Season review 1971–72 Stoke City F.C. season

1 season review

1.1 league
1.2 fa cup
1.3 league cup

season review
league

the stoke fans confident of seeing more exciting attacking football again 1971–72 season commenced overall league performances bitterly disappointing, in cup competitions stoke did proud. cup matches taking priority stoke had back-log of fixtures play (six games in 17 days) , failed win of them finished in 17th position 35 points.

fa cup

stoke had run semi-final of fa cup after beating lower league sides, chesterfield, tranmere rovers, hull city , 2 matches against manchester united, stoke faced arsenal again. villa park hosted tie , own goal peter simpson, unimpressive stoke scraped 1–1 draw. replay @ goodison park controlled gunners , although stoke battled hard went down 2–1 , hopes of achieving wembley double disappeared.

league cup

in league cup stoke ousted southport , oxford united , in fourth round stoke visited old trafford , held manchester united 1–1 draw john ritchie cancelling out goal alan gowling. replay attracted 41,000 fans victoria ground time there no goals , third game required. again staged @ stoke , 2 late goals sealed 2–1 victory , passage last eight. @ stage of season matches coming thick , fast , 4–2 win on bristol rovers saw stoke enter semi finals of league cup met west ham united on 2 legs.

not memorable cup tie stoke, once of best encounters in history of league cup competition. in 1st leg stoke s hopes of reaching final seemed have disappeared when lost 2–1 home. @ west ham, ritchie levelled aggregated score 20 minutes left, , 3 of remaining west ham awarded penalty, decision angered gordon banks immensely. england keeper psyched dived , saved geoff hurst s spot kick superbly, banks says significant save of career. , third match, replay @ hillsborough, tense 0–0 draw. fourth meeting staged @ old trafford , bumper crowd turned out see 2 sides battle in match seemed have everything. bobby ferguson, hammers goalkeeper accidentally kicked on head terry conroy , bobby moore went in goals. saved mike bernard penalty beaten on rebound. ferguson returned , game ebbed , flowed, , either side have won. in end stoke conroy scoring winning goal send city through first major final.

the final took place on 4 march 1972 @ wembley against chelsea in front of crowd 97,852. stoke showed no big match nerves @ took lead through terry conroy, prompted response chelsea , before interval rare mistake alan bloor allowed peter osgood level scores. stoke not denied , on 73 minutes veteran george eastham scored winning goal earn stoke first major trophy.