The 1994–95 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 88th season in the Football League and 32nd in the second tier. In the summer of 1994 manager

Joe Jordan Joseph Jordan (born 15 December 1951) is a Scottish football player, coach and manager. He is currently a first-team coach at AFC Bournemouth. A former striker, he played for Leeds United, Manchester United, and Milan, among others at club le ...

made a number of alterations to his squad with the best being the signing of Canadian Paul Peschisolido from Birmingham City. As the season started there was no change in the fans' relationship with Jordan and it came as no surprise when he resigned in September. Asa Hartford took the caretaker role until

Lou Macari Luigi Macari (born 7 June 1949) is a Scottish former footballer and manager. He began his playing career at Celtic where he was one of the Quality Street Gang, the outstanding reserve team that emerged in the late 1960s that also included Kenny ...

made a return from

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 ...

. His first match back saw Stoke beat West Bromwich Albion 4–1 and there were high hopes that it could spark a promotion push. Alas just one win from 13 matches (26 December to 21 March) saw Stoke finish in a mid table position of 11th.

Season review

League

In the summer of 1994

brought in Canadian Paul Peschisolido from Birmingham City in a deal which sent striker

Dave Regis David Regis (born 3 March 1964) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He scored 53 goals from 237 appearances in the Football League in the 1990s, notably for Stoke City and Notts County. Playing career Regi ...

to St. Andrews along with £200,000. He also brought in

Carl Muggleton Carl David Muggleton (born 13 September 1968) is an English professional football goalkeeper who made over 550 appearances in the Football League and Scottish Premier League for a number of clubs, most notably Leicester City, Stoke City, Celtic ...

(who was on loan last season),

Keith Downing Keith Gordon Downing (born 23 July 1965) is an English former footballer and football manager. He made the vast majority of his appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers. A former Chelsea youth team player, he moved from Mile Oak Rovers into the ...

and

John Dreyer John Dreyer may refer to: *John Louis Emil Dreyer, Danish-Irish astronomer *John Dreyer (footballer) John Brian Dreyer (born 11 June 1963) is an English former professional footballer and manager who played in defence and midfield. He is curren ...

. Everyone knew that the 1994–95 season was going to be a tough one and manager Jordan arranged a strenuous pre-season training camp in Scotland. The league programme started with a 1–0 victory over Tranmere Rovers but this was followed up with poor results which saw Stoke lose 4–0 back-to-back at Reading and then

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

. Shortly after that defeat at Bolton Jordan resigned which was unsurprising as he remained unpopular with the club's supporters. Asa Hartford assumed the role of caretaker manager for a short time and in his four games in charge Stoke won three. On 30 September 1994

became the first manager to have a second spell at the club returning from

. His first match back saw Stoke beat West Bromwich Albion 4–1 but a poor defeat against Luton Town in the next match saw his attentions turn to strengthening the squad. In came Kevin Keen, Ray Wallace and

Lárus Sigurðsson Lárus Orri Sigurðsson (born 4 June 1973), known in English as ''Larus Sigurdsson'', is an Icelandic former professional footballer, who played most notably for Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion in England. Club career Sigurðsson was bor ...

as Stoke entered 1995 just out of the top group of teams. But just one win in 13 saw Stoke fall further behind and whilst there was no danger of dropping too greatly there was no hope of catching the promotion contenders and Stoke had to settle for a mid-table finish of 11th picking up 63 points.

FA Cup

Stoke didn't have to wait too long to come up against

who had returned to

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

and he was given a frosty reception by the supporters but his side managed to win the third round replay at the Victoria Ground 3–1.

League Cup

Stoke drew

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

in the second round and after a 3–2 loss at

Craven Cottage Craven Cottage is a football ground in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 22,384; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game against M ...

Stoke beat Fulham 1–0 and progressed via the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

. In the next round Stoke lost to eventual winners Liverpool, 2–1 at Anfield.

Final league table

Results

Legend

Football League First Division

FA Cup

League Cup

Anglo-Italian Cup

Friendlies

Squad statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1994-95 Stoke City F.C. season Stoke City F.C. seasons

Stoke City F.C. 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 ...