Stoke City 1962-63 Season (Centenary Year Champions as Real Madrid come to town)

A look back at Stoke City's 1962-63 campaign with newspaper articles, photo's and video's from the season plus music from 1963.

After the return of Stanley Matthews (Blackpool) and signing of Dennis Viollet (Manchester United) in the 1961-62 season, Stoke City supporters had much to be optimistic about for the 1962-63 season. In his first two seasons as Manager of Stoke City, Tony Waddington had proved to be tactically astute as well as having an eye for the right type of player in the transfer market. This proved to be the case once again as John Ritchie (Kettering Town), Eddie Stuart (Wolves), Eddie Clamp (Arsenal) and Jimmy McIlroy (Burnley) all joined at various points of the season as Stoke targeted the 2nd Division Title.

An 18 game club record (at the time) unbeaten run before Christmas and a 6 game winning streak in the promotion run in were pivotal and gave Stoke breathing space as the gitters set in as the season approached its climax. However, a crucial win at Chelsea tipped the scales towards Stoke's promotion which was sealed by Stanley Matthews at home to Luton Town. Additionally, Stanley Matthews was named Football Writers Footballer of the Year at 48 years of age, the oldest winner of the award and only the third player to win the accolade twice along with Tom Finney and Danny Blanchflower (at the time).

Stoke also made improvements to The Victoria Ground (which had been shortlisted as a reserve venue for the 1966 World Cup in England) as we welcomed the mighty Real Madrid for our 100-year Centenary Match. Footballing greats such as Alberto Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas graced The Victoria Grounds turf in a match to remember for everybody involved.

#stokecity #StanleyMatthews #thepotters