Football League
1888-1915
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Contact Us Page Last Updated 13 October 2020
 
 
1888-89

Football League 1889-90

1890-91
  
Final League Table
Teams in a silver box denotes a player representing England in 1889-90
Team P Home Away
W D L F A W D L F A
Preston North End 22 8 1 2 41 12 7 2 2 30 18 33
Everton 22 8 2 1 40 15 6 1 4 25 25 31
Blackburn Rovers 22 9 0 2 59 18 3 3 5 19 23 27
Wolverhampton Wanderers 22 6 3 2 28 14 4 2 5 23 24 25
West Bromwich Albion 22 8 1 2 37 20 3 2 6 10 30 25
Accrington 22 6 4 1 33 25 3 2 6 20 31 24
Derby County 22 8 2 1 32 13 1 1 9 11 42 21
Aston Villa 22 6 2 3 30 15 1 3 7 13 36 19
Bolton Wanderers 22 6 1 4 37 24 3 0 8 17 41 19
Notts County 22 4 3 4 20 19 2 2 7 23 32 17
Burnley 22 3 1 7 20 21 1 4 6 16 44 13
Stoke 22 2 3 6 18 20 1 1 9 9 49 10

Preston extended their unbeaten run from the previous season by one game (to 23) before losing 5-3 at Aston Villa, but again recorded a six-match winning run, from 2 November 1889:
Blackburn (a) 4-3, Accrington (h) 3-1, Stoke (a) 2-1, Everton (a) 5-1, Bolton (h) 3-1, Burnley (h) 6-0, before drawing 1-1 at home to Blackburn on 7 December 1889. Everton also had a six-match winning sequence from 23 November 1889, before losing at Accrington on 22 February 1890.

▼Sunderland were elected to the Football League in place of Stoke at the end of the season.


 
How The League Was Won 1889-90 Season
Timeline
19 consecutive Saturdays from 7 September 1889 to 11 January 1890 (ending two weeks earlier than the previous season), plus Boxing Day (Thursday, 26 December 1889)
Rearranged games were played on Mondays, plus one game on each of Christmas Day and New Year's Day. In January, February and March 1890, remaining games were also played on Saturdays (plus one on a Tuesday in February and two on Thursdays in March). The FA Cup first round was two weeks earlier than the previous season, on 18 January 1890 and the competition took precedence on Saturdays up until the final on 29 March 1890 (rounds were played each fortnight with replays on the Saturday in-between and there was a spare third week both before and after the semi-finals*). The last league game was played at the beginning of Easter week on Monday, 31 March 1890 (Aston V. 3-0 Blackburn).
*One cup-tie was voided twice and rearranged for a Monday rather than the Saturday before the semi-finals, due to a rearranged league game.

Saturday, 22 March 1890
West Bromwich Albion 4 Everton 1
  
The Hawthorns, West Bromwich (4,000)
Evans
(2), Wilson, Pearson ~
Geary
Everton's last league game of the season left them level on points with Preston North End, who still had one game to play. Unfortunately for Everton, their goal average was 1.625, whereas Preston's was 2.333, so Preston would have to lose their last game by, at least, fourteen goals for Everton to win the title.
 
Top Two 22 March 1890
Team P
Preston North End 21 31
Everton 22 31

  
Thursday, 27 March 1890
Notts County 0 Preston North End 1
  
Castle Ground, The Meadows (3,000)
Thomson
Preston retained the League Championship by, again, beating Notts County, to win the title by two points from Everton.

 
The Elite League 1889-90 Season (games between the top four)
Team P Home Away
W D L F A W D L F A
Preston North End 6 0 1 2 2 5 3 0 0 10 4 7
Everton 6 1 1 1 5 8 2 0 1 7 5 7
Blackburn Rovers 6 1 0 2 9 11 1 1 1 7 6 5
Wolverhampton Wanderers 6 1 0 2 4 6 1 1 1 6 5 5
Everton replaced Aston Villa in the only change to the previous season's top four.

Games played between the top two:-
 
Saturday, 16 November 1889
Everton 1 Preston North End 5
   Anfield, Liverpool (18,000)
Geary
~
Thomson (2), Ross, Russell (2)
Saturday, 21 December 1889
Preston North End 1 Everton 2
   Deepdale, Preston (7,000)
Drummond
~
Milward, Geary

 
The Continuous League 1888-90 (first two seasons)
Team P Wins
Preston North End 44 33 73
Blackburn Rovers 44 22 53
Wolverhampton Wanderers 44 22 53
Everton 44 23 51
Preston extended their lead from eleven to twenty points.

 
Champions: Preston North End
Manager: William Sudell
1889-90 Most Appearances
by England Players
Name Played Goals
Bob Howarth 21 0
Bob Holmes 18 0
Howarth and Holmes did not play for England this season
1889-90 Most Goals
by England Players
Name Played Goals

No England players scored for Preston in the 1889-90 season.

Preston's Nick Ross was joint-top scorer, with 22 in 20 matches, along with Blackburn's Jack Southworth.
Third on the list was Everton's Fred Geary (21).
Jimmy Ross, a Scottish international and brother of Nick, scored 19 in 21 games for Preston.

 
England and the Football League 1889-90 Season
England's impact on the Football League
Of the 22 playing positions used during the active 1889-90 season, Football League players provided sixteen of them, and of the twelve goals scored, League players scored them all.
Six of the twelve Football League clubs were represented.
Four Football League games had a direct impact on two of England's games, both on 15 March.
As a result, England took Bolton's Kenny Davenport, Everton's Fred Geary and Johnny Holt, Notts County's Harry Daft and Arthur Shelton, West Brom's Billy Bassett, Charlie Perry and Bob Roberts, and
Wolves were without Dick Baugh, Albert Fletcher, Charlie Mason and Harry Wood.
 
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