# 1888–89 Aston Villa F.C. season

The 1888–89 English football season saw Aston Villa's 1st season in the Football League in its inaugural season. In the late 1880s, Birmingham and the surrounding region boasted many of the country's strongest football teams. Aston Villa and several of the region's leading clubs joined the first two national leagues set up in England, the Football League and the Football Alliance.
Aston Villa were one of the new league's 12 founding members and finished as runners-up behind double winners Preston North End. The 'Invincibles' from Lancashire also ended Villa's bid to win every single home game, with a 2–0 win at Wellington Road in Villa's last home fixture.
Villa's cup season ended with an 8–1 defeat by Blackburn Rovers that remained a club record until 2012.
Local businessman, George Kynoch was appointed president of the club in 1888.
On 1 October 1888 Archie Goodall signed for Aston Villa. Goodall's move from Preston North End was the first transfer during a season to be approved by the Football League. Goodall, playing at centre – half, made his Aston Villa debut on 13 October 1888, at Wellington Road, the then home of Aston Villa. Aston Villa defeated the visitors, Blackburn Rovers, 6 – 1 and Goodall scored the second of Aston Villa’ six goals. Goodall appeared in 14 of the 18 League matches played by Aston Villa from when Goodall joined the club and he scored seven League goals. Goodall played in defence, midfield and the forward–line for Aston Villa. Playing as a full–back/centre–half (four appearances) he was part of a defence-line that kept the opposition to one–League–goal–in–a–match once. Playing as a wing–half (five appearances) he was part of a midfield that achieved a big (three-League-goals-or-more) win once. As a forward (five appearances) he played in a front-line that scored three–League–goals–or–more on three separate occasions. Goodall' seven League goals for Aston Villa including two–League–goals–in–a–match twice. Goodall scored both Villa goals against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a 2 – 1 win at Wellington Road on 24 November 1888. On 8 December 1888 Goodall scored the second and fourth goals as Villa defeated Notts County 4 – 2 at Trent Bridge, the then home of Notts County.
In May 1889 Goodall signed for Derby County.
There were also debuts for Batty Garvey, Arthur Dixon, Walter Ashmore, Archie Wollaston, Thomas Harrison and Bob Thomas.

## Final league table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Preston North End | 22 | 18 | 4 | 0 | 74 | 15 | 4.933 | 40 | League Champions |
| 2 | Aston Villa | 22 | 12 | 5 | 5 | 61 | 43 | 1.419 | 29 | |
| 3 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 22 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 50 | 37 | 1.351 | 28 | |
| 4 | Blackburn Rovers | 22 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 66 | 45 | 1.467 | 26 | |
| 5 | Bolton Wanderers | 22 | 10 | 2 | 10 | 63 | 59 | 1.068 | 22 | |
| 6 | West Bromwich Albion | 22 | 10 | 2 | 10 | 40 | 46 | 0.870 | 22 | |
| 7 | Accrington | 22 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 48 | 48 | 1.000 | 20 | |
| 8 | Everton | 22 | 9 | 2 | 11 | 35 | 46 | 0.761 | 20 | |
| 9 | Burnley | 22 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 42 | 62 | 0.677 | 17 | Re-elected |
| 10 | Derby County | 22 | 7 | 2 | 13 | 41 | 61 | 0.672 | 16 | Re-elected |
| 11 | Notts County | 22 | 5 | 2 | 15 | 40 | 73 | 0.548 | 12 | Re-elected |
| 12 | Stoke | 22 | 4 | 4 | 14 | 26 | 51 | 0.510 | 12 | Re-elected |
* ↑ Up until 1992, the top division of English football was the Football League First Division. The Premier League took over from the First Division as the top tier of the English football league system upon its formation in 1992. The First Division then became the second tier of English football, the Second Division became the third tier and so on. The First Division is now known as the Football League Championship, while the Second Division is now known as Football League One.
* ↑ Also FA Cup Winners

## Results

Aston Villa's score comes first

### Legend

| Win | Draw | Loss |

### Football League

| Match | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| 1 | 8 September 1888 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | A | 1 – 1 | 2,500 | Green |
| 2 | 15 September 1888 | Stoke | H | 5 – 1 | 4,000 | Dixon, Brown, Green, Hunter, Allen |
| 3 | 22 September 1888 | Everton | H | 2 – 1 | 4,000 | Hodgetts (2) |
| 4 | 29 September 1888 | Notts County | H | 9 – 1 | 4,000 | Green (3), Allen (3), Hunter (2), Hodgetts |
| 5 | 6 October 1888 | Everton | A | 0 – 2 | 10,000 | |
| 6 | 13 October 1888 | Blackburn Rovers | H | 6 – 1 | 5,000 | Goodall, Green, Brown, Allen (2), Hunter |
| 7 | 20 October 1888 | Bolton Wanderers | A | 3 – 2 | 8,000 | Hodgetts, Hunter, Allen |
| 8 | 27 October 1888 | Accrington | H | 4 – 3 | 6,000 | Allen, Brown (2), Hodgetts |
| 9 | 3 November 1888 | Stoke | A | 1 – 1 | 4,000 | Allen |
| 10 | 10 November 1888 | Preston North End | A | 1 – 1 | 10,000 | Green |
| 11 | 17 November 1888 | Blackburn Rovers | A | 1 – 5 | 9,500 | Allen |
| 12 | 24 November 1888 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | H | 2 – 1 | 6,000 | Goodall (2) |
| 13 | 8 December 1888 | Notts County | A | 4 – 2 | 2,000 | Goodall (2), Brown, Green |
| 14 | 15 December 1888 | Accrington | A | 1 – 1 | 2,000 | Brown |
| 15 | 22 December 1888 | Burnley | H | 4 – 2 | 2,000 | Green, Goodall, Allen, Hunter |
| 16 | 29 December 1888 | Derby County | H | 4 – 2 | 4,000 | Green (2), Allen, Goodall |
| 17 | 5 January 1889 | Burnley | A | 0 – 4 | 6,000 | |
| 18 | 12 January 1889 | Bolton Wanderers | H | 6 – 2 | 2,000 | Brown, Allen, Hodgetts, Hunter, Green (2) |
| 19 | 19 January 1889 | West Bromwich Albion | H | 2 – 0 | 10,000 | Allen, Hodgetts |
| 20 | 26 January 1889 | West Bromwich Albion | A | 3 – 3 | 8,515 | Allen (2), Green |
| 21 | 9 February 1889 | Preston North End | H | 0 – 2 | 10,000 | |
| 22 | 9 March 1889 | Derby County | A | 2 – 5 | 3,000 | Allen (2) |

### FA Cup

| Round | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| R1 | 2 February 1889 | Witton | H | 3 – 2 | 1,500 | Allen, Hunter, Green |
| R2 | 16 February 1889 | Derby County | H | 5 – 3 | 2,000 | Hunter (2), Hodgetts (2), Brown |
| R3 | 2 March 1889 | Blackburn Rovers | A | 1 – 8 | 12,000 | Hodgetts |

## Appearances

| Pos. | Name | League | League | FA Cup | FA Cup | Total | Total |
| Pos. | Name | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| FW | Albert Allen | 21 | 18 | 3 | 1 | 24 | 19 |
| GK | Walter Ashmore | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| FW | Arthur Brown | 22 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 25 | 8 |
| HB | John Burton | 16 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 19 | 0 |
| FB | Frank Coulton | 19 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 21 | 0 |
| FB | Gershom Cox | 22 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 25 | 0 |
| HB | Frankie Dawson | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| HB | Harry Devey | 21 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 24 | 0 |
| HB | Arthur Dixon | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| FW | Batty Garvey | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| FW | Archie Goodall | 14 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 7 |
| FW | Tommy Green | 22 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 25 | 16 |
| FW | Thomas Harrison | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| FW | Dennis Hodgetts | 17 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 20 | 10 |
| FW | Archie Hunter | 19 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 22 | 9 |
| GK | Jimmy Warner | 21 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 24 | 0 |
| HB | Arthur Wollaston | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| HB | Harry Yates | 13 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 0 |