1947 – The Year Stoke City NEARLY WON THE LEAGUE!
1947 – no it’s not two minutes after an evening kick off, it’s the year that Stoke City very nearly won the football league. Yes read that again,
WE NEARLY WON THE LEAGUE.
The season kicked off on the 31st August 1946 when the Potters had a 2-2 draw at home to Charlton Athletic.
Fast forward through an awful winter that saw many postponements to the 31st May 1947 when Liverpool went top of the First Division (the top league in the UK before the Premier League was dreamt up) with a 2-1 away win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. The scousers then had a long wait until Sheffield United met Stoke.
The 14th June in the 1946–47 season(yes they played in the summer back then) a Stoke City team travelled to Bramhall Lane, roared on by a travelling army of 10,000 followers in a crowd of 30,000,
The Potters needed nothing less than a victory to clinch the title, any other result against Sheffield United would see the title go to Liverpool. However the Blades were far too sharp (sorry, too obvious a pun to drop) for the Potters despite our dominance in the game. In wet and heavy pitch conditions, echoes of a game at Vale Park some years later (when Dave Regis saw his shot stick in the mud) a Freddie Steele header stopped on the line with George Mountford hitting the bar.
United took the lead but Alex Ormston levelled to make the half time score 1-1. The dreadful conditions saw Stoke defender John McCue slip and Jack Pickering put Sheffield 2 – 1 up, a lead they held onto for the remainder of the game.
So there we have it, if that header had gone over the line and the bar hit had been inches lower then Stoke City would have held the honour of being champions of English Football. As a Stoke fan I’m fully used to what ifs? and maybes? Seems our fore fathers were too.
Amazingly from being so close to winning the title, we ended up in Fourth as Man. United and Wolves finished in second and third respectively.
Sheffield United were a bit of a bogey side for Stoke that season as they also knocked us out of the FA Cup in the fifth round!
The Final Table
|
Pos |
Club |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
GA |
Pts |
|
1 |
Liverpool |
42 |
25 |
7 |
10 |
84 |
52 |
1.615 |
57 |
|
2 |
Manchester United |
42 |
22 |
12 |
8 |
95 |
54 |
1.759 |
56 |
|
3 |
Wolverhampton Wanderers |
42 |
25 |
6 |
11 |
98 |
56 |
1.750 |
56 |
|
4 |
Stoke City |
42 |
24 |
7 |
11 |
90 |
53 |
1.698 |
55 |
|
5 |
Blackpool |
42 |
22 |
6 |
14 |
71 |
70 |
1.014 |
50 |
|
6 |
Sheffield United |
42 |
21 |
7 |
14 |
89 |
75 |
1.187 |
49 |
|
7 |
Preston North End |
42 |
18 |
11 |
13 |
76 |
74 |
1.027 |
47 |
|
8 |
Aston Villa |
42 |
18 |
9 |
15 |
67 |
53 |
1.264 |
45 |
|
9 |
Sunderland |
42 |
18 |
8 |
16 |
65 |
66 |
0.985 |
44 |
|
10 |
Everton |
42 |
17 |
9 |
16 |
62 |
67 |
0.925 |
43 |
|
11 |
Middlesbrough |
42 |
17 |
8 |
17 |
73 |
68 |
1.074 |
42 |
|
12 |
Portsmouth |
42 |
16 |
9 |
17 |
66 |
60 |
1.100 |
41 |
|
13 |
Arsenal |
42 |
16 |
9 |
17 |
72 |
70 |
1.029 |
41 |
|
14 |
Derby County |
42 |
18 |
5 |
19 |
73 |
79 |
0.924 |
41 |
|
15 |
Chelsea |
42 |
16 |
7 |
19 |
69 |
84 |
0.821 |
39 |
|
16 |
Grimsby Town |
42 |
13 |
12 |
17 |
61 |
82 |
0.744 |
38 |
|
17 |
Blackburn Rovers |
42 |
14 |
8 |
20 |
45 |
53 |
0.849 |
36 |
|
18 |
Bolton Wanderers |
42 |
13 |
8 |
21 |
57 |
69 |
0.826 |
34 |
|
19 |
Charlton Athletic |
42 |
11 |
12 |
19 |
57 |
71 |
0.803 |
34 |
|
20 |
Huddersfield Town |
42 |
13 |
7 |
22 |
53 |
79 |
0.671 |
33 |
|
21 |
Brentford |
42 |
9 |
7 |
26 |
45 |
88 |
0.511 |
25 |
|
22 |
Leeds United |
42 |
6 |
6 |
30 |
45 |
90 |
0.500 |
18 |