The 1994–95 season was

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

's 88th 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, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

and 32nd in the second tier. In the summer of 1994 manager Joe Jordan made a number of alterations to his squad with the best being the signing of Canadian

Paul Peschisolido Paolo Pasquale Peschisolido (born 25 May 1971) is a Canadian former soccer player and coach. Peschisolido was coach of English League Two club Burton Albion from May 2009 until March 2012. A forward, Peschisolido began his career in the Ca ...

from

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. The team compete in the ...

. 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 Richard Asa Hartford (born 24 October 1950) is a Scottish former football player and coach. He started his professional career with West Bromwich Albion. His early progress led to a proposed transfer to Leeds United in November 1971, but this co ...

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 Kenn ...

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 Foot ...

. His first match back saw Stoke beat

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

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 Joe Jordan brought in Canadian

from

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, Celti ...

(who was on loan last season), Keith Downing and John Dreyer. 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 Tranmere Rovers Football Club are a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ...

but this was followed up with poor results which saw Stoke lose 4–0 back-to-back at

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

and then

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

. Shortly after that defeat at Bolton Jordan resigned which was unsurprising as he remained unpopular with the club's supporters.

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

4–1 but a poor defeat against

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

in the next match saw his attentions turn to strengthening the squad. In came

Kevin Keen Kevin Ian Keen (born 25 February 1967) is an English football coach and former player. Keen is currently the coach of West Ham United under-18 team. Keen began his career with Wycombe Wanderers before joining West Ham United in 1983. He spent ...

Ray Wallace Ray or Raymond Wallace may refer to: * Raymond L. Wallace (1918–2002), American Bigfoot researcher & hoaxer *Raymond Wallace, a pseudonym of English songwriter Huntley Trevor (1881–1943) * Ray Wallace (footballer) (born 1969), English footballe ...

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 Joe Jordan who had returned to

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

and he was given a frosty reception by the supporters but his side managed to win the third round replay at 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. Histor ...

3–1.

League Cup

Stoke drew

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

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

Craven Cottage Craven Cottage is a football stadium 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 29,589; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game agains ...

Stoke beat Fulham 1–0 and progressed via the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of 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 team that ...

. In the next round Stoke lost to eventual winners

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, 2–1 at

Anfield Anfield is a Association football, football stadium in the area of Anfield (suburb), Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since its formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the ...

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 association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...