Fred Wheldon was top scorer in the First Division in 1897/98

 

WHELDON, FRED (ASTON VILLA)

Season: 1897/98

Goals scored: 23 (out of 61); 16 home, 7 away

Percentage: 37.7 per cent

Runner-up: Fred Spiksley (Sheffield Wednesday), 17 goals

Villa finished sixth

One of the select band of men who have won fame both at cricket and football, Fred Wheldon had a long and brilliant sporting career.

As a footballer, his services would have been accepted by any club in the country. When at his best, he was undoubtedly the finest inside left in England, possibly Scotland as well.

His command of the ball, his adaptability to prevailing conditions, combined with his

dodging, his swerving, and his deadly shooting, made him a great player in the highest company.

Superb with both his head and feet, he often demoralised many a defence with his intricate play

and not only did he score plenty of goals, but he created chances galore for his colleagues.

One of the few players to serve three clubs within a 10-mile radius – Small Heath

(now Birmingham City), Aston Villa, and West Bromwich Albion – Wheldon, known as

‘Diamond’, certainly had an eye for goal and during his fourteen-year career at senior level

(1890–1904), he scored over 200 goals (for club and country).

Born deep in the heart of the industrial Black Country, at Langley Green, Oldbury on

1 November 1869, Wheldon, the youngest of ten children, played for several local teams and

had an unsuccessful trial with West Bromwich Albion in October 1888 before joining Small

Heath of the Football Alliance in February 1890.

During the following six seasons he missed only one League game and in 1892/93, the

inaugural season of the Football League Second Division, he scored Small Heath’s first

ever goal in that competition (against Burslem Port Vale) and finished the campaign

with twenty-five goals in twenty-two appearances as the Blues won the Championship.

Unfortunately, they failed to gain promotion, losing out in the Test Match system that was

then in operation. He scored over twenty goals again the next season, and this time the club

was promoted.

On Small Heath’s relegation in 1895/96, Wheldon – having bagged a total of 84 goals in

134 games – joined reigning First Division champions and near-neighbours Aston Villa for

a fee of £350.

In his first season he was Villa’s leading scorer, with twenty-two League and Cup goals, as

the Birmingham club emulated Preston North End’s feat of winning the double, and then,

in 1897/98, he topped the League’s scoring charts with a total of twenty-three goals as Villa

slipped down to sixth in the table.

Wheldon, in fact, make a sensational start to the season, netting a hat-trick in each of the

first two games, which resulted in home victories over Sheffield Wednesday (5-3) and rivals

West Bromwich Albion (4-3). His treble against the Owls included one stunning drive from

fully 20 yards, while two of his efforts against the Baggies were executed with ‘precision and

exquisite skill’.

The reporter covering this local derby for the Sports Argus wrote:

Wheldon was the only Villa player who looked like scoring. He posed a threat throughout

the game and besides his two goals, had two more efforts saved by the Albion custodian Joe

Reader. He also failed with what looked like two easy close range headers following deep

crosses from the right by Charlie Athersmith.

Goalless in the third match, against Notts County, he stroked home his seventh goal of the

campaign in a 3-1 win over Bury before bagging a couple (one a penalty) in a 4-3 defeat at

Blackburn.

Another blank afternoon followed in the return fixture with Sheffield Wednesday (lost

3-0) but he was back on track in the next game, scoring a decisive goal in a hard-earned 3-2

home victory over Bolton Wanderers.

After netting in 4-2 and 3-1 wins over Notts County and Liverpool at Villa Park during

the second half of October, Wheldon weighed in with two more braces in successive

homes wins over Everton and Sunderland in November, and then ripped in a beauty when

Blackburn were thrashed 5-1 at the start of December.

Unfortunately, Villa slipped off the pace from mid-December to late January, failing to

win a single League game and also suffering first round FA Cup elimination at the hand of

Derby County.

Besides the team struggling on the pitch, Wheldon was also ‘off form’, scoring just twice

in six games before regaining his touch in early February with a fine goal against Preston

North End (won 4-0). Absent for two games in March due to international calls, he scored

the winner at Bury (2-1) and also netted in defeats at Nottingham Forest (3-1) and at home

to Wolves (2-1) to finish the season with twenty-three goals in twenty-six appearances, twelve

more than runner-up Jack Sharp.

Over the next two seasons Wheldon scored a further twenty-nine goals, ending up with a

total of 74 goals in 140 senior appearances in four years with Villa. He helped the team win

two more League titles, in 1899 and 1900, gained four caps for England, scoring six goals,

represented the Football League on four occasions and also played four times for an England

XI.

In August 1900, Wheldon moved to nearby West Bromwich Albion for £100 and played

in the first-ever game at The Hawthorns (against Derby County, and his England colleague

Steve Bloomer). He scored just three times in twenty-nine starts for the Baggies and after

spells in the Southern League with Queens Park Rangers and Portsmouth, plus a brief sojourn

with Worcester City, he retired from football in January 1907 at the age of thirty-seven. He

subsequently became a licensee of a Worcester pub, a job he held until the outbreak of the

Great War.

As a cricketer, Wheldon, a right-hand batsman, scored 4,938 runs for Worcestershire, whom

he served from 1899 to 1906. He averaged 22.50 per innings, notched three centuries and also

claimed ninety-three catches, some as a wicketkeeper. He also played for Carmarthenshire

CCC (1910/11).

His brother, Sam, played for West Bromwich Albion in season 1891/92, his son, Norris,

assisted Liverpool, and his grandson, John Spilsbury, played once for Worcestershire CCC

in 1952.

Wheldon died in Worcester on 13 January 1924.