Stoke City Football Club is an English

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club based in Stoke-on-Trent. Founded as Stoke Ramblers Football Club in 1863, the club changed its name to Stoke Football Club in 1868 and then added the word "City" in 1927. During the 1888–89 season, Stoke joined

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 after a period in non-league football prior to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Stoke remained there until 2008 when Stoke gained promotion

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

. Stoke City are founder members of

, which was created in 1888. Over the years Stoke have played in the First Division,

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 ...

, Third Division,

Third Division North The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to ...

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

Football Alliance The Football Alliance was an association football league in England which ran for three seasons, from 1889–90 to 1891–92. History In 1888, the same year the Football League was founded, The Combination was established by clubs who had been ...

, Birmingham & District League and Southern League. Since 2018, Stoke compete in the second tier of English football, the EFL Championship. Stoke's first opponent was

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

in September 1888 who defeated the Potters 2–0. Albion is also the opponent Stoke have played the most often in League matches, and against which they have recorded the most wins. The most league defeats inflicted upon City are by

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 ...

and Sunderland, while the most drawn matches have come against

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 188 ...

Key

*The records include the results of matches played 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 ...

(from 1888 to 1890, 1891 to 1907, 1919 to 2008)

(from 1890 to 1891) and the

(since 2008). Wartime matches are regarded as unofficial and are excluded, as are matches from the abandoned 1939–40 seasons.

Football League play-offs The English Football League play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the four association football teams finishing immediately below the automatic promotion places in the second, third and fourth tiers of the English football leagu ...

, Test Matches and cup matches are not included. *For the sake of simplicity, present-day names are used throughout: for example, results against Ardwick, Small Heath and Woolwich Arsenal are integrated into the records against Manchester City,

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 ...

and Arsenal, respectively. * Teams with this background and symbol in the "Club" column are current divisional rivals of Stoke City. * Clubs with this background and symbol in the "Club" column are defunct. *Pld = matches played; W = matches won; D = matches drawn; L = matches lost; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; Win% = percentage of total matches won

All-time league record

:''Statistics correct as of end of the 2022–23 season.''

References

External links

Stoke City official website
{{Lists of English football club league records by opponent League Record By Opponent Stoke City