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1939–40 Stoke City F.C. season

Field	Value
club	Stoke City
season	1939–40
manager	Bob McGrory
chairman	Mr H. Booth
stadium	Victoria Ground
league	War League West Regional Championship
league result	1st
cup1	Football League War Cup
cup1 result	Third Round
season topscorer	Tommy Sale
(24)
highest attendance	16,268 vs Charlton Athletic
(26 August 1939)
lowest attendance	714 vs Tranmere Rovers
(6 January 1940)
prevseason	1938–39
nextseason	1940–41
pattern_la1	_red_stripes
pattern_b1	_red_stripes
pattern_ra1	_red_stripes
pattern_so1	_band_red
shorts1	FFFFFF
socks1	000000

(24) (26 August 1939) (6 January 1940) The 1939–40 season was Stoke City's fifth season in the non-competitive War League. It would have been their 26th season in the Football League First Division but after just three matches the League was cancelled due to World War II.

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.

Season review

Stoke started the 1939–40 season with a match against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Football League Jubilee Fund losing 4–2. The Stoke players wore squad numbers for the first time in this match. After just three First Division matches had been played the Football League was cancelled and although a regional war-league was set up attendances suffered alarmingly. Stoke had looked a useful side with a lot of young, talented players before the hostilities came along and ruined the careers of many and from October 1939 to May 1946 the club missed out on what could have been a successful seven-year period.

With the cancellation of the league action, the re-organised competitions started on 21 October 1939, with 82 of the 88 clubs participating. Stoke drew their first match 4–4 with Everton with Tommy Sale scoring a fine hat-trick. With players being called up for military duty and with travelling very difficult plus the fact that Stanley Matthews was in heavy demand for guest matches team selection was never easy for Bob McGrory. Stoke brought in their own guest players to the Victoria Ground and they proved to be very successful as Stoke won the 1939–40 Western League finishing two points ahead of Liverpool.

Final league table

West Regional Championship

First Division

Note: The Football League was cancelled after three matches.

Results

Stoke's score comes first

Legend

Win	Draw	Loss

Football League Jubilee Fund

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
19 August 1939	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	2–4	6,440	Sale (2)

Football League First Division

Main article: 1939–40 Football League

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	26 August 1939	Charlton Athletic	H	4–0	16,268	Soo, Sale, Smith (2)
2	28 August 1939	Bolton Wanderers	H	1–2	13,067	Gallacher
3	2 September 1939	Middlesbrough	A	2–2	12,088	Sale (2)

West Regional Championship

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	21 October 1939	Everton	A	4–4	3,998	Sale (3), Liddle
2	28 October 1939	Stockport County	H	4–2	2,100	Sale, Soo, Ormston, Matthews
3	4 November 1939	Wrexham	A	4–4	3,959	Peppitt (2), Smith, Ormston
4	11 November 1939	New Brighton	H	4–1	2,401	Ormston (2), Sale (2)
5	18 November 1939	Manchester City	A	1–1	8,038	Sale (pen)
6	25 November 1939	Chester	H	2–0	1,425	Sale, Peppitt
7	2 December 1939	Crewe Alexandra	A	2–4	3,403	Sale (2)
8	9 December 1939	Liverpool	H	3–1	1,269	Sale, Liddle, Matthews
9	6 January 1940	Tranmere Rovers	H	1–0	714	Peppitt
10	20 January 1940	Manchester United	A	3–4	2,884	Peppitt, Sale, Bowyer
11	10 February 1940	Everton	H	1–0	8,910	Sale
12	24 February 1940	Stockport County	A	5–1	2,037	Peppitt (4), Soo
13	2 March 1940	Wrexham	H	3–1	2,974	Ormston (2), Steele
14	9 March 1940	New Brighton	A	1–3	1,357	Baker
15	16 March 1940	Manchester City	H	2–1	3,520	Sale, Smith
16	23 March 1940	Chester	A	3–3	4,116	Peppitt, Ormston
17	25 March 1940	Port Vale	H	5–1	9,450	Ormston (2), Sale, Own Goal (2)
18	30 March 1940	Crewe Alexandra	H	1–1	2,460	Sale
19	6 April 1940	Liverpool	A	2–1	5,130	Steele, Peppitt
20	6 May 1940	Port Vale	A	2–1	5,130	Steele, Sale
21	13 May 1940	Tranmere Rovers	A	1–5	2,434	Mountford
22	25 May 1940	Manchester United	H	3–2	3,227	Peppitt (2), Ormston

[[Football League War Cup]]

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
R1 1st Leg	20 April 1940	New Brighton	A	4–1	5,289	Sale, Steele (3)
R1 2nd Leg	27 April 1940	New Brighton	H	2–1	3,654	Sale, Steele
R2 1st Leg	4 May 1940	Barrow	A	2–0	11,870	Steele (2)
R2 2nd Leg	11 May 1940	Barrow	H	6–1	11,870	Steele, Sale (2), Ormston, Peppitt, Liddle
R3	18 May 1940	Everton	A	0–1	3,557

Friendlies

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	16 September 1939	Coventry City	H	3–1	4,647	Baker, Sale, Peppitt
2	23 September 1939	Port Vale	H	3–2	4,512	Baker, Sale, Ormston
3	30 September 1939	West Bromwich Albion	A	0–6	1,515
4	7 October 1939	Manchester United	H	2–2	3,418	Antonio, Own Goal
5	14 October 1939	Birmingham	H	3–2	2,171	Smith, Westland (2)
6	16 December 1939	Sheffield Wednesday	A	2–1	2,035	Sale, Liddle
7	25 December 1939	Bolton Wanderers	A	0–3	1,707
8	25 December 1939	Bolton Wanderers	A	1–5	2,932	Ormston
9	30 December 1939	Bury	A	6–7	700	Sale (3), Baker, Peppitt, Matthews
10	13 January 1940	Preston North End	A	1–2	956	Sale (pen)
11	22 March 1940	Chesterfield	A	1–3	4,525	Peppitt
12	13 April 1940	Nottingham Forest	A	3–2	2,224	Sale (3)

Squad statistics

Pos.	Name	Matches	Apps
GK	ENG Pat Bridges	1	0
GK	WAL David Jones	19	0
GK	SCO Pat McMahon	3	0
GK	SCO Douglas Westland	3	0
GK	ENG Norman Wilkinson	4	0
DF	ENG Harry Brigham	30	0
DF	ENG Neil Franklin	1	0
DF	ENG Jack Griffiths	9	0
DF	ENG John McCue	1	0
DF	ENG Jimmy Oakes	4	0
DF	ENG Charlie Scrimshaw	10	0
DF	ENG Jack Tennant	5	0
MF	ENG Bobby Liddle	22	3
MF	SCO Jock Kirton	8	0
MF	ENG Alfred Massey	13	0
MF	ENG Billy Mould	29	0
MF	ENG Arthur Tutin	5	0
FW	ENG George Antonio	1	0
FW	ENG Frank Baker	7	1
FW	ENG Frank Bowyer	1	0
FW	SCO Patrick Gallacher	3	1
FW	ENG Stanley Matthews	19	2
FW	ENG Frank Mountford	1	1
FW	ENG Alexander Ormston	26	11
FW	ENG Syd Peppitt	25	15
FW	ENG Tommy Sale	28	24
FW	ENG Clement Smith	10	4
FW	ENG Frank Soo	28	3
FW	ENG Freddie Steele	9	10
FW	SCO James Westland	1	0

References

Matthews, Tony. (1994). "The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City". Lion Press.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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