1909–10 Stoke F.C. season

The 1909–10 season was Stoke's second in the Birmingham & District League and the first in the Southern Football League.

Stoke

1909–10 season
Chairman	Mr Rev. A Hurst
Manager	Alfred Barker
Stadium	Victoria Ground
Birmingham & District League	7th (37 points)
Southern League Division Two A	1st (20 points)
FA Cup	First Round
Birmingham League Cup	Third Round
Top goalscorer	League: Arthur Griffiths (36) All: Arthur Griffiths (38)
Highest home attendance	15,000 vs Crewe Alexandra (28 March 1910)
Lowest home attendance	2,500 vs Ton Pentre (30 September 1909)
Average home league attendance	5,000
Home colours Away colours
← 1908–09 1910–11 →

Stoke decided to enter two league competitions this season with the directors feeling that the Southern Football League represented a better chance to be re-elected into the Football League. Stoke won the Southern Football League Division Two A with ease winning all ten of their matches and the Division Two championship play-off. They scored 48 goals conceding only 9, but promotion was not gained due to a league reorganization. The Birmingham & District League was a lot harder and Stoke finished in 7th place.^[1]

Season review

League

Stoke played in two league competitions during the 1909–10 season, in the Birmingham & District League and in the Southern League Division Two. This meant a total of 44 league fixtures would be played during the season.^[1]

The standard of football in the Southern League was of a poor quality and Stoke took the championship with ease, winning all of their 10 matches with a goal-average of 48-9.^[1] They started off with an 11–0 home victory over Merthyr Town and never looked back. On 25 April 1910, Stoke met Hastings & St Leonards United (winners of Division Two B) in a 'championship decider' and Stoke easily won 6–0 to claim the title.^[1]

The Birmingham league was considerably tougher and it was dominated by Aston Villa's reserve side.^[1] Stoke finished in 7th place, never threatening to challenge the leaders throughout the campaign.^[1] Arthur Griffiths, who had returned to the club from Oldham Athletic, top scored this season amassing 38 goals in all competitions.^[1]

FA Cup

The biggest crowd of the season at the Victoria Ground (18,000) came in the FA Cup first round against Newcastle United.^[1] Stoke having progressed past Ilkeston and Exeter City in the qualifying rounds.^[1] Stoke held the Geordies to a 1–1 draw but lost 2–1 in the replay up in the north east and Newcastle went on to lift the cup.^[1] Stoke also played in the Birmingham League Cup for the one and only time losing to Aston Villa's second string in the third round.^[1] The directors decided that the Birmingham League Cup was not a worthwhile competition to enter.^[1]

Final league table

Birmingham & District League

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv	Pts
1	Aston Villa Reserves	34	25	4	5	98	36	2.722	54
2	Crewe Alexandra	34	23	3	8	117	56	2.089	49
3	Wolverhampton Wanderers Reserves	34	22	5	7	74	46	1.609	49
4	Brierley Hill Alliance	34	19	8	7	79	49	1.612	46
5	Walsall	34	18	7	9	66	44	1.500	43
6	Birmingham Reserves	34	17	7	10	73	60	1.217	41
7	Stoke	34	15	7	12	82	52	1.577	37
8	West Bromwich Albion Reserves	34	16	5	13	65	37	1.757	37
9	Stourbridge	34	15	3	16	78	74	1.054	33
10	Wrexham	34	13	7	14	61	62	0.984	33
11	Shrewsbury Town	34	13	5	16	48	63	0.762	31
12	Worcester City	34	10	9	15	65	66	0.985	29
13	Wellington Town	34	10	7	17	48	76	0.632	27
14	Kidderminster Harriers	34	9	6	19	52	83	0.627	24
15	Dudley Town	34	9	5	20	65	87	0.747	23
16	Stafford Rangers	34	9	5	20	48	80	0.600	23
17	Halesowen	34	8	3	23	44	90	0.489	19
18	Burton United	34	6	2	26	36	126	0.286	14

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Southern Football League Division Two A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv	Pts
1	Stoke	10	10	0	0	48	9	5.333	20
2	Ton Pentre	10	4	2	4	17	21	0.810	10
3	Merthyr Town	9	4	1	4	16	21	0.762	9
4	Salisbury City	8	2	1	5	7	18	0.389	5
5	Burton United	6	2	0	4	8	21	0.381	4
6	Aberdare	7	1	0	6	6	11	0.545	2

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Results

Stoke's score comes first

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Birmingham & District League

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	4 September 1909	Burton United	A	0–2	2,000
2	11 September 1909	Wolverhampton Wanderers Reserves	A	2–2	3,000	Griffiths (2)
3	18 September 1909	Wolverhampton Wanderers Reserves	H	0–2	5,000
4	23 September 1909	Shrewsbury Town	A	1–0	1,500	Leese
5	25 September 1909	Walsall	H	5–1	3,000	Baddeley (2), Millward (2), Cook (o.g.)
6	2 October 1909	Aston Villa Reserves	A	1–2	6,000	Smith
7	9 October 1909	Kidderminster Harriers	H	4–2	3,000	Griffiths (2), Leese (2)
8	16 October 1909	Stourbridge	A	0–5	1,000
9	23 October 1909	Worcester City	H	3–1	2,000	Griffiths (2), Leigh
10	30 October 1909	West Bromwich Albion Reserves	H	1–3	8,500	Baddeley
11	6 November 1909	Wellington Town	A	0–1	2,000
12	13 November 1909	Halesowen	H	4–0	2,000	Griffiths (2), Leese, Millward
13	27 November 1909	Birmingham Reserves	H	4–0	6,000	Griffiths (2), Leese, Leigh
14	11 December 1909	Brierley Hill Alliance	H	4–1	2,000	Griffiths (2), Millward, Turner
15	18 December 1909	Wrexham	A	2–1	3,000	Baddeley, Leese
16	28 December 1909	Dudley Town	A	4–5	2,000	Baddeley, Leese (2), Millward
17	1 January 1910	Crewe Alexandra	A	2–4	5,000	Griffiths, Leigh
18	8 January 1910	Burton United	H	8–0	2,000	Griffiths (2), Leigh, Baddeley (3), Millward, Hall
19	29 January 1910	Shrewsbury Town	H	2–1	2,000	Baddeley, Leese
20	5 February 1910	Walsall	A	2–2	3,000	Baddeley, Griffiths
21	12 February 1910	Aston Villa Reserves	H	3–2	10,000	Baddeley, Griffiths (2)
22	19 February 1910	Kidderminster Harriers	A	0–1	2,000
23	26 February 1910	Stourbridge	H	6–1	3,000	S Baddeley, Griffiths (2), Leese, Millward, Taylor
24	5 March 1910	Worcester City	A	1–1	2,000	Millward
25	12 March 1910	West Bromwich Albion Reserves	A	1–1	4,500	Griffiths
26	19 March 1910	Wellington Town	H	5–1	2,500	Hall (2), Smith (2), Taylor
27	26 March 1910	Halesowen	A	1–2	1,000	Hall
28	28 March 1910	Crewe Alexandra	H	0–0	15,000
29	2 April 1910	Dudley Town	H	6–1	3,000	Griffiths (2), Leigh (2), Smith, Taylor
30	4 April 1910	Stafford Rangers	A	0–0	1,000
31	16 April 1910	Stafford Rangers	H	3–1	3,000	Griffiths, Millward (2)
32	18 April 1910	Birmingham Reserves	A	3–0	4,000	Griffiths, Millward, Taylor
33	23 April 1910	Brierley Hill Alliance	A	2–2	2,000	Millward, Leese
34	30 April 1910	Wrexham	H	3–0	3,000	Millward, Leese, Baddeley

Southern Football League Division Two A

Main article: 1909–10 Southern Football League

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	1 September 1909	Merthyr Town	H	11–0	4,000	Griffiths (3), Leese, Millward, Smith (4), Tomlinson (2)
2	13 September 1909	Merthyr Town	A	4–2	3,000	Griffiths, Leese, Tomlinson, Leigh
3	30 September 1909	Ton Pentre	H	8–1	2,500	Griffiths (3), Baddeley (2), Smith (2), Jones (o.g.)
4	4 October 1909	Aberdare	A	2–0	2,000	Baddeley, Leese
5	8 November 1909	Aberdare	H	3–2	4,000	Baddeley, Smith (2)
6	25 December 1909	Burton United	A	7–1	2,000	Baddeley (5), Griffiths, Millward
7	27 December 1909	Burton United	H	5–0	4,000	Baddeley, S Baddeley, Leigh (2), Smith
8	22 January 1910	Salisbury City	A	3–2	1,000	Leese (2), Smith
9	25 March 1910	Ton Pentre	A	3–1	3,000	Griffiths (2), Smith
10	14 April 1910	Salisbury City	H	2–0	3,000	Baddeley (2)

Division Two championship play-off

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
25 April 1910	Hastings & St Leonards United	H	6–0	7,000	Griffiths, Leese, Smith (3), Turner

FA Cup

Main article: 1909–10 FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
4QR	20 November 1909	Ilkeston United	H	2–0	2,000	Leigh, Smith
5QR	4 December 1909	Exeter City	H	0–0	7,000
5QR Replay	8 December 1909	Exeter City	A	1–1	3,500	Leese
5QR Second Replay	13 December 1909	Exeter City	N	2–1	3,000	Leigh, Millward
R1	15 January 1910	Newcastle United	H	1–1	18,000	Baddeley
R1 Replay	19 January 1910	Newcastle United	A	1–2	14,000	Griffiths

Birmingham League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
R1	20 September 1909	Brierley Hill Alliance	H	2–2	2,000	Griffiths, Smith
R1 Replay	18 October 1909	Brierley Hill Alliance	A	5–0	1,500	A Baddeley (4), S Baddeley
R2	1 November 1909	Stourbridge	H	3–1	2,000	Leigh, Smith, Tomlinson
R3	9 April 1910	Aston Villa Reserves	A	1–2	4,000	Leigh

Squad statistics

Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		Birmingham League Cup		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
GK	Tom Baddeley	7	0	0	0	1	0	8	0
GK	Jack Benton	4	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
GK	Fred Rathbone	7	0	0	0	0	0	7	0
GK	Jack Robinson	27	0	6	0	2	0	35	0
DF	Dick Hawe	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
DF	James Hay	33	0	6	0	3	0	42	0
DF	Harry Hutsby	4	0	0	0	2	0	6	0
DF	Charles James	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
DF	Ernest Mullineux	31	0	5	0	3	0	39	0
DF	George Turner	20	2	1	0	1	0	22	2
DF	Jimmy Williams	5	0	1	0	0	0	6	0
MF	Sam Baddeley	42	2	6	0	4	1	52	3
MF	Archie Dyke	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
MF	Ellis Hall	39	4	6	0	4	0	49	4
MF	Fred Lewis	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
MF	William Owen	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
MF	Albert Pitt	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
MF	Fred Steel	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
MF	Fred Tomlinson	19	3	3	0	3	1	25	4
FW	Amos Baddeley	30	24	2	1	4	4	36	29
FW	Albert Bullock	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
FW	Thomas Greaves	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
FW	Arthur Griffiths	42	36	6	1	4	1	52	38
FW	Vic Horrocks	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
FW	Harry Leese	40	18	6	1	4	0	50	19
FW	Harry Leigh	42	9	5	2	4	2	51	13
FW	Ernie Millward	40	15	6	1	2	0	48	16
FW	William Smith	37	18	6	1	3	2	46	21
FW	Harry Taylor	10	4	0	0	0	0	10	4
–	Own goals	–	2	–	0	–	0	–	2