THE 1972 League Cup remains the only major trophy won by Stoke City in their 148-year history.

This afternoon at Wembley they will add the FA Cup to that fairly short honours list if they can upset the odds and defeat favourites Manchester City. But a top-flight league title? That one may elude them forever.

Football is rife with hard luck stories and wistful recollections of what might have been and, for Stoke fans of a certain vintage, there will always be that feeling that 1947 should have been their year. This was a gripping tale that endured all the way to the end of a tumultuous campaign and included the controversial sale of the team’s star forward as the season reached its dramatic denouement. At the heart of it all was a Scot.

Bob McGrory, from Bishopton, arrived at Stoke relatively late in his playing career, pitching up in the Potteries just five months short of his 30th birthday in May 1921 after spells with Dumbarton and Burnley. A strong-tackling, dependable full-back, McGrory ended up playing with Stoke for 15 seasons, eventually retiring aged 43 after notching up an impressive 511 appearances.

In the summer of 1935, Tom Mather, the Stoke manager, left to take charge of Newcastle United and McGrory, who had previously coached the reserves and served as assistant manager, was handed the opportunity to succeed him. The impressive longevity of his playing career was to be matched upon his graduation to the dug out.

McGrory, never capped by Scotland at any level, inherited a talented, young squad but had to contend with the outbreak of World War II, coming as it did just as Stoke were beginning to impose themselves against more illustrious rivals.

Fortune, though, favoured them during that six-year hiatus. When the league recommenced in 1946, McGrory was able to recall the crux of his squad, most of whom had come through the war unscathed. They soon set about mounting a serious challenge for their first ever title.

At the heart of the team was Stanley Matthews. The England forward, who would later be knighted, had become a team-mate of McGrory’s after making the breakthrough in 1932, aged 17, but, like his manager, he was to enjoy an Indian summer that would allow him to carry on playing for far longer than most of his peers.

The war years arrived during what should have been the peak of Matthews’ career but, come 1946, the 31-year-old was still very much in demand. He had asked for a transfer back in 1938, and was eventually persuaded to stay by the thousands of fans who attended a protest meeting to demonstrate their horror at the prospect. That sense of wanderlust remained upon his return to Stoke after the war.

Matthews had been stationed near Blackpool as an RAF corporal during the war and appeared as a guest of the seaside club in a number of friendlies. It whetted his appetite to return to Blackpool, where he now lived, on a more permanent basis. Despite Stoke’s good run of form, Matthews’ relationship with McGrory was becoming increasingly fraught, and he was often left out of the side. Eventually it came to a head and the England internationalist handed in yet another transfer request. This time he would leave.

Blackpool’s offer of £11,500 was initially turned down but then reluctantly accepted after Matthews dug in his heels and threatened to retire if he was not allowed to leave. From a Stoke perspective, the timing would prove disastrous. There were just three games remaining in the season and they were going to have to get over the finishing line without their talisman.

Heading into the final match, Stoke trailed leaders Liverpool by two points but a win over Sheffield United would bring them their first title. Instead they lost 2-1 and eventually finished fourth. It remains the closest Stoke have ever come to winning the top division.

The fall-out was not pretty, with fingers jabbed accusingly at both McGrory, for chasing away the greatest talent the club ever had, and at Matthews, for being a mercenary and leaving his hometown team at such a key point in the season.

“Blackpool came in with such a good offer at that time that Stoke just couldn’t refuse it,” said Tony Matthews, author of three books on the club. “That was massive money in those days and Stoke weren’t a wealthy club. Plus Matthews wanted to move on to a bigger club and Blackpool were a strong team in those days.

The feeling back then was that Stoke would never get a better chance to win the league and that looks to be the case.”

McGrory remained as Stoke manager until 1952 and died in Glasgow just two years later, aged 62. Just 12 months earlier Matthews had starred in Blackpool’s famous 1953 FA Cup win over Bolton Wanderers, while Stoke were relegated from the first division.

Mention of McGrory’s achievements can be found inside the club museum, but he remains a figure respected rather than revered, with no hospitality suites or statues in his name.

There may be no underlying reason for that but, for 14 years as a player and 17 as a manager, the Scot deserves to be remembered as more than just the man who once sold Stanley Matthews.