West Bromwich Albion Football Club was founded as West Bromwich Strollers in 1878 by workers from George Salter's Spring Works and turned professional in 1885.[1][2] Albion won the FA Cup for the first time in 1888 and later that year became one of the founder members of the Football League. In the 1900–01 season, the club moved to its current home ground, The Hawthorns.[3] Albion have spent the majority of their history – 81 of 125 seasons – in the top division of English football, including 24 seasons in a row between 1949–50 and 1972–73. From 1986–87 to 2001–02, they spent sixteen consecutive seasons outside the top division, recording their lowest ever league finish of seventh in Division Three in 1991–92. Albion have been promoted eleven times and relegated twelve times, with seven of the 23 changes of division coming between 2002 and 2010. The team played in the Premier League for the first time in 2002–03.
Albion have won the League Championship once, the FA Cup five times, the League Cup once and the Charity Shield twice, one of which was shared. They have been runners-up in the League Championship twice, in the FA Cup five times and in the League Cup twice. In European competitions, Albion have reached the quarter-final stage of both the Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup.
The club has played more than one hundred seasons since their first entry in the FA Cup in 1883–84. The table details the club's achievements in all national and European first team competitions, and records their top league goalscorer, for each completed season. Records of locally organised cup competitions such as the Birmingham Senior Cup and Staffordshire Senior Cup, which have permitted reserve teams from the 1900s onwards,[4] are not included.
- ^ McOwan pp. 7–8.
- ^ "In the record book". West Bromwich Albion F.C. 14 October 2008. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
- ^ McOwan p. 30.
- ^ Matthews (1987) pp. 202–206.