# 1918–19 Stoke F.C. season

The 1918–19 season was Stoke's fourth season in the non-competitive War League.
With the start of World War I, all Football League football was cancelled. In its place were formed War Leagues, based on geographical lines rather than based on previous league placement. Stoke contested the Lancashire Section in the Principal Tournament, and the Lancashire Section Secondary Competition Group C. However, none of these were considered to be competitive football, and thus their records are not recognised by the Football League.

## Season review

The final war-time season of 1918–19 saw Stoke take the runners-up spot behind Everton. Stoke were again in impressive goal scoring form among those victories were those of 8–1 over Port Vale, 7–0 v Blackburn Rovers and 7–1 v Bolton Wanderers. Bob Whittingham top scored again with 23 goals taking his war-time total for Stoke to 86. With the war now over it was announced that the Football League would return for the 1919–20 season and Stoke were due to enter the Second Division.

## Final league table
### Lancashire Section Primary Competition

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts |
| 1 | Everton | 30 | 27 | 2 | 1 | 108 | 26 | 4.154 | 56 |
| 2 | Stoke | 30 | 20 | 3 | 7 | 84 | 36 | 2.333 | 43 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 30 | 19 | 4 | 7 | 82 | 33 | 2.485 | 42 |
| 4 | Bolton Wanderers | 30 | 15 | 6 | 9 | 58 | 58 | 1.000 | 36 |
| 5 | Manchester City | 30 | 15 | 3 | 12 | 57 | 36 | 1.583 | 33 |
| 6 | Southport Vulcan | 30 | 15 | 3 | 12 | 49 | 53 | 0.925 | 33 |
| 7 | Preston North End | 30 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 41 | 51 | 0.804 | 30 |
| 8 | Stockport County | 30 | 11 | 7 | 12 | 48 | 52 | 0.923 | 29 |
| 9 | Manchester United | 30 | 11 | 5 | 14 | 51 | 50 | 1.020 | 27 |
| 10 | Rochdale | 30 | 11 | 5 | 14 | 56 | 61 | 0.918 | 27 |
| 11 | Blackpool | 30 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 45 | 61 | 0.738 | 25 |
| 12 | Port Vale | 30 | 10 | 4 | 16 | 39 | 77 | 0.506 | 24 |
| 13 | Burnley | 30 | 10 | 3 | 17 | 54 | 76 | 0.711 | 23 |
| 14 | Bury | 30 | 7 | 6 | 17 | 27 | 58 | 0.466 | 20 |
| 15 | Oldham Athletic | 30 | 7 | 4 | 19 | 39 | 62 | 0.629 | 18 |
| 16 | Blackburn Rovers | 30 | 5 | 4 | 21 | 35 | 83 | 0.422 | 14 |

### Lancashire Section Secondary Competition Group C

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts |
| 1 | Manchester City | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 4 | 3.500 | 11 |
| 2 | Stoke | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 10 | 0.900 | 6 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 14 | 0.643 | 4 |
| 4 | Port Vale | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 0.692 | 3 |

## Results

Stoke's score comes first

### Legend

| Win | Draw | Loss |

### Lancashire Section Primary Competition

| Match | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| 1 | 7 September 1918 | Manchester City | H | 3–0 | 8,000 | P. Jones (2), Watkin |
| 2 | 14 September 1918 | Manchester City | A | 2–0 | 10,000 | Turner, Lockett |
| 3 | 21 September 1918 | Oldham Athletic | H | 1–0 | 3,000 | Harrison |
| 4 | 28 September 1918 | Oldham Athletic | A | 1–3 | 3,000 | Turner |
| 5 | 5 October 1918 | Port Vale | H | 3–2 | 14,000 | Turner, Bowser, McGregor |
| 6 | 12 October 1918 | Port Vale | A | 8–1 | 13,000 | Bowser, Lockett (2), Whittingham (4), Herbert |
| 7 | 19 October 1918 | Blackburn Rovers | H | 7–0 | 8,000 | Lockett (3), Turner (2), Herbert, Harrison |
| 8 | 26 October 1918 | Blackburn Rovers | A | 6–0 | 700 | Harrison, Bowser, Herbert (3), Parker |
| 9 | 2 November 1918 | Everton | A | 1–5 | 14,000 | Bowser |
| 10 | 9 November 1918 | Everton | H | 0–2 | 12,000 | |
| 11 | 16 November 1918 | Rochdale | A | 2–3 | 4,000 | Bowser, Jones |
| 12 | 23 November 1918 | Rochdale | H | 1–1 | 12,000 | Herbert |
| 13 | 30 November 1918 | Preston North End | A | 1–0 | 12,000 | Brown |
| 14 | 7 December 1918 | Preston North End | H | 5–0 | 12,000 | Brown (2), Harrison, Whittingham (2) |
| 15 | 14 December 1918 | Bolton Wanderers | A | 1–1 | 13,000 | Whittingham |
| 16 | 21 December 1918 | Bolton Wanderers | H | 7–1 | 12,000 | Whittingham (3), Brown (3), Parker |
| 17 | 28 December 1918 | Bury | A | 2–0 | 4,000 | Whittingham, Turner |
| 18 | 4 January 1919 | Bury | H | 3–1 | 12,000 | Whittingham (2), Wootton |
| 19 | 11 January 1919 | Blackpool | A | 6–1 | 6,000 | Whittingham (2), Brown (2), Harrison, Herbert |
| 20 | 18 January 1919 | Blackpool | H | 2–1 | 10,000 | Whittingham, Brown |
| 21 | 25 January 1919 | Stockport County | A | 2–1 | 10,000 | Whittingham, Brown |
| 22 | 1 February 1919 | Stockport County | H | 1–0 | 10,000 | Whittingham |
| 23 | 8 February 1919 | Liverpool | A | 1–1 | 23,000 | Brown |
| 24 | 15 February 1919 | Liverpool | H | 3–1 | 24,000 | Whittingham (2), Harrison |
| 25 | 22 February 1919 | Southport Vulcan | H | 0–2 | 8,000 | |
| 26 | 1 March 1919 | Southport Vulcan | A | 5–3 | 4,000 | Herbert (3), Whittingham (2) |
| 27 | 8 March 1919 | Manchester United | H | 1–2 | 10,000 | Whittingham |
| 28 | 15 March 1919 | Manchester United | A | 1–3 | 30,000 | Wootton |
| 29 | 22 March 1919 | Burnley | A | 2–1 | 15,000 | Martin (2) |
| 30 | 29 March 1919 | Burnley | H | 2–1 | 8,000 | Whittingham, Herbert |

### Lancashire Section Secondary Competition Group C

| Match | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| 1 | 5 April 1919 | Manchester City | A | 0–1 | 25,000 | |
| 2 | 12 April 1919 | Manchester City | H | 1–1 | 14,000 | Phillips |
| 3 | 19 April 1919 | Manchester United | A | 1–0 | 28,000 | Phillips |
| 4 | 21 April 1919 | Port Vale | H | 2–2 | 28,000 | Phillips, Wootton |
| 5 | 26 April 1919 | Manchester United | H | 4–2 | 28,000 | Jones, Martin (3) |
| 6 | 28 April 1919 | Port Vale | A | 1–4 | 28,000 | Herbert |

## Squad statistics

| Pos. | Name | Matches | Matches |
| Pos. | Name | Apps | Goals |
| GK | Tom Kay | 2 | 0 |
| GK | A. Morris | 6 | 0 |
| GK | Teddy Peers | 28 | 0 |
| DF | Alf Bishop | 1 | 0 |
| DF | Arthur Cook | 5 | 0 |
| DF | J. Emery | 4 | 0 |
| DF | George Garratly | 10 | 0 |
| DF | Jack Maddock | 14 | 0 |
| DF | Alec Milne | 1 | 0 |
| DF | Bertie Smart | 1 | 0 |
| DF | George Smart | 7 | 0 |
| DF | Billy Twemlow | 26 | 0 |
| DF | Tommy Weston | 1 | 0 |
| DF | Fred Wilkinson | 1 | 0 |
| DF | Harry Wootton | 3 | 0 |
| MF | Bill Charnley | 1 | 0 |
| MF | George Clarke | 6 | 0 |
| MF | Joe Jones | 28 | 2 |
| MF | Charlie Parker | 22 | 2 |
| MF | Fred Parker | 5 | 0 |
| MF | Dick Smith | 28 | 0 |
| MF | H. Sweetmore | 1 | 0 |
| FW | R. Bowers | 2 | 0 |
| FW | Sid Bowser | 10 | 5 |
| FW | Tommy Bowyer | 3 | 0 |
| FW | David Boxley | 2 | 0 |
| FW | David Brown | 10 | 12 |
| FW | A. Ellis | 1 | 0 |
| FW | P. Flaherty | 1 | 0 |
| FW | Fred Groves | 2 | 0 |
| FW | Harry Hampton | 8 | 3 |
| FW | Billy Harrison | 28 | 7 |
| FW | Billy Herbert | 27 | 12 |
| FW | L. Jones | 2 | 0 |
| FW | P. Jones | 1 | 2 |
| FW | Aaron Lockett | 12 | 6 |
| FW | George Limer | 1 | 0 |
| FW | G. McGregor | 5 | 1 |
| FW | James Martin | 7 | 5 |
| FW | Wilf Phillips | 5 | 3 |
| FW | Billy Tempest | 9 | 0 |
| FW | S. Timms | 1 | 0 |
| FW | Eli Turner | 15 | 6 |
| FW | Arthur Watkin | 2 | 1 |
| FW | G. Whipp | 2 | 0 |
| FW | Bob Whittingham | 17 | 23 |
| FW | James Wootton | 23 | 3 |