The 1995–96 season was Stoke City's 89th season in the Football League and 33rd in the second tier. Prior to the start of the 1995–96 season there was a lot of talk about the possibility of building a new stadium to bring Stoke up to the requirements of the Taylor Report. On the pitch Stoke enjoyed their most successful season for quite a long time as they mounted a push for promotion to the Premiership and made the end-of-season play-offs against Leicester City. Unfortunately for Stoke Leicester scored the only goal in the two-legged tie and they went on to be promoted.