The 1982–83 season was

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

's 76th 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, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

and 50th in the

First Division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

. More transfer activity took place in the summer of 1982 with club legend Denis Smith departing the club after 14 seasons 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. Histor ...

Mark Chamberlain Mark Valentine Chamberlain (born 19 November 1961) is an English former international footballer. He is the younger brother of Neville Chamberlain, and the father of Beşiktaş and England international player Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ki ...

arrived from City rivals

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in , the third tier of the English football league system. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal ...

and the 1982–83 season saw Stoke produce some high quality football. They were involved in a number of exciting matches most notably a 4–4 draw with

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

in September. Stoke were neither in a fight for a top half finish nor relegation and finished in a safe mid-table position of 13th.

Season review

League

After one season at the helm manager Ritchie Barker continued to clear out with Denis Smith becoming the last member of the 1972 League Cup winning squad to leave the

. Also released were Paul A. Johnson and Steve Kirk. Barker then went to his old club

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

and brought in

Derek Parkin Derek Parkin (born 2 January 1948) is an English former football player who made a record number of appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers (609). He also played for Huddersfield Town and Stoke City as well as the England under-23 national sid ...

and George Berry to fill the gap in defence. With the 1982–83 season fast approaching he sold last season's top goalscorer Lee Chapman to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

for £500,000 and used £200,000 of that to bring in Mickey Thomas. He also turned to near neighbours

and signed Mark Harrison plus the Chamberlain brothers

Mark Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

and Neville in a triple signing. Former defender Bill Asprey was appointed as assistant manager and with the new arrivals Stoke produced some eye catching performances. Their attacking style of play won many admirers and with Mark Chamberlain catching the eye he earned himself an England call-up during the season, unfortunately his brother, Neville, failed to make an impact. There were some terrific team performances during the course of the season with the most notable being a classic 4–4 draw with

in September. Stoke finished an entertaining season in 13th place with 57 points. Chairman Percy Axon died at the end of the season. He was replaced by Frank Edwards who also died two years later.

FA Cup

Stoke beat

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

3–2 in an entertaining replay but were then ousted 2–0 by

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Anfield Anfield is a Association football, football stadium in the area of Anfield (suburb), Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since its formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the ...

League Cup

Stoke again failed to make it past the second round this time

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

knocking City out of the League Cup.

Final league table

Results

''Stoke's score comes first''

Legend

Football League First Division

FA Cup

League Cup

Friendlies

Squad statistics

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:1982-83 Stoke City F.C. season Stoke City F.C. seasons

Stoke Stoke may refer to: Places Canada * Stoke, Quebec New Zealand * Stoke, New Zealand United Kingdom Berkshire * Stoke Row Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stoke Gifford * Bradley Stoke * Little Stoke * Harry Stoke * Stoke Lodge Bucking ...