Football League
1919-39
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Contact Us Page Last Updated 22 December 2021
 
 
1927-28

Football League 1928-29
1929-30
  
Final League Table - Division I
 Teams in a silver box denotes a player representing England in 1928-29
 Teams in italics were relegated to the second division for the following season
Team P Home Away ₧
W D L F A W D L F A
The Wednesday 42 18 3 0 55 16 3 7 11 31 46 52
Leicester City 42 16 5 0 67 22 5 4 12 29 45 51
Aston Villa 42 16 2 3 62 30 7 2 12 36 51 50
Sunderland 42 16 2 3 67 30 4 5 12 26 45 47
Liverpool 42 11 4 6 53 28 6 8 7 37 36 46
Derby County 42 12 5 4 56 24 6 5 10 30 47 46
Blackburn Rovers 42 11 6 4 42 26 6 5 10 30 37 45
Manchester City 42 12 3 6 63 40 6 6 9 32 46 45
Arsenal 42 11 6 4 43 25 5 7 9 34 47 45
Newcastle United 42 15 2 4 48 29 4 4 13 22 43 44
Sheffield United 42 12 5 4 57 30 3 6 12 29 55 41
Manchester United 42 8 8 5 32 23 6 5 10 34 53 41
Leeds United 42 11 5 5 42 28 5 4 12 29 56 41
Bolton Wanderers 42 10 6 5 44 25 4 6 11 29 55 40
Birmingham 42 8 7 6 37 32 7 3 11 31 45 40
Huddersfield Town 42 9 6 6 45 23 5 5 11 25 38 39
West Ham United 42 11 6 4 55 31 4 3 14 31 65 39
Everton 42 11 2 8 38 31 6 2 13 25 44 38
Burnley 42 12 5 4 55 32 3 3 15 26 71 38
Portsmouth 42 13 2 6 43 26 2 4 15 13 54 36
Bury 42 9 5 7 38 35 3 2 16 24 64 31
Cardiff City 42 7 7 7 34 26 1 6 14 9 33 29

Newcastle recorded a five-match winning run from 3 November 1928:
Huddersfield (h) 4-1, Manchester C. (a) 4-2, Birmingham (h) 1-0, Portsmouth (a) 1-0, Bolton (h) 4-1, before losing 3-1 at The Wednesday on 8 December 1928. Manchester United also had a five-match winning sequence from 1 April 1929, before drawing at home to Portsmouth on 4 May 1929. The Wednesday's biggest winning sequence was of four matches.

Middlesbrough, Oldham Athletic and West Bromwich Albion, from the second division, and Fulham from the third division (south), also each had a player representing England.

How The League Was Won 1928-29 Season
Timeline
37 Saturdays from 25 August 1928 to 4 May 1929, plus Monday 27th and Wednesday 29th August 1928, Christmas Day (Tuesday, 25th December 1928), Boxing Day (Wednesday, 26th December 1928), New Year's Day (Tuesday, 1st January 1929), Good Friday, 29 March 1929 and Easter Monday, 1 April 1929
 There were ten games played on Mondays, and three on Wednesdays in September, one other game on a Wednesday in December, and one on a Wednesday in January. Two games were played on Mondays, three on Wednesdays and one on a Thursday in February. In March, three other games were played on Mondays and five on Wednesdays. Games were played on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in April, and there were two games on the first Wednesday of May, and one on the first Thursday. The FA Cup took precedence on six weekends from the third round on 12 January 1929 to the final on 27 April 1929 (a week later than the previous season). There were two weeks before the fourth and sixth rounds, three weeks before the fifth round and semi-finals, and five weeks before the final. Last league games were on Saturday, 4 May 1929.
Saturday, 20 April 1929
Aston Villa 4 Huddersfield Town 1
  Villa Park, Birmingham (23,811)
 Chester (3), Walker ~ Brown		 Victory for The Wednesday would have given them the title, but their defeat plus emphatic victories for Villa and Leicester closed the gap to three points, with two games left. Sunderland's hopes were ended by a 5-2 defeat at Liverpool. With Villa hosting The Wednesday on the last day of the season, they were hoping that Burnley could take at least a point off them in their penultimate fixture, though The Wednesday were unbeaten in their last 28 home games in league and cup.
Leicester City 4 Everton 1
   Filbert Street, Leicester (19,006)
Chandler, Hine (2), Lochhead ~ White
Newcastle United 2 The Wednesday 1
   St James' Park, Newcastle (26,401)
 Gallacher (2 (1 pen)) ~ Allen
Top Three 20 April 1929
Team P ₧
The Wednesday 40 51
Leicester City 40 48
Aston Villa 40 48
  
Saturday, 27 April 1929
3.00pm BST Manchester City 3 Aston Villa 0
   Maine Road, Manchester (30,154)
Johnson, Brook, Toseland		 Whilst Bolton Wanderers were beating Portsmouth at Wembley to win the FA Cup, The Wednesday secured the title, though when Burnley took a surprise lead, with twenty minutes left, it looked like Leicester, who were winning at Huddersfield, might close the gap to a point, with one game remaining. Jack Allen's 35th goal of the season in league and cup, salvaged a point for The Wednesday, with ten minutes to spare. They then had to wait until the news came in that Huddersfield had equalised, five minutes from the end of their game, before the celebrations could begin. The Wednesday had only escaped relegation by a point, twelve months earlier. In July, they changed their name to Sheffield Wednesday, the name by which the press had always referred to them.
3.00pm BST The Wednesday 1 Burnley 1
   Hillsborough, Sheffield (33,314)
 Allen ~ Storer
3.15pm BST Huddersfield Town 1 Leicester City 1
  Leeds Road, Huddersfield (8,778)
 Brown ~ Duncan
 
The Elite League 1928-29 Season (games between the top four)
Team P Home Away ₧
W D L F A W D L F A
Aston Villa 6 3 0 0 11 4 1 0 2 5 9 8
Leicester City 6 2 1 0 6 2 1 0 2 4 6 7
The Wednesday 6 3 0 0 7 2 0 1 2 5 9 7
Sunderland 6 1 0 2 6 8 0 0 3 2 6 2
Leicester City were the only team from the previous season's top four to retain their status. Derby County, Everton and Huddersfield Town all dropped out of the top four.
Games played between the top two:-
Saturday, 3 November 1928
 Leicester City 1 The Wednesday 1
    Filbert Street, Leicester (29,522)
Hine ~ Allen
Saturday, 16 March 1929
 The Wednesday 1 Leicester City 0
   Hillsborough, Sheffield (30,176)
 Allen

The Continuous Post-War League 1919-29 (ten seasons)
Team P Wins ₧
Liverpool 420 182 479
Sunderland 420 192 467
Bolton Wanderers 420 178 466
Newcastle United 420 181 464
Liverpool increased their lead to twelve points.
The 'Rolling Five-Season' League
 1924-29
Team P Wins ₧
Huddersfield Town 210 97 246
Sunderland 210 96 234
Newcastle United 210 91 233
Bolton Wanderers 210 88 230
Sunderland halved Huddersfield's lead to twelve points.


Champions: The Wednesday
Manager: Robert Brown
1928-29 Most Appearances
by England Players
Name Played Goals
Jack Brown 42  
Billy Marsden 42 1
Alf Strange 42 5
Ernie Blenkinsop 39 1
Jimmy Seed 39 8
Tony Leach 36
Ellis Rimmer 34 7
Jack Brown and Jimmy Seed did not play for England in the 1928-29 season, Billy Marsden did not play for England until the following season, and Tony Leach, Ellis Rimmer and Alf Strange did not play for England until 1930.
1928-29 Most Goals
by England Players
Name Played Goals
Jimmy Seed 39 8
Scotsman, Dave Halliday of Sunderland, was top scorer with 43 goals. Second on the list was Manchester City's Tommy Johnson, with 38 goals. Leicester's Arthur Chandler scored 34, one more than The Wednesday's Jack Allen.

England and the Football League 1928-29 Season
England's impact on the Football League
Including the tour at the end of the 1928-29 season, 13 of the 22 first division clubs were represented, plus three from the second division, and Fulham from the third division (south).
19 Football League games had a direct impact on two of England's games, on 17 November 1928 and 13 April 1929.
As a result, on 17 November, England took Arsenal's Joe Hulme, Birmingham's Joe Bradford, Blackburn's Austen Campbell, Bolton's Fred Kean, Derby's Tom Cooper, Everton's Bill Dean, Leeds' Willis Edwards and Ernie Hart, Leicester's Ernie Hine, Oldham's Jack Hacking, The Wednesday's Ernie Blenkinsop, West Brom's Joe Carter, and Jimmy Ruffell of West Ham. On 13 April, Blenkinsop, Campbell, Cooper, Dean, Edwards, Hacking and Ruffell were again missing from their clubs, as were Bolton's Harry Nuttall and Jimmy Seddon, Burnley's Jack Bruton, Huddersfield's George Brown, and Russell Wainscoat of Leeds.
 
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