1890–91 Football League

The Football League
Season	1890–91
Champions	Everton; 1st English title
Matches played	132
Goals scored	554 (4.2 per match)
Top goalscorer	Jack Southworth; (26 goals)
Biggest home win	Derby County 9–0 Wolverhampton Wanderers; (10 January 1891)
Biggest away win	Blackburn Rovers 1–7 Notts County; (14 March 1891)
Highest scoring	Derby County 8–5 Blackburn Rovers; (6 September 1890)
Average attendance	6,413
	← 1889–90 1891–92 →

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.

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^[a]	22	7	2	2	31	13	3	3	5	20	18	1.645	23^[b]
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: ^{[citation needed]}
Notes:

^ New club in the league
^ 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

Wolverhampton Wanderers

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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
Accrington	8	Re-elected to the League
Aston Villa	8	Re-elected to the League
Darwen	7	Elected to the League
Stoke	7	Elected to the League
Derby County	6	Re-elected to the League
West Bromwich Albion	6	Re-elected to the League
Ardwick	4	Not elected to the League
Nottingham Forest	1	Not elected to the League
Sunderland Albion	1	Not elected to the League
Newton Heath	0	Not elected to the League

References

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