# 1978–79 Stoke City F.C. season

The 1978–79 season was Stoke City's 72nd season in the Football League and the 25th in the Second Division.
Alan Durban continued his good start at Stoke and they were involved in a promotion race from the start of the campaign. It proved to be a very exciting season with four clubs all keeping pace with each other meaning that it went down until the final match of the season. Stoke needed to beat Notts County at Meadow Lane to gain promotion and despite a large Stoke away following it seemed that County would spoil the party but with just two minutes remaining Paul Richardson scored the winning goal and Stoke took the final promotion position in the most dramatic way.

## Season review
### League

With all close season in which to work out the future, Alan Durban turned to his old club Shrewsbury Town and paid £60,000 for midfielder Sammy Irvine and paid £50,000 for Manchester City's experienced defender Mike Doyle. The 1978–79 season started well with Stoke winning five of their first six matches. Paul Randall arrived from Bristol Rovers as Stoke maintained their good form. They were rarely out of the top three but neither were promotion rivals Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace and Sunderland. This meant that the race for promotion went all the way to the final day of the season and Stoke knew that they had to win their last League match away at Notts County to gain a return to the First Division. Backed by well over 14,000 fans, Stoke came out victorious albeit late on, Paul Richardson's header two minutes from time deciding the match and earned Stoke 3rd spot in the table, finishing a point above Sunderland.

### FA Cup

Stoke suffered misfortune in this season's FA Cup when, having taken a 2–0 lead in their third round tie at home to Oldham Athletic, a heavy blizzard caused the match to be abandoned. In the rematch Oldham claimed a 1–0 victory.

### League Cup

Stoke had a useful run beating Sunderland, Northampton Town and Charlton Athletic all away before losing 3–1 to Watford at the quarter-final stage.

## Final league table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Crystal Palace (C, P) | 42 | 19 | 19 | 4 | 51 | 24 | +27 | 57 | Promotion to the First Division |
| 2 | Brighton & Hove Albion (P) | 42 | 23 | 10 | 9 | 72 | 39 | +33 | 56 | Promotion to the First Division |
| 3 | Stoke City (P) | 42 | 20 | 16 | 6 | 58 | 31 | +27 | 56 | Promotion to the First Division |
| 4 | Sunderland | 42 | 22 | 11 | 9 | 70 | 44 | +26 | 55 | |
| 5 | West Ham United | 42 | 18 | 14 | 10 | 70 | 39 | +31 | 50 | |

## Results

Stoke's score comes first

### Legend

| Win | Draw | Loss |

### Football League Second Division

| Match | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| 1 | 19 August 1978 | Cambridge United | A | 1–0 | 7,489 | Richardson 87' |
| 2 | 23 August 1978 | Cardiff City | H | 2–0 | 16,001 | Smith 75', Busby 85' |
| 3 | 26 August 1978 | Millwall | H | 2–0 | 15,176 | Busby 77', Crooks 82' (pen) |
| 4 | 2 September 1978 | Oldham Athletic | A | 1–1 | 11,267 | Richardson 46' |
| 5 | 9 September 1978 | Orient | A | 1–0 | 6,587 | O'Callaghan 84' |
| 6 | 23 September 1978 | Preston North End | A | 1–0 | 14,051 | Kendall 24' |
| 7 | 27 September 1978 | Brighton & Hove Albion | H | 2–2 | 22,201 | Crooks 45' (pen), O'Callaghan 50' |
| 8 | 30 September 1978 | Crystal Palace | H | 1–1 | 19,079 | Irvine 5' |
| 9 | 7 October 1978 | Fulham | A | 0–2 | 12,534 | |
| 10 | 14 October 1978 | Burnley | H | 3–1 | 18,437 | Richardson 14', Kendall 28', Irvine 55' |
| 11 | 21 October 1978 | West Ham United | A | 1–1 | 27,859 | Richardson 87' |
| 12 | 28 October 1978 | Sheffield United | H | 2–1 | 21,285 | O'Callaghan 7', Crooks 74' (pen) |
| 13 | 4 November 1978 | Sunderland | A | 1–0 | 25,170 | O'Callaghan 87' |
| 14 | 11 November 1978 | Cambridge United | H | 1–3 | 19,024 | Busby 62' |
| 15 | 18 November 1978 | Millwall | A | 0–3 | 6,925 | |
| 16 | 22 November 1978 | Oldham Athletic | H | 4–0 | 17,170 | O'Callaghan 14', Irvine 19', Crooks (2) 66', 78' |
| 17 | 25 November 1978 | Blackburn Rovers | A | 2–2 | 10,841 | O'Callaghan 65', Crooks 76' (pen) |
| 18 | 2 December 1978 | Leicester City | H | 0–0 | 15,590 | |
| 19 | 9 December 1978 | Newcastle United | A | 0–2 | 23,447 | |
| 20 | 16 December 1978 | Wrexham | H | 3–0 | 18,358 | Crooks (2) 40', 72', Roberts 75' (o.g.) |
| 21 | 23 December 1978 | Bristol Rovers | A | 0–0 | 7,897 | |
| 22 | 26 December 1978 | Charlton Athletic | H | 2–2 | 20,841 | McGroarty 30', O'Callaghan 53' |
| 23 | 30 December 1978 | Notts County | H | 2–0 | 21,394 | Irvine 3', O'Callaghan 80' |
| 24 | 20 January 1979 | Brighton & Hove Albion | A | 1–1 | 23,071 | O'Callaghan 29' |
| 25 | 6 February 1979 | Luton Town | A | 0–0 | 6,462 | |
| 26 | 10 February 1979 | Crystal Palace | A | 1–1 | 23,315 | Irvine 84' |
| 27 | 24 February 1979 | Burnley | A | 3–0 | 13,756 | O'Callaghan 63', Randall 86', Crooks 90' |
| 28 | 28 February 1979 | Preston North End | H | 1–1 | 18,177 | O'Callaghan 64' |
| 29 | 3 March 1979 | West Ham United | H | 2–0 | 24,912 | Doyle 9', Randall 85' |
| 30 | 10 March 1979 | Sheffield United | A | 0–0 | 20,512 | |
| 31 | 14 March 1979 | Orient | H | 3–1 | 16,189 | Irvine 20', Crooks (2) 30', 65' |
| 32 | 24 March 1979 | Cardiff City | A | 3–1 | 14,869 | Randall 16', O'Callaghan 43', Crooks 68' |
| 33 | 27 March 1979 | Sunderland | H | 0–1 | 24,021 | |
| 34 | 31 March 1979 | Blackburn Rovers | H | 1–2 | 17,021 | O'Callaghan 15' |
| 35 | 4 April 1979 | Fulham | H | 2–0 | 15,243 | Smith 63', Randall 65' |
| 36 | 7 April 1979 | Leicester City | A | 1–1 | 17,502 | Busby 44' |
| 37 | 14 April 1979 | Charlton Athletic | A | 4–1 | 9,084 | Richardson 24', Randall 47', O'Callaghan 82', Irvine 86' |
| 38 | 16 April 1979 | Luton Town | H | 0–0 | 19,214 | |
| 39 | 17 April 1979 | Bristol Rovers | H | 2–0 | 18,671 | Busby (2) 4', 27' |
| 40 | 21 April 1979 | Wrexham | A | 1–0 | 20,215 | O'Callaghan 44' |
| 41 | 28 April 1979 | Newcastle United | H | 0–0 | 23,271 | |
| 42 | 5 May 1979 | Notts County | A | 1–0 | 21,579 | Richardson 88' |

### FA Cup

| Round | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| R3 | 6 January 1979 | Oldham Athletic | H | 2–0 | 15,991 | Abandoned due to heavy snow |
| R3 | 17 January 1979 | Oldham Athletic | H | 0–1 | 16,554 | |

### League Cup

| Round | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| R2 | 30 August 1978 | Sunderland | A | 2–0 | 12,368 | Irvine 3', Doyle 34' |
| R3 | 3 October 1978 | Northampton Town | A | 3–1 | 11,235 | Dodd 10', O'Callaghan 52', Kendall 90' |
| R4 | 7 November 1978 | Charlton Athletic | A | 3–2 | 18,667 | Irvine 1', Busby 20', Crooks 88' (pen) |
| Quarter-final | 13 December 1978 | Watford | H | 0–0 | 26,070 | |
| Quarter-final Replay | 9 January 1979 | Watford | A | 1–3 | 21,419 | Richardson 67' |

### Friendlies

| Match | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| 1 | Torquay United | A | 2–1 |
| 2 | Northwich Victoria | A | 3–1 |
| 3 | Leek Town | A | 5–0 |
| 4 | Exeter City | A | 1–0 |
| 5 | Plymouth Argyle | A | 0–2 |
| 6 | Shrewsbury Town | A | 1–1 |
| 7 | Wolves | H | 0–3 |
| 8 | Eastwood Hanley | A | 5–0 |

## Squad statistics

| Pos. | Name | League | League | FA Cup | FA Cup | League Cup | League Cup | Total | Total |
| Pos. | Name | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| GK | Peter Fox | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| GK | Roger Jones | 41 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 47 | 0 |
| DF | Danny Bowers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| DF | Trevor Brissett | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DF | Alan Dodd | 34(4) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 40(4) | 1 |
| DF | Mike Doyle | 41 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 46 | 2 |
| DF | Paul Johnson | 7(1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7(1) | 0 |
| DF | Paul Anthony Johnson | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| DF | Jackie Marsh | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 27 | 0 |
| DF | Geoff Scott | 37(1) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 42(1) | 0 |
| DF | Denis Smith | 38 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 44 | 2 |
| MF | Jeff Cook | 1(2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1(2) | 0 |
| MF | Terry Conroy | 3(4) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1(1) | 0 | 4(5) | 0 |
| MF | Adrian Heath | 1(1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3(1) | 0 |
| MF | Sammy Irvine | 41 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 46 | 9 |
| MF | Howard Kendall | 40 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 46 | 3 |
| MF | Kevin Sheldon | 0(1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0(1) | 0 |
| MF | Paul Richardson | 40 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 46 | 7 |
| MF | Mike Tune | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| MF | Steve Waddington | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| FW | Viv Busby | 8(10) | 6 | 0(1) | 0 | 1(2) | 1 | 9(13) | 7 |
| FW | Garth Crooks | 38(2) | 12 | 1 | 0 | 4(1) | 1 | 43(3) | 13 |
| FW | Jimmy McGroarty | 3(1) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5(1) | 1 |
| FW | Brendan O'Callaghan | 40(1) | 15 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 46(1) | 16 |
| FW | Paul Randall | 20 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 5 |
| – | Own goals | – | 1 | – | 0 | – | 0 | – | 1 |