Football League
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1892-93

Football League 1893-94

1894-95
  
Final League Table - Division One
Teams in a silver box denotes a player representing England in 1893-94
Teams denoted with ▼ were relegated to the second division for the following season after losing a test match
Team P Home Away
W D L F A W D L F A
Aston Villa 30 12 2 1 49 13 7 4 4 35 29 44
Sunderland 30 11 3 1 46 14 6 1 8 26 30 38
Derby County 30 9 2 4 47 32 7 2 6 26 30 36
Blackburn Rovers 30 13 0 2 48 15 3 2 10 21 38 34
Burnley 30 13 0 2 43 17 2 4 9 18 34 34
Everton 30 11 1 3 63 23 4 2 9 27 34 33
Nottingham Forest 30 10 2 3 38 16 4 2 9 19 32 32
West Bromwich Albion 30 8 4 3 35 23 6 0 9 31 36 32
Wolverhampton Wanderers 30 11 1 3 35 24 3 2 10 18 39 31
Sheffield United 30 8 3 4 26 22 5 2 8 21 39 31
Stoke 30 13 1 1 45 17 0 2 13 20 63 29
Wednesday 30 7 3 5 32 21 2 5 8 16 36 26
Bolton Wanderers 30 7 3 5 18 14 3 1 11 20 38 24
Preston North End 30 7 1 7 25 24 3 2 10 19 32 23
Darwen 30 6 4 5 25 28 1 1 13 12 55 19
Newton Heath 30 5 2 8 29 33 1 0 14 7 39 14

Aston Villa recorded a six-match winning run from 11 November 1893:
Sunderland (h) 2-1, Bolton (a) 1-0, Preston (h) 2-0, Derby (a) 3-0, Wednesday (h) 3-0, Newton Heath (a) 3-1, before losing 3-0 at Wolves on 23 December 1893. Sunderland also had a six-match winning sequence from 13 January 1894, before losing at Stoke on 24 March 1894. A third team, Sheffield United, also won six games in succession, from 9 September 1893, before drawing at home to The Wednesday on 16 October 1893.


 
How The League Was Won 1893-94 Season
Timeline
21 consecutive Saturdays from 2 September 1893 to 20 January 1894 (ending a week later than the previous season), plus Boxing Day (Tuesday, 26 December 1893), Good Friday, 23 March 1894 and Easter Monday, 26 March 1894
Additional games were played on 13 of the first 15 Mondays of the season, plus one on a Thursday in October (again, Nottingham Forest's preferred day for home games during the week). There were also games played on Mondays, Wednesdays and a Thursday in December, plus four games each on Christmas Day and New Year's Day (both Mondays) and, later in January, two on a Monday and two on a Thursday. All remaining games were played on Saturdays, apart from three on a Tuesday in February, every day of the week in March (apart from Sundays), and three on Mondays in April. The FA Cup took precedence on Saturdays from the first round on 27 January 1894 (a week later than the previous season) to the final on 31 March 1894. Rounds were played each fortnight with replays on the Saturday in-between* and a spare third (Easter) week before the final. The last league game was played on Monday, 23 April 1894 (Bolton 2-0 Sunderland), with test matches to decide promotion and relegation on the following Saturday.
*One replay was postponed and rearranged for the following Wednesday.

Tuesday, 27 March 1894
Sunderland 4 Darwen 0
  
Newcastle Road, Sunderland (3,000)

Wilson, Dunlop, Gibson, Gillespie
With two games left, Sunderland could only catch Aston Villa on goal average, but they moved a little closer with four goals against the first-division strugglers. Their goal average was now 1.64, compared to Villa's 1.97.

  
Top Two 27 March 1894
Team P
Aston Villa 28 40
Sunderland 28 36

  
Saturday, 7 April 1894
Burnley 3 Aston Villa 6
  
Turf Moor, Burnley (6,000)

Turnbull, Buchanan, Place ~
Groves (2), Hodgetts (2), Devey (2)
Sunderland put another three goals past Darwen to increase their goal average to 1.7, but it was all in vain as Villa produced a commanding second-half performance to clinch their first title in style, and all whilst their talented half-back, Jack Reynolds was busy scoring England's late equaliser against Scotland at Celtic Park. Villa increased their winning margin to six points in their final game.

 
The Elite League 1893-94 Season (games between the top four)
Team P Home Away
W D L F A W D L F A
Aston Villa 6 2 1 0 5 3 1 1 1 4 3 8
Blackburn Rovers 6 2 0 1 6 5 1 0 2 6 9 6
Sunderland 6 1 1 1 8 4 1 0 2 8 7 5
Derby County 6 1 0 2 6 9 1 1 1 3 6 5
Blackburn Rovers and Derby County replaced Everton and Preston North End from the previous season's top four.

Games played between the top two:-
 
Saturday, 9 September 1893
 Sunderland 1 Aston Villa 1
  
Newcastle Road, Sunderland (10,000)

Millar
~ Hodgetts
Saturday, 11 November 1893
Aston Villa 2 Sunderland 1
   Wellington Road, Handsworth (14,100)

Devey, Reynolds
~ Millar
Aston Villa also beat Sunderland 3-1 at Wellington Road in an FA Cup second round replay, following a 2-2 draw after extra time at Newcastle Road.

 
The Continuous League 1888-94 (first six seasons)
Team P Wins
Preston North End 152 90 197
Everton 152 80 177
Aston Villa 152 76 175
Blackburn Rovers 152 67 166
 Everton reduced Preston's lead to twenty points, but this was the second 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 four seasons and had won seventy games, but with 153 points and still in seventh place overall.
 

The Continuous 'Thirty Games' League  1892-94 (last two seasons)
Team P Wins
Sunderland 60 39 86
Aston Villa 60 35 79
Everton 60 31 69
Burnley 60 28 64

 
Champions: Aston Villa
Manager: George Ramsey
1893-94 Most Appearances
by England Players
Name Played Goals
Jack Devey 29 20
Denny Hodgetts 29 12
Jack Reynolds 26 7
Charlie Athersmith 25 10
Steve Smith 15 2
Athersmith did not play for England this season and
Smith did not make his England debut until 1895.
1893-94 Most Goals
by England Players
Name Played Goals
Jack Devey 29 20
Denny Hodgetts 29 12
Charlie Athersmith 25 10
Jack Southworth (now with Everton) was again top scorer, with 27.
Third on the list were Steve Bloomer of Derby and Sunderland's Jimmy Millar (who went on to represent Scotland), with 19.

 
England and the Football League 1893-94 Season
England's impact on the Football League
Of the 33 playing positions used during the active 1893-94 season, Football League players provided twenty of them, and of the nine goals scored, League players scored four of them.
Ten of the 16 first division clubs were represented.
Nine Football League games had a direct impact on two of England's games, on 3 March and 7 April.
As a result, on 3 March, England took Aston Villa's Jack Devey, Dennis Hodgetts and Jack Reynolds, Blackburn's Harry Chippendale and Jimmy Whitehead, Burnley's Jimmy Crabtree, Everton's Johnny Holt and Bob Howarth, Preston's Bob Holmes and West Brom's Joe Reader. On 7 April, Villa were again without Reynolds, Everton were again without Holt and also Edgar Chadwick, and England also took Sheffield United's Ernest Needham, Stoke's Tommy Clare and West Brom's Billy Bassett.
 
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