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.