The 1938–39 season was

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

's 39th season in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

and the 25th in the First Division. It was the final full season of league football until 1946 due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Stoke again made no major signings despite a very disappointing campaign last season. After a poor start Stoke began to play well during the season and finished in a respectable 7th place having collected 46 points almost equalling their best points tally of 47.

Season review

League

Despite the scare of relegation last season, there were no significant new faces at the

Victoria Ground The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League. History ...

for the 1938–39 season but

Frank Soo Frank Soo (8 March 1914 – 25 January 1991) was an English professional football player and manager of mixed Chinese and English parentage. He was the first player of Chinese origin to play in the English Football League, and the first player ...

took over captaincy from Arthur Turner. The fans did not share the club's confidence and their judgement appeared to be justified as the team spent the first three months of the season in the bottom four. Manager

Bob McGrory Robert Gerald McGrory (17 October 1891 – 24 May 1954) was a Scottish footballer who played in the Football League for Burnley and Stoke City with whom he later had a long spell as manager. McGrory played football with Dumbarton before joining ...

's patience was wearing thin and he started to trim his squad, selling Charlie Scrimshaw to

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

for £3,000 and veteran Arthur Turner to Birmingham. To strengthen the attack, he recruited Arthur Griffiths and

Patrick Gallacher Patrick Gallacher (21 August 1909 – 4 January 1992) was a Scottish footballer who played for Stoke City, Sunderland and the Scotland national football team as a striker. Club career Gallacher was born in Bridge of Weir and started his foo ...

but both players were struck down by injury after a handful of appearances. New players or not, an amazing transformation took place and had Stoke beaten Leeds on the final day of the season and not drawn, they would have equalled their best points tally of 47. At home in particular they became a potent force and lost just twice at the

during the season.

FA Cup

No progress was made in the Cup as Stoke lost in a third round replay to

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

Final league table

Results

''Stoke's score comes first''

Legend

Football League First Division

FA Cup

Squad statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1938-39 Stoke City F.C. season Stoke City F.C. seasons

Stoke Stoke is a common place name in the United Kingdom. Stoke may refer to: Places United Kingdom The largest city called Stoke is Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. See below. Berkshire * Stoke Row, Berkshire Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stok ...