1891–92 Football League

The Football League
Season	1891–92
Champions	Sunderland; (1st English title)
Relegated	None
New Club in League	Darwen,; Stoke
FA Cup winners	West Bromwich Albion; (2nd FA Cup title)
Matches played	182
Goals scored	777 (4.27 per match)
Top goalscorer	John Campbell (Sunderland), 32
Biggest home win	West Bromwich Albion – Darwen 12–0 (4 April 1892)
Biggest away win	Darwen – Sunderland 1–7 (23 April 1892)
Highest scoring	Aston Villa – Accrington 12–2 (12 March 1892)
Average attendance	6,193
	← 1890–91 1892–93 →

The 1891–92 Football League was the fourth season of English league football, and the last season of the football league running in a single division. Sunderland were the winners of the league which was their first league success. At the beginning of the season Stoke had left the Football Alliance and rejoined the Football League. Darwen also joined from the Alliance but they conceded 112 goals and finished bottom.^[2]

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^[3] and in Rothmans Book of Football League Records 1888–89 to 1978–79,^[4] 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.

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.^[4]

Pos	Team	Pld	HW	HD	HL	HGF	HGA	AW	AD	AL	AGF	AGA	GAv	Pts	Qualification
1	Sunderland	26	13	0	0	55	11	8	0	5	38	25	2.583	42	League Champions
2	Preston North End	26	12	0	1	42	8	6	1	6	19	23	1.968	37
3	Bolton Wanderers	26	9	2	2	29	14	8	0	5	22	23	1.378	36
4	Aston Villa	26	10	0	3	63	23	5	0	8	26	33	1.589	30
5	Everton	26	8	2	3	32	22	4	2	7	17	27	1.000	28
6	Wolverhampton Wanderers	26	8	2	3	34	15	3	2	8	25	31	1.283	26
7	Burnley	26	9	1	3	34	14	2	3	8	15	31	1.089	26
8	Notts County	26	9	3	1	41	12	2	1	10	14	39	1.078	26
9	Blackburn Rovers	26	8	3	2	39	26	2	3	8	19	39	0.892	26
10	Derby County	26	6	3	4	28	18	4	1	8	18	34	0.885	24
11	Accrington	26	7	3	3	24	20	1	1	11	16	58	0.513	20	Re-elected
12	West Bromwich Albion	26	6	3	4	37	24	0	3	10	14	34	0.879	18	FA Cup Winners^[a]
13	Stoke^[b]	26	5	0	8	19	19	0	4	9	19	42	0.623	14	Re-elected
14	Darwen^[b]	26	4	1	8	31	43	0	2	11	7	69	0.339	11	Failed re-election^[c]

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Notes:

^ FA Cup winners — no re-election required
^ ^a ^b New club in the league
^ Not re-elected, invited to join Second Division.

Results

Home \ Away	ACC	AST	BLB	BOL	BUR	DRW	DER	EVE	NTC	PNE	STK	SUN	WBA	WOL
Accrington		3–2	1–0	0–3	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–3	3–0	3–5	4–2	3–2
Aston Villa	12–2		5–1	1–2	6–1	7–0	6–0	3–4	5–1	3–1	2–1	5–3	5–1	3–6
Blackburn Rovers	2–2	4–3		4–0	3–3	4–0	0–2	2–2	5–4	2–4	5–3	3–1	3–2	2–0
Bolton Wanderers	3–4	1–2	4–2		2–0	1–0	3–1	1–0	2–0	3–0	1–1	4–3	1–1	3–0
Burnley	2–1	4–1	3–0	1–2		9–0	2–4	1–0	1–0	2–0	4–1	1–2	3–2	1–1
Darwen	5–2	1–5	3–5	1–2	2–6		2–0	3–1	2–3	0–4	9–3	1–7	1–1	1–4
Derby County	3–1	4–2	1–1	3–2	0–1	7–0		0–3	3–0	1–2	3–3	0–1	1–1	2–1
Everton	3–0	5–1	3–1	2–5	1–1	5–3	1–2		4–0	1–1	1–0	0–4	4–3	2–1
Notts County	9–0	5–2	2–2	2–0	5–1	5–0	2–1	1–3		2–0	1–1	1–0	4–0	2–2
Preston North End	4–1	0–1	3–2	4–0	5–1	4–0	3–0	4–0	6–0		3–2	3–1	1–0	2–0
Stoke	3–1	2–3	0–1	0–1	3–0	5–1	2–1	0–1	1–3	0–1		1–3	1–0	1–3
Sunderland	4–1	2–1	6–1	4–1	2–1	7–0	7–1	2–1	4–0	4–1	4–1		4–0	5–2
West Bromwich Albion	3–1	0–3	2–2	0–2	1–0	12–0	4–2	4–0	2–2	1–2	2–2	2–5		4–3
Wolverhampton Wanderers	5–0	2–0	6–1	1–2	0–0	2–2	1–3	5–1	2–1	3–0	4–1	1–3	2–1

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation website^[3] and from Rothmans Book of Football League Records 1888–89 to 1978–79.^[4]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Maps

Wolverhampton Wanderers

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Locations of the Football League teams

Re-election process

Two clubs were re-elected to the League in the re-election process. West Bromwich Albion, although finishing in the bottom four teams, were not required to seek re-election as they were the FA Cup holders. Two of the other three teams were duly re-elected. As a result, three new teams were elected to the League. The voting went as follows:^[5]

Team	Votes	Result
The Wednesday	10	Elected to the League
Nottingham Forest	9	Elected to the League
Accrington	7	Re-elected to the League
Stoke	6	Re-elected to the League
Newton Heath	6	Elected to the League
Sheffield United	5	Not elected to the League
Darwen	4	Not re-elected to the League
Burton Swifts	1	Not elected to the League
Newcastle East End	1	Not elected to the League
Middlesbrough / Middlesbrough Ironopolis (combined)	1	Not elected to the League
Liverpool Caledonian	0	Not elected to the League

Key
	Re-elected to the League
	Elected to the League
	Not (re-)elected to the League; later invited to participate in the Second Division
	Not elected to the League

When the Second Division was added to the league the following year, Darwen were elected to participate, effectively becoming the first club to be relegated from the First Division to the Second Division. The other teams to participate in the Second Division were drawn from the Football Alliance except for Birmingham St. George's, who left and was replaced with Sheffield United of the Northern League.

References