1898–99 Aston Villa F.C. season

The 1898–99 Football League season was Aston Villa's 11th season in the Football League First Division, the top flight of English football.

Aston Villa
1898–99 season
ChairmanEngland Frederick Rinder
ManagerScotland George Ramsay
First DivisionChampions (4)
FA CupRound 1

Season highlights
The Aston Villa team of 1899 that won the First Division and the Sheriff of London Charity Shield (centre)

Three of Villa’s 1897 double-winning team joined Celtic in the summer of 1897, so 1897/98 proved to be a rebuilding period for the club. By the mid-point of 1898/99, Villa had a narrow lead over Everton and Burnley but a late season run by Liverpool dropped them to second place. It came down to ‘last-game decider’, with Villa at home to Liverpool. 41,000 spectators shoe-horned themselves into Villa Park to see an emphatic win by the home team, 5–0.

The season was notable for one of those one-off, never repeated events that enliven League history. The referee was late arriving for the match at Sheffield Wednesday. After some deliberation, it was decided to start without him. Though he took over at half-time, the delay meant that darkness fell with 10 minutes left to play. Wednesday were the better team on the day and led 3–1 at the time. The League consulted the rule-book and decided that the last 10 minutes would have to be played at a later date. The first suggestion was that perhaps the 10 minutes could be played before the return game at Villa Park. In the end, Villa agreed to play Wednesday in a benefit match for one of their players, and the missing minutes were duly played out before the friendly game. Villa made one change for the second game, Garraty replacing Bedingfield.

Villa competed in the 1899 Sheriff of London Charity Shield.

Final league position

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GAv Pts Relegation
1 Aston Villa (C) 34 19 7 8 76 40 1.900 45
2 Liverpool 34 19 5 10 49 33 1.485 43
3 Burnley 34 15 9 10 45 47 0.957 39
4 Everton 34 15 8 11 48 41 1.171 38
5 Notts County 34 12 13 9 47 51 0.922 37
6 Blackburn Rovers 34 14 8 12 60 52 1.154 36
7 Sunderland 34 15 6 13 41 41 1.000 36
8 Wolverhampton Wanderers 34 14 7 13 54 48 1.125 35
9 Derby County 34 12 11 11 62 57 1.088 35
10 Bury 34 14 7 13 48 49 0.980 35
11 Nottingham Forest 34 11 11 12 42 42 1.000 33
12 Stoke 34 13 7 14 47 52 0.904 33
13 Newcastle United 34 11 8 15 49 48 1.021 30
14 West Bromwich Albion 34 12 6 16 42 57 0.737 30
15 Preston North End 34 10 9 15 44 47 0.936 29
16 Sheffield United 34 9 11 14 45 51 0.882 29
17 Bolton Wanderers (R) 34 9 7 18 37 51 0.725 25 Relegation to the Second Division
18 The Wednesday (R) 34 8 8 18 32 61 0.525 24
Source: World Football
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal average; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Trivia

Ever-present: Tommy Bowman

First at top: 29 October

Date won league: 29 April (last game)

Players used: 23

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