League Manager
Bob McGrory, ambitious and anxious now to build on last season success, twice broke the club's record transfer in the Summer of 1947 when he brought in forwards
Jimmy McAlinden from
Portsmouth and
Tommy Kiernan from
Celtic for fees of £7,000 and £8,500 respectively. These two new players on top of the best from last season looked good for Stoke in the 1947–48 season as not many teams in the country could boast such an exciting young squad as Stoke's. Unfortunately, an appalling catalogue of injuries soon made it obvious that the fans would see no repeat of the form showed from last season. By mid-September six of Stoke's key players,
Jock Kirton,
Neil Franklin,
Frank Baker,
George Mountford,
Frank Mountford and
Freddie Steele, all suffered major injuries which ruled them out for most of the season. The team battled on though, and in the end took 15th place in the table, having spent quite some time in the bottom three, relegation was a distinct possibility. Only six teams conceded fewer goals than Stoke but it was in attack where the problems lay, Stoke's goal threat completely drying up with Stoke scoring 90 goals last season and just 41 this season. Yet despite the frustrating anti-climax for the Stoke public the average home gate rose again this time to 31,590.
FA Cup There was no joy in the cup for Stoke fans as a 4–2 victory over
Mansfield Town was followed by a 3–0 reverse against Third Division
Queens Park Rangers. ==Final league table==