Final League Table -
Division I
Teams in a silver box denotes a player
representing England in 1958-59
Teams in
italics were
relegated to the second division for the following season |
|
Team |
P |
Home |
Away |
₧
|
|
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
|
Wolverhampton Wanderers |
42 |
15 |
3 |
3 |
68 |
19 |
13 |
2 |
6 |
42 |
30 |
61 |
|
Manchester United |
42 |
14 |
4 |
3 |
58 |
27 |
10 |
3 |
8 |
45 |
39 |
55 |
|
Arsenal |
42 |
14 |
3 |
4 |
53 |
29 |
7 |
5 |
9 |
35 |
39 |
50 |
|
Bolton Wanderers |
42 |
14 |
3 |
4 |
56 |
30 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
23 |
36 |
50 |
|
West Bromwich Albion |
42 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
41 |
33 |
10 |
6 |
5 |
47 |
35 |
49 |
|
West Ham United |
42 |
15 |
3 |
3 |
59 |
29 |
6 |
3 |
12 |
26 |
41 |
48 |
|
Burnley |
42 |
11 |
4 |
6 |
41 |
29 |
8 |
6 |
7 |
40 |
41 |
48 |
|
Blackpool |
42 |
12 |
7 |
2 |
39 |
13 |
6 |
4 |
11 |
27 |
36 |
47 |
|
Birmingham City |
42 |
14 |
1 |
6 |
54 |
35 |
6 |
5 |
10 |
30 |
33 |
46 |
|
Blackburn Rovers |
42 |
12 |
3 |
6 |
48 |
28 |
5 |
7 |
9 |
28 |
42 |
44 |
|
Newcastle United |
42 |
11 |
3 |
7 |
40 |
29 |
6 |
4 |
11 |
40 |
51 |
41 |
|
Preston North End |
42 |
9 |
3 |
9 |
40 |
39 |
8 |
4 |
9 |
30 |
38 |
41 |
|
Nottingham Forest |
42 |
9 |
4 |
8 |
37 |
32 |
8 |
2 |
11 |
34 |
42 |
40 |
|
Chelsea |
42 |
13 |
2 |
6 |
52 |
37 |
5 |
2 |
14 |
25 |
61 |
40 |
|
Leeds United |
42 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
28 |
27 |
7 |
2 |
12 |
29 |
47 |
39 |
|
Everton |
42 |
11 |
3 |
7 |
39 |
38 |
6 |
1 |
14 |
32 |
49 |
38 |
|
Luton Town |
42 |
11 |
6 |
4 |
50 |
26 |
1 |
7 |
13 |
18 |
45 |
37 |
|
Tottenham Hotspur |
42 |
10 |
3 |
8 |
56 |
42 |
3 |
7 |
11 |
29 |
53 |
36 |
|
Leicester City |
42 |
7 |
6 |
8 |
34 |
36 |
4 |
4 |
13 |
33 |
62 |
32 |
|
Manchester City |
42 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
40 |
32 |
3 |
2 |
16 |
24 |
63 |
31 |
|
Aston Villa |
42 |
8 |
5 |
8 |
31 |
33 |
3 |
3 |
15 |
27 |
54 |
30 |
|
Portsmouth |
42 |
5 |
4 |
12 |
38 |
47 |
1 |
5 |
15 |
26 |
65 |
21 |
|
Manchester United
recorded an eight-match winning run from 22 November 1958:
Luton
(h) 2-1, Birmingham (a) 4-0, Leicester (h) 4-1, Preston (a) 4-3,
Chelsea (a) 3-2,
Aston Villa (h) 2-1, (a) 2-0, Blackpool (h) 3-1, before
drawing 4-4 at home to Newcastle on 31 January 1959. Wolverhampton
Wanderers' biggest winning sequence was of five matches.
Fulham,
Liverpool and Sheffield United, from the second division,
also
had players representing England.
|
|
How The League Was Won 1958-59 Season |
|
Timeline |
|
36 Saturdays from 23 August 1958 to 25 April 1959, plus the first
four
midweeks, Boxing Day (Friday, 26th December 1958), Good Friday,
27 March 1959 and Easter Monday, 30 March 1959.
One other game was played on a Monday
in September, and two on Wednesdays in
October. Three games were played on Christmas Day, a Thursday, and
then after Boxing Day, there were no more midweek games
until February, when there was one game on a Monday, one on a Tuesday, and
two on
a Wednesday.
In March, games were played throughout midweek (apart from
Thursdays), and in April, there was also a game on a Thursday, with
the last game played on the first Monday in May. The
FA Cup took precedence on six weekends from the
third round on 10 January 1959 to the
final on 2 May 1959.
There were two weeks between
each round, apart from three weeks before the
fifth round,
and seven weeks before the
final. Last league match
was played on Monday,
4 May 1959 (Arsenal 2-1 Birmingham).
|
Saturday, 18 April 1959 |
Manchester United 1 Birmingham City 0
Old Trafford, Manchester
(43,006)
Quixall
(pen) 64 |
Just 14 months on from the Munich air disaster,
Manchester United had, miraculously, re-built enough to mount a
challenge for the league title again, but they couldn't quite
master the champions, who now needed one more point to retain the
title, though United would have had to have scored over thirty
goals in their last match, at Leicester, and Wolves lost their two
remaining matches, to stand any chance of overhauling them on goal
average. |
Wolverhampton Wanderers 5 Luton Town 0
Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton
(40,981)
Broadbent 5, 74, Booth
7, Clamp 37, Murray
69 |
|
Wednesday, 22 April 1959 |
Wolverhampton Wanderers 3 Leicester City 0
Molineux, Wolverhampton
(41,220)
Deeley
61,
Lill 82, Murray 87 |
|
This match was a mere formality,
and Leicester's players applauded the Wolves team onto the pitch
at the start of the game. Wolves retained their title, the first
to be decided under floodlights, with a comfortable victory.
Another win, three days later, at Everton, took their final
winning margin to six points. |
|
|
European Qualification
Timeline |
Wednesday, 22 April 1959:
Wolverhampton Wanderers qualified for the European Cup for the
second year in succession, when they
retained the Football League Championship.
Tuesday, 7 July 1959:
Wolverhampton Wanderers were drawn to play
1958 East German champions, Vorwärts Berlin in the preliminary
round of the European Cup (the 1959 East German championship was not
concluded until November).
Friday, 14 August 1959:
Wolverhampton Wanderers and Vorwärts Berlin were unable to agree
dates for their European Cup preliminary round meetings before the
deadline of 30 September, mainly due to the Football League's
inter-league match with the Irish League on 23 September, following
four consecutive Wednesdays of first-division games for Wolves. The matter was
referred to UEFA for resolution, with Wolves asking if the deadline
could be put back a week, in their case.
Saturday, 12 September 1959:
The dates for Wolverhampton Wanderers' preliminary round fixtures with Vorwärts
Berlin were finally set for 30 September (in Berlin) and 7 October
(at Molineux).
Wolverhampton Wanderers reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup
for the first time, where they were heavily beaten on aggregate by
Barcelona. Birmingham City reached the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final
for the first time, but also lost to the holders, Barcelona on
aggregate, before UEFA prevented teams from entering more than one
European competition in future seasons. |
|
The Elite League 1958-59 Season
(games between the top four) |
Only Wolverhampton Wanderers remained
from the previous
season's top four. Preston North End, Tottenham Hotspur and West
Bromwich Albion were replaced by Arsenal, Bolton Wanderers and
Manchester United. Even though Bolton conceded more than they scored
in these high-scoring games, they still finished above the
champions.
Games played between the top two:-
|
Saturday, 4 October 1958 |
Wolverhampton Wanderers 4 Manchester United 0
Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton
(36,840)
Mason, Murray
(2),
Mullen |
|
Saturday, 21 February 1959 |
Manchester United 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1
Old Trafford, Manchester
(62,794)
Viollet, Charlton
~ Mason |
|
|
The Continuous Post-War League
1946-59
(13 seasons) |
|
Wolves reduced United's lead to
31 points.
A temporarily-rebuilt United
reduced Wolves' lead to a single point, despite the Midlanders'
second successive title. |
|
Champions: Wolverhampton
Wanderers |
Manager:
Stan
Cullis
|
|
Tottenham's Bobby Smith was again top scorer with
32 goals, but Chelsea's Jimmy Greaves also scored 32.
Joint-third on the list were Manchester United's Bobby Charlton, and
Bolton's Nat Lofthouse, with 29 goals each. Wolves' top
scorer was again Jimmy Murray, with 21.
|
|
|
England and the Football
League 1958-59 Season |
|
England's impact on the Football League |
Including the five games at the end of the season,
ten of the 22 first division clubs were
represented, plus Fulham, Liverpool and Sheffield United from the
second division.
14
Football League games had a direct impact on
two of England's games, on 4 October 1958 and 11 April 1959,
including in the days prior to the Scotland game.
As a
result, on 4 October, England took
Blackburn's Ronnie Clayton, Bolton's Tommy Banks, Burnley's Colin
McDonald, Chelsea's Peter Brabrook, Fulham's Johnny Haynes,
Luton's Bob Morton, Manchester United's Bobby Charlton and
Wilf McGuinness,
Preston's Tom Finney,
West Brom's Don Howe,
and Peter Broadbent and Billy Wright of Wolves. On 11
April, Broadbent, Charlton, Clayton, Haynes, Hopkinson, Howe and Wright were again absent from their clubs, as were
Blackburn's Bryan Douglas, Bolton's Doug Holden, Sheffield United's
Graham Shaw and Joe Shaw, and Ron Flowers of Wolves. Three days
before the game, on 8 April, Holden and Hopkinson were unavailable for the first of two club fixtures, due to
their England
call-ups. |
|
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