2001–02 Stoke City F.C. season


The 2001–02 season was Stoke City's 95th season in the Football League and the eighth in the third tier.
After two failed attempts to gain promotion via the play-offs the pressure was now on Gudjon Thordarson to achieve automatic promotion. Graham Kavanagh was sold for £1 million as well as fan favourite Peter Thorne to Cardiff City and with the money raised Stoke went out and brought some useful additions. After a slow start City went on a 10 match unbeaten run which was brought to a halt by Wigan in November. In January Stoke lost their form and fell away from automatic promotion places and it became clear that it would be the play-offs again for Stoke. And it was Cardiff who were Stoke's opponents with the first leg ending in a 2–1 win for the "Bluebirds" and it seemed that in the second leg Cardiff would hold on for a goalless draw but two very late goals gave Stoke a famous victory and they went to secure promotion by beating Brentford 2–0 in the final. It was not enough however for Gudjon Thordarson to be offered a new contract.

Season review

League

The pressure was now on manager Gudjon Thordarson to finally end Stoke's spell in the Second Division with the owners wanting the club to start progressing through to the Premiership. First task Gudjon did was to sell key midfielder Graham Kavanagh to big spending Cardiff City for £1 million and with that money he brought in six new players, defender Peter Handyside from Grimsby Town who was made captain, goalkeeper Neil Cutler, Belarusian defender Sergei Shtanyuk, Belgian midfielder Jurgen Vandeurzen, David Rowson from Aberdeen and most impressively former Dutch international Peter Hoekstra. The season didn't get off the best of starts with Stoke losing 1–0 away at Queens Park Rangers but two wins over Northampton and Cambridge kick started Stoke's season. Stoke then drew 1–1 at home to Huddersfield Town with Peter Thorne scoring a 90th-minute equaliser, it proved to be his last act in a Stoke shirt as he left to join Kavanagh at Cardiff. With Stoke's main goal threat sold supporters questioned where the goals would come from, thankfully for Stoke they would be spread across the side.
After the departure of Thorne Stoke went on a fine run of results going 10 matches unbeaten putting them firmly in the hunt for automatic promotion but the run was ended by a thumping 6–1 defeat at Wigan Athletic. Stoke recovered well beating Wycombe Wanderers 5–1 but just three wins in 14 saw Stoke's grip on the top two loosen. Matters were not helped when Souleymane Oularé brought into replace Thorne suffered a life-threatening blood clot after just one appearance. With automatic promotion looking unlikely due to the form of Brighton & Hove Albion and Reading, Stoke concentrated on cementing their position in the play-offs and that's what they managed finishing the season in 5th position.
Their opponents in the play-offs were Cardiff City and the first leg at the Britannia Stadium didn't go well for Stoke with Leo Fortune-West and Robert Earnshaw putting Cardiff 2–0 up, but on loan striker Deon Burton pulled one back for Stoke late on. So Stoke went into the second leg at the notoriously hostile Ninian Park 2–1 down and with both sides missing chances the match was 0–0 after 90 minutes and in the final minute of injury time James O'Connor scored to send the match into extra time. And Stoke scored again via an O'Connor shot which deflected in of Souleymane Oularé to give Stoke the most dramatic victory. The final against Brentford was not as dramatic as Stoke won comfortably 2–0 thanks to goals from Deon Burton and an own goal from Ben Burgess. So with Stoke celebrating a return to the second tier after a longer than hoped spell in the third tier the feeling around the club was good with hopes that it could be the start of a return to the top flight. However, despite finally achieving promotion via the play-offs at the third attempt manager Gudjon Thordarson's contract was not renewed.

FA Cup

After avoiding potential upsets against non-league Lewes and Third Division Halifax Town Stoke were handed a third round tie against Everton. The "Toffees" won a close match 1–0 thanks to an Alan Stubbs free-kick in front of a capacity crowd of 28,218.

League Cup

Stoke lost to Oldham Athletic in the first round via a penalty shoot-out.

League Trophy

With priorities on gaining promotion Gudjon decided to play a second string side against Blackpool giving debuts to some of the club's best academy players most notably Andy Wilkinson. They gave a decent account of themselves losing 3–2.

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

Pre-Season Friendlies

MatchDateOpponentVenueResultScorers
115 July 2001Newcastle TownA3–0Thorne 10' Cooke 39' Bullock 72'
218 July 2001Macclesfield TownA1–0Guðjónsson 44'
321 July 2001Wacker BurghausenA3–1Guðjónsson, Hoekstra, Gunnarsson
424 July 2001FC GratkornA0–0
524 July 2001GençlerbirliğiA0–1
627 July 2001SV GmundenA3–0Þórðarson, Iwelumo, Cooke
731 July 2001Leicester CityH1–2Cooke
84 August 2001Derby CountyH0–0
97 August 2001Racing Club WarwickA4–2Lewis Neal, Marc Goodfellow, Iwelumo

Football League Second Division

MatchDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorersReport
111 August 2001Queens Park RangersA0–114,357
218 August 2001Northampton TownH2–012,845Cooke 52', Thorne 54'
325 August 2001Cambridge UnitedA2–03,336Thorne 48', Cooke 51'
427 August 2001Tranmere RoversH1–212,031Thorne 90'
58 September 2001Huddersfield TownH1–113,319Thorne 90'
615 September 2001ReadingH2–011,752Guðjónsson 25', Cooke 30'
718 September 2001Brighton & Hove AlbionA0–16,627
822 September 2001BuryA1–04,727Vandeurzen 32'
926 September 2001Colchester UnitedH3–09,515Vandeurzen 45', Þórðarson 57', 90'
1029 September 2001BournemouthH2–014,803Maher 11', Thomas 47'
1113 October 2001Notts CountyH1–013,220Hoekstra 47'
1221 October 2001Port ValeA1–110,344Iwelumo 78'
1323 October 2001ChesterfieldA2–15,141Hoekstra 67', 90'
1427 October 2001Bristol CityH1–016,828Gunnarsson 88'
153 November 2001Swindon TownA3–07,981Gunnarsson 28', Iwelumo 65', O'Connor 86'
166 November 2001BlackpoolA2–24,921Iwelumo 63', 64'
1710 November 2001BrentfordH3–217,953Gunnarsson 32' Iwelumo 49', Shtanyuk 80'
1813 November 2001Wigan AthleticA1–67,047Vandeurzen 9'
1921 November 2001Oldham AthleticH0–011,031
2024 November 2001WrexhamA1–05,477Cooke 67'
2115 December 2001Wycombe WanderersH5–112,911Gunnarsson 19', 44', Iwelumo 30', Cooke 58', Goodfellow 85'
2219 December 2001Cardiff CityH1–114,331Gabbidon 81'
2326 December 2001Tranmere RoversA2–212,201Cooke 19', Daðason 90'
2429 December 2001Huddersfield TownA0–016,041
251 January 2002BlackpoolH2–016,615Shtanyuk 13', O'Connor 82'
2613 January 2002Northampton TownA1–15,635Goodfellow 36'
2719 January 2002Queens Park RangersH0–116,725
2822 January 2002Cardiff CityA0–211,771
2926 January 2002Wigan AthleticH2–213,361Goodfellow 37', Daðason 67'
3029 January 2002Peterborough UnitedA2–15,173Daðason 21', Goodfellow 90'
312 February 2002BournemouthA1–36,027Daðason 63'
326 February 2002Cambridge UnitedH5–09,570Cooke 22', O'Connor 27', Þórðarson 61', Tann 71', Goodfellow 89'
3310 February 2002Port ValeH0–123,019
3416 February 2002Notts CountyA0–07,501
3523 February 2002ReadingA0–121,023
3626 February 2002BuryH4–09,635Iwelumo 45', 56', Vandeurzen 73', Þórðarson 84'
371 March 2002Brighton & Hove AlbionH3–116,092Iwelumo 29', Gunnlaugsson 58', Clarke 86'
385 March 2002Colchester UnitedA3–13,866Guðjónsson 42', Burton 45', 80'
399 March 2002Wycombe WanderersA0–17,344
4016 March 2002Peterborough UnitedH1–012,983Gunnlaugsson 10'
4123 March 2002ChesterfieldH1–014,841Gunnlaugsson 23'
4230 March 2002BrentfordA0–18,837
431 April 2002Swindon TownH2–013,530Thomas 60', Iwelumo 68'
446 April 2002Oldham AthleticA1–26,548Holden 63'
4513 April 2002WrexhamH1–014,298Cooke 30'
4620 April 2002Bristol CityA1–111,277Cooke 16'

Second Division play-offs

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorersReport
Semi-final 1st Leg28 April 2002Cardiff CityH1–221,245Burton 85'
Semi-final 2nd Leg1 May 2002Cardiff CityA2–0 19,367O'Connor 90+3', Oularé 114'
Final11 May 2002BrentfordN2–042,523Burton 10', Burgess 44'

FA Cup

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorersReport
R118 November 2001LewesH2–07,081Handyside 19', Gunnarsson 57'
R28 December 2001Halifax TownA1–13,335Cooke 27'
R2 Replay11 December 2001Halifax TownH3–04,356Guðjónsson 22', Iwelumo 27', Gunnarsson 47'
R35 January 2002EvertonH0–128,218

League Cup

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorersReport
R122 August 2001Oldham AthleticH0–0 5,635

League Trophy

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceScorersReport
R116 October 2001BlackpoolA2–33,561Iwelumo 72', Neal 83'

Squad statistics