He was the third of four sons born to Jack Matthews,[7] a local boxer known as the "Fighting Barber of Hanley". In the summer of 1921, Jack Matthews took six-year-old Stanley to the Victoria Ground, home of the local club Stoke City, for an open race for boys under the age of 14, with a staggered start according to age. His father placed a bet on his son winning, and he did.[8] Matthews attended Hanley's Wellington Road School, and later described himself as "in many respects a model pupil".[9] He also said the kickabout games the children played helped to improve his dribbling, and prepared the children for future life by giving them "a focus, a purpose, discipline, and in many respects an escape".[10] At home he also spent "countless hours" practising dribbling around kitchen chairs he placed in his backyard.[10]