1963–64 Stoke City F.C. season

Stoke City
1963–64 season
Chairman	Mr G. Taylor
Manager	Tony Waddington
Stadium	Victoria Ground
Football League First Division	17th (38 Points)
FA Cup	Fifth Round
League Cup	Final (Runners-up)
Top goalscorer	League: John Ritchie (18); All: John Ritchie (30)
Highest home attendance	45,697 vs Manchester United (18 April 1964)
Lowest home attendance	20,488 vs Bolton Wanderers (22 February 1964)
Average home league attendance	30,315
	Home colours
	Home colours

The 1963–64 season was Stoke City's 57th season in the Football League and the 33rd in the First Division.

With the club now on a high after gaining promotion back to England's top tier, Tony Waddington wasted no time in bringing in new signings to make sure relegation was avoided. He broke the transfer record and despite some concern during the season Stoke stayed up comfortably in 17th position. Stoke enjoyed success in the League Cup reaching the final against Leicester City before losing 4–3 over two legs.[1]

Season review

League

With the euphoria of winning promotion over, Waddington knew that his side had to be strengthened to have any hope of surviving in the First Division.[1] The first big name signing he made was that of Peter Dobing for a club record fee of £37,500 from Manchester City and £6,000 for Bobby Irvine a young goalkeeper from Linfield.[1] Also signed by Stoke this season was John Ritchie a centre forward signed from non-league Kettering Town for a small fee of £2,500.[1] Ritchie scored 30 goals in his first season and went on to become Stoke's best ever goalscorer.[1]

Stoke made a dream start to the 1963–64 season beating Tottenham Hotspur 2–1 at home on the opening match of the season, Jimmy McIlroy scoring both goals, and then accounting for Aston Villa 3–1 two days later.[1] There followed though, a run of 10 matches without a win and Stoke found themselves at the wrong end of the table.[1] Waddington was not happy with his defence and went out and bought Calvin Palmer from Nottingham Forest for £30,000 and George Kinnell from Aberdeen for £27,000 and another 'keeper Lawrie Leslie from West Ham United.[1] On the other hand, he released Don Ratcliffe, and Ron Wilson.[1] John Ritchie was introduced into the first team by October and he made an instant impression as he started scoring the first few of his 171 for the club.[1] With Ritchie in full flow, things improved and in nine matches from early October to mid November, Stoke remained unbeaten.[1] However around Christmas time the team again went through a bad spell losing eight times including some heavy defeats.[1]

Stoke recovered well in the second half of the season and began to pull themselves away from the danger zone.[1] A huge 9–1 win over Ipswich Town in March gave the team the confidence they needed and five wins in their last nine fixtures lifted Stoke to a final position of 17th, 10 points above relegated Bolton Wanderers.[1]

FA Cup

Stoke beat Portsmouth 4–1 in the third round and then edged past Ipswich in a replay before losing in a replay to Swansea.[1]

League Cup

Away from the league Stoke had a great run in this seasons League Cup having made an unspectacular start to the competition which started in 1960.[1] In 1963–64 they made it through to the final where they met Leicester City.[1] Stoke's run had seen them knock-out Scunthorpe United after three matches, Bolton Wanderers, Bournemouth, Rotherham United and then Manchester City in the semi final.[1] The final itself was played over two legs, Stoke drawing 1–1 at the Victoria Ground in the first clash. This proved to be insufficient as Leicester won the return leg at Filbert Street 3–2 giving them a 4–3 aggregate win and with it the League Cup.[1]

Final league table

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	F	A	GA	Pts
1	Liverpool	42	26	5	11	92	45	2.044	57
2	Manchester United	42	23	7	12	90	62	1.452	53
3	Everton	42	21	10	11	84	64	1.313	52
4	Tottenham Hotspur	42	22	7	13	97	81	1.198	51
5	Chelsea	42	20	10	12	72	56	1.286	50
6	Sheffield Wednesday	42	19	11	12	84	67	1.254	49
7	Blackburn Rovers	42	18	10	14	89	65	1.369	46
8	Arsenal	42	17	11	14	90	82	1.098	45
9	Burnley	42	17	10	15	71	64	1.109	44
10	West Bromwich Albion	42	16	11	15	70	61	1.148	43
11	Leicester City	42	16	11	15	61	58	1.052	43
12	Sheffield United	42	16	11	15	61	64	0.953	43
13	Nottingham Forest	42	16	9	17	64	68	0.941	41
14	West Ham United	42	14	12	16	69	74	0.932	40
15	Fulham	42	13	13	16	58	65	0.892	39
16	Wolverhampton Wanderers	42	12	15	15	70	80	0.875	39
17	Stoke City	42	14	10	18	77	78	0.987	38
18	Blackpool	42	13	9	20	52	73	0.712	35
19	Aston Villa	42	11	12	19	62	71	0.873	34
20	Birmingham City	42	11	7	24	54	92	0.587	29
21	Bolton Wanderers	42	10	8	24	48	80	0.600	28
22	Ipswich Town	42	9	7	26	56	121	0.463	25

Key: P = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GA = Goal average; Pts = Points

Results

Stoke's score comes first

Legend

Win	Draw	Loss

Football League First Division

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	24 August 1963	Tottenham Hotspur	H	2–1	40,017	McIlroy (2)
2	26 August 1963	Aston Villa	A	3–1	39,041	Dobing (2), Mudie
3	31 August 1963	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	1–2	43,217	Viollet
4	4 September 1963	Aston Villa	H	2–2	36,649	Viollet, Dobing
5	7 September 1963	Leicester City	H	3–3	34,453	Viollet (2), Asprey
6	11 September 1963	Sheffield United	A	1–4	25,347	McIlroy
7	14 September 1963	Nottingham Forest	H	0–1	34,458
8	18 September 1963	Sheffield United	H	0–2	30,230
9	21 September 1963	Blackburn Rovers	A	0–1	30,517
10	28 September 1963	Blackpool	H	1–2	27,244	Clamp (pen)
11	5 October 1963	Chelsea	A	3–3	29,204	Mudie (2), Harris (o.g.)
12	9 October 1963	Arsenal	H	1–2	31,014	McIlroy
13	12 October 1963	Bolton Wanderers	A	4–3	17,366	McIlroy (2), Ritchie (2)
14	19 October 1963	Fulham	H	1–1	24,464	Ritchie
15	26 October 1963	West Bromwich Albion	A	3–2	23,800	Ritchie, Dobing, Palmer
16	2 November 1963	Burnley	H	4–4	37,279	Ritchie (2), Dobing, Bebbington
17	9 November 1963	Ipswich Town	A	2–0	15,006	Ritchie, Dobing
18	16 November 1963	Sheffield Wednesday	H	4–4	30,695	Ritchie (3), Dobing
19	23 November 1963	Everton	A	0–2	47,143
20	30 November 1963	Birmingham City	H	4–1	27,308	Ritchie (2), Dobing, Kinnell
21	7 December 1963	Manchester United	A	2–5	52,232	Ritchie, Dobing
22	14 December 1963	Tottenham Hotspur	A	1–2	36,209	Palmer
23	21 December 1963	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	0–2	27,070
24	26 December 1963	Liverpool	A	1–6	49,948	Ritchie
25	11 January 1964	Leicester City	A	1–2	23,333	Clamp
26	18 January 1964	Nottingham Forest	A	0–0	17,872
27	1 February 1964	Blackburn Rovers	H	3–1	32,275	Bridgwood, Bebbington (2)
28	8 February 1964	Blackpool	A	0–1	14,452
29	22 February 1964	Bolton Wanderers	H	0–1	20,488
30	29 February 1964	Arsenal	A	1–1	26,208	Kinnell
31	4 March 1964	Chelsea	H	2–0	21,264	Palmer, Dobing
32	7 March 1964	West Bromwich Albion	H	1–1	25,021	Viollet
33	21 March 1964	Ipswich Town	H	9–1	16,166	Viollet (3), Dobing, McIlroy (2), Bebbington, Ritchie (2)
34	27 March 1964	West Ham United	A	1–4	29,484	Dobing
35	28 March 1964	Burnley	A	0–1	23,869
36	31 March 1964	West Ham United	H	3–0	24,990	Dobing, McIlroy, Palmer
37	4 April 1964	Everton	H	3–2	35,315	Bebbington (2), Viollet
38	8 April 1964	Sheffield Wednesday	A	0–2	30,201
39	11 April 1964	Birmingham City	A	1–0	19,890	Kinnell (pen)
40	18 April 1964	Manchester United	H	3–1	45,697	Palmer, Viollet, Ritchie
41	25 April 1964	Fulham	A	3–3	15,748	Dobing (2), Bridgwood
42	29 April 1964	Liverpool	H	3–1	32,149	Dobing, Ritchie, Bebbington

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
R3	4 January 1964	Portsmouth	H	4–1	28,966	Ritchie (2), Viollet (2)
R4	25 January 1964	Ipswich Town	A	1–1	21,894	McIlroy
R4 Replay	29 January 1964	Ipswich Town	H	1–0	34,612	McIlroy
R5	15 February 1964	Swansea City	H	2–2	40,095	McIlroy, Matthews
R5 Replay	18 February 1964	Swansea City	A	0–2	29,582

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
R2	25 September 1963	Scunthorpe United	A	2–2	6,945	Dobing (2)
R2 Replay	16 October 1963	Scunthorpe United	H	3–3	11,060	Dobing, Ritchie (2)
R2 2nd Replay	22 October 1963	Scunthorpe United	N	1–0	4,297	Ritchie
R3	29 October 1963	Bolton Wanderers	H	3–0	11,285	Ritchie (2), Bebbington
R4	27 November 1963	Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic	H	2–1	9,766	Ritchie (2)
Quarter Final	16 December 1963	Rotherham United	H	3–2	12,988	Ritchie (2), Kinnell
Semi Final 1st Leg	15 January 1964	Manchester City	H	2–0	21,019	Ritchie, Asprey
Semi Final 2nd Leg	2 February 1964	Manchester City	A	0–1	16,894
Final 1st Leg	15 April 1964	Leicester City	H	1–1	22,369	Bebbington
Final 2nd Leg	22 April 1964	Leicester City	A	2–3	25,372	Kinnell, Viollet

Friendlies

Match	Opponent	Venue	Result
1	FK Austria Wien	A	0–1
2	Aberdeen	A	0–2
3	Benfica	H	0–1
4	Belenenses	A	0–0
5	Club Santa Fe	A	2–3
6	Independiente Medellín	A	3–0
7	Club Universidad de Chile	A	0–0
8	Boca Juniors	A	2–1
9	River Plate	A	0–5
10	San Lorenzo	A	1–2

Squad statistics

Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		League Cup		Total
Pos.	Name	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
GK	Bobby Irvine	11	0	0	0	1	0	12	0
GK	Lawrie Leslie	25	0	5	0	5	0	35	0
GK	Jimmy O'Neill	6	0	0	0	4	0	10	0
DF	Tony Allen	41	0	5	0	10	0	56	0
DF	Ron Andrew	4	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
DF	Alan Bloor	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0
DF	George Kinnell	24	3	5	0	5	2	34	5
DF	Eric Skeels	39	0	5	0	10	0	54	0
DF	Eddie Stuart	23	0	1	0	6	0	30	0
DF	Ron Wilson	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
MF	Bill Asprey	29	1	4	0	9	1	42	2
MF	Gerry Bridgwood	16	2	0	0	6	0	22	2
MF	Eddie Clamp	18	2	4	0	6	0	28	2
MF	John Flowers	5	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
MF	Jackie Mudie	4	3	0	0	1	0	5	3
MF	Calvin Palmer	30	5	5	0	5	0	40	5
FW	Keith Bebbington	36	7	4	0	9	2	49	9
FW	Peter Dobing	39	16	2	0	9	3	50	19
FW	Jimmy McIlroy	32	9	4	3	7	0	43	12
FW	Stanley Matthews	9	0	4	1	0	0	13	1
FW	Don Ratcliffe	8	0	0	0	1	0	9	0
FW	John Ritchie	29	18	4	2	9	10	42	30
FW	Dennis Viollet	32	10	3	2	6	1	41	13
–	Own goals	–	1	–	0	–	0	–	1

References

Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.

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[The_Encyclopaedia_of_Stoke_City-1] Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.

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