First Division Winners (1896–97)
The third league title, won on the same day as the FA Cup: the Double.
Aston Villa won the Football League championship for the third time in 1896-97, their ninth league season, matching Sunderland's three titles. They also won the FA Cup, beating Everton 3-2 in the final at Crystal Palace, to become the second club to complete the Double after Preston North End in 1888-89, and the only one to win the league and the Cup on the same day.
Quick Facts
- League title
- Third
- Margin
- 11 points; top from 28 November
- Clinched
- 10 April 1897, when Derby County failed to win
- Top scorer
- Fred Wheldon
- Ever-presents
- Charlie Athersmith
- Jimmy Cowan
- Fred Wheldon
- Ground
- Moved from Wellington Road to Villa Park
Reader's Guide
Sixteen clubs played each other home and away for two points a win. Villa started slowly with two wins in the first six games, then a 12-match unbeaten run took them to the top on 28 November and they finished 11 points clear. The title was secured on 10 April when Derby County failed to win, with Villa winning all three of their remaining games. Charlie Athersmith, Jimmy Cowan and Fred Wheldon were ever-present among the 17 players used, and Wheldon, signed in 1896 from relegated local rivals Small Heath for 350 pounds, was the leading scorer.
It was also the season the club left Wellington Road, where the rent kept rising, for Villa Park, an option on the Aston Lower Grounds secured by vice-president Charlie Johnstone and chairman Fred Rinder. The Double was celebrated on 22 June 1897, in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year, with a horse-drawn parade through Aston headlined 'The Villa with the Cup'.
More in Honours & Records
Elsewhere in Aston Villa
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced