Everything about Midland Football League totally explained
There have been at least two different football competitions in England which used the name
Midland Football League.
One existed until
1982 before merging with the
Yorkshire League to form the
Northern Counties (East) League.
Another changed its name from the
Staffordshire Senior League in 1989 and lasted until 2005 when it merged with the
Staffordshire County League to form the
Staffordshire County Senior League.
Midland League 1889-1960
Founded in 1889, only one year after the
Football League, the Midland League was the second league for professional clubs to be formed. Eleven clubs participated in the first season, 1889-90, four of whom (including the first Champions,
Lincoln City) would go on to achieve Football League status. The eleven founder members came from no less than six different counties.
In the early days of the Midland League, a number of the Champion clubs were elected to the Football League, and in return, League clubs who failed to be re-elected were often placed in the Midland League. Lincoln City and
Doncaster Rovers both had a number of spells in both the Football League and Midland League.
With the larger professional clubs becoming stronger, they looked to place their reserve side in the Midland League,
Derby County being the first in 1894-95. Within less than a decade, more than half of the membership of the Midland League was made up of
reserve teams.
Along with most other leagues, the Midland League closed down for the duration of
World War I. When football resumed in 1919-20, the Midland League began to take on a different look. Three clubs (
Chesterfield,
Halifax Town and Lincoln City) joined the Football League when that organisation expanded to form a Third Division North, and the reserve sides of Football League clubs gradually left. More Midland League clubs progressed to the Football League, for example
York City in 1929, and
Mansfield Town in 1932.
Again, on the outbreak of
World War II, the Midland League closed down, and resumed again in peacetime in
1945. After reaching a constitution of 24 clubs in 1946-47, the league entered a decade of stability.
Peterborough United won the title for five consecutive seasons from 1955-56 to 1959-60. With most of the remaining Football League clubs reserve sides leaving in
1958, the league was reduced to a rump of just 9 clubs, but was saved when the
North Eastern League, a competition which had also suffered from the withdrawal of reserve sides, decided to disband, and the Midland League accepted into membership a number of north eastern sides, well to the north of its usual catchment area.
However, this lifeline was to prove short lived. A new league, the Northern Counties League, was formed in
1960 and all the former North Eastern League clubs moved to the new competition. Peterborough United were elected to the Football League (the last Midland League club to achieve this feat), and the Midland League closed down through lack of numbers.
Champions
The champion clubs during this era were as follows:
Midland Counties League 1961-1982
After a single year without a Midland League, a re-formed competition entitled the Midland Counties League was formed, although common practice was still to refer to it as the "Midland League" and it's usually treated as a continuation of the former competition in reference sources.
1996 Leek CSOB
1997 Norton United
1998 Audley
1999 Norton United
2001 Norton United
2003 Eccleshall
2005 Hanley Town
Division Two
1995 Florence
1996 Baddeley Green
1997 FoleyFurther Information
Get more info on 'Midland Football League'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://midland_football_league.totallyexplained.com">Midland Football League Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
