Millennium 1957-58 English Football League Table Standings Index

1956-57 Season

1958-59 Season

THE 1957-58 ENGLISH FOOTBALL LEAGUE FIRST DIVISION
Table Standings; Top 10 Goal Scorers; Club Location Map; Stadium Capacity; Club Logos & Colors

FINAL LEAGUE TABLE STANDINGS

POS	Football Clubs/Teams	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS	42	28	8	6	103	47	+56	64
2	PRESTON NORTH END	42	26	7	9	100	51	+49	59
3	TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR	42	21	9	12	93	77	+16	51
4	WEST BROMWICH ALBION	42	18	14	10	92	70	+22	50
5	MANCHESTER CITY	42	22	5	15	104	100	+4	49
6	BURNLEY	42	21	5	15	80	74	+6	47
7	BLACKPOOL	42	19	6	17	80	67	+13	44
8	LUTON TOWN	42	19	6	17	69	63	+6	44
9	MANCHESTER UNITED	42	16	11	15	85	75	+10	43
10	NOTTINGHAM FOREST	42	16	10	16	69	63	+6	42
11	CHELSEA	42	15	12	15	83	79	+4	42
12	ARSENAL	42	16	7	19	73	85	-12	39
13	BIRMINGHAM CITY	42	14	11	17	76	89	-13	39
14	ASTON VILLA	42	16	7	19	73	86	-13	39
15	BOLTON WANDERERS	42	14	10	18	65	87	-22	38
16	EVERTON	42	13	11	18	65	75	-10	37
17	LEEDS UNITED	42	14	9	19	51	63	-12	37
18	LEICESTER CITY	42	14	5	23	91	112	-21	33
19	NEWCASTLE UNITED	42	12	8	22	73	81	-8	32
20	PORTSMOUTH	42	12	8	22	73	88	-15	32
21	SUNDERLAND	42	10	12	20	54	97	-43	32
22	SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY	42	12	7	23	69	92	-23	31

	- 1957-58 League Champions/Qualified for 1958-59 European Cup
	- Invited To Play In 1958-59 European Cup (see notes below)
	- 1957-58 FA Cup Champions
	- Teams Relegated To Football League Second Division

*NOTE* ~ Manchester United had been invited to enter the competition by UEFA after their campaign in the previous year's tournament was damaged by the Munich air disaster. However, they finally refused to build a possible victorious campaign on that tragedy. (See Munich air disaster "NOTES" below)

The Munich air disaster occurred on 6 February 1958 when British European Airways flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport, West Germany. On the plane was the Manchester United football team, nicknamed the "Busby Babes", along with supporters and journalists. 20 of the 44 on the aircraft died. The injured, some unconscious, were taken to the Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich where three more died, resulting in 23 fatalities with 21 survivors. The football team was returning from a European Cup match in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) against Red Star Belgrade. The flight stopped to refuel in Munich because a non-stop flight from Belgrade to Manchester was out of the "Elizabethan" class Airspeed Ambassador aircraft's range.

Manchester United were trying to become the third club to win three successive English league titles; they were six points behind League leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers with 14 games to go. The plane skidded off the end of the runway, crashed into the fence surrounding the airport and across a road before its port wing was torn off as it caught a house, home to a family of six. Part of the plane's tail was torn off before the left side of the cockpit hit a tree. The right side of the fuselage hit a wooden hut, inside which was a truck filled with tyres and fuel, which exploded. Twenty passengers died on board, and three people died later. Seven of Manchester United's players died immediately, and Duncan Edwards died from his injuries on 21 February at the Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich. Johnny Berry and Jackie Blanchflower were both injured so severely that they never played again.

Meanwhile, there was speculation that the club would fold, but a threadbare United team completed the 1957–58 season, with Busby's assistant Jimmy Murphy standing in as manager; he had not travelled to Belgrade as he was in Cardiff managing the Welsh national team at the time. A team largely made up of reserve and youth team players beat Sheffield Wednesday 3–0 in the first match after the disaster. The programme for that match showed simply a blank space where each United player's name should have been. Following the loss of so many players in the crash, United were desperate to find replacements with experience, so Murphy turned to players like Ernie Taylor (signed for £8,000 from Blackpool) and Stan Crowther, the Aston Villa wing half who had played against United in the 1957 FA Cup Final.

United only won one league game after the crash, causing their title challenge to collapse and they fell to ninth place in the league. They did manage to reach the final of the FA Cup, however, losing 2–0 to Bolton Wanderers, and even managed to beat Milan at Old Trafford in the semi-finals of the European Cup, only to lose 4–0 at the San Siro. Real Madrid, who went on to win the trophy for the third year running, suggested that Manchester United be awarded the trophy for that year – a suggestion supported by Red Star Belgrade – but this failed to materialise.

EPL Top Ten Goal Scorers ~ 1957-58
Rank	Player Name	Country	Club/Team Name	Goals
1	Bobby Smith		Tottenham Hotspur	36
2	Tommy Thompson		Preston North End	34
3	Gordon Turner		Luton Town	33
4	Jimmy Murray		Wolverhampton	30
5	Tom Finney		Preston North End	26
6	Joe Hayes		Manchester City	25
7-T	David Herd		Arsenal	24
7-T	Bobby Robson		West Bromwich Albion	24
9	Norman Deeley		Wolverhampton	23
10-T	Jimmy Greaves		Chelsea	22
10-T	Ronnie Allen		West Bromwich Albion	22
10-T	Len White		Newcastle United	22

EPL Stadium Names & Seat Capacity
Club/Team Name	Stadium Name
Arsenal	Highbury
Aston Villa	Villa Park
Birmingham City	St. Andrew's Stadium
Blackpool	Bloomfield Road
Bolton Wanderers	Burnden Park
Burnley	Turf Moor
Chelsea	Stamford Bridge
Everton	Goodison Park
Leeds United	Elland Road
Leicester City	Filbert Street
Luton Town	Kenilworth Road
Manchester City	Maine Road
Manchester United	Old Trafford
Newcastle United	St. James' Park
Nottingham Forest	City Ground
Portsmouth	Fratton Park
Preston North End	Deepdale
Sheffield Wednesday	Hillsborough Stadium
Sunderland	Roker Park
Tottenham Hotspur	White Hart Lane
West Bromwich Albion	The Hawthorns
Wolverhampton	Molineux Stadium

CURRENT JERSEY CREST & ORIGINAL HOME COLORS

Arsenal F.C.