Stoke had a very poor end to an uneventful 1950s as for most of the season the side looked capable of mounting a promotion challenge but a truly awful run of results in March and April (10 straight defeats) meant that Stoke dropped down the table and only avoided relegation by five points as they finished in 17th position. At the end of the season new chairman Albert Hensall decided that a change of manager was needed and so sacked Frank Taylor and replaced him with Tony Waddington who would bring a new era to the club.

The 1959–60 season began well with new signing from Burnley, Doug Newlands tormenting the Sunderland defence in a 3–1 victory. But thereafter their form rate was erratic although Lincoln City were beaten 6–1 with Dennis Wilshaw grabbing a fine hat trick. Soon after that win over Lincoln a 19-year-old Tony Allen won his first England cap. But it was proving difficult on the pitch for Stoke as after a 1–0 home win against Plymouth Argyle on 27 February 1960 Stoke sat in 6th position in the table looking to start a push for promotion, but 10 matches later they were in 17th five points away from relegation.

It was in defence where the problems lay as manager Frank Taylor used four different keepers one of which was Tommy Younger a fine keeper for Liverpool but in his ten matches for Stoke he lost nine of them conceding 22 goals and he quickly left.Ken Thomson was sold to Middlesbrough and legendary striker Frank Bowyer decided to retire.

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Wikipedia