1896–97 Aston Villa F.C. season

1897 FA Cup final
	The Aston Villa team of 1897 that won The Double
Event	1896–97 FA Cup
Date	10 April 1897
Venue	Crystal Palace, London
Referee	J. Lewis
Attendance	65,891

Aston Villa
1896–97 season
Manager	George Ramsay
Grounds	Wellington Road
First Division	Champions (3)
FA Cup	Winners
Top goalscorer	League: Fred Wheldon (18); All: Fred Wheldon (22)
	← 1895–96 1897–98 →

Fred Wheldon, Club top scorer, pictured in 1897

The 1896-97 English football season was Aston Villa's 9th season in the Football League since being one of its 12 founding members in 1888. Villa were champions for the third time matching Sunderland's three wins. For good measure, the FA Cup was also won, to make Villa the second team to complete "The Double" after Preston North End in 1888–89.

This was the season during which Villa moved from Wellington Road to their current home at Villa Park, although it was still referred to as 'Aston Lower Grounds' for some time.

John Campbell was not quite as productive as in the previous season, and the leading scorer honours went to Fred Wheldon. Fred had been signed in 1896 for £350 from local rivals Small Heath, who had been relegated the previous season.^[1] He was a good dribbler with the ball and won four caps for England. He played first class cricket for Worcestershire.

There were debuts for Fred Wheldon (123), Jimmy Whitehouse and Albert Evans.^[2]

Results

Football League

A total of 16 teams competed in the First Division in the 1896–97 season. Each team would play every other team twice, once at their stadium, and once at the opposition's. Two points were awarded to teams for each win, one point per draw, and none for defeats.

The season got off to a slow start, with Villa recording only two wins in the first six games. An unbeaten run of 12 games took them to the top, where they finished with a lead of 11 points. The title was won when Derby County F.C. failed to win on 10 April; Villa had three games left to play, all of which were won.

Final league position

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv	Pts	Relegation
1	Aston Villa (C)	30	21	5	4	73	38	1.921	47
2	Sheffield United	30	13	10	7	42	29	1.448	36
3	Derby County	30	16	4	10	70	50	1.400	36
4	Preston North End	30	11	12	7	55	40	1.375	34
5	Liverpool	30	12	9	9	46	38	1.211	33
6	The Wednesday	30	10	11	9	42	37	1.135	31
7	Everton	30	14	3	13	62	57	1.088	31
8	Bolton Wanderers	30	12	6	12	40	43	0.930	30
9	Bury	30	10	10	10	39	44	0.886	30
10	Wolverhampton Wanderers	30	11	6	13	45	41	1.098	28
11	Nottingham Forest	30	9	8	13	44	49	0.898	26
12	West Bromwich Albion	30	10	6	14	33	56	0.589	26
13	Stoke	30	11	3	16	48	59	0.814	25
14	Blackburn Rovers	30	11	3	16	35	62	0.565	25
15	Sunderland (O)	30	7	9	14	34	47	0.723	23	Qualification for test matches
16	Burnley (R)	30	6	7	17	43	61	0.705	19	Qualification for test matches