 Ball 's successor , Lou Macari , was appointed in May 1991 , prior to the start of the 1991 – 92 season . The improvement was immediate , as Stoke narrowly missed out on promotion in his first season in charge , finishing fourth in the Third Division . He also clinched a trophy for the club ; the Associate Members ' Cup ( at the time known as the <unk> trophy for sponsorship reasons ) was won with a 1 – 0 victory against Stockport County at Wembley ; Mark Stein scored the only goal of the game . The following season , 1992 – 93 , promotion was achieved from the third tier , now known as Division Two , with Stoke finishing as league champions . Stein , a £ 100 @,@ 000 purchase from Oxford United , scored 26 goals during the season as Stoke amassed a total of 93 points . Macari left in October 1993 to take over as manager of Scottish side Celtic , and Stein also departed in a £ 1.5m move to Chelsea . 
