Back in Division One in 1901/02, Stoke did reasonably well and had some fine players, including former Aston Villa goalkeeper Tom Wilkes, Fred Johnson (who played almost 200 games for the Potters), Tom Halford (who later became player, manager, scout, trainer and groundsman at Port Vale!) and Mart Watkins (the scorer of 52 goals in 139 games for Stoke in two spells at the club).

But with financial problems, Stoke could not hold onto these players and a rapid decline saw the club go temporarily bust.

Stoke, having lost their Football League status in the summer of 1908, moved into the Birmingham & District League. A year later Stoke fielded two teams - one within the Birmingham & District League, and another in the Southern League (West Division).

The emphatically won the latter, winning all ten matches and scoring 48 goals - having begun their Southern League programme with an 11-0 home victory over Merthyr Tydfil.

Season	Div	Pos	Manager(s)	FA	Avg Att
1899/00	1	9	Horace Austerberry	1	7,250
1900/01	1	16	Horace Austerberry	1	7,650
1901/02	1	16	Horace Austerberry	QF	7,280
1902/03	1	6	Horace Austerberry	QF	8,050
1903/04	1	16	Horace Austerberry	1	8,610
1904/05	1	12	Horace Austerberry	2	7,470
1905/06	1	10	Horace Austerberry	2	8,610
1906/07	1	20	Horace Austerberry	1	5,605
1907/08	2	10	Horace Austerberry	QF	5,825
1908 - resigned from Football League (joined Birmingham & District League)
1908/09	BD	8	Alfred Barker	1	5,117