2003–04 Stoke City F.C. season

The 2003–04 season was Stoke City's 97th season in the Football League and the 37th in the second tier.

Stoke City

2003–04 season
Chairman	Gunnar Gíslason
Manager	Tony Pulis
Stadium	Britannia Stadium
Football League First Division	11th (66 Points)
FA Cup	Third Round
League Cup	Second Round
Top goalscorer	League: Ade Akinbiyi & Gifton Noel-Williams (10) All: Ade Akinbiyi & Gifton Noel-Williams (10)
Highest home attendance	20,126 vs Preston North End (26 December 2003)
Lowest home attendance	10,277 vs Crystal Palace (25 November 2003)
Average home league attendance	14,424
Home colours
← 2002–03 2004–05 →

With Stoke being successful in avoiding relegation manager Tony Pulis could begin making alterations to his squad for the 2003–04 season. A number of ins and outs followed but after a good start Stoke won just five of their first 21 matches and it seemed that another fight against relegation would be required. But after a win against West Ham United in December Stoke went nine matches unbeaten and pulled themselves away from relegation trouble. Their good form continued until the end of the season with Stoke ending a promising season of consolidation in 11th position with 66 points.^[1]

Season review

League

Manager Tony Pulis made a number of alterations to his squad in the summer of 2003 as a number of players which helped Stoke gain promotion and subsequent survival left the club and in came several new players. These included experienced goalkeeper Ed de Goey, defenders Clint Hill and John Halls, midfielders John Eustace and Darel Russell and forwards Carl Asaba and Gifton Noel-Williams whilst the most notable departures was that of James O'Connor and fan favourite Sergei Shtanuk.^[1]

Stoke began the 2003–04 season well beating Derby County 3–0 on the opening match and then Wimbledon to see Stoke sitting top of the table after two matches.^[1] But Stoke's form soon fell away and despite the return of Ade Akinbiyi Stoke won just 5 of their first 21 fixtures which ended with a 3–2 defeat at home to Cardiff City with former fan favorite Peter Thorne scoring a hat trick but such as his popularity with the club he refused to celebrate and earned a standing ovation from the Stoke supporters.^[1] With Stoke looking likely to be involved in another scrap against relegation Pulis brought in experienced no nonsense defender Gerry Taggart and in his first match he helped Stoke claim an unlikely three points away at high-flying West Ham United.^[1] This prompted Stoke's revival and in the next match Stoke beat Reading 3–0 with a hat trick from Dutch winger Peter Hoekstra.^[2]

Stoke remained unbeaten for six more matches until their run was halted by a heavy 6–3 defeat at Crystal Palace.^[1] Whilst there was some hope from the fans that Stoke could mount a late push for a play-off spot they failed to keep a consistent run of form going and ended the season in a mid-table position of 11th.^[1] It was a promising end to the season with Stoke beating all-ready promoted West Bromwich Albion 4–1 and the feeling around the club was that they could now begin to look for a promotion to the Premier League rather that worry about being relegated to the third tier.^[1]

FA Cup

Stoke drew Wimbledon in the third round who had now moved to Milton Keynes and after a bad tempered 1–1 draw at the National Hockey Stadium a free kick from Adam Nowland settled the replay.^[1]

League Cup

Stoke had a poor League Cup campaign as they narrowly beat Rochdale and were then knocked out 2–0 by Gillingham.^[1]

Final league table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
9	Reading	46	20	10	16	55	57	−2	70
10	Millwall	46	18	15	13	55	48	+7	69	Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round[lower-alpha 1]
11	Stoke City	46	18	12	16	58	55	+3	66
12	Coventry City	46	17	14	15	67	54	+13	65
13	Cardiff City	46	17	14	15	68	58	+10	65

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
Notes:

1. Since the FA Cup winners Manchester United qualified for the Champions League, their place in the UEFA Cup went to Millwall, who were the FA Cup runners-up.

Results

Stoke's score comes first

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Pre-Season Friendlies

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
1	13 July 2003	Newcastle Town	A	4–1		Noel-Williams, Goodfellow, Commons, Greenacre
2	15 July 2003	Stafford Rangers	A	0–0
3	23 July 2003	Germinal Beerschot	A	0–2
4	26 July 2003	Westerlo	A	2–3		Noel-Williams, Iwelumo
5	29 July 2003	Notts County	A	1–1		Iwelumo
6	1 August 2003	Macclesfield Town	A	0–1
7	4 August 2003	Rhyl	A	2–4		Iwelumo, Commons
8	13 August 2003	Manchester United	H	3–1	21,000	Iwelumo, Goodfellow (2)

Football League First Division

Main article: 2003–04 Football League

Match	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers	Report
1	9 August 2003	Derby County	A	3–0	21,517	Noel-Williams 15', Greenacre 20', Neal 90'	Report
2	16 August 2003	Wimbledon	H	2–1	12,550	Asaba 26' (pen), Thomas 90+3'	Report
3	23 August 2003	Walsall	A	1–1	9,033	Asaba 33'	Report
4	26 August 2003	Millwall	H	0–0	13,087		Report
5	30 August 2003	Preston North End	A	0–1	12,965		Report
6	6 September 2003	Burnley	H	1–2	14,867	Asaba 53'	Report
7	13 September 2003	Coventry City	A	2–4	13,982	Asaba 45', Thomas 78'	Report
8	16 September 2003	Sunderland	H	3–1	15,005	Noel-Williams 24', Russell (2) 37', 39'	Report
9	20 September 2003	Norwich City	H	1–1	10,672	Noel-Williams 36'	Report
10	27 September 2003	West Bromwich Albion	A	0–1	24,297		Report
11	30 September 2003	Rotherham United	A	0–3	5,450		Report
12	4 October 2003	Nottingham Forest	H	2–1	13,755	Thomas 6', Asaba 31'	Report
13	14 October 2003	Wigan Athletic	A	1–2	7,678	Noel-Williams 40'	Report
14	18 October 2003	Ipswich Town	A	0–1	22,122		Report
15	25 October 2003	Crewe Alexandra	H	1–1	17,569	Greenacre 90+1'	Report
16	1 November 2003	Sheffield United	H	2–2	14,217	Noel-Williams 4', Akinbiyi 18'	Report
17	8 November 2003	Cardiff City	A	1–3	15,227	Commons 59'	Report
18	22 November 2003	Bradford City	H	1–0	11,661	Eustace 11'	Report
19	25 November 2003	Crystal Palace	H	0–1	10,277		Report
20	29 November 2003	Gillingham	A	1–3	7,888	Eustace 77'	Report
21	6 December 2003	Cardiff City	H	2–3	12,208	Eustace 38', Akinbiyi 74'	Report
22	9 December 2003	West Ham United	A	1–0	24,365	Richardson 33'	Report
23	13 December 2003	Reading	H	3–0	11,212	Hoekstra (3) 18', 29', 87' (1 pen)	Report
24	20 December 2003	Watford	A	3–1	13,732	Taggart 15', Akinbiyi (2) 55', 72'	Report
25	26 December 2003	Preston North End	H	1–1	20,126	Eustace 90+2' (pen)	Report
26	28 December 2003	Burnley	A	1–0	12,812	Akinbiyi 52'	Report
27	10 January 2004	Derby County	H	2–1	16,402	Akinbiyi 29', Taggart 53'	Report
28	17 January 2004	Wimbledon	A	1–0	3,623	Noel-Williams 54'	Report
29	31 January 2004	Walsall	H	3–2	18,035	Russell 8', Asaba (2) 37', 56'	Report
30	7 February 2004	Millwall	A	1–1	9,034	Clarke 4'	Report
31	14 February 2004	Crystal Palace	A	3–6	16,715	Eustace 6', Clarke 45', Asaba 83' (pen)	Report
32	21 February 2004	Wigan Athletic	H	1–1	14,927	Akinbiyi 45'	Report
33	2 March 2004	Ipswich Town	H	2–0	11,435	Hoekstra 37' (pen), Akinbiyi 68'	Report
34	6 March 2004	Watford	H	3–1	13,108	Akinbiyi (2) 18', 43', Noel-Williams 20'	Report
35	13 March 2004	Reading	A	0–0	14,132		Report
36	16 March 2004	Sunderland	A	1–1	24,510	Svärd 13'	Report
37	23 March 2004	Crewe Alexandra	A	0–2	10,014		Report
38	27 March 2004	Norwich City	A	0–1	23,565		Report
39	3 April 2004	Coventry City	H	1–0	12,855	Commons 41'	Report
40	10 April 2004	Nottingham Forest	A	0–0	28,758		Report
41	12 April 2004	Rotherham United	H	0–2	11,978		Report
42	17 April 2004	Sheffield United	A	1–0	19,372	Clarke 45'	Report
43	24 April 2004	West Ham United	H	0–2	18,227		Report
44	1 May 2004	Bradford City	A	2–0	10,147	Noel-Williams (2) 2', 46'	Report
45	4 May 2004	West Bromwich Albion	H	4–1	18,352	Russell 45', Commons (2) 62', 73', Noel-Williams 86'	Report
46	9 May 2004	Gillingham	H	0–0	19,240		Report

FA Cup

Main article: 2003–04 FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers	Report
R3	4 January 2004	Wimbledon	A	1–1	3,609	Eustace 13'	Report
R3 Replay	13 January 2004	Wimbledon	H	0–1	6,463		Report

League Cup

Main article: 2003–04 Football League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers	Report
R1	19 August 2003	Rochdale	H	2–1	4,687	Iwelumo 13', Goodfellow 90'	Report
R2	23 September 2003	Gillingham	H	0–2	4,607		Report

Squad statistics

No.	Pos.	Name	League		FA Cup		League Cup		Total		Discipline
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	Ed de Goey	37	0	0	0	1	0	38	0	1	0
2	DF	Wayne Thomas	39	3	2	0	1	0	42	3	8	1
3	DF	Clive Clarke	41(1)	3	2	0	2	0	45(1)	3	10	0
4	MF	John Eustace	26	5	2	1	2	0	30	6	12	1
6	DF	Clint Hill	9(3)	0	0	0	0	0	9(3)	0	1	0
7	FW	Carl Asaba	26(11)	8	2	0	1	0	29(11)	8	7	1
8	FW	Chris Greenacre	8(5)	2	1(1)	0	1	0	10(6)	2	1	0
9	FW	Gifton Noel-Williams	40(2)	10	1	0	1	0	42(2)	10	2	1
10	FW	Ade Akinbiyi	23(7)	10	1	0	0(1)	0	24(8)	10	4	1
11	MF	Peter Hoekstra	20(4)	4	1(1)	0	1	0	22(5)	4	1	0
12	GK	Neil Cutler	9(4)	0	2	0	1	0	12(4)	0	1	0
14	GK	Ben Foster	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
15	FW	Chris Iwelumo	3(6)	0	0(1)	0	1(1)	1	4(8)	1	1	0
15	MF	Brynjar Gunnarsson	1(2)	0	0	0	0	0	1(2)	0	1	0
16	DF	Marcus Hall	34(1)	0	1	0	2	0	37(1)	0	9	3
17	MF	Darel Russell	46	4	2	0	2	0	50	4	6	0
18	MF	Lewis Neal	6(13)	1	1	0	1(1)	0	8(14)	1	2	0
19	FW	Marc Goodfellow	0(4)	0	0	0	2	1	2(4)	1	1	0
20	MF	Keith Andrews	16	0	0	0	0	0	16	0	5	0
21	MF	Pétur Marteinsson	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	1	0
21	MF	John Halls	34	0	2	0	0	0	36	0	6	1
22	MF	Brian Wilson	0(2)	0	0	0	0(1)	0	0(3)	0	0	0
23	MF	Karl Henry	14(6)	0	0	0	1	0	15(6)	0	4	0
24	MF	Kris Commons	14(19)	4	0(1)	0	0(2)	0	14(22)	4	1	0
25	DF	Gareth Owen	1(2)	0	0	0	0	0	1(2)	0	0	0
26	DF	Ryan Hutchinson	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
27	FW	Laurence Hall	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
28	DF	Andy Wilkinson	1(2)	0	0	0	1	0	2(2)	0	0	0
29	MF	Paul Williams	16(3)	0	0	0	1	0	17(3)	0	3	0
30	FW	Jermaine Palmer	0(3)	0	0	0	0	0	0(3)	0	0	0
31	DF	Frazer Richardson	6	1	0	0	0	0	6	1	0	0
32	DF	Gerry Taggart	21	2	0	0	0	0	21	2	5	0
33	DF	Sebastian Svärd	9(4)	1	1	0	0	0	10(4)	1	0	0
35	DF	Richard Johnson	3(4)	0	1(1)	0	0	0	4(5)	0	0	1

References

1. "Stoke City season review 2003-04 Stoke recover well to enjoy season of consolidation". The Sentinel. 19 May 2004.
2. "Stoke 3-0 Reading". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2 September 2012.