The Giant Killers
STOKE CITY
Stoke were founder members of the Football League but of the eleven members who survive as league clubs to this day they are the least successful and the only one, aside from the defunct Accrington, to have lost their league status. Stoke failed to gain re-election in 1890 after two disastrous seasons and, having got back in, they were forced to resign for financial reasons in 1908. They once again made it back into the league in 1920 but have spent as much time outside the elite than as part of it, rejoining the top flight in 2008. Their best team was perhaps the side of the early seventies, which won the club's only major honour, the League cup in 1972. That team reached two F A cup semi finals but an appearance in the final continues to elude the Potters. Instead their name most often appears in histories of the competition in the context of their disastrous defeat by Blyth Spartans in the competition in 1978.
Magic Moments
3-0 vs Preston North End
First round: 17th January 1891
Scorers: Louis Balham, Peter Coupar, Turner
Ranked at the time: 1
Today: outside the top 100
1891
3-0 vs Aston Villa
Second round: 31st January 1891
Scorers: Louis Balham 2, Peter Coupar
Ranked at the time: 4
Today: outside the top 600
4-2 vs Bolton Wanderers

Fourth round: Saturday January 28th 1928
Attendance:
Scorers: Bobby Archibald, Harry Davies, Charlie Wilson {2}
{image left: Bob McGrory leads The Potters out for their quarter final at Highbury. Courtesy Arsenal Archive}
Ranked at the time: 154
Team: 1:Bob Dixon, 2:Bob McGrory, 3:Billy Spencer, 4:?, 5:Tom Williamson, 6:Harry Sellars, 7:Ernie Cull, 8:Walter Bussey, 9:Charlie Wilson, 10:Harry Davies, 11:Bobby Archibald
2-1 vs Sunderland
Fourth round second replay: Monday February 1st 1932
Maine Road, Manchester
Attendance: 7,470
Scorers: Joe Mawson, Harry Ware
Team: 1:Norman Lewis, 2:Bob McGrory, 3:Arthur Beachill, 4:Harry Sellars, 5:William Robertson, 6:Arthur Turner, 7:Robert Liddle, 8:Tommy Sale, 9:Harry Ware, 10: Joe Mawson, 11:? [Manager: George Mather}