The Encylopedia of British Football

Eli Davis

Elisha Davis was born in Dudley in December 1855. He played local football for Florence and Wednesday Strollers before joining Aston Villa in August 1879. He quickly developed a fine partnership with Archie Hunter.

William McGregor arranged for Aston Villa to enter the FA Cup in 1879. Davis played in the first round tie against Stafford Road Works. Villa won 3-1 but withdrew from the next round game against Oxford University.

As Archie Hunter pointed out in his book, Triumphs of the Football Field: "Another special favourite with the spectators was Eli Davis, who worked the left wing and was noted for the really wonderful way in which he screwed the ball from the corner with his left foot. As everybody knows, a forward is not much good unless he can take the ball up and centre it in goal, and in doing this Eli excelled. He was a very brilliant and a very sure player."

Tony Matthews argues in Who's Who of Aston Villa that Davis was "a wholehearted performer, he was quite unflagging and especially good at dribbling, although a little imprudent at times."

Davis suffered a serious knee injury and was forced to retire from football in May 1886. He was later the landlord of the Golden Lion in Aston.

Elisha Davis died in Birmingham on 20th December 1897.

Primary Sources

(1) Archie Hunter, Triumphs of the Football Field (1890)

Another special favourite with the spectators was Eli Davis, who worked the left wing and was noted for the really wonderful way in which he screwed the ball from the corner with his left foot. As everybody knows, a forward is not much good unless he can take the ball up and centre it in goal, and in doing this Eli excelled. He was a very brilliant and a very sure player. In those days it was the rule to throw the ball with one hand only, not with two as is now the custom; and Eli, who was left-handed, had a very clever knack of throwing the ball from the touch-line right through goal. A great cheer always used to greet this performance.