1887–88 Aston Villa F.C. season

The 1887–88 English football season was Aston Villa's 9th season in the Football Association Cup, the top-level football competition at the time. It was not as successful ending. There were debuts for Gershom Cox, Harry Devey, Tommy Green and Albert Allen. Inside-forward Allen became Villa's first England international scoring three goals in a 5–1 victory over Ireland in april 1888.

Wellington Road's record attendance of 26,849 was set for an FA Cup fifth round match against Preston North End on 7 January 1888. Preston won 3–1, and the match was marred by a huge pitch invasion, the first serious incidence of crowd trouble in English football.

With competitive football at a premium, William McGregor (Villa's President) worked to create a competition involving regular matches and wrote to the leading clubs of the time (all based in the North of England and the Midlands). After some discussion the clubs agreed to set up a twelve team league. Each club would play the other home and away, for a total of twenty-two matches each. Villa were to be joined in the inaugural competition by Stoke, Wolves, West Brom, Notts County, Burnley, Blackburn Rovers, Derby County, Bolton Wanderers, Everton, Accrington (no relation to the present-day Accrington Stanley) and Preston North End. The league was never styled 'the English League' as McGregor envisioned that Scottish clubs would one day wish to join.