1909–10 Stoke F.C. season

Stoke
1909–10 season
Chairman	Mr Rev. A Hurst
Manager	Alfred Barker
Stadium	Victoria Ground
Birmingham & District League	7th (37 points)
Southern League Division Two A	1st (20 points)
FA Cup	First Round
Birmingham League Cup	Third Round
Top goalscorer	League: Arthur Griffiths ; (36); All: Arthur Griffiths ; (38)
Highest home attendance	15,000 vs Crewe Alexandra ; (28 March 1910)
Lowest home attendance	2,500 vs Ton Pentre ; (30 September 1909)
Average home league attendance	5,000
Home colours	Away colours
	← 1908–09 1910–11 →

The 1909–10 season was Stoke's second in the Birmingham & District League and the first in the Southern Football League.

Stoke decided to enter two league competitions this season with the directors feeling that the Southern Football League represented a better chance to be re-elected into the Football League. Stoke won the Southern Football League Division Two A with ease winning all ten of their matches and the Division Two championship play-off. They scored 48 goals conceding only 9, but promotion was not gained due to a league reorganization. The Birmingham & District League was a lot harder and Stoke finished in 7th place.^[1]

Season review

League

Stoke played in two league competitions during the 1909–10 season, in the Birmingham & District League and in the Southern League Division Two. This meant a total of 44 league fixtures would be played during the season.^[1]

The standard of football in the Southern League was of a poor quality and Stoke took the championship with ease, winning all of their 10 matches with a goal-average of 48-9.^[1] They started off with an 11–0 home victory over Merthyr Town and never looked back. On 25 April 1910, Stoke met Hastings & St Leonards United (winners of Division Two B) in a 'championship decider' and Stoke easily won 6–0 to claim the title.^[1]

The Birmingham league was considerably tougher and it was dominated by Aston Villa's reserve side.^[1] Stoke finished in 7th place, never threatening to challenge the leaders throughout the campaign.^[1] Arthur Griffiths, who had returned to the club from Oldham Athletic, top scored this season amassing 38 goals in all competitions.^[1]

FA Cup

The biggest crowd of the season at the Victoria Ground (18,000) came in the FA Cup first round against Newcastle United.^[1] Stoke having progressed past Ilkeston and Exeter City in the qualifying rounds.^[1] Stoke held the Geordies to a 1–1 draw but lost 2–1 in the replay up in the north east and Newcastle went on to lift the cup.^[1] Stoke also played in the Birmingham League Cup for the one and only time losing to Aston Villa's second string in the third round.^[1] The directors decided that the Birmingham League Cup was not a worthwhile competition to enter.^[1]

Final league table

Birmingham & District League

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv	Pts
1	Aston Villa Reserves	34	25	4	5	98	36	2.722	54
2	Crewe Alexandra	34	23	3	8	117	56	2.089	49
3	Wolverhampton Wanderers Reserves	34	22	5	7	74	46	1.609	49
4	Brierley Hill Alliance	34	19	8	7	79	49	1.612	46
5	Walsall	34	18	7	9	66	44	1.500	43
6	Birmingham Reserves	34	17	7	10	73	60	1.217	41
7	Stoke	34	15	7	12	82	52	1.577	37
8	West Bromwich Albion Reserves	34	16	5	13	65	37	1.757	37
9	Stourbridge	34	15	3	16	78	74	1.054	33
10	Wrexham	34	13	7	14	61	62	0.984	33
11	Shrewsbury Town	34	13	5	16	48	63	0.762	31
12	Worcester City	34	10	9	15	65	66	0.985	29
13	Wellington Town	34	10	7	17	48	76	0.632	27
14	Kidderminster Harriers	34	9	6	19	52	83	0.627	24
15	Dudley Town	34	9	5	20	65	87	0.747	23
16	Stafford Rangers	34	9	5	20	48	80	0.600	23
17	Halesowen	34	8	3	23	44	90	0.489	19
18	Burton United	34	6	2	26	36	126	0.286	14

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Southern Football League Division Two A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv	Pts
1	Stoke	10	10	0	0	48	9	5.333	20
2	Ton Pentre	10	4	2	4	17	21	0.810	10
3	Merthyr Town	9	4	1	4	16	21	0.762	9
4	Salisbury City	8	2	1	5	7	18	0.389	5
5	Burton United	6	2	0	4	8	21	0.381	4
6	Aberdare	7	1	0	6	6	11	0.545	2

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Results

Stoke's score comes first

Legend

Win	Draw	Loss

Birmingham & District League

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	4 September 1909	Burton United	A	0–2	2,000
2	11 September 1909	Wolverhampton Wanderers Reserves	A	2–2	3,000	Griffiths (2)
3	18 September 1909	Wolverhampton Wanderers Reserves	H	0–2	5,000
4	23 September 1909	Shrewsbury Town	A	1–0	1,500	Leese
5	25 September 1909	Walsall	H	5–1	3,000	Baddeley (2), Millward (2), Cook (o.g.)
6	2 October 1909	Aston Villa Reserves	A	1–2	6,000	Smith
7	9 October 1909	Kidderminster Harriers	H	4–2	3,000	Griffiths (2), Leese (2)
8	16 October 1909	Stourbridge	A	0–5	1,000
9	23 October 1909	Worcester City	H	3–1	2,000	Griffiths (2), Leigh
10	30 October 1909	West Bromwich Albion Reserves	H	1–3	8,500	Baddeley
11	6 November 1909	Wellington Town	A	0–1	2,000
12	13 November 1909	Halesowen	H	4–0	2,000	Griffiths (2), Leese, Millward
13	27 November 1909	Birmingham Reserves	H	4–0	6,000	Griffiths (2), Leese, Leigh
14	11 December 1909	Brierley Hill Alliance	H	4–1	2,000	Griffiths (2), Millward, Turner
15	18 December 1909	Wrexham	A	2–1	3,000	Baddeley, Leese
16	28 December 1909	Dudley Town	A	4–5	2,000	Baddeley, Leese (2), Millward
17	1 January 1910	Crewe Alexandra	A	2–4	5,000	Griffiths, Leigh
18	8 January 1910	Burton United	H	8–0	2,000	Griffiths (2), Leigh, Baddeley (3), Millward, Hall
19	29 January 1910	Shrewsbury Town	H	2–1	2,000	Baddeley, Leese
20	5 February 1910	Walsall	A	2–2	3,000	Baddeley, Griffiths
21	12 February 1910	Aston Villa Reserves	H	3–2	10,000	Baddeley, Griffiths (2)
22	19 February 1910	Kidderminster Harriers	A	0–1	2,000
23	26 February 1910	Stourbridge	H	6–1	3,000	S Baddeley, Griffiths (2), Leese, Millward, Taylor
24	5 March 1910	Worcester City	A	1–1	2,000	Millward
25	12 March 1910	West Bromwich Albion Reserves	A	1–1	4,500	Griffiths
26	19 March 1910	Wellington Town	H	5–1	2,500	Hall (2), Smith (2), Taylor
27	26 March 1910	Halesowen	A	1–2	1,000	Hall
28	28 March 1910	Crewe Alexandra	H	0–0	15,000
29	2 April 1910	Dudley Town	H	6–1	3,000	Griffiths (2), Leigh (2), Smith, Taylor
30	4 April 1910	Stafford Rangers	A	0–0	1,000
31	16 April 1910	Stafford Rangers	H	3–1	3,000	Griffiths, Millward (2)
32	18 April 1910	Birmingham Reserves	A	3–0	4,000	Griffiths, Millward, Taylor
33	23 April 1910	Brierley Hill Alliance	A	2–2	2,000	Millward, Leese
34	30 April 1910	Wrexham	H	3–0	3,000	Millward, Leese, Baddeley

Southern Football League Division Two A

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	1 September 1909	Merthyr Town	H	11–0	4,000	Griffiths (3), Leese, Millward, Smith (4), Tomlinson (2)
2	13 September 1909	Merthyr Town	A	4–2	3,000	Griffiths, Leese, Tomlinson, Leigh
3	30 September 1909	Ton Pentre	H	8–1	2,500	Griffiths (3), Baddeley (2), Smith (2), Jones (o.g.)
4	4 October 1909	Aberdare	A	2–0	2,000	Baddeley, Leese
5	8 November 1909	Aberdare	H	3–2	4,000	Baddeley, Smith (2)
6	25 December 1909	Burton United	A	7–1	2,000	Baddeley (5), Griffiths, Millward
7	27 December 1909	Burton United	H	5–0	4,000	Baddeley, S Baddeley, Leigh (2), Smith
8	22 January 1910	Salisbury City	A	3–2	1,000	Leese (2), Smith
9	25 March 1910	Ton Pentre	A	3–1	3,000	Griffiths (2), Smith
10	14 April 1910	Salisbury City	H	2–0	3,000	Baddeley (2)

Division Two championship play-off

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
25 April 1910	Hastings & St Leonards United	H	6–0	7,000	Griffiths, Leese, Smith (3), Turner

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
4QR	20 November 1909	Ilkeston United	H	2–0	2,000	Leigh, Smith
5QR	4 December 1909	Exeter City	H	0–0	7,000
5QR Replay	8 December 1909	Exeter City	A	1–1	3,500	Leese
5QR Second Replay	13 December 1909	Exeter City	N	2–1	3,000	Leigh, Millward
R1	15 January 1910	Newcastle United	H	1–1	18,000	Baddeley
R1 Replay	19 January 1910	Newcastle United	A	1–2	14,000	Griffiths

Birmingham League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
R1	20 September 1909	Brierley Hill Alliance	H	2–2	2,000	Griffiths, Smith
R1 Replay	18 October 1909	Brierley Hill Alliance	A	5–0	1,500	A Baddeley (4), S Baddeley
R2	1 November 1909	Stourbridge	H	3–1	2,000	Leigh, Smith, Tomlinson
R3	9 April 1910	Aston Villa Reserves	A	1–2	4,000	Leigh

Squad statistics

Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		Birmingham League Cup		Total
Pos.	Name	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
GK	Tom Baddeley	7	0	0	0	1	0	8	0
GK	Jack Benton	4	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
GK	Fred Rathbone	7	0	0	0	0	0	7	0
GK	Jack Robinson	27	0	6	0	2	0	35	0
DF	Dick Hawe	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
DF	James Hay	33	0	6	0	3	0	42	0
DF	Harry Hutsby	4	0	0	0	2	0	6	0
DF	Charles James	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
DF	Ernest Mullineux	31	0	5	0	3	0	39	0
DF	George Turner	20	2	1	0	1	0	22	2
DF	Jimmy Williams	5	0	1	0	0	0	6	0
MF	Sam Baddeley	42	2	6	0	4	1	52	3
MF	Archie Dyke	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
MF	Ellis Hall	39	4	6	0	4	0	49	4
MF	Fred Lewis	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
MF	William Owen	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
MF	Albert Pitt	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
MF	Fred Steel	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
MF	Fred Tomlinson	19	3	3	0	3	1	25	4
FW	Amos Baddeley	30	24	2	1	4	4	36	29
FW	Albert Bullock	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
FW	Thomas Greaves	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
FW	Arthur Griffiths	42	36	6	1	4	1	52	38
FW	Vic Horrocks	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
FW	Harry Leese	40	18	6	1	4	0	50	19
FW	Harry Leigh	42	9	5	2	4	2	51	13
FW	Ernie Millward	40	15	6	1	2	0	48	16
FW	William Smith	37	18	6	1	3	2	46	21
FW	Harry Taylor	10	4	0	0	0	0	10	4
–	Own goals	–	2	–	0	–	0	–	2

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.

[The_Encyclopaedia_of_Stoke_City-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.

[1]

v t e Stoke City F.C. seasons
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001890–91 1891–92 1892–93 1893–94 1894–95 1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–1900
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