The
1980–81 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 74th season in
the Football League and 48th in the
First Division.
The 1980–81 campaign was a transitional one for Stoke with a number of players coming and going. The team made a poor start and in their first four matches conceded twelve goals. They slowly recovered and were easily able to pull themselves away from any fears of being involved in a relegation battle and finished in a mid-table position of 11th. It was a pretty uneventful season, and with 18 draws often a boring one, for the supporters.
Season review
League
In the Summer of 1980 there were some more comings and goings.
Firstly Mr Percy Axon became chairman while striker
Garth Crooks moved to
Tottenham Hotspur for a club record £650,000 and goalkeeper
Roger Jones joined Derby County.
With cash in the bank, Durban signed left back
Peter Hampton from
Leeds United for £170,000 and
Paul Maguire joined from
Shrewsbury Town for £262,000.
Iain Munro
Alexander Iain Fordyce Munro (born 24 August 1951) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager.
Playing career
Munro was born in Uddingston and began his career at St Mirren making 103 league appearances for the Buddies in ...
and
Peter Griffiths also joined the club.
The team made an awful start to the 1980–81 season losing 5–1 at
Norwich City and then 5–0 at
Nottingham Forest.
Stoke soon started to grind out results and
Alan Durban's well drilled side picked up the points they needed to pull away from any danger and they finished the season in 11th place with 42 points.
FA Cup
Stoke drew Staffordshire rivals
Wolverhampton Wanderers in the third round and after a 2–2 draw at home Wolves won 2–1 in the replay.
League Cup
Stoke lost to
Manchester City
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...
4–1 over two legs, drawing 1–1 at home but suffering a 3–0 defeat at
Maine Road.
Final league table
Results
''Stoke's score comes first''
Legend
Football League First Division
FA Cup
League Cup
Friendlies
Squad statistics
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:1980-81 Stoke City F.C. season
Stoke City F.C. seasons
Stoke