The First One Hundred Years

The opening 100 years of the Southern League.

When the Football League was formed in 1888 from Northern and Midland clubs, it was inevitable that a rival Southern League would soon follow.

This Southern League was eventually formed in 1894 for both amateur and professional sides.

It began with two divisions and Test Matches (play-offs) deciding promotion and relegation issues.

The very first Southern League champions were Millwall Athletic (now Millwall), who went through the inaugural 1894/95 season without losing a match.

The first team to dominate the Southern League, however, were Southampton, who won six championships in eight seasons between 1896 and 1904.

They also reached two FA Cup finals during this period but lost them both.

Tottenham Hotspur won the Southern League title in 1899/1900 but then capped this by actually winning the FA Cup in the following season.

Tottenham became the only non-League club to lift the cup since the formation of the Football League when they defeated First Division Sheffield United in a replay.

Centre-forward Sandy Brown became the first player to score in every round of the competition, and his 15 goals remain a record to this day.

It was also the first win by a Southern side since the Old Etonians 20 years before.

The strength of the Southern League was considerable at this time and in 1910, champions Brighton beat the Football League champions Aston Villa to win the FA Charity Shield.

During the 1910/11 season, the Southern League won representative matches against the Irish League, Scottish League and Football League.

The halcyon period was brought to an end when the Football League was extended to three divisions in 1920.

The Southern League First Division now became the Third Division of the Football League and the days when Southern League sides threatened to win the FA Cup were consigned to history.

The last winners of the Southern League before the mass exodus were Portsmouth, who won the 1919/20 championship.

In all, twenty-two clubs were lost to the Football League.

Inevitably, the 1920/21 season was quite different to what had gone before.

There were now English and Welsh sections, with nine reserve sides of former members now competing in the English section.

A play-off between the section winners was won by Brighton reserves.

Reserve sides actually won nine of the fifteen titles between 1920 and 1935, the most successful being Plymouth Argyle reserves with four championships.

In 1922/23, Ebbw Vale beat Bristol City reserves in a play-off to become the first team to take the title out of England.

The following season saw another variation with Eastern and Western sections, again with a play-off for the title – a format which was to last until 1936.

The champions were Peterborough & Fletton, who overcame Yeovil & Petters in the play-off.

Yeovil would have to wait more than 30 years for their first championship success.

The 1932/33 season saw the introduction of the Southern League Cup.

The first final was won by Plymouth Argyle reserves, who beat Folkestone 6-3 over two legs.

Plymouth went on to win three of the first four finals, including a thumping 12-2 aggregate victory over Tunbridge Wells in 1936.

The Southern League reverted to just one division for the 1936/37 season, with Ipswich Town winning the title at the very first attempt.

The immediate post-war era was dominated by Merthyr Tydfil, who won five championships in seven seasons between 1947 and 1954.

Merthyr completed two league and cup `doubles` during this period and also set a Southern League scoring record in 1950/51 when they amassed 156 goals in 44 matches.

Southern League sides also made a name for themselves in the FA Cup.

Colchester United eliminated Huddersfield Town in 1947/48, the first time since 1924 that a non-League side had ousted a First Division club from the competition.

Yeovil Town repeated the feat the following season when they recorded a famous success against Sunderland.

The 1955/56 season saw one of the most thrilling of all Southern League Cup finals when Gloucester City won 6-5 on aggregate, having trailed favourites Yeovil 5-1 at one stage!

This remains Gloucester`s only victory in the competition, although they were runners-up in 1981/82.

The 1958/59 season saw a play-off for the title once more between divisional winners Bedford Town and Hereford United.

Bedford won the play-off 2-1 to clinch their only Southern League title – although they later won the Division One championship in 1969/70 and the
Division One North in 1974/75.

The following season saw a Premier Division and a First Division in place, with Bath City winning their first title in convincing fashion.

One of the more remarkable title races occurred in 1962/63 when two clubs from the same city battled it out for the championship. Cambridge City finally pipped Cambridge United by just three points.

During the run-in, a crowd of 11,574 saw City win a crucial derby match 2-1.

Yeovil became the first club to win the League Cup four times when they defeated Guildford City in the 1965/66 final.

The Southern League championship has often unlocked the door to Football League status through the old voting system.

Oxford United (champions in 1960/61 and 61/62 having just changed their name from Headington United), Cambridge United (1968/69 and 69/70) and Wimbledon (1974/75, 75/76 and 76/77) all benefitted in this way.

The exceptions were Hereford United, who never managed to win the league title until doing so under its new guise of Hereford FC in 2017/18.

But the `old` club were elected into the Football League in 1972 on the back of their superb FA Cup performances, culminating in the remarkable and historical win over First Division Newcastle United in that 1971/72 season.

Hereford also featured in the first Southern League Cup final to be decided on penalties.

They lost the 1971/72 final to Barnet after a third match had failed to produce a result.

History repeated itself in 1979 when there was a second mass exodus from the Southern League.

Thirteen of the league`s strongest clubs left to join the new Alliance Premier League.

The competition was so weakened that when the 1979/80 season kicked off, there was no longer a Premier Division – just regionalised Midland and Southern sections.

The loss of its strongest sides also meant that the league now made little impression in either the FA Cup or the FA Trophy.

History was made in the 1980/81 season when penalties determined the destination of the championship for the first time.

Alvechurch defeated Dartford in the shoot-out after the play-off match had failed to produce a positive result.

The following season saw a repetition as Wealdstone beat Nuneaton Borough in a penalty competition.

The 1982/82 season saw the return of a Premier Division, with a South Division and a Midland Division.

The first champions of the newly-formed Premier Division were AP Leamington.

The Southern League became the Beazer Homes League for the 1987/88 season when sponsorship arrived.

The 1988/89 campaign was notable for the championship success of Merthyr Tydfil.

This was the Martyrs sixth title in all, equalling the record set by Southampton in the last century.

Merthyr had waited a long time to lift the famous championship shield again – their last success had been 35 years before.

One of the closest finishes to a league season occurred at the end of the 1990/91 campaign.

On the final day of the season, the title rested between Farnborough Town and Gloucester City.

If Gloucester could win at Bromsgrove Rovers, then the Tigers would take the title.

In the event, everything was decided in the final 3 minutes – an 87th minute strike from John Freeguard gave Gloucester victory, but the title was wrenched away at almost the same second when Farnborough`s Colin Fielder snatched the winner at Atherstone.

The following season was equally memorable but for a different reason.

A very competitive championship was eventually won by Bromsgrove who pulled away at the end to finish six points clear of their nearest rivals.

This was a remarkable success, however, as, at one point in December, Bromsgrove lay 16th in the table – a full 21 points behind leaders VS Rugby!

The 1991/92 season also saw a Southern League side hit the headlines in the FA Cup when Crawley Town defeated Fourth Division Northampton Town 4-2 in the First Round, thus becoming the first Southern League team to beat a Football League side since the 1978/79 season.

The 1992/93 season was another one of those exciting finales when the outcome of most of the league honours weren`t decided until the very last day of the campaign.

However, the Premier Division championship wasn`t one of those issues as Dover Athletic, under Chris Kinnear`s shrewd guidance, won the title by a whopping 13-point margin from Cheltenham Town.

The Whites lost only four times in the league and built their success mostly on a very solid defence, conceding only 23 goals in their 40 matches.

Indeed, Gloucester City, who finished 13th, actually scored more goals than Dover!

This season also saw the demise of Dartford, who resigned just four games into the campaign.

That meant only two teams would go down and Weymouth finished comfortably second-from-bottom but the other spot went to the last day between VS Rugby and Moor Green the two teams battling it out.

It was the former who suffered the drop and the Moors survived to fight on.

The Midland Division saw Nuneaton Borough return to the Premier Division, winning the title from Gresley Rovers by a five-point margin, scoring 102 goals along the way.

The league also lost Barry Town to the League of Wales, so with their departure and Dartford`s resignation and Andover`s request to drop into Step 5, there was no relegation from the two regionalised sections.

Sittingbourne went up as champions of the Southern Division, winning out on the final day after a battle with Salisbury for the championship.

Midland Division Stourbridge prevented Dover from achieving a league and league cup `double` by beating the Kent outfit 3-2 on aggregate in the Southern League Cup final.

And the 1993/94 Centenary season was equally as exciting, with Farnborough Town winning the Premier Division to make an immediate return to the Conference.

Unfortunately for Cheltenham, they had to play bridesmaid for a second successive year, with the emerging Halesowen Town a point back in third.

The relegation situation went right to the wire with any one of four of the bottom five in danger of going down.

But the results in the end saw Moor Green and Nuneaton, who dropped straight back down, join the Midland Division and Waterlooville and Bashley drop into the Southern Division.

The Rushden & Diamonds bandwagon rolled powerfully into the Premier Division as Midland Division champions, with VS Rugby bouncing straight back up in second.

There was no relegation again, due to the resignations of Dunstable and Canterbury City from the Southern Division, which was won by Gravesend & Northfleet from Sudbury Town in the runners-up spot.

For the second successive season, a team from the lower divisions won the League Cup as Sudbury eased out Premier Division Gresley Rovers 5-2 on aggregate.