Despite a rapid growth in popularity, football had no clear direction and with the better teams having trouble finding games that would attract the public, a campaign to start a league of some sort was gathering pace. William MacGregor from Aston Villa gave the idea a voice from within the game and became one of the main driving forces behind the idea. He sent a letter to the most prominent clubs in the North West and the Midlands, inviting them to a meeting to be held Anderton’s Hotel in London to discuss the proposals. A follow up meeting was held in Manchester and this led to the formation of the Football League.
MacGregor, who was elected the first president, suggested the name The Football Association Union, but this was not adopted as it could have been confused with the Rugby Union. Similarly he objected to the name Football League as it may be mistaken with the Land League in Ireland, he eventually withdrew his objections and the name was adopted.
Six teams from the North West and six from the Midlands were chosen to take part in the inaugural season. Despite questions being raised by the Lancashire Association into their overall ability Everton joined Accrington, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers as the founder members of the Football League. The format was devised by journalists with two points for a win and one for a draw being awarded for each game.
W.E. Barclay was elected Everton's club secretary and he promptly brought in the best players he could find. The likes of Johnny Holt, Alf Milward, Edgar Chadwick and Nick Ross were drafted in, Ross was one of the great defenders of the time and was reputed to be paid the princely sum of 10 pounds a month, the rest of the team were paid no more than half this amount. Milward and Chadwick were to form a fine left wing partnership that was regarded as the best in the league at the time. Holt joined from Bootle, who were unlucky not to be invited to join the league, and played in the centre of defence were he was a fine man-to-man marker and powerful in the air.
Everton’s first League game took place at Anfield on the 8 th September 1888, with the visitors being Accrington. The honour of representing Everton for this game fell to:
R.H. Smalley; N. Ross, A. Dick; G. Dobson, J. Holt, B. Jones; G. Farmer, E. Chadwick, W. Lewis, D. Waugh, G. Fleming.
The first half was an even affair with no side gaining the upper hand and ending 0-0. When the second half started Everton took control and the honour of scoring the club’s first League goal went to G. Fleming when he headed Everton into the lead. He added a second goal and Everton went onto win the game 2-1 and the 10,000 people who had turned up to witness the birth of league football, went home happy.
By early November Everton were lying a respectable third but of the remaining 13 games they only won four times and finished the season in a disappointing eighth and only avoided applying for re-election by 3 points. The lack of consistency was partly responsible for the failure to finish higher in the league and the reason behind this was the constant changes to the team, 35 players were used in the 22 games. Scoring goals was also a problem and as a whole the team only managed 35 goals, and conceded 46. Away from home they were very poor losing e of the eleven games, scoring only 12 goals.
Preston North End won the inaugural season winning 18 of the 22 games and drawing the others and when they won the FA Cup became the first team to win the coveted ‘double’. The FA introduced qualifying rounds for the FA cup at the start of the 1888-89 season and when Everton were awarded an away trip to Ulster they declined to travel. They cited the cost of traveling as the reason for taking part and were scratched from the competition.
On 3rd March 1889, Anfield hosted its first international fixture, when it was selected to stage a game between England and Ireland. The Irish team was no match for England and the ‘home’ side ran out 6-1 winners watched by a disappointing crowd of only 6,000. The size of the attendance reflected the disappointment in Liverpool that Johnny Holt had been omitted from the England team.
During the summer the need to bring a proven goal scorer was a priority and this was fulfilled with the signing of centre forward Fred Geary from Notts County and outside right Alex Latta from Dumbarton. Geary was to become the first in the long line of great Everton centre forwards and although he only made 98 appearances he scored 86 goals and became the first player to play for both Merseyside top clubs, when he joined Liverpool in 1894 for £20 fee.
The second League season saw Everton get off to a great start, winning four of the first five games and scoring 13 goals in the process. Goals continued to flow and on 2 nd December 1889 Everton recorded an 8-0 victory over Stoke City, which was a League record at the time. This was followed in early January with a 7-0 win over Aston Villa, both wins were at Anfield and the ground was becoming something of a fortress with only Preston gaining a victory there. This loss was avenged a few weeks later when Everton traveled to Deepdale and scored a famous victory, winning 2-1.
In the FA Cup Everton were drawn at home against Derby County and produced a formidable performance to record the highest official victory in the Club’s history. The game took place on the 18 th January 1890 at Anfield and a crowd of 10,000 turned up to witness the game. The pitch at this time was in poor condition, heavy and with little grass but the game kicked off on time. Derby took an early 2-1 lead but by the interval Everton had fought back to lead 3-2. After the break the home side scored two quick goals and the Derby players soon became demoralised with not being able to make any headway due to the state of the pitch, which was getting worse. Everton added another six goals before the end of game to record an 11-2 victory, a scoreline the club has never matched. Three players scored hatricks in the game Brady, Geary and Milward, another club record that has not been equaled. Unfortunately the cup run ended in the next round when they lost at Stoke City 4-2.
Major Progress had been made and Everton ended the season in second place behind, for the second time, Preston North End, but with only two points separated the two teams. The problems from the previous season relating to the lack of goals appeared to have been solved as the team scored 65 times in 22 league games. Summer signing Fred Geary ended the season as the clubs top scorer when he was on target 21 times in just 18 l/eague games.
Interest in the club was growing faster than even the most optimistic predictions and at the end of the season gate receipts of £5,188 5s 10p had been received from the games played at Anfield. Players wages and other costs amounted to £2,059 1s 11d but the remaining funds meant that Everton Football Club were on a stable footing.
In May 1890 Everton played a friendly against Notts County in aid of Hospital Saturday Fund, games were often played to raise funds for various charities at this time with hospitals being one on the main benefactors. The game was played at Anfield with visitors going home with a 1-0 victory.
Everton started the next season, 1890-91, like a train, winning six and drawing one of the first seven games. Fred Geary was the star of the early season form scoring eleven times as the team notched up 27 goals.
The next five league games Everton lost in four, with one of these being against reigning champions Preston North End and they were once again in the race for the championship . The team then won seven of the next eight fixtures and went into the last two games with a four point lead and only needing to draw one of them to be crowned as champions. The penultimate game was against rivals Preston at Anfield and a crowd of about 15,000 saw the Preston complete a league double over the home side with a 1-0 win.
For the last games of the season Everton traveled to Burnley and Preston had to go to the north east to face Sunderland. At Turf Moor Everton were greeted with snow, sleet and a very slippery pitch. The weather did not prevent 10,000 hardy soles turning up to see the game and it is reported that as many as 2,000 of the crowd were supporting the visitors. Despite continued pressure from Everton the first half ended 0-0 and as the second got under way the home side took the lead against the run of play. Within two minutes Geary equalised and then fifteen minutes into the period Everton took a 2-1 lead, following an own goal. The visitors became anxious as the realisation that the title was within their grasp and with five minutes remaining Burnley drew level. This score-line would still be enough to win the league but before the cheering had died down Burnley scored what was to be the winner.
The disappointment of officials, players and fans was to be short lived as later in the day news reached them that Preston had lost 3-0 at Sunderland. Everton had won their first league title, reversing the previous season’s positions, by two points from Preston, scoring 63 goals in the process. Three players accounted for 42 of the goals with Geary scoring 20, Milward, 12 and Chadwick 10. In becoming champions Everton became the first club to achieve a five figure attendance when games at Anfield were watched by an average of 11,875.
There was an unexplained two month gap between the last two games of the league season and in order to keep the players fit Everton embarked on their first ever visit to the Capital to take part in a short three game tour. The first of the games took place at the Oval Cricket Ground on Saturday the 24 th January 1891 with the opponents being The Corinthians and with Everton on the verge of the League title the game generated a lot of interest. Everton were without three first team players, including Fred Geary, but The Corinthians fielded a very strong side which included seven internationals. The first half was an even affair and ended 1-1 with goals from Robertson for Everton and the home side drawing level through Sandilands. The visitors got on top after the interval and Alf Millward scored twice to give Everton an excellent 3-1 victory.
Sunday saw the players and officials take in a sight seeing tour, which included a visit to Hampton Court. On the Monday morning the Everton party made their way to Woolwich Station, where they were met by the directors of Woolwich Arsenal, who had arranged for them to visit the ordinance works. A two hour tour of the factory took place and after lunch a match, that been arranged against Royal Arsenal who were the works team for the factory, took place. The game took place at their Invicta Ground, on Plumstead High Street, the visitors made three changes from the team that had played on the Saturday but were still to strong and won a fine game quite easily, 5-0, in front of a crowd of 8,000.
The final game of the tour took place on the following day and was in Kent against local Champions, Chatham. The game was played on a local cricket field which was situated on an area of land called Great Lines. The game kicked off in poor weather but this did not stop Everton take a 4-0 lead at half time, in the second half the home side not only stopped the visitors scored but managed to score a consolation goal for themselves. The club’s first visit to London had been a success both in the interest it had generated and also in the results gained.
In October Everton had paid their first visit north of the border to play Third Lanark in Glasgow. The game kicked off at 12:30 so that it did not clash with a match between Celtic and Sunderland, and to give locals the chance to see both games. The match was watched by an 8,000 crowd and they were treated to fine game of football. Geary had given Everton an early first half lead but in the second period Third Lanark hit back and forced a 1-1 draw.
Two innovations were introduced to the game during the 1890-91 season. In early 1891 the Football Association unveiled ‘goal nets’, which had been invented by a John Alexander Brodie who was born in Liverpool in 1854. He worked in the engineering department of the Mersey Docks Estate and, despite being a follower of Rugby, had his attention drawn to the difficulties of referees during a visit to watch Everton. as when a goal was scored which side of the post the ball had past. Nets were first used at the Liverpool Ramblers ground and the first league club to use them were Bolton Wanderers, who paid Mr. Brodie sixpence for them.
Also during the season ‘penalty kicks’ were introduced, following an idea of a William McCrum who was from Milford, County Armagh, Ireland. The Irish Football Association presented the idea to the International Football Association Board and finally after much debate, the board approved the idea on 2 June 1891
The 1891-92 season was to be one of the most turbulent in the 13 years that Everton had been in existence and yo emphisise this the defence of the title got off to a terrible start with a 4-0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion. Fred Geary was missing for most of the season through injury and Everton found goals hard to come by and ended the season a full 14 points behind the eventual champions, Sunderland, in fifth place. Off the field, however, more pressing matters had taken the attention of club officials.
Trouble flared when the landlord of Anfield Road, John Houlding, more than doubled the rent paid to him by the club for the use of the ground, raised from £100 per year to £250. Houlding, who already held the sole rights to supply any required refreshments, felt that as the club were attracting greater support and with larger gate receipts being received he had a right to more remunerations. Some members, led by George Mahon, Dr. James Clement Baxter and W.R. Clayton, were not happy with the rent increase or the grip Houlding had on the club and decided to look for a new ground. At a special general meeting held on 25th January 1892 at the College in Shaw Street a proposal was put forward to form the club into a limited company, this would allow funds to be raised for a ground move but was defeated by Houlding and his followers. Some of the committee members were not happy about losing money already invested in the Anfield ground but the move away from Anfield was now inevitable and when Mahon referred to the a new ground as ‘in his pocket’ Everton’s tenure at their third home was all but over.
The land in question was Mere Green Field which was situated on Goodison Road, a half mile from Anfield and was no more than an overgrown wasteland. Mahon had secured an option on the land, but a significant amount of money would be required to acquire the ground. A resolution was finally passed to form the club into a limited company named “Everton Football Club Limited”, with initial capital of £500 in £1 shares. With the split in the committee complete, Houlding served notice on the club to leave the ground and upon receipt solicitors were instructed to arrange for a lease of the Goodison Road ground. Houlding tried to keep the name Everton and to form a new team under its name but the FA ruled that the name should stay with the original group. So he suggested that the name of his new club should be Liverpool, this was accepted and the birth of what was to be Liverpool’s second major club was competed.
