1919–20 Football League

Football League
Second Division
Season	1919–20
Champions	Tottenham Hotspur (1st title)
Relegated	Grimsby Town
Failed re-election	Lincoln City
Matches played	462
Goals scored	1,285 (2.78 per match)
Top goalscorer	Sammy Taylor (Huddersfield Town), 35
Biggest home win	Birmingham – Nottingham Forest 8–0 (10 Mar 1920)
Biggest away win	Barnsley – Birmingham 0–5 (14 Feb 1920); Leicester City – Bury 0–5 (10 Apr 1920)
Highest scoring	Hull – Wolverhampton 10–3 (27 Dec 1919)
	← 1914–15 1920–21 →

Football League
First Division
Season	1919–20
Champions	West Bromwich Albion (1st English title)
Relegated	Notts County,; The Wednesday
Matches played	462
Goals scored	1,332 (2.88 per match)
Top goalscorer	Fred Morris (West Bromwich Albion), 37
Biggest home win	West Brom – Notts County 8–0 (25 Oct 1919)
Biggest away win	Burnley – Bradford Park Avenue 2–6 (22 Nov 1919); Preston North End –Bradford City 1–5 (1 Sep 1919); Bradford Park Avenue – West Brom 0–4 (3 Apr 1920); Derby County – West Brom 0–4 (20 Dec 1919)
Highest scoring	Manchester City –Blackburn 8–2 (8 Nov 1919)
	← 1914–15 1920–21 →

The Football League
Season	1919–20
Champions	West Bromwich Albion
Relegated	Lincoln City
	← 1914–15 1920–21 →

The 1919–20 season was the 28th season of The Football League.

In 1919, the First Division was extended from 20 to 22 clubs. During previous expansions, the relegated clubs from the previous season were re-elected, while the top Second Division sides were promoted as usual.

Therefore, Derby and Preston, the two top Second Division sides in 1915 (there had been a break for the war) did move on up. Chelsea, who had finished 19th that season, were, as expected, re-elected.

Discussion of how the expansion should be handled began on 13 January 1919 when James Catton published an article in Athletic News raising the issue of match fixing which had dogged the 1914/15 League season and been left unresolved because of the cessation of the League for the duration of the war.

In the article Catton argued one of the two teams that ought to be returned to the first division (if that league was to be expanded, as had already been proposed), should be Chelsea as they had been relegated due to the match fixing. Catton then considered the argument that Tottenham, who had also been relegated with Chelsea should likewise be reinstated, although he noted there was nothing to link Tottenham’s relegation with anything amiss in the final season before the cessation of the League for the duration. ^[1]

In 1915, Manchester United had, to avoid relegation, fixed their last game against Liverpool. They won 2–0 and sent Chelsea into the relegation places instead, but the new league president and former Liverpool chairman John McKenna must have felt some guilt, because at the League's AGM in 1919 he gave a speech insisting on the continued presence in the top flight of the Stamford Bridge club.

More controversially though, Tottenham Hotspur - who came 20th in 1915 - were not re-elected and arch-rivals Arsenal, who had finished fifth in the Second Division had their promotion engineered by Sir Henry Norris. It has been alleged that Norris bribed or in some way unduly influenced the voting members of the Football League, in particular McKenna at the League's AGM.^[2]^[3] McKenna made a speech recommending Arsenal's promotion ahead of Spurs thanks to the former's longer spell in the League (Arsenal joined in 1893, Spurs in 1908), although Barnsley and Wolves, who both finished ahead of Arsenal, had been members of the league longer than Arsenal; Wolves since its inception in 1888.^[2] Arsenal have never been relegated from the top flight of the English game since.

In the Second Division, Port Vale took over from Leeds City after 4 October 1919, when Leeds were disbanded by F.A. order following alleged irregular practices. Port Vale then inherited Leeds’ record up to that date.^[4]

After the season, Grimsby Town were relegated to the newly formed Third Division. Lincoln City was not re-elected to Second Division and Leeds United was elected to replace it. Cardiff City were elected to take the second available place in Second Division.

Final league tables

The tables and results below are reproduced here in the exact form that they can be found at The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation website^[5] 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), or more properly put, goal ratio. 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.

Since the goal average was used for this purpose for such a long time, it is presented in the tables below even for the seasons prior to 1894–95, and since the goal difference is a more informative piece of information for a modern reader than the goal average, the goal difference is added in this presentation after the goal average.

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. From the 1894–95 season and until the 1920–21 season the re-election process was required of the clubs which finished in the bottom three of the league.

First Division

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	F	A	GA	GD	Pts
1	West Bromwich Albion	42	17	1	3	65	21	11	3	7	39	26	104	47	2.213	+57	60
2	Burnley	42	13	5	3	43	27	8	4	9	22	32	65	59	1.102	+16	51
3	Chelsea	42	15	3	3	33	10	7	2	12	23	41	56	51	1.098	+5	49
4	Liverpool	42	12	5	4	35	18	7	5	9	24	26	59	44	1.341	+15	48
5	Sunderland	42	17	2	2	45	16	5	2	14	27	43	72	59	1.220	+13	48
6	Bolton Wanderers	42	11	3	7	35	29	8	6	7	37	36	72	65	1.108	+7	47
7	Manchester City	42	14	5	2	52	27	4	4	13	19	35	71	62	1.145	+9	45
8	Newcastle United	42	11	5	5	31	13	6	4	11	13	26	44	39	1.128	+5	43
9	Aston Villa	42	11	3	7	49	36	7	3	11	26	37	75	73	1.027	+2	42
10	Arsenal	42	11	5	5	32	21	4	7	10	24	37	56	58	0.966	–2	42
11	Bradford Park Avenue	42	8	6	7	31	26	7	6	8	29	37	60	63	0.952	–3	42
12	Manchester United	42	6	8	7	20	17	7	6	8	34	33	54	50	1.080	+4	40
13	Middlesbrough	42	10	5	6	35	23	5	5	11	26	42	61	65	0.938	–4	40
14	Sheffield United	42	14	5	2	43	20	2	3	16	16	49	59	69	0.855	–10	40
15	Bradford City	42	10	6	5	36	25	4	5	12	18	38	54	63	0.857	–9	39
16	Everton	42	8	6	7	42	29	4	8	9	27	39	69	68	1.015	+1	38
17	Oldham Athletic	42	12	4	5	33	19	3	4	14	16	33	49	52	0.942	–3	38
18	Derby County	42	12	5	4	36	18	1	7	13	11	39	47	57	0.825	–10	38
19	Preston North End	42	9	6	6	35	27	5	4	12	22	46	57	73	0.781	–16	38
20	Blackburn Rovers	42	11	4	6	48	30	2	7	12	16	47	64	77	0.831	–13	37
21	Notts County	42	9	8	4	39	25	3	4	14	17	49	56	74	0.757	–18	36
22	The Wednesday	42	6	4	11	14	23	1	5	15	14	41	28	64	0.438	–36	23

Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against;
GA = Goal average; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points

Key
	League Champions
	FA Cup Winners
	Relegated

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	F	A	GA	GD	Pts
1	Tottenham Hotspur	42	19	2	0	60	11	13	4	4	42	21	102	32	3.188	+70	70
2	Huddersfield Town	42	16	4	1	58	13	12	4	5	39	25	97	38	2.553	+59	64
3	Birmingham	42	14	3	4	54	16	10	5	6	31	18	85	34	2.500	+51	56
4	Blackpool	42	13	4	4	40	18	8	6	7	25	29	65	47	1.383	+18	52
5	Bury	42	14	4	3	35	15	6	4	11	25	29	60	44	1.364	+16	48
6	Fulham	42	11	6	4	36	18	8	3	10	25	32	61	50	1.220	+11	47
7	West Ham United	42	14	3	4	34	14	5	6	10	13	26	47	40	1.175	+7	47
8	Bristol City	42	9	9	3	30	18	4	8	9	16	25	46	43	1.070	+3	43
9	South Shields	42	13	5	3	47	18	2	7	12	11	30	58	48	1.208	+10	42
10	Stoke	42	13	3	5	37	15	5	3	13	23	39	60	54	1.111	+6	42
11	Hull City	42	13	4	4	53	23	5	2	14	25	49	78	72	1.083	+6	42
12	Barnsley	42	9	5	7	41	28	6	5	10	20	27	61	55	1.109	+6	40
13	Port Vale^[7]	42	11	3	7	35	27	5	5	11	24	35	59	62	0.952	–3	40
14	Leicester City	42	8	6	7	26	29	7	4	10	15	32	41	61	0.672	–20	40
15	Clapton Orient	42	14	3	4	34	17	2	3	16	17	42	51	59	0.864	–8	38
16	Stockport County	42	11	4	6	34	24	3	5	13	18	37	52	61	0.852	–9	37
17	Rotherham County	42	10	4	7	32	27	3	4	14	19	56	51	83	0.614	–32	34
18	Nottingham Forest	42	9	4	8	23	22	2	5	14	20	51	43	73	0.589	–30	31
19	Wolverhampton Wanderers	42	8	4	9	41	32	2	6	13	14	48	55	80	0.688	–25	30
20	Coventry City	42	7	7	7	20	26	2	4	15	15	47	35	73	0.479	–38	29
21	Lincoln City^[8]	42	8	6	7	27	30	1	3	17	17	71	44	101	0.436	–57	27
22	Grimsby Town^[9]	42	8	4	9	23	24	2	1	18	11	51	34	75	0.453	–41	25

v t e 1919–20 in European football
« 1918–19 1920–21 »
Domestic leagues	Austria Belgium Denmark England Germany Hungary Iceland '19 '20 Ireland Italy Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Romania Scotland Switzerland
Domestic cups	Austria England France Ireland Netherlands Norway '19 '20 Scotland Spain '19 '20 Sweden '19 '20 Wales

Final league tables

First Division

Results

Maps

Second Division

Results

Maps

See also

References