The 1972–73 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 66th 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 42nd in the First Division. After the jubilation of last season's success the club was able to sign world cup winner

Geoff Hurst Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst (born 8 December 1941) is an English former professional footballer. A striker, he became the first man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final when England recorded a 4–2 victory over West Germany at Wembley St ...

which boosted season ticket sales. They also entered European competition for the first time losing 5–3 on aggregate to German side 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Stoke failed to build on last season and had to settle for a mid table position of 15th.

Season review

League

After winning the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

last season there was a number of notable departures during the early part of the season. They sold Mike Bernard to Everton for a record £140,000, with the money being spent on Jimmy Robertson from

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

and World Cup winner

from

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. Stoke now had an abundance of attacking talent but both

Harry Burrows Henry "Harry" Burrows (born 17 March 1941) is an English former professional footballer who played in the Football League for Aston Villa, Plymouth Argyle and Stoke City. Career Burrows was born in Haydock and attracted the attentions of First ...

and

Peter Dobing Peter Dobing (born 1 December 1938) is an English former footballer who played in the Football League for Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City and Stoke City. Career Dobing was born in Manchester and came from a sporting family, his father play ...

decided to retire during the season. The arrival of Hurst certainly boosted season ticket sales and a record takings were banked before a ball was kicked prior to the start of the 1972–73 season. It proved that the public of

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 ...

were now right behind the team but despite high hopes and expectations, the "Potters" started the new campaign rather poorly and found themselves in the bottom six. Stoke's immediate plans were hit when on the Sunday morning of 22 October 1972 after visiting 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 treatment

Gordon Banks Gordon Banks (30 December 1937 – 12 February 2019) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional caree ...

crashed his car on the way home and effectively ended his career. Such was the scale of Banks' presence his condition was headline news. Realising that Banks was to be out of action for quite some time Waddington moved in for Scotland international Bobby Clark, but the deal fell through as he failed to impress the Stoke directors. Mike McDonald was signed instead from

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...

as cover for John Farmer after it was learnt that Banks had lost an eye and would never play competitive football again.

George Eastham George Edward Eastham, OBE (born 23 September 1936) is an English former footballer. He is known for playing for Newcastle United, Arsenal and Stoke City, as well as a member of England's 1966 World Cup-winning squad. However, he is also nota ...

returned to the club in February after spending time doing coaching work in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, he added his experience to the cause as he helped Stoke to recover and take 15th place. Three players reached double figures in the league scoring charts this term,

Jimmy Greenhoff James Greenhoff (born 19 June 1946) is an English former association football, footballer. He was a skilful Forward (association football), forward and although capped five times at England national under-23 football team, under-23 level, once a ...

(16), John Ritchie (14) and

(10) as Stoke scored 61 goals. They ended the season with a tour of

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...

FA Cup

In the FA Cup Stoke went out in the third round losing 3–2 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 ...

Maine Road Maine Road was a football stadium in Moss Side, Manchester, England, that was home to Manchester City F.C. from 1923 to 2003. It hosted FA Cup semi-finals, the Charity Shield, a League Cup final and England matches. Maine Road's highest atte ...

League Cup

As holders of the League Cup, Stoke started off with high hopes of retaining the trophy and they began with good wins over

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

(3–0) and

(2–1) but a bad night at

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

(1–3) in the fourth round put paid to any hopes of a return to Wembley.

UEFA Cup

Their success in the 1972 Football League Cup Final, had placed them into a European competition for the first time, and they drew little known

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

side 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the first round. A comfortable 3–1 home win was achieved in the first leg and two weeks later Waddington favoured a defensive team for the match at the

Fritz-Walter-Stadion Fritz-Walter-Stadion () is the home stadium of 1. FC Kaiserslautern and is located in the city of Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It was one of the stadia used in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. It is named after Fritz Walter (1920–20 ...

. The plan backed fired and Stoke were crushed 4–0 with John Ritchie being sent-off just seconds after being brought on as a substitute without even touching the ball.

Final league table

Results

''Stoke's score comes first''

Legend

Football League First Division

FA Cup

League Cup

UEFA Cup

Friendlies

Squad statistics

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1972-73 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 ...