The 1987–88 season was Stoke City's 81st season in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

and 28th in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. After the previous season's decent performance there was great optimism ahead for

Mick Mills Michael Dennis Mills MBE (born 4 January 1949) is an English former footballer who played for Ipswich Town, Southampton and Stoke City. He managed Stoke City, Colchester United and Birmingham City. During his career he achieved Ipswich To ...

' third season in charge. However it turned out to be a frustrating season with Stoke unable to maintain a good run of form and they unsurprisingly finished in mid-table in a season of little progress.

Season review

League

now entering into his third season as City boss had the support of the fans following last season's improvement and for the third season running the club played in the Isle of Man Trophy, with Stoke beating Dundee in the final. This created great optimism amongst supporters that they would enjoy a good league campaign. However that quickly vanished on the opening day of the season as

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, 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. Sin ...

scored the first goal after just 45 seconds. This seemed to set the tone for a frustrating season. The team made a poor start winning just three of their first nine matches and it always looked too much for them to recover from. When Stoke did hit a run of form in January injury prevented any meaningful attempt to mount a push for a play-off place and the side made no progress and finished in 11th place.

Lee Dixon Lee Michael Dixon (born 17 March 1964) is an English retired professional footballer and pundit who played as a right-back for Arsenal. Dixon was also capped 22 times for England. A childhood Manchester City fan, Dixon began his footballing ...

was sold to Arsenal in January for £375,000 a good price for a full back in 1988 and with

Steve Bould Stephen Andrew Bould (born 16 November 1962) is an English football coach and former professional footballer. He is currently the head coach of Lommel SK. As a player, he was a defender from 1980 until 2000. Bould began his football career wi ...

's contract running out he also joined the "Gunners" for a fee of £390,000 which was settled at a tribunal.

FA Cup

Stoke drew First Division side

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

in the third round and produced two excellent performances. In the first game at Stoke almost 32,000 saw a goalless draw which Stoke should have won but Graham Shaw missed an easy chance. In the replay a battling Stoke lost by a goal to nil.

League Cup

In the League Cup Stoke beat Gillingham and

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 ...

, but then lost in the next round to Arsenal.

Full Members' Cup

Stoke had their best run in the Full Members' Cup beating

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

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 ...

and

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

before losing to eventual runner-up

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

Season review

League

FA Cup

League Cup

Full Members' Cup

Final league table

Results

Legend

Football League Second Division

FA Cup

League Cup

Full Members' Cup

Isle of Man Trophy

Friendlies

Squad statistics

References