1887–88 Aston Villa F.C. season


The 1887–88 English football season was Aston Villa's 9th season in the Football Association Cup, the top-level football competition at the time. It was not as successful ending. There were debuts for Gershom Cox, Harry Devey, Tommy Green and Albert Allen.
Wellington Road's record attendance of 26,849 was set for an FA Cup fifth round match against Preston [North End F.C.|Preston North End] on 7 January 1888. Preston won 3–1, and the match was marred by a huge pitch invasion, the first serious incidence of crowd trouble in English football.
With competitive football at a premium, William McGregor worked to create a competition involving regular matches and wrote to the leading clubs of the time. After some discussion the clubs agreed to set up a twelve team league. Each club would play the other home and away, for a total of twenty-two matches each. Villa were to be joined in the inaugural competition by Stoke, Wolves, West Brom, Notts County, Burnley, Blackburn Rovers, Derby County, Bolton Wanderers, Everton, Accrington and Preston North End. The league was never styled 'the English League' as McGregor envisioned that Scottish clubs would one day wish to join.

FA Cup

Meanwhile Villa's last pre-league FA Cup campaign saw the first competitive "Second City derby" occur on Saturday, 5 November 1887 Villa beat Small Heath 4-0 in the second round. Tommy Green scored a brace before half-time with Albert Brown and Albert Allen adding to the score in the second half. This was their first meeting with modern rivals Birmingham City. They would not play again until the local rivals were promoted to the First Division for the Aston Villa F.C. season|1894–95 season]
Preston were a fine side and the match was billed as a clash between England's best teams. This prompted a then-record crowd of 27,000, which the police had some difficulty keeping off the pitch. With Preston leading 3–1 and chaos in the stadium, the clubs tried to calm things down by declaring the match a 'friendly'. However, the FA overruled the decision and decided that the result would stand. Villa, the holders, were out.
and Walsall Swifts F.C. had amalgamated. Walsall Town Swifts' inaugural match was a 0–0 draw against Aston Villa in the Birmingham Charity Cup final on 9 April 1888. A disagreement over the venue of the replay meant Aston Villa were awarded the trophy.