1978–79 Stoke City F.C. season


The 1978–79 season was Stoke City's 72nd season in the Football League and the 25th in the Second Division.
Alan Durban continued his good start at Stoke and they were involved in a promotion race from the start of the campaign. It proved to be a very exciting season with four clubs all keeping pace with each other meaning that it went down until the final match of the season. Stoke needed to beat Notts County at Meadow Lane to gain promotion and despite a large Stoke away following it seemed that County would spoil the party but with just two minutes remaining Paul Richardson scored the winning goal and Stoke took the final promotion position in the most dramatic way.

Season review

League

With all close season in which to work out the future, Alan Durban turned to his old club Shrewsbury Town and paid £60,000 for midfielder Sammy Irvine and paid £50,000 for Manchester City's experienced defender Mike Doyle. The 1978–79 season started well with Stoke winning five of their first six matches. Paul Randall arrived from Bristol Rovers as Stoke maintained their good form. They were rarely out of the top three but neither were promotion rivals Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace and Sunderland. This meant that the race for promotion went all the way to the final day of the season and Stoke knew that they had to win their last League match away at Notts County to gain a return to the First Division. Backed by well over 14,000 fans, Stoke came out victorious albeit late on, Paul Richardson's header two minutes from time deciding the match and earned Stoke 3rd spot in the table, finishing a point above Sunderland.

FA Cup

Stoke suffered misfortune in this season's FA Cup when, having taken a 2–0 lead in their third round tie at home to Oldham Athletic, a heavy blizzard caused the match to be abandoned. In the rematch Oldham claimed a 1–0 victory.

League Cup

Stoke had a useful run beating Sunderland, Northampton Town and Charlton Athletic all away before losing 3–1 to Watford at the quarter final stage.

Final league table

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

Results

Stoke's score comes first

Legend

Football League Second Division

MatchDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorers
119 August 1978Cambridge UnitedA1–07,489Richardson 87'
223 August 1978Cardiff CityH2–016,001Smith 75', Busby 85'
326 August 1978MillwallH2–015,176Busby 77', Crooks 82'
42 September 1978Oldham AthleticA1–111,267Richardson 46'
59 September 1978OrientA1–06,587O'Callaghan 84'
623 September 1978Preston North EndA1–014,051Kendall 24'
727 September 1978Brighton & Hove AlbionH2–222,201Crooks 45', O'Callaghan 50'
830 September 1978Crystal PalaceH1–119,079Irvine 5'
97 October 1978FulhamA0–212,534
1014 October 1978BurnleyH3–118,437Richardson 14', Kendall 28', Irvine 55'
1121 October 1978West Ham UnitedA1–127,859Richardson 87'
1228 October 1978Sheffield UnitedH2–121,285O'Callaghan 7', Crooks 74'
134 November 1978SunderlandA1–025,170O'Callaghan 87'
1411 November 1978Cambridge UnitedH1–319,024Busby 62'
1518 November 1978MillwallA0–36,925
1622 November 1978Oldham AthleticH4–017,170O'Callaghan 14', Irvine 19', Crooks 66', 78'
1725 November 1978Blackburn RoversA2–210,841O'Callaghan 65', Crooks 76'
182 December 1978Leicester CityH0–015,590
199 December 1978Newcastle UnitedA0–223,447
2016 December 1978WrexhamH3–018,358Crooks 40', 72', Roberts 75'
2123 December 1978Bristol RoversA0–07,897
2226 December 1978Charlton AthleticH2–220,841McGroarty 30', O'Callaghan 53'
2330 December 1978Notts CountyH2–021,394Irvine 3', O'Callaghan 80'
2420 January 1979Brighton & Hove AlbionA1–123,071O'Callaghan 29'
256 February 1979Luton TownA0–06,462
2610 February 1979Crystal PalaceA1–123,315Irvine 84'
2724 February 1979BurnleyA3–013,756O'Callaghan 63', Randall 86', Crooks 90'
2828 February 1979Preston North EndH1–118,177O'Callaghan 64'
293 March 1979West Ham UnitedH2–024,912Doyle 9', Randall 85'
3010 March 1979Sheffield UnitedA0–020,512
3114 March 1979OrientH3–116,189Irvine 20', Crooks 30', 65'
3224 March 1979Cardiff CityA3–114,869Randall 16', O'Callaghan 43', Crooks 68'
3327 March 1979SunderlandH0–124,021
3431 March 1979Blackburn RoversH1–217,021O'Callaghan 15'
354 April 1979FulhamH2–015,243Smith 63', Randall 65'
367 April 1979Leicester CityA1–117,502Busby 44'
3714 April 1979Charlton AthleticA4–19,084Richardson 24', Randall 47', O'Callaghan 82', Irvine 86'
3816 April 1979Luton TownH0–019,214
3917 April 1979Bristol RoversH2–018,671Busby 4', 27'
4021 April 1979WrexhamA1–020,215O'Callaghan 44'
4128 April 1979Newcastle UnitedH0–023,271
425 May 1979Notts CountyA1–021,579Richardson 88'

FA Cup

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorers
R36 January 1979Oldham AthleticH2–015,991Abandoned due to heavy snow
R317 January 1979Oldham AthleticH0–116,554

League Cup

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorers
R230 August 1978SunderlandA2–012,368Irvine 3', Doyle 34'
R33 October 1978Northampton TownA3–111,235Dodd 10', O'Callaghan 52', Kendall 90'
R47 November 1978Charlton AthleticA3–218,667Irvine 1', Busby 20', Crooks 88'
Quarter Final8 December 1978WatfordH0–026,070
Quarter Final Replay9 January 1979WatfordA1–321,419Richardson 67'

Friendlies

Squad statistics