The 1897–98 season was Stoke's ninth season in the Football League. It was another season of struggle for Stoke who finished bottom of the First Division on goal average level on points with five teams. They entered the

test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

for the second time against

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

and Burnley and again came out victorious. However it was in controversial circumstances as in the final test match against Burnley, both sides needed a draw to be in the First Division for next season and for 90 minutes the Stoke and Burnley players did not attempt to win and the match finished in a 0–0 draw. After this obvious exploitation of the rules the league scrapped the test match system in favour of automatic promotion and relegation.

Season Review

League

In September 1897

Horace Austerberry Horace Denham Austerberry (1868–1946) was an English football manager who managed Stoke. Career Austerberry was born in Hanley and worked at St. John's school as assistant schoolmaster to former Stoke manager Thomas Slaney. It was Slaney who ...

was appointed secretary-manager of Stoke in succession of

Bill Rowley William Spencer Rowley (11 September 1865 – 16 March 1934) was an English footballer who played as goalkeeper for Stoke in the 1880s and 1890s, also making two appearances for England. He later became Stoke's manager between 1895 and 1897. H ...

who became general secretary. Also Mr J. T. Fenton assumed the role of chairman taking over from Mr. S. Barker. The Stoke directors continued to search in Scotland for quality players following the success of William Maxwell and they did find one in the form of Alex Raisbeck who went on to gain international caps for his country unfortunately he only played eight matches for Stoke before deciding to join Liverpool. The bottom five teams in the First Division finished with 24 points but Stoke had the poorest goal average of them all and took bottom spot. They had to play the top two sides from the Second Division, Burnley and

. Stoke came through successfully, beating each side once and drawing with Burnley to stay up. In the final test match Stoke and Burnley needed a draw to be in the First Division next season. It finished 0–0 after a farcical 90 minutes during which neither side put in a challenge or had a shot at goal and at one point a few fans in the crowd held on to the ball and refused to return it to the players. After this obvious exploit of the rules the league scrapped the test match system in favour of automatic promotion and relegation.

FA Cup

Stoke beat Bury 2–1 in the first round but crashed out 5–1 to Everton in the second round replay.

Season Review

League

FA Cup

Final league table

Results

Legend

Football League First Division

Test matches

FA Cup

Squad statistics

References