"won 3–1 on aggregate."" ""Preston North End won 4–3 on aggregate."" ""Wycombe Wanderers won 4–1 on aggregate."" 1994 Football League play-offs The Football League play-offs for the 1993–94 season were held in May 1994, with the finals taking place at Wembley Stadium in London. The play-off semi-finals were played over two legs and were contested by the teams who finished in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th place in the Football League First Division and Football League Second Division and the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th placed teams in the Football League Third Division table. The winners of the semi-finals progressed"
"1888–89 Football League Founded in 1888, the Football League is the oldest such competition in world football. The 1888–89 Football League was the first edition of the Football League, which ran from the autumn of 1888 until the spring of 1889. The Football League was formally created and named in Manchester during a meeting on 17 April 1888. The season began on 8 September 1888 with 12 member clubs from the Midlands and North of England: Accrington, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Each"
"of the Football League in 1888, the final has never been contested by two teams from outside the top division, and there have only been eight winners who were not in the top flight: Notts County (1894); Tottenham Hotspur (1901); Wolverhampton Wanderers (1908); Barnsley (1912); West Bromwich Albion (1931); Sunderland (1973), Southampton (1976) and West Ham United (1980). With the exception of Tottenham, these clubs were all playing in the second tier (the old Second Division) – Tottenham were playing in the Southern League and were only elected to the Football League in 1908, meaning they are the only non-League"
"consider who the match was played for the benefit of. The fallout from the match would last until the next month when an inquiry would be held. The Football League had been formed for the 1888–89 season with an original 12 members. In order to establish who would compete for the 1889–90 league championship the bottom 4 teams had to re-apply for election. Stoke (10 votes), Burnley (9), Derby County (8) and Notts County with 7 votes, duly made it an unchanged line-up. Mitchell St George's (5), Sheffield Wednesday (4), Bootle (2), Sunderland (2), Newton Heath (1), Grimsby, South Shore,"
"1890–91 Football League The Football League 1890–91 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 table below is reproduced here in the exact form that it can be"
"1891–92 Football League The Football League 1891–92 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 ever 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. The table below is reproduced here in the exact form that it can be found at the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation website and in ""Rothmans Book of Football"
"1888–89 in English football The 1888–1889 season was the 18th season of competitive association football in England. A new competition, The Football League, started this season. The Football League was open to clubs all over the United Kingdom, but the first twelve entrants (Accrington, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke (now Stoke City), West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers) were all from the Midlands or North of England (in later years the competition became the de facto English league, though some clubs from outside England still compete in it). Each"
"in the final. Of all the clubs that went on to join the Football League, only Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa had also won the FA Cup previously, and were the two clubs that had beaten Albion in their first two finals. In March 1888, William McGregor wrote to what he considered to be the top five English teams, including Albion, informing them of his intention to form an association of clubs that would play each other home and away each season. Thus when the Football League started later that year, Albion became one of the twelve founder members. Albion's"
"Statistics Foundation website and ""Rothmans"". Taken from ""Fußball-Weltzeitschrift"", a journal of the International Federation of Football History & Statistics. Preston North End's champion squad were known as ""The Invincibles."" Ten of the twelve teams took part in the first ever round of Championship fixtures on Saturday, 8 September 1888 and although no league table was published in any of the newspapers of the time West Bromwich Albion would have been the very first table toppers. By modern-day calculations, Derby County would have been the first ever table toppers because of their superior goal difference which was +3 after the first"
"three divisions (down from an all-time high of 92 clubs in four divisions). Since the 1992–93 season, it has become only the second-most important league competition, behind the FA Premier League in the English football league system. England finished second in the 1889 British Home Championship, which was won by Scotland. John Yates, of Burnley, scored 3 goals against Ireland in his only appearance for England. Key 1888–89 in English football The 1888–1889 season was the 18th season of competitive association football in England. A new competition, The Football League, started this season. The Football League was open to clubs"
"in the Second Division were drawn from the Football Alliance. 1891–92 Football League The Football League 1891–92 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 ever 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. The table below is reproduced here in the exact form that it can be found at the"
"1890–91 Netherlands Football League Championship The Netherlands Football League Championship 1890/1891 was contested by five teams from the cities Amsterdam, The Hague, Haarlem and Rotterdam. The teams participated in the competition that would later be called ""Eerste Klasse West"". But since the western football district of the Netherlands was the only one to have a competition at the time, it could be regarded as a national championship, making it the first proper football league in Continental Europe. HVV Den Haag from The Hague won the championship, it was considered to be the first official one, since it was the first"
"Football World Championship The Football World Championship was a friendly game between the English and Scottish champions in the late 19th and early 20th century. The first two winners were Hibernian (1886) and Renton (in 1888) both Scottish Cup winners (as the leagues had not been yet created at the time). 1887 English participants Preston North End were the only team to take part without winning a trophy to qualify, having been FA Cup semi-finalists the season prior. The 1895 match, notable for being the first to be played by the respective league champions, was won by Sunderland who beat"
"professional teams, which was roughly aligned along a North-South divide. Northern clubs were keen to adopt professionalism as workers could not afford to play on an amateur basis, while Southern clubs by the large part stuck by traditional ""Corinthian"" values of amateurism. Eventually, in 1885 the FA legalised professionalism, and when Aston Villa director William McGregor organised a meeting of representatives of England's leading clubs, this led to the formation of the Football League in 1888. Preston North End were inaugural winners in 1888–89, and were also the first club to complete the double of both winning the league and"
"1988–89 in English football The 1988–89 season was the 109th season of competitive football in England. The season saw Arsenal win their first league title for 18 years, in dramatic fashion, as they beat defending champions Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield to clinch the title on number of goals scored. Liverpool had won the FA Cup six days earlier and for the second season running missed out on a unique second double. Third placed Nottingham Forest lifted both the Football League Cup and Full Members' Cup. The ban on English clubs was now in its fourth season and UEFA then voted"
"League and FA Cup double winners are highlighted in bold. When the Football League was first established, all 12 clubs played in just one division. In 1892 the Football League absorbed 11 of the 12 clubs in the rival Football Alliance after it folded, meaning the League now had enough clubs to form another division. The existing division was renamed the First Division and the new division was called the Second Division. In 1920 the Football League admitted the clubs from the first division of the Southern League (the Southern League continued with its remaining clubs) and Grimsby Town, who"
"cent for a three-division gap. The Football League was founded in 1888, 16 years after the first FA Cup competition. Since the creation of The Football League, Tottenham Hotspur is the only non-league ""giant-killer"" to win the Cup, taking the 1901 FA Cup with a victory over reigning league runners-up Sheffield United: although at that time, there were only two divisions and 36 clubs in the Football League, and Spurs were champions of the next strongest football league – the Southern League and probably already good enough for the First Division (as was shown when they joined the Second Division"
"to the Championship. They were replaced by Reading, Southampton, and West Ham. The two former teams had won automatic promotion, while the latter occupied the last promotion spot when they defeated Cardiff 5-0 on aggregate in the semifinals, and defeated Blackpool 2-1 at the final in Wembley Stadium. The system originated in England in 1888 when twelve clubs decided to create a professional Football League. It then expanded by merging with the Football Alliance in 1892, with the majority of the Alliance teams occupying the lower Second Division, due to the divergent strengths of the teams. As this differential was"
"Albion rather than allow them to take the gate receipts). Both clubs applied for membership to the Football League in 1889, but neither was accepted. Albion decided to become founder members of the Football Alliance instead. Blue House Field therefore hosted the first competitive league football in Sunderland, as Albion hosted 12 matches in the 1889-90 Football Alliance against teams including Nottingham Forest F.C. (won 4 - 0), Small Heath (later to become Birmingham City F.C.) (won 6 - 1), Newton Heath (later to become Manchester United F.C.) (won 4 - 0), and the eventual champions Sheffield Wednesday F.C. (lost"
"County arrived at Deepdale having failed to win in seven outings, the last five of which had all ended in defeat and rarely threatened as Preston ran out 4-1 winners. Aston Villa slumped to a 0-4 defeat at Burnley which saw Preston crowned champions. The Deepdale club remained unbeaten in their final three games to complete their league programme unbeaten. 1888–89 Football League Founded in 1888, the Football League is the oldest such competition in world football. The 1888–89 Football League was the first edition of the Football League, which ran from the autumn of 1888 until the spring of"
"The Football Alliance was merged into the Football League in 1892, creating a two tier competition. The Northern League (1889) and the Southern League (1894) were the principal regional leagues, with the Southern League the stronger of the two—it provided an FA Cup winner, Tottenham Hotspur in 1901, whilst northern side Bradford Park Avenue joined it in 1907, reflecting its strength. In 1920, the top division of the Southern League was merged into the Football League to form the Third Division; the following season a further division of teams from a series of northern leagues formed the Third Division North,"
"lost 2–0 to Aston Villa. In 1888 the team won the trophy for the first time, beating strong favourites Preston North End 2–1 in the final. As FA Cup winners, they qualified to play in a Football World Championship game against Scottish Cup winners Renton, which ended in a 4–1 defeat. In March 1888, William McGregor wrote to what he considered to be the top five English teams, including Albion, informing them of his intention to form an association of clubs that would play each other home and away each season. Thus when the Football League started later that year,"
"1888–89 Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. season The 1888–89 season was the first season of competitive league football in the history of English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers. They played in the inaugural season of the newly formed Football League. The club finished in third place in the league, and as runners-up in the FA Cup. The team scored the first goal in Football League history when they took the lead against Aston Villa on the league's opening day. This match, as with all other home games for Wolves, was staged at Dudley Road in Wolverhampton, the only league campaign in which the"
"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: 1890–91 Football League The Football League 1890–91 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"
"constructed. BFC Germania 1888 was part of the country's first football league, the BDF (Bund Deutscher Fußballspieler or Federation of German Football Players) which was formed in November 1890 and was active until February 1892. The league was made up of the Berlin-based clubs BFC Vorwärts 1890, BFC Askania 1890, BFC Borussia 1890, BFC Concordia 1890, BFC Hellas 1890, BFC Tasmania 1890 and BFC Teutonia 1891. Germania emerged the winner in a tournament staged by the league, and as the DBF was the only football league in the country at the time, can lay claim to being Germany's first champion."
"league competition unbeaten. They also won the FA Cup and so recorded the world's first “double”. Preston retained their league title in 1889–90 and Blackburn won the FA Cup. Some of English football's most famous venues had been established by 1890. Bramall Lane, home of Sheffield United who were founded in 1889, is the world's oldest football stadium which is still in use a professional match venue. It opened on 30 April 1855 as a cricket ground and first hosted football in 1862. Deepdale, Preston's home ground which opened on 5 October 1878, is the world's oldest football stadium which"
"football was first codified in 1863, with the formation of the Football Association (FA) in England. At this time the sport was played mainly by public schools, or teams with public school roots, and amateurism was the norm. This remained the case until the 1880s, when working-class teams began to vie for supremacy. Blackburn Olympic, a team composed mainly of factory workers, won the 1883 FA Cup Final. They were the first working-class team to win the competition since its inception in 1870. Though professionalism was not permitted, Olympic arranged jobs for their players, and supplemented their income with additional"
"in Manchester. McGregor had voted against the name The Football League, as he was concerned that it would be associated with the Irish Land League. But this name still won by a majority vote and was selected. The competition guaranteed fixtures and members for all of its member clubs. The clubs were split equally among North and Midlands teams. It excluded Southern teams, who were still strictly amateur. A rival English league called the Football Alliance operated from 1889 to 1892. In 1892 it was decided to formally merge the two leagues, and so the Football League Second Division was"
"the top teams needed to play each other in a league much like American baseball teams did. McGregor wrote to the twelve leading clubs in England proposing the formation of a league, what would later be known as the English Football League. Aston Villa were one of the dozen teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888. Villa's first League game came on 8 September 1888, when they drew 1–1 Wolverhampton Wanderers as Tom Green scored the club's first League goal. Villa finished runners-up to Preston North End in that inaugural season. It did not take long for"
"time, Preston beat Hyde 26–0 in the first round of the FA Cup in 1887–88, which to this day remains an English first-class football record. The Football League was founded in 1888; North End were one of the founder members and went on to make history. In the League's first season (1888–89), North End were inaugural league champions, achieving the feat without losing a match. On top of this, they completed the league and cup 'Double', winning the FA Cup without conceding a single goal, defeating Wolverhampton Wanderers 3–0 in the final. Preston were the first club to achieve the"
"a chance discovery in 2013, his main claim to fame had been that he scored the first goal in The Football League 31 minutes after kick-off on the first day of the inaugural season, 1888-89 on 8 September 1888 for Aston Villa against their Midlands rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers. However, ""The Midland Evening News"" of 7 September 1888 included an advert showing ""kick-off 3.30 prompt"". Cox's goal was scored into his own net, so is the first recorded ""own goal"" in the Football league. As of 2013, Kenny Davenport is regarded as scorer of the first ever Football League goal, scoring"
"founder member of the Football League in 1888. In the 1888–89 season, the team won both the inaugural league championship and the FA Cup, the latter without conceding a goal. They were the first team to achieve the ""Double"" in English football and, as they were unbeaten in all matches, are remembered as ""The Invincibles"". Preston won the league championship again in 1889–90 but their only major success since then has been their 1938 FA Cup Final victory over Huddersfield Town. The club's most famous players have been Tom Finney and Bill Shankly, who are both commemorated at Deepdale by"
"In the 1991–92 season, following two years of widespread speculation about the leading clubs of English football forming a breakaway league from the Football League, the 22 clubs competing in the First Division resigned ""en masse"" from the Football League, forming a new top-level competition, The FA Premier League, overseen by the FA, largely to capitalise upon their status as the biggest and most wealthy clubs in the country, and negotiate more profitable television rights. The new league came into force for the 1992–93 season. Its first champions were Manchester United, who ended their 26-year wait for a top division"