1940–41 Stoke City F.C. season

Stoke City
1940–41 season
Chairman	Mr H. Booth
Manager	Bob McGrory
Stadium	Victoria Ground
South Regional Championship	25th
Football League War Cup	First Round
Highest home attendance	4,980 vs Birmingham (9 November 1940)
Lowest home attendance	300 vs Notts County (25 January 1941)
	Home colours
	Home colours

The 1940–41 season was Stoke City's sixth season in the non-competitive War League.^[1]

In 1939 World War II was declared and the Football League was cancelled. In its place were formed War Leagues and cups, based on geographical lines rather than based on previous league placement. However, none of these were considered to be competitive football, and thus their records are not recognised by the Football League and thus not included in official records.^[1]

Season review

With so many players unable to get leave from the army on matchdays this gave the club a perfect opportunity to field several younger players and when Stoke kicked off the 1940–41 season against Notts County on 31 August 1940 they fielded a side with an average age of 21.^[1] Several clubs did not play as many matches as others during the season and Stoke, well below strength and lacking in form, conceded a remarkable 23 goals in just four games in December and January.^[1]

Stoke's back line caved in regularly and seven goals were put past them on three occasions at Mansfield, Northampton and Walsall.^[1] Stoke finished 25th (out of 34) in the final South Regional League this season when a points average decided league placings rather than points simply because some teams did not play as many games as others e.g. Birmingham played 16 and Stoke 36.^[1]

Final league table

Note: Due to the inconsistent number of matches played by teams in 1940–41, positions were decided by goal-average.

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	F	A	GA
1	Crystal Palace	27	16	4	7	86	44	1.954
2	West Ham United	25	14	6	5	70	39	1.794
3	Coventry City	10	5	3	2	28	16	1.750
4	Arsenal	19	10	5	4	66	38	1.736
5	Cardiff City	24	12	5	7	75	50	1.500
6	Reading	26	14	5	7	73	51	1.431
7	Norwich City	19	9	2	8	73	55	1.327
8	Watford	35	15	6	14	96	73	1.315
9	Portsmouth	31	16	2	13	92	71	1.296
10	Tottenham Hotspur	23	9	5	9	53	41	1.292
11	Millwall	31	16	5	10	73	57	1.280
12	Walsall	32	14	7	11	100	80	1.250
13	West Bromwich Albion	28	13	5	10	73	57	1.202
14	Leicester City	33	17	5	11	83	73	1.191
15	Northampton Town	30	14	3	13	84	71	1.183
16	Bristol City	20	10	2	8	55	48	1.145
17	Mansfield Town	29	12	6	11	77	68	1.132
18	Charlton Athletic	19	7	4	8	37	34	1.088
19	Aldershot	24	14	2	8	73	68	1.073
20	Brentford	23	9	3	11	51	51	1.000
21	Chelsea	23	10	4	9	57	58	0.981
22	Birmingham City	16	7	1	8	38	43	0.883
23	Fulham	30	10	7	13	62	73	0.849
24	Luton Town	35	11	7	17	82	100	0.820
25	Stoke City	36	9	9	18	76	96	0.791
26	Queens Park Rangers	23	8	3	12	47	60	0.783
27	Brighton & Hove Albion	25	8	7	10	51	75	0.680
28	Nottingham Forest	25	7	3	15	50	77	0.649
29	Bournemouth	27	9	3	15	59	92	0.641
30	Notts County	21	8	3	10	42	66	0.636
31	Southend United	29	12	4	13	64	101	0.633
32	Southampton	31	4	4	23	53	111	0.477
33	Swansea Town	10	2	1	7	12	33	0.363
34	Clapton Orient	15	1	3	11	19	66	0.287

Results

Stoke's score comes first

Legend

Win	Draw	Loss

War League South Regional Championship

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	31 August 1940	Notts County	H	4–1	2,421	Mountford (3), Sale
2	7 September 1940	Notts County	A	2–3	3,000	Sale, Bowyer
3	14 September 1940	Mansfield Town	A	3–2	1,000	Bowyer, Mountford, Liddle
4	21 September 1940	Mansfield Town	H	5–0	2,000	Bowyer (2), Mountford (2), Liddle
5	28 September 1940	Leicester City	A	0–1	3,000
6	5 October 1940	Leicester City	H	3–3	2,814	Mountford (2), Sale
7	12 October 1940	West Bromwich Albion	A	1–0	4,091	Bowyer
8	19 October 1940	West Bromwich Albion	H	1–3	3,392	Soo
9	26 October 1940	Nottingham Forest	A	3–3	1,500	Mountford (2), Bowyer
10	2 November 1940	Nottingham Forest	H	5–0	714	Mountford, Bowyer, Sale, Soo (2)
11	9 November 1940	Birmingham	H	5–0	4,980	Mountford (3), Ormston (2)
12	16 November 1940	Birmingham	A	2–6	1,462	Liddle, Smith
13	30 November 1940	Tranmere Rovers	A	2–2	1,000	Mountford (2)
14	7 December 1940	Cardiff City	H	5–1	2,000	Mountford, Sale (2), Steele, Bowyer
15	14 December 1940	Cardiff City	A	0–4	800
16	21 December 1940	Walsall	A	2–2	540	Soo, Liddle
17	25 December 1940	Mansfield Town	A	2–7	3,450	Mountford, Smith
18	28 December 1940	Walsall	A	1–5	3,518	Steele
19	4 January 1941	Leicester City	A	2–6	3,000	Mountford, Sale
20	11 January 1941	Leicester City	H	3–5	2,000	Mountford (2), Sale
21	25 January 1941	Notts County	H	2–2	300	Sale, Dunkley
22	1 February 1941	Notts County	A	1–2	1,000	Steele
23	1 March 1941	Walsall	H	1–1	1,045	Sale
24	8 March 1941	Walsall	A	3–7	1,616	Bowyer, Liddle, Longford
25	15 March 1941	West Bromwich Albion	A	2–2	2,086	Liddle, Franklin
26	22 March 1941	West Bromwich Albion	H	0–2	794
27	29 March 1941	Nottingham Forest	H	4–0	500	Mountford (3), Sale
28	5 April 1941	Nottingham Forest	A	2–3	200	Basnett, Mitchell
29	14 April 1941	Northampton Town	A	0–7	3,000
30	26 April 1941	Chester	H	1–2	400	Sale
31	3 May 1941	Chester	H	0–1	1,200
32	10 May 1941	Northampton Town	H	2–1	400	Bowyer, Brigham
33	17 May 1941	Chesterfield	H	2–2	500	Steele, Brigham
34	24 May 1941	Chesterfield	A	1–5	1,000	Sale
35	2 June 1941	Wrexham	A	3–3	1,000	Sale, Steele, Basnett
36	7 June 1941	Leicester City	A	1–2	1,000	Brigham

Football League War Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
R1 1st Leg	15 February 1941	Mansfield Town	A	1–6	2,000	Mountford
R1 2nd Leg	22 February 1941	Mansfield Town	H	2–0	1,000	Sale, Longford

Friendlies

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	23 November 1940	Royal Air Force XI	H	3–2	825	Sale (2), Smith
2	8 February 1941	Royal Air Force XI	H	9–1	300	Mountford (4), Steele (4), Sale
3	12 April 1941	Army XI	H	7–2	400	Mitchell (4), Liddle, Mountford (2)
4	21 April 1941	Wrexham	A	2–5	3,370	Mitchell, Sale

Squad statistics

Pos.	Name	Matches
Pos.	Name	Apps	Goals
GK	Pat Bridges	18	0
GK	Lionel Hayward	1	0
GK	Dennis Herod	13	0
GK	Tom Holden	3	0
GK	Douglas Jones	1	0
GK	Norman Wilkinson	2	0
DF	Harry Brigham	30	3
DF	Jack Challinor	5	0
DF	Neil Franklin	33	1
DF	Stanley Glover	20	0
DF	Harry Griffiths	1	0
DF	Jack Griffiths	3	0
DF	Eric Hampson	22	0
DF	Stanley Harrison	11	0
DF	Eric Hayward	1	0
DF	Bill Kinson	2	0
DF	John McCue	14	0
DF	Billy Mould	2	0
MF	Edwin Blunt	1	0
MF	Wally Gould	1	0
MF	Len Howell	1	0
MF	Jock Kirton	4	0
MF	Alfred Massey	2	0
MF	Clement Smith	6	2
MF	Arthur Turner	11	0
MF	Frank Soo	18	4
MF	Edward Wordley	2	0
FW	Fred Basnett	5	2
FW	Frank Bowyer	28	10
FW	C. Curtis	1	0
FW	Robert Dunkley	3	1
FW	John Jackson	2	0
FW	Bobby Liddle	32	7
FW	Eric Longford	7	2
FW	Stanley Matthews	12	0
FW	Bert Mitchell	6	1
FW	Frank Mountford	29	23
FW	Alexander Ormston	3	2
FW	Syd Peppitt	4	0
FW	Tommy Sale	36	17
FW	Freddie Steele	16	5
FW	George Stevens	1	0
FW	Harry Ware	1	0
FW	James Westland	1	0

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0952415100.

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[The_Encyclopaedia_of_Stoke_City-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0952415100.

Stoke City F.C. seasons
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