 It is a day that defined the world game of football/soccer as we know it - 10 teams lined up for matches across the Midlands and north west of England on September 8th, 1888 as league football was born. The original 'Invincibles' of Preston North End opened their campaign with a victory against Burnley that would set them on the way to become the first team to win the league and FA Cup double. Bolton's Kenny Davenport scored the first Football League goal against Derby, who fought back from 3-0 down to win a 6-3 thriller for the ages. Ribs were broken at Anfield, which was then the home of Everton, while local rivalries were headline billing in the Midlands. In total, 23 goals flew in on that football-defining day 130 years ago. It could have been even more had the other two of the league's 12 founder members played - but Notts County and Blackburn Rovers kicked off their seasons a week later. Aston Villa defender Gershom Cox was thought to have earned the distinction of scoring the first ever league goal with an unfortunate own goal in a 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers The league ended that year after 22 games as follows: 1. Preston North End 40 2. Aston Villa 29 3. Wolverhampton Wanderers 28 4. Blackburn Rovers 26 5. Bolton Wanderers 22 6. West Bromwich Albion 22 7. Accrington 20 8. Everton 20 9. Burnley 17 10. Derby County 16 11. Notts County 12 12. Stoke 12 For Preston, John Goodall scored 21 goals in 21 games and James Ross scored 18 goals in 21 games. The league rules stated that the bottom four clubs were obliged to retire and seek re-election at the Annual General Meeting along with any other clubs wishing to become League members. Stoke, Burnley, Derby County, and Notts County were all re-elected for the 1988-89 season.  !n the 1889-90 Everton finished runners-up with 31 points to Preston North End's 33 points. A new competition, the Football Alliance, started this season. It was formed by 12 clubs as a rival to The Football League. The Alliance covered a similar area to the League, stretching from the Midlands to the North West, but also further east in Sheffield, Grimsby and Sunderland. At the end of that year Stoke were relegated from the Football League and replaced by Sunderland Albion, who had finished third in the Football Alliance behind The Wednesday and Bootle. The Wednesday was an offshoot of the The Wednesday Cricket Club in 1867, they went by the name of The Wednesday Football Club until changing to Sheffield Wednesday in 1929. The following season, Everton were crowned champions with 29 points, ahead of Preston North End with 27 points. 12 of the 20 man squad were Scottish By mid-January, Everton had completed all but one of their fixtures and were on 29 points, while Preston North End were eleven points adrift with seven games still to play. Everton then had to sit out the next two months as Preston completed their fixture list until they were only two points adrift with one match each left to play. Both teams played their final games of the season on March 14th, with Everton losing 3–2 at Burnley and Preston going down 3–0 at Sunderland. Everton were thus able to win the Football League Championship for the first time, by a margin of two points with 14 victories from their 22 league games.  Notts County Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies, is an association football club based in Nottingham. Founded in 1862, they are the oldest professional association football club in the world. They participate in League Two, the fourth tier of English football, as of the 2018–19 season.
In 1858 in Melbourne, Victoria, members of the Melbourne Cricket Club formed a loosely organised football team, and played against other local football enthusiasts over the winter and spring of that year. The Melbourne Football Club was officially founded the following year on 17 May, and three days later, four members codified the first laws of Australian rules football. The first football club in France was established in Paris in 1863 by English expatriates, as the following excerpt from a contemporary newspaper shows: "A number of English gentlemen living in Paris have lately organised a football club.... The football contests take place in the Bois de Boulogne, by permission of the authorities and surprise the French amazingly." Michael Towner
0 Comments
|
BLOG
Archives
January 2025
Categories
All
|