After four years of debate, the Football Association finally permitted professionalism on 20 July 1885. Before that date many clubs made payments to "professional" players to boost the competitiveness of their teams, breaking FA rules and arousing the contempt of those clubs abiding by the laws of the amateur Football Association code. As more and more clubs became professional, the ad-hoc fixture list of FA Cup, inter-county, and ordinary matches was seen by many as an unreliable stream of revenue, and ways were considered of ensuring a consistent income.
A Scottish Director of the Birmingham-based, club, Aston Villa, William McGregor, was the first to set out to bring some order to a chaotic world where clubs arranged their own fixtures, along with various cup competitions. On 22 March 1888, he wrote to the committee of his own club, Aston Villa, as well as to those of Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, Stoke and West Bromich Albion; suggesting the creation of a league competition that would provide a number of guaranteed fixtures for its member clubs each season. His idea might have been based upon a description of a proposal for an early American college football league, publicised in the English media in 1887 which stated: "measures would be taken to form a new football league ... [consisting of] a schedule containing two championship games between every two colleges composing the league".
The first meeting was held at Anderton's Hotel in London on 23 March 1888 on the eve of the FA Cup Final. The Football League was formally created and named in Manchester at a further meeting on 17 April at the Royal Hotel. The name "Association Football Union" was proposed by McGregor but this was felt too close to "Rugby Football Union". Instead, "The Football League" was proposed by Major William Sudell, representing Preston, and quickly agreed upon.
Although the Royal Hotel is long gone, the site is marked with a commemorative red plaque on the Royal Buildings in Market Street.
The first season of the Football League began on September 8th 1888, a few months later, with twelve member clubs from the Midlands and North of England, including Everton 2-1 Accrington: Bolton 3-6 Derby: Preston 5-2 Burnley: Stoke (renamed Stoke City in 1926) v West Bromwich Albion 0-2 and Wolverhampton 1-1 Aston Villa. Villa's defender, Gershom Cox made history, which may have confused McGregor, as he scored a goal, a half hour into the match, into his own net! Years of debate over who scored the first ever goal in league football anywhere in the World appears to have come to an end with new research by football authors Mark Metcalf and Robert Boyling of the British Library, showing that Bolton Wanderers' forward Kenny Davenport’s strike at approximately 3.47pm on Saturday 8th September, 1888 was the first ever goal in The Football League. Metcalf and Boyling’s findings establish that the match between Wolves and Aston Villa played the same day kicked off at 3.30pm rather than 3.00pm as previously thought by the game’s historians.Consequently, the own goal scored in that match by Aston Villa full-back Gershom Cox after 30 minutes would not have been the first ever goal. Metcalf, whose book ‘The Origins of The Football League’ (Amberley Publishing) is published on August 9, said: “There has been significant amount of debate over the years over who scored the first ever league goal with at least three other players having been credited with the honour at some stage.“Kick-off times in the early years of The Football League would vary from club to club and occasionally matches would get delayed because of the away team arriving late. “Robert and I spent many months trawling through the historical records in an effort to prove that the first league goal was not an own goal as was widely thought. Eventually we discovered an advert for the match in the Midland Evening News which listed the game at Wolves as kicking off at 3.30pm.Therefore the first goal has to be the one scored by Kenny Davenport two minutes into Bolton’s match with Derby which kicked-off at 3.45pm at the club’s first ground, Pikes Lane."
This weekend The Football League marks its 125th Anniversary with six special anniversary fixtures and its Head of Communications, John Nagle, said: “There have been 515,412 goals scored in the 125 years of The Football League and millions more in leagues across the globe. However, there can only be one ‘first goal’ and after years of debate, it appears that we now have the answer. “It is particularly fitting that it should be scored by a player who played a decade for his hometown club, for the recording an own goal.”
The old Pikes Lane Stadium, where the first League goal was scored: KENNY DAVENPORT 1862-1908
Kenny Davenport was born in Bolton and played for Wanderers for nine seasons after joining the club from local rivals Gilnow Rangers in 1883. Two years later he became Bolton’s first ever England international when he played in a 1-1 draw against Wales at Blackburn. As an ever-present in the first League season he also scored 11 goals. Normally an inside-left, Davenport made 56 League and twenty-one FA Cup appearances for Wanderers, scoring 36 goals. He left the club to play for Southport in 1892, just two years after he made his second appearance for his country, when he scored twice in a 9-1 victory against Ireland in Belfast in 1890. Davenport died in 1908 aged 46. Earlier goals came at Preston, who kicked off at 3.45pm, where Fred Dewhurst scored in two minutes and was therefore the "first" League goalscorer. At Bolton, both matches kicked off at 3.45pm. Wolves started their match with Villa at the more familiar 3pm ko. Blackburn (Rovers) did not play on the first day but met Accrington, also Founder Members, a week later and played out a 5-5 draw at home. Notts County lost 1-2 at Everton, the same afternoon. West Brom were the first "table toppers", having not conceded a goal, ahead of Preston NE on goal average (remember that Maths?). In their second game, Preston overhauled them and never relinquished first place, ending the season as "The Invincibles".
Each club played the others twice, once at home and once away, and two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw. This points system was not agreed upon until after the season had started; the alternative proposal was one point for a win only. Preston won the first League title without losing a game and completed the first League–Cup Double, by also taking the FA Cup. Teams finishing at the bottom of the table were required to reapply for their position in the league for the following year in a process called "re-election". In 1890, Stoke finished bottom and were not relegated!! (there was only one division) and was replaced for the 1890–91 season by Sunderland, who won it in their second, third, and fifth year. Stoke was re-elected for the 1891–92 season, along with Darwen, to take the league to fourteen clubs. Preston North End, Aston Villa, and Sunderland dominated the early years of the game. In the first ten seasons, the only other clubs to win a League title were Everton and Sheffield United.
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