Football League
1888-1915
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1894-95

Football League 1895-96

1896-97
  
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

  
Top Two 3 April 1896
Team P
Aston Villa 29 43
Derby County 27 37

  
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)
Team P Home Away
W D L F A W D L F A
Aston Villa 6 3 0 0 10 4 0 2 1 4 6 8
Bolton Wanderers 6 2 1 0 7 4 0 1 2 2 5 6
Derby County 6 2 1 0 6 4 0 1 2 4 8 6
Everton 6 1 2 0 5 3 0 0 3 5 9 4
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)
Team P Wins
Preston North End 212 116 260
Aston Villa 212 113 259
Everton 212 114 258
Sunderland 168 106 237
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.

The Continuous 'Thirty Games' League  1892-96 (last four seasons)
Team P Wins
Sunderland 120 75 170
Aston Villa 120 72 163
Everton 120 65 150
Derby County 120 49 125
Aston Villa reduced Sunderland's lead to seven points.

 
Champions: Aston Villa
Manager: George Ramsay
1895-96 Most Appearances
by England Players
Name Played Goals
Jack Devey 30 16
Charlie Athersmith 29 8
Howard Spencer 29 1
Jimmy Crabtree 28 3
Jack Reynolds 22 2
Denny Hodgetts 21 3
Athersmith, Devey, Hodgetts and Reynolds did not play for England this season and
Spencer did not make his England debut until 1897.
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.
 
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