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1897-98

Football League 1898-99

1899-1900
  
Final League Table - Division I
Teams in a silver box denotes a player representing England in 1898-99

Teams denoted with ▼ were relegated to the second division for the following season
Team P Home Away
W D L F A W D L F A
Aston Villa 34 15 2 0 58 13 4 5 8 18 27 45
Liverpool 34 12 3 2 29 10 7 2 8 20 23 43
Burnley 34 11 5 1 32 15 4 4 9 13 32 39
Everton 34 10 2 5 25 13 5 6 6 23 28 38
Notts County 34 9 6 2 33 20 3 7 7 14 31 37
Blackburn Rovers 34 9 5 3 41 23 5 3 9 19 29 36
Sunderland 34 11 3 3 26 10 4 3 10 15 31 36
Wolverhampton Wanderers 34 9 5 3 30 13 5 2 10 24 35 35
Derby County 34 11 5 1 46 19 1 6 10 16 38 35
Bury 34 9 5 3 31 18 5 2 10 17 31 35
Nottingham Forest 34 6 6 5 22 18 5 5 7 20 24 33
Stoke 34 10 4 3 29 17 3 3 11 18 35 33
Newcastle United 34 9 3 5 33 18 2 5 10 16 30 30
West Bromwich Albion 34 11 1 5 28 9 1 5 11 14 48 30
Preston North End 34 10 4 3 29 14 0 5 12 15 33 29
Sheffield United 34 7 8 2 31 20 2 3 12 14 31 29
Bolton Wanderers▼ 34 6 5 6 24 21 3 2 12 13 30 25
The Wednesday▼ 34 8 2 7 26 24 0 6 11 6 37 24

Aston Villa recorded an eight-match winning run from 8 October 1898:
Preston (h) 4-2, Liverpool (a) 3-0, Nottingham F. (h) 3-0, Bolton (h) 2-1, Derby (h) 7-1, West Brom (a) 1-0, Blackburn (h) 3-1, Sunderland (h) 2-0, before drawing 1-1 at home to Wolves on 10 December 1898.


 
How The League Was Won 1898-99 Season
Timeline
35 Saturdays from 3 September 1898 to 29 April 1899, plus Boxing Day (Monday, 26th December 1898), Monday, 2 January 1899, Good Friday, 31 March 1899 and Easter Monday, 3 April 1899
With no games allowed in August, there were two opening games on Thursday, 1 September 1898 and a game on each of the next five Mondays. There was also a game on the first Thursday in October, one on each of the first two Mondays in November, two on the day after Boxing Day and one on the first Tuesday of the new year. Two were played on a Tuesday in February, one on each Monday in March (plus one each on a Tuesday and a Thursday), one on the day after Easter Monday, three on later Mondays in April and two on a Thursday. The FA Cup took precedence on five weekends from the first round on 28 January 1899 to the final on 15 April 1899. There were two weeks between each round, three weeks before the semi-finals and four before the final. The last four league games were on the final Saturday in April.
 

Monday, 24 April 1899
Aston Villa 7 West Bromwich Albion 1
  
Aston Lower Grounds, Birmingham (10,000)

Bowman, Wheldon
(2), Garraty (3), Cowan
~ Perry
With Villa having put six past Notts County, two days earlier, they now put themselves top, with one game left to play, and, crucially, the seventh goal gave them a goal average that was a fortieth of a goal (0.025) better than Liverpool's, meaning that in their final head-to-head championship decider, they only needed a point, whereas Liverpool had to win.

Top Two 24 April 1899
Team P
Aston Villa 33 43
Liverpool 33 43

Saturday, 29 April 1899
Aston Villa 5 Liverpool 0
  
Aston Lower Grounds, Birmingham (41,357)

Devey (2), Wheldon (2), Crabtree
Villa clinched their fourth title in six years in style with five first-half goals, bringing their tally up to 18 in eight days. They won the championship by two points from Liverpool.

 
The Elite League 1898-99 Season (games between the top four)
Team P Home Away
W D L F A W D L F A
Aston Villa 6 3 0 0 12 0 2 1 0 8 3 11
Liverpool 6 2 0 1 4 3 1 0 2 3 8 6
Everton 6 1 1 1 6 3 0 1 2 0 5 4
Burnley 6 1 1 1 4 5 0 0 3 0 10 3
Only Everton retained their top-four placing from the previous season. Sheffield United, Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers all dropped out of the top four.

Games played between the top two:-
 
Saturday, 15 October 1898
 Liverpool 0 Aston Villa 3
  
Anfield, Liverpool (20,000)

Johnson, Devey, Wheldon
Saturday, 29 April 1899
Aston Villa 5 Liverpool 0
   Aston Lower Grounds, Birmingham (41,357)

Devey (2), Wheldon (2), Crabtree

 
The Continuous League 1888-99 (first eleven seasons)
Team P Wins
Aston Villa 306 167 384
Everton 306 156 362
Preston North End 306 145 347
Sunderland 262 144 333
Aston Villa increased their lead at the top to 22 points. This was the first season of 34 games each, following three of 22, one of 26 and six of thirty games each. Sunderland still had the highest average points per game from their nine seasons.
 

The 'Rolling Five-Season' League
1894-99
Team P Wins
Aston Villa 154 91 209
Everton 154 76 185
Sunderland 154 74 180
Sheffield United 154 63 165
The first four seasons were of thirty games each. Everton moved into second place and reduced Aston Villa's lead to 24 points.

 
Champions: Aston Villa
Manager: George Ramsay
1898-99 Most Appearances
by England Players
Name Played Goals
Fred Wheldon 33 16
Jimmy Crabtree 31 2
Jack Devey 30 21
Billy George 30 0
Charlie Athersmith 28 4
Steve Smith 15 2
Devey, Smith and Wheldon did not play for England in 1898-99 and Billy George did not make his England debut until 1902.
1898-99 Most Goals
by England Players
Name Played Goals
Jack Devey 30 21
Fred Wheldon 33 16
Derby's Steve Bloomer was top scorer for the second time with 24 goals.
Scotsman, Jack Peddie of Newcastle was third on the list with 18.

 
England and the Football League 1898-99 Season
England's impact on the Football League
Of the 33 playing positions used during the active 1898-99 season, Football League players provided 28 of them, and of the 19 goals scored, League players scored 14 of them.
Nine of the 18 first division clubs were represented.
Eight Football League games had a direct impact on two of England's games, on 18 February and 8 April.
As a result, on 18 February, England took Aston Villa's Charlie Athersmith and Jimmy Crabtree, Burnley's Jack Hillman, Bury's Jimmy Settle, Derby's Steve Bloomer,
Nottingham Forest's Frank and Fred Forman, and Sheffield United's Ernest Needham. On 8 April, Bloomer, Settle and the Forman brothers were again absent from their clubs, as was Liverpool's Rab Howell.
 
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