Looking Back……Season 1993/94

One of the most exciting finishes to a season ever.

The 1993/94 Southern League season had an outstanding finale.

Amazingly, not a single title issue was settled until the last week of the campaign.

After a 38-week season, only five days remained when Farnborough Town put five goals past Gresley Rovers, without reply, to earn their second Premier Division championship success in four years.

The Hampshire outfit had spent two years in the Conference before dropping back down and had to attempt to make an immediate return without long-serving manager Ted Pearce, who had retired at the end of the 1992/93 season.

Alan Taylor, previously senior coach under Pearce, took the helm and produced a good squad of young and senior players.

Two of his most productive signings were strikers Chris Boothe and Trevor Senior (pictured), who joined from Hanwell Town and Weymouth respectively, as they finished with 50 goals between them, with Senior just edging it 26 to 24.

Farnborough conceded only 44 goals in their 42 league games, including five at Bashley, four at Gresley, and an amazing game at Cherrywood Road against Chelmsford City on February 8th.

Boro led 5-2 at half-time but only just scraped through 7-6 in one of the most memorable games ever seen at Farnborough.

As the title race came to a close, Boro`s last away trip was to Corby Town.

An astonishing 6-0 win, thanks to a hat-trick from Boothe, a brace from Senior and one from Jamie Horton, coupled with Cheltenham Town and Crawley Town – the closest rivals over the season – both losing at home, put Boro`s destiny in their own hands.

A revenge 5-0 victory at home to Gresley got the champagne corks popping at Cherrywood Road.

Cheltenham took the runners-up spot, but Crawley dropped down to finish fifth, with Atherstone United and Halesowen Town moving above them – it was the Yeltz`s highest ever position in football to date.

It was a sad season for Nuneaton Borough, however.

Founder members of the Alliance Premier League in 1979/80, Nuneaton were relegated from the top echelons of non-League football in 1987 and dropped straight through to the Southern League Midland Division after finishing second-from-bottom in the Premier Division in 87/88.

Five years in the wilderness followed for one of the best-known names outside the Football League before they returned to the Premier Division under former Everton and Worcester City full-back John Barton in 92/93.

However, results in 1993/94 forced the Board of Directors to act and, after a `warning` letter to Barton over the results, he resigned in March 1994, soon to be replaced by 38-year-old former Bedford Town, Barnet, and Kidderminster Harriers forward Elwyn Roberts, who had done a good job as player-manager at Corby Town.

Ironically, a 2-1 win against his former club on April 23rd gave Boro a chance of staying up.

However, that was followed by a 5-3 defeat at Gresley and a 1-0 loss at Moor Green, with a 1-1 draw against the team immediately above them, Bashley, sealing their fate and back down they went to spend another couple of seasons in the Midland Division.

The emerging Rushden & Diamonds won the Midland Division title also on May`s first Bank Holiday Monday with a win over Forest Green Rovers and, like Farnborough, also by a 5-0 margin, thanks to goals from Micky Nuttell with two, Aidy Mann, Dale Watkins and centre-back John Coe.

Curiously and with some sort of magic hindsight, that particular game, played in front of a crowd of 1,504, kicked-off at the unusual time of 7pm.

The floodlights at the magnificently emerging Nene Park ground failed and the game was played out in fading light.

Had it been a normal kick-off time, there`s no way it would have finished!

Diamonds finished eight points clear of the team in second, having lost only two matches in the league – 3-2 at home to struggling Hinckley Town and 2-1 at Weston-super-Mare, who were chasing runners-up spot.

But Weston could only draw with Redditch United during the final midweek of the season.

This handed the initiative to VS Rugby and both entered their final fixtures knowing that only a victory was good enough to keep alive their promotion hopes.

Weston, though, needed Rugby to drop points at Racing Club Warwick – it wasn`t to be – Valley won 2-0, whilst the Seagulls convincingly beat Bridgnorth Town to finish in third place with a whopping 91 points.

The South Division was even closer.

Despite leading the table for much of the season, Gravesend & Northfleet still needed a point from their last game to clinch the title.

Bury Town, bottom of the table with just 14 points and three wins, were Fleet`s opponents and Gary Aldous`s side earned a predictable 3-0 win to collect the trophy.

Having lost 2-1 on the penultimate Saturday to late promotion challengers Havant Town, Sudbury Town, under former Arsenal midfielder Richie Powling, then dropped two midweek points at Fisher.

In the same midweek, Witney Town collected six points from games against Buckingham Town and Fareham Town to take them three points clear of Sudbury in the race for second spot.

A single point from their last game would secure runners-up spot – nothing but a win would keep Sudbury`s promotion hopes alive.

Their respective problem was that they were playing each other!

Sudbury won the titanic battle 2-1, and Andy Lyne`s Blanketmen finished third for the second year running.

This was also the year when the league celebrated its Centenary.

Amongst other things, the league had a representative side who played a variety of opponents.

The Southern League beat an FA XI 4-1 at Manor Park, Nuneaton, earned a 0-0 draw against Premier League Wimbledon at Dorchester Town and were beaten 2-1 by Division One side Millwall at Ashford Town.