2001–02 Stoke City F.C. season
Stoke City 2001–02 football season / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2001–02 season was Stoke City's 95th season in the Football League and the eighth in the third tier.
2001–02 season | ||
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Chairman | Gunnar Gíslason | |
Manager | Gudjon Thordarson | |
Stadium | Britannia Stadium | |
Football League Second Division | 5th (80 Points) | |
Play-offs | Winners | |
FA Cup | Third Round | |
League Cup | First Round | |
League Trophy | First Round | |
Top goalscorer | League: Chris Iwelumo (10) All: Chris Iwelumo (12) | |
Highest home attendance | 23,019 vs Port Vale (10 February 2002) | |
Lowest home attendance | 9,515 vs Colchester United (26 September 2001) | |
Average home league attendance | 13,996 | |
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After two failed attempts to gain promotion via the play-offs the pressure was now on Gudjon Thordarson to achieve automatic promotion. Graham Kavanagh was sold for £1 million as well as fan favourite Peter Thorne to Cardiff City and with the money raised Stoke went out and brought some useful additions. After a slow start City went on a 10 match unbeaten run which was brought to a halt by Wigan in November. In January Stoke lost their form and fell away from automatic promotion places and it became clear that it would be the play-offs again for Stoke. And it was Cardiff who were Stoke's opponents with the first leg ending in a 2–1 win for the "Bluebirds" and it seemed that in the second leg Cardiff would hold on for a goalless draw but two very late goals gave Stoke a famous victory and they went to secure promotion by beating Brentford 2–0 in the final. It was not enough however for Gudjon Thordarson to be offered a new contract.[1]