Final League Table -
Division One
Teams in a silver box denotes a player
representing England in 1895-96
Teams denoted with ▼ were relegated to the second division for the
following season after finishing in the bottom two placings of
the test matches |
|
Team |
P |
Home |
Away |
₧
|
|
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
|
Aston Villa |
30 |
14 |
1 |
0 |
47 |
17 |
6 |
4 |
5 |
31 |
28 |
45 |
|
Derby
County |
30 |
12 |
2 |
1 |
42 |
13 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
26 |
22 |
41 |
|
Everton |
30 |
10 |
4 |
1 |
40 |
17 |
6 |
3 |
6 |
26 |
26 |
39 |
|
Bolton Wanderers |
30 |
12 |
2 |
1 |
34 |
14 |
4 |
3 |
8 |
15 |
23 |
37 |
|
Sunderland |
30 |
10 |
5 |
0 |
36 |
14 |
5 |
2 |
8 |
16 |
27 |
37 |
|
Stoke |
30 |
12 |
0 |
3 |
43 |
11 |
3 |
0 |
12 |
13 |
36 |
30 |
|
Wednesday |
30 |
10 |
2 |
3 |
31 |
18 |
2 |
3 |
10 |
13 |
35 |
29 |
|
Blackburn Rovers |
30 |
10 |
1 |
4 |
26 |
18 |
2 |
4 |
9 |
14 |
32 |
29 |
|
Preston North End |
30 |
8 |
5 |
2 |
31 |
18 |
3 |
1 |
11 |
13 |
30 |
28 |
|
Burnley |
30 |
8 |
5 |
2 |
33 |
11 |
2 |
2 |
11 |
15 |
33 |
27 |
|
Bury |
30 |
7 |
1 |
7 |
32 |
24 |
5 |
2 |
8 |
18 |
30 |
27 |
|
Sheffield
United |
30 |
9 |
4 |
2 |
28 |
12 |
1 |
2 |
12 |
12 |
38 |
26 |
|
Nottingham Forest |
30 |
11 |
1 |
3 |
34 |
16 |
0 |
2 |
13 |
8 |
41 |
25 |
|
Wolverhampton Wanderers |
30 |
10 |
0 |
5 |
43 |
18 |
0 |
1 |
14 |
18 |
47 |
21 |
|
Small Heath▼ |
30 |
7 |
2 |
6 |
22 |
24 |
1 |
2 |
12 |
17 |
55 |
20 |
|
West Bromwich Albion |
30 |
5 |
4 |
6 |
18 |
22 |
1 |
3 |
11 |
12 |
37 |
19 |
|
Everton
recorded a nine-match winning run from 2 November 1895:
Wolves (h) 2-0, Sheffield U.
(a) 2-1, Sunderland (h) 1-0, West Brom (a) 3-0, Burnley (h) 2-1, Small Heath
(a) 3-0, Stoke (h) 7-2, Aston V. (h) 2-0, Blackburn (a) 3-2, before drawing
1-1 at Bury on 11 January 1896. Aston Villa's biggest winning sequence was
of six matches. Sunderland extended their home record to one defeat in 82
league games and they were unbeaten in their last 37 league matches at
Newcastle Road. |
|
How The League Was Won 1895-96 Season |
|
Timeline |
21
consecutive Saturdays from 7 September 1895 (beginning a week later
than the previous season, due to it being the first Saturday in
September) to 25 January 1896, plus Boxing Day
(Thursday, 26 December 1895), New Year's Day (Wednesday, 1 January
1896), Good Friday, 3 April 1896 and Easter Monday,
6 April 1896
Five
opening games were played on Monday, 2 September 1895 and a sixth,
three days later on the Thursday. Four additional
games were
played on Mondays later in September, plus one on a Monday in
October, two on Mondays and one on a Thursday in
November, one on Christmas Day and two others during the festive
week in December. There were no midweek games in January, but three
on Mondays and three on a Tuesday in February, three on Mondays and
one each on a Tuesday and a Wednesday in March, and one on a Monday
(not including Easter) and four on the day after Easter Monday, in
April. The remaining games were played on Saturdays between February
and April, with the
FA Cup taking precedence on four weekends from the first round on 1 February 1896 to the
semi-finals on 21 March 1896. There were two weeks between each
round and three weeks before the semi-finals. The final was played
on 18 April 1896, four weeks after the semi-finals and on the same
day as the first of four sets of test matches on consecutive
Saturdays and Mondays. As West Bromwich Albion were involved in the
test matches, they were unable to play the last league game until
Wednesday 29 April, beating Blackburn 3-2, two days after escaping
relegation in their last test match.
|
Good Friday, 3 April 1896 |
Everton 2
Derby County 2
Goodison
Park, Liverpool
(25,000)
Cameron (2) ~ Goodall,
Stevenson |
After winning at Goodison a year earlier to virtually end
Everton's title aspirations, Derby mathematically killed them
off with only a point. However, with only three games left, it
left them only able to catch Villa on goal average, though it
was superior (2 as opposed to Villa's 1.68). Villa had only one
game to play and would only have to maintain their 17-month
unbeaten home record to regain the title. |
Nottingham Forest
0 Aston Villa 2
Town
Ground, Nottingham
(10,000)
Burton, Crabtree |
|
Easter Saturday,
4 April 1896 |
Burnley 2
Derby County 2
Turf Moor, Burnley
(6,000)
Nicol, Place jnr.
~ Paul |
Derby released John Goodall for England's game
with Scotland at Celtic Park and also had to fight back from a
two-goal deficit, but for the second time in three years, a game
at Turf Moor decided the title in Aston Villa's favour. Derby
secured the runners-up spot by beating Everton, three days later
and they went on to reduce Villa's lead to four points at the
end. |
|
|
The Elite League 1895-96 Season
(games between the top four) |
Bolton Wanderers
and Derby County replaced Preston North End and Sunderland from the previous season's top four
Games played between the top two:-
|
Saturday, 21 September 1895 |
Aston Villa 4 Derby County 1
Wellington Road, Handsworth
(12,000)
John Cowan (2) Devey, Campbell
~ McQueen |
|
Saturday, 8 February 1896 |
Derby County
2
Aston Villa 2
Baseball
Ground, Derby
(15,000)
Miller, Stevenson ~ Devey,
Athersmith |
Derby County beat Aston Villa 4-2 in the FA Cup first round
at the Baseball Ground. |
|
The Continuous League
1888-96
(first eight seasons) |
Aston Villa moved into second place and
reduced
Preston's lead to a point, but this was the
fourth
season
of thirty games each, following three of 22 and one of 26 games each, so comparisons with
other seasons have little
relevance. Sunderland still had the highest average points per game
from their six seasons.
Aston Villa reduced
Sunderland's lead to seven points. |
|
Champions:
Aston Villa |
|
Manager: George
Ramsay |
|
|
1895-96
Most Goals
by England Players |
|
Name |
Played |
Goals |
|
Jack Devey |
30 |
16 |
Scotsman, John Campbell (not to be
confused with Sunderland's goalscorer of the same name), was top scorer with 26
in 26 games.
Second on the list was Derby's Steve
Bloomer, who scored 22, with another Scot, Tommy Hyslop of Stoke, and Everton's
Alf Milward scoring 17.
|
|
England and the Football
League 1895-96 Season |
|
England's impact on the Football League |
Of the 33 playing positions used
during the active 1895-96 season, Football League players provided
18 of them, and of the twelve goals scored, League players scored
nine of them.
Six of the 16 first division clubs were
represented.
Eight Football League games had a direct impact on
two of England's games, on 7 March and 4 April.
As a
result, on 7 March, England took Aston Villa's Jimmy Crabtree,
Everton's Edgar Chadwick, The Wednesday's Tommy Crawshaw and Fred
Spiksley, and West Brom were without Billy Bassett. On 4 April,
Bassett and Crawshaw were again absent from their clubs, as were Derby's John Goodall
and Wolves' Harry Wood. |
|
