The 1949–50 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 43rd 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 29th in the First Division. In June 1949, Stoke legend Freddie Steele left after 17 years with the club, scoring 159 goals. Stoke failed to find a suitable replacement, struggled throughout the season and ended up in a relegation battle. There was no end of season improvement in results and Stoke only stayed up due to the poor form of the relegated bottom two

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

and

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 ...

Season review

League

With Freddie Steele now moved on to

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...

, the simmering unrest continued with

Neil Franklin Cornelius "Neil" Franklin (24 January 1922 – 9 February 1996) was an English footballer who played for Crewe Alexandra, Hull City, Stockport County and Stoke City as well as the England national team. Career Stoke City Franklin was ...

eager to move his family away from the

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

area for health reasons. The local air at this time was far from clean due to the pottery industry at its peak and with kilns belching out smoke and fumes. With Steele gone 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 ...

searched for a replacement and went out and spent £3,000 on

Verdi Godwin Verdi Godwin BEM (11 February 1926 – 1 December 2013) was an English footballer who played as a forward in the Football League for Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, Mansfield Town, Middlesbrough, Grimsby Town, Brentford and Stoke City. Afte ...

from

, hoping that he would help the club find their goalscoring touch. Franklin re-signed for the club in time for the 1949–50 season and his presence bolstered the defence whilst the forward line was struggling. By the end of October Stoke had just two wins to their name and were in deep relegation trouble so McGrory smashed the club's transfer record by paying £9,000 to

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

for

Leslie Johnston Leslie Hamilton Johnston (16 August 1920 – 19 October 2001) was a Scottish footballer who played for Clydebank Juniors, Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township ...

. However whilst Johnston was a fine footballer in Scotland he was not really up to the standard in English football and although he scored 22 goals in 92 games he was not the right player for the number 9 shirt. On 15 October

Frank Baker John Franklin "Home Run" Baker (March 13, 1886 – June 28, 1963) was an American professional baseball player. A third baseman, Baker played in Major League Baseball from 1908 to 1922 for the Philadelphia Athletics and New York Yankees. Althoug ...

broke his leg for the fifth time in two years and he decided to retire. By January, there had been a modest improvement in performances out on the pitch and McGrory made his best signing for some time, persuading Freddie Steele who was now player-manager at Mansfield to part with young up and coming forward

Harry Oscroft Harry Oscroft (10 March 1926 – 31 December 2008) was an English footballer. A left winger, he scored over 150 goals in nearly 500 league games in a 14-year career in the English Football League. He played for Mansfield Town for three years, ...

, Stoke handing over £8,000 plus

who scored just twice in 23 matches. Soon after Oscroft's arrival, Stoke's defence started to leak goals and

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

finalists

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 ...

put six past them at Highbury without a Stoke reply. Stoke managed just three points from their remaining eight matches this season and narrowly avoided relegation.

FA Cup

47,000 fans saw Stoke's cup run end at the third round losing 1–0 at home to Second Division

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

Season review

League

FA Cup

Final league table

Results

Legend

Football League First Division

FA Cup

Squad statistics

References