1890–91 Football League

The 1890–91 Football League was the third Football league season. After dominating and being crowned champions for the first two football league seasons Preston North End slipped to second and Everton won the league with a two-point gap. Meanwhile, there had been changes in the league since the last football league season, Stoke had not been re-elected to the football league, so joined the rival Football Alliance. They were replaced with Sunderland, who were nicknamed "the team of all talents" at the time.

The Football League
Season1890–91
ChampionsEverton
1st English title
Matches played132
Goals scored554 (4.2 per match)
Top goalscorerJack Southworth
(26 goals)[1]
Biggest home winDerby County 9–0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
(10 January 1891)
Biggest away winBlackburn Rovers 1–7 Notts County
(14 March 1891)
Highest scoringDerby County 8–5 Blackburn Rovers
(6 September 1890)
Average attendance6,413

Final league table

The table below is reproduced here in the exact form that it can be found at the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation website[2] and in Rothmans Book of Football League Records 1888–89 to 1978–79,[3] with home and away statistics separated.

Beginning with the season 1894–95, clubs finishing level on points were separated according to goal average (goals scored divided by goals conceded). In case one or more teams had the same goal difference, this system favoured those teams who had scored fewer goals. The goal average system was eventually scrapped beginning with the 1976–77 season. Since the goal average was used for this purpose for such a long time, it is presented in the tables below even for the seasons prior to 1894–95.

During the first five seasons of the league, that is until the season 1893–94 re-election process concerned the clubs which finished in the bottom four of the league.[3]

Pos Team Pld HW HD HL HGF HGA AW AD AL AGF AGA GAv Pts Qualification
1 Everton 22 9 0 2 39 12 5 1 5 24 17 2.172 29 League Champions
2 Preston North End 22 7 3 1 30 5 5 0 6 14 18 1.913 27
3 Notts County 22 9 1 1 33 11 2 3 6 19 24 1.486 26
4 Wolverhampton Wanderers 22 8 1 2 23 8 4 1 6 16 42 0.780 26
5 Bolton Wanderers 22 9 0 2 36 14 3 1 7 11 20 1.382 25
6 Blackburn Rovers 22 7 1 3 29 19 4 1 6 23 24 1.209 24 FA Cup Winners
7 Sunderland[lower-alpha 1] 22 7 2 2 31 13 3 3 5 20 18 1.645 23[lower-alpha 2]
8 Burnley 22 7 1 3 33 24 2 2 7 19 39 0.825 21
9 Aston Villa 22 5 4 2 29 18 2 0 9 16 40 0.776 18 Re-elected
10 Accrington 22 5 1 5 19 19 1 3 7 9 31 0.560 16
11 Derby County 22 6 1 4 38 28 1 0 10 9 53 0.580 15
12 West Bromwich Albion 22 3 1 7 17 26 2 1 8 17 31 0.596 12
Source:
Notes:
  1. New club in the league
  2. Sunderland deducted two points for fielding unregistered player.[4]

Results
Home \ Away ACC AST BLB BOL BUR DER EVE NTC PNE SUN WBA WOL
Accrington 1–3 0–4 2–1 1–1 4–0 1–2 3–2 1–3 4–1 1–0 1–2
Aston Villa 3–1 2–2 5–0 4–4 4–0 2–2 3–2 0–1 0–0 0–4 6–2
Blackburn Rovers 0–0 5–1 0–2 5–2 8–0 2–1 1–7 1–0 3–2 2–1 2–3
Bolton Wanderers 6–0 4–0 2–0 1–0 3–1 0–5 4–2 1–0 2–5 7–1 6–0
Burnley 2–0 2–1 1–6 1–2 6–1 3–2 0–1 6–2 3–3 5–4 4–2
Derby County 1–2 5–4 8–5 1–1 2–4 2–6 3–1 1–3 3–1 3–1 9–0
Everton 3–2 5–0 3–1 2–0 7–3 7–0 4–2 0–1 1–0 2–3 5–0
Notts County 5–0 7–1 1–2 3–1 4–0 2–1 3–1 2–1 2–1 3–2 1–1
Preston North End 1–1 4–1 1–2 1–0 7–0 6–0 2–0 0–0 0–0 3–0 5–1
Sunderland 2–2 5–1 3–1 2–0 2–3 5–1 1–0 4–0 3–0 1–1 3–4
West Bromwich Albion 5–1 0–3 1–0 2–4 3–1 3–4 1–4 1–1 1–3 0–4 0–1
Wolverhampton Wanderers 3–0 2–1 2–0 1–0 3–1 5–1 0–1 1–1 2–0 0–3 4–0
Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation website[2] and Rothmans.[3]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Team locations
Locations of the Football League 1890–91 teams

The re-election process

The number of clubs in the Football League was to be increased by two for the 1891–92 season. In addition to the four League sides seeking re-election, six non-league clubs (five of them from the Football Alliance) also sought League membership. The voting went as follows:[5]

Team Votes Result
Accrington8Re-elected to the League
Aston Villa8Re-elected to the League
Darwen7Elected to the League
Stoke7Elected to the League
Derby County6Re-elected to the League
West Bromwich Albion6Re-elected to the League
Ardwick4Not elected to the League
Nottingham Forest1Not elected to the League
Sunderland Albion1Not elected to the League
Newton Heath0Not elected to the League

References
  1. "English League Leading Goalscorers". RSSSF. Retrieved 2010-10-31.
  2. "England 1890–91". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 24 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
  3. Ian Laschke: Rothmans Book of Football League Records 1888–89 to 1978–79. Macdonald and Jane’s, London & Sydney, 1980.
  4. Rothmans Football Yearbook 1970–71, p. 233. The Queen Anne Press Limited, London, 1970.
  5. footballsite.co.uk Archived 2013-10-14 at the Wayback Machine

See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1890–91 Football League kits.
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