# 1947–48 Stoke City F.C. season

The 1947–48 season was Stoke City's 41st season in the Football League and the 27th in the First Division.
After narrowly missing out on their first league title last season there was a huge weight of expectation for the Stoke squad of 1947–48. But great misfortune was the story of the season as six key players suffered long term injuries all in September. The side battled on with inexperienced youngsters having to fill the gaps and relegation was a distinct possibility but they managed to recover and finish in 15th position.

## Season review
### League

Manager Bob McGrory, ambitious and anxious now to build on last season success, twice broke the club's record transfer in the Summer of 1947 when he brought in forwards Jimmy McAlinden from Portsmouth and Tommy Kiernan from Celtic for fees of £7,000 and £8,500 respectively. These two new players on top of the best from last season looked good for Stoke in the 1947–48 season as not many teams in the country could boast such an exciting young squad as Stoke's.
Unfortunately, an appalling catalogue of injuries soon made it obvious that the fans would see no repeat of the form showed from last season. By mid-September six of Stoke's key players, Jock Kirton, Neil Franklin, Frank Baker, George Mountford, Frank Mountford and Freddie Steele, all suffered major injuries which ruled them out for most of the season. The team battled on though, and in the end took 15th place in the table, having spent quite some time in the bottom three, relegation was a distinct possibility. Only six teams conceded fewer goals than Stoke but it was in attack where the problems lay, Stoke's goal threat completely drying up with Stoke scoring 90 goals last season and just 41 this season. Yet despite the frustrating anti-climax for the Stoke public the average home gate rose again this time to 31,590.

### FA Cup

There was no joy in the cup for Stoke fans as a 4–2 victory over Mansfield Town was followed by a 3–0 reverse against Third Division Queens Park Rangers.

## Final league table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts |
| 13 | Charlton Athletic | 42 | 17 | 6 | 19 | 57 | 66 | 0.864 | 40 |
| 14 | Everton | 42 | 17 | 6 | 19 | 52 | 66 | 0.788 | 40 |
| 15 | Stoke City | 42 | 14 | 10 | 18 | 41 | 55 | 0.745 | 38 |
| 16 | Middlesbrough | 42 | 14 | 9 | 19 | 71 | 73 | 0.973 | 37 |
| 17 | Bolton Wanderers | 42 | 16 | 5 | 21 | 46 | 58 | 0.793 | 37 |

## Results

Stoke's score comes first

### Legend

| Win | Draw | Loss |

### Football League First Division

| Match | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| 1 | 23 August 1947 | Bolton Wanderers | A | 1–0 | 25,000 | Steele |
| 2 | 25 August 1947 | Portsmouth | H | 2–1 | 30,106 | Steele, Ormston |
| 3 | 30 August 1947 | Liverpool | H | 0–2 | 37,408 | |
| 4 | 3 September 1947 | Portsmouth | A | 0–3 | 30,053 | |
| 5 | 6 September 1947 | Middlesbrough | A | 1–2 | 38,000 | Ormston |
| 6 | 8 September 1947 | Preston North End | H | 0–1 | 26,764 | |
| 7 | 13 September 1947 | Charlton Athletic | H | 0–1 | 30,027 | |
| 8 | 17 September 1947 | Preston North End | A | 1–2 | 25,114 | Ormston |
| 9 | 20 September 1947 | Arsenal | A | 0–3 | 62,000 | |
| 10 | 27 September 1947 | Sheffield United | H | 1–1 | 39,965 | Peppitt |
| 11 | 4 October 1947 | Manchester United | A | 1–1 | 45,745 | Kiernan |
| 12 | 11 October 1947 | Blackburn Rovers | H | 2–1 | 33,912 | G Mountford, F Mountford |
| 13 | 18 October 1947 | Manchester City | A | 0–3 | 42,401 | |
| 14 | 25 October 1947 | Grimsby Town | H | 2–1 | 29,944 | Sellars, Kiernan |
| 15 | 1 November 1947 | Sunderland | A | 0–1 | 36,734 | |
| 16 | 8 November 1947 | Everton | H | 1–1 | 32,246 | G Mountford |
| 17 | 15 November 1947 | Chelsea | A | 1–4 | 41,618 | Caton |
| 18 | 22 November 1947 | Aston Villa | H | 1–2 | 31,891 | McAlinden |
| 19 | 29 November 1947 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | A | 2–1 | 32,000 | G Mountford, Ormston |
| 20 | 6 December 1947 | Huddersfield Town | H | 1–1 | 24,451 | McAlinden |
| 21 | 13 December 1947 | Derby County | A | 1–1 | 24,812 | Kiernan |
| 22 | 20 December 1947 | Bolton Wanderers | H | 2–0 | 23,404 | Steele, Sellars |
| 23 | 25 December 1947 | Blackpool | A | 2–1 | 26,613 | Steele (2) |
| 24 | 27 December 1947 | Blackpool | H | 1–1 | 47,609 | Kiernan |
| 25 | 3 January 1948 | Liverpool | A | 0–0 | 48,665 | |
| 26 | 17 January 1948 | Middlesbrough | H | 2–4 | 24,990 | Steele (2) |
| 27 | 31 January 1948 | Charlton Athletic | A | 1–0 | 32,102 | Ormston |
| 28 | 7 February 1948 | Arsenal | H | 0–0 | 45,000 | |
| 29 | 14 February 1948 | Sheffield United | A | 0–3 | 30,178 | |
| 30 | 21 February 1948 | Manchester United | H | 0–2 | 36,794 | |
| 31 | 28 February 1948 | Blackburn Rovers | A | 0–2 | 24,000 | |
| 32 | 6 March 1948 | Manchester City | H | 3–0 | 30,243 | Steele (2), Baker |
| 33 | 13 March 1948 | Grimsby Town | A | 0–0 | 9,000 | |
| 34 | 20 March 1948 | Sunderland | H | 3–1 | 26,750 | Steele, Kiernan, Peppitt |
| 35 | 26 March 1948 | Burnley | A | 0–4 | 27,000 | |
| 36 | 27 March 1948 | Everton | A | 1–0 | 44,241 | G Mountford |
| 37 | 29 March 1948 | Burnley | H | 3–0 | 32,459 | Peppitt (3) |
| 38 | 2 April 1948 | Chelsea | H | 2–0 | 28,040 | G Mountford, Malkin |
| 39 | 10 April 1948 | Aston Villa | A | 0–1 | 30,000 | |
| 40 | 17 April 1948 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | H | 2–3 | 24,512 | Baker (2) |
| 41 | 24 April 1948 | Huddersfield Town | A | 0–0 | 15,000 | |
| 42 | 1 May 1948 | Derby County | H | 1–0 | 19,478 | F Mountford (pen) |

### FA Cup

| Round | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| R3 | 10 January 1948 | Mansfield Town | A | 4–2 | 10,500 | Sellars, Kiernan, Steele (2) |
| R4 | 24 January 1948 | Queens Park Rangers | A | 0–3 | 24,100 | |

## Squad statistics

| Pos. | Name | League | League | FA Cup | FA Cup | Total | Total |
| Pos. | Name | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| GK | Dennis Herod | 41 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 43 | 0 |
| GK | Arthur Jepson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| DF | Neil Franklin | 35 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 37 | 0 |
| DF | Roy Jones | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| DF | John McCue | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 0 |
| DF | Harry Meakin | 22 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 24 | 0 |
| DF | Billy Mould | 40 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 42 | 0 |
| MF | Roy Brown | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| MF | Edmund Giblin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| MF | Jock Kirton | 26 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 28 | 0 |
| MF | Frank Mountford | 35 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 37 | 2 |
| MF | John Sellars | 31 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 33 | 3 |
| MF | Edward Wordley | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| FW | Frank Baker | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 3 |
| FW | Frank Bowyer | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| FW | Bill Caton | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| FW | John Jackson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| FW | Tommy Kiernan | 24 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 26 | 6 |
| FW | John Malkin | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| FW | Jimmy McAlinden | 31 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 33 | 2 |
| FW | Bert Mitchell | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| FW | George Mountford | 29 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 5 |
| FW | Alexander Ormston | 33 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 35 | 5 |
| FW | Syd Peppitt | 28 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 5 |
| FW | Freddie Steele | 21 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 23 | 12 |