The 1965–66 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 59th 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 35th in the First Division. Stoke had an inconsistent season as they found themselves being able to score a good number of goals but at the same time conceded many as well, scoring 65 goals and conceding 64. Stoke's final league position in 1965–66 was 10th, a modest improvement on the previous campaign.

Season review

League

The manager, chairman, directors and the supporters, all seemed happy with the squad for the 1965–66 season. But problems arose in defence as they started to concede a worrying number of goals with

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

hitting six while

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

all put four past a leaky Stoke defence. However Stoke were also scoring an equal number of goals themselves as

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

were beaten 6–2 with Ritchie again scoring four goals. Stoke finished the season in a respectable position of 10th. At the end of the season both

Jimmy McIlroy James McIlroy (25 October 1931 – 20 August 2018) was a Northern Ireland international footballer, who played for Glentoran, Burnley, Stoke City and Oldham Athletic. He was regarded as one of Burnley's greatest players, having played 497 matc ...

and

Bill Asprey William Asprey (born 11 September 1936) is an English former football player and manager. A defender, he made 418 league appearances in a 15-year career in the Football League. He then had a 25-year career as a coach. He spent 1953 to 1965 at ...

left the club after having a good careers 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 ...

. The 1965–66 season also saw the introduction of the substitute, Stoke's first sub being

Keith Bebbington Keith Richard Bebbington (born 4 August 1943) is an English former footballer who played in the Football League for Oldham Athletic, Rochdale and Stoke City. Career Bebbington was a quick left winger who came through the youth team at Stoke Ci ...

Tony Waddington Anthony Waddington (9 November 1924 – 21 January 1994) was an English football manager at both Crewe Alexandra and Stoke City. Waddington had a seven-year playing career with Crewe Alexandra before becoming a coach at Stoke City. He progress ...

tried to sign Swedish international Sven-Gunnar Larsson early in the season and actually played him in a friendly against

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

, but permission was denied by

the FA The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and ...

and Stoke were fined £100.

FA Cup

Stoke were drawn at home to Third Division side

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

in the third round and were to shock Stoke with a 2–0 win. Bobby Irvine played in the match and a produced a woeful performance and his mistake cost Stoke the match and also his Stoke career as he never played for the club again.

League Cup

Stoke went out of this season's League Cup in the fourth round losing 2–1 away at

after knocking out both

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

and

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

Final league table

Results

''Stoke's score comes first''

Legend

Football League First Division

FA Cup

League Cup

Friendlies

Squad statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1965-66 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 ...