42 0 1 0 43 0
DF   Alec Acton 0 0 0 0 0 0
DF   Peter Ford 2 0 0 0 2 0
DF   John McCue 39 0 1 0 40 0
DF   Frank Mountford 39 0 1 0 40 0
DF   Ken Thomson 40 0 1 0 41 0
DF   Donald Whiston 3 0 0 0 3 0
MF   Bill Asprey 9 0 0 0 9 0
MF   Bobby Cairns 36 5 1 0 37 5
MF   Edward Rayner 2 0 0 0 2 0
MF   John Sellars 40 0 1 0 41 0
FW   Frank Bowyer 38 14 1 0 39 14
FW   Neville Coleman 42 26 1 1 43 27
FW   Andy Graver 13 5 0 0 13 5
FW   Colin Hutchinson 1 0 0 0 1 0
FW   Joe Hutton 7 0 0 0 7 0
FW   George Kelly 30 13 1 0 31 13
FW   Johnny King 34 9 1 0 35 9
FW   Harry Oscroft 41 11 1 1 42 12
FW   Peter Phoenix 0 0 0 0 0 0
FW   Don Ratcliffe 1 0 0 0 1 0
FW   Derrick Ward 3 0 0 0 3 0

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.