The Football League was the brainchild of William McGregor, a director of Aston Villa, who hoped to provide a system whereby all the member clubs would play a guaranteed number of games each season rather than have to rely on ad-hoc arrangements between individual teams.
The idea was simple: each member of the League would play a home game and an away game against every other League team. Two points would be awarded for a win and one point for a draw and, at the end of the season, the team with the highest number of points would be declared the Champions of England.
Twelve teams from across the Midlands and the North West of England made up the very first Football League. Preston North End finished the season without suffering a single defeat and became the first ever League champions. They also went on to win the 1889 FA Cup which made them the first ever team to win the League and Cup double.
Based on post-match reports that reveal the delayed kick-off times of each of the matches, it’s now generally accepted that the first ever Football League goal was scored by Bolton Wanderers striker Kenny Davenport against Derby County just 2 minutes after the match began.
If a league table had been printed at the conclusion of the first day’s games it would have shown West Bromwich Albion at the top based on the calculation of ‘goal average’ that acted as the tie-break criteria. If the modern rules of ‘goal difference’ that were introduced in 1976 were used instead, Derby County would have been top of the table on the first day.
22 окт 2024
