Curious: Does anyone know what the record is for the most levels a club has been promoted or relegated during its lifespan? For example, I know Wigan used to compete at what would today be level 7, but they didn't have to go through the Conference to get to the League back then, did they? I'm just curious. Part of the romantic appeal of English football is that every club has a path to the Premiership. What's the farthest that path has been walked? ------RM
It's only relatviely recently such a large pyramid with auomatic promotion throughout has been in place. I'd doubt any pre 1939 League entrants were ever too far away from getting into it. That would leave the three sides to have played at the non-League level since 1945 as the obvious candidates for most levels promoted. Given their long history prior to achieving the upper levels of non-League football the most obvious candidates would be probably be Headington/Oxford United or Wimbledon. I'd suspect the former as they seemed to have spent a long time playing in relatively minor leagues before reaching the Southern League in the 1950s. As for relegations, taking the opposite (i.e. former top flight sides in non-League) there are currently two still surviving (Accrington folded, Bradford PA reformed). Glossop North End are currently at the 9th level and Darwen the 10th, though many of the relegations are due to reclassification of league statuses.
I know Farnborough Town, a few miles down the road from me, reached the equivalent of the blue square premier after 6 promotions by the mids 80s, having been formed as an amateur team in the late 60s. Remarkably they'd had the same manager since the amateur days. Their near neighbours Aldershot Town look on course to regain the league place lost when the original Aldershot went bust in 1992. That will be 5 actual promotions, as opposed to being elected to the league as Wigan, Wimbledon etc were. Carlisle and Oxford are the only clubs to have played in the top flight to have been relegated to non-league football (as opposed to failing re-election). the following clubs have all played in all 4 pro levels. Portsmouth Reading Bolton Wigan Fulham Watford Bristol City Crystal Palace Wolves Cardiff Burnley Barnsley Blackpool Sheffield United Coventry Preston Swansea Carlisle Brighton Swindon Oldham Huddersfield Northampton Luton Brentford Grimsby Bury Bradford Notts County and Wimbledon, prior to their demise.
Elected after 34 failed attempts, may i add, as well as a failed application to join the Scottish Second Division in 1972
34?!?!? If there's a definition of persistence, that's gotta be it. Why in the world would they have been turned down so many times? Did the other league members think they weren't good enough? Or did they fear they were too good? ------RM
They had a tendency to vote to keep each other in. Applications weren't limited, so a siginificant number of those made by Wigan might have been in seasons where they hadn't made a title challenge. This also tended to split the voting for the non-League sides. A good cup run sometimes helped, as did League sides going bust and someone in a remote location finishing near the bottom. Many sides (my own included) have had to go through re-election many times, others it only required a small number of times to be voted out. Incidentally Richard, you've missed off Leyton Orient.
Loads of things really. Wigan Borough, our predecessors, went out of business midway through 1931/32 season. The Football League obviously werent happy about this, some claim they didnt want another Wigan team in the League in case the same scenario were to happen again. Then there was the time we got a PR company to try to help us out in the election. They suggested as well as giving the booklet (which every club hoping for election / re-election produced) we should give the representetive of each voting club an inscribed Parker pen. We were immediately thrown out of the election that year for trying to "bribe" clubs into voting for us. Finally the story goes that in 1978 we played Sir Alf Ramseys Birmingham side in an FA Cup game. We got stuffed, but Sir Alf was that impressed with us he lobbied the clubs in the Midlands to vote for us at the next football league elections. Why we had to make a totally of 34 applications is a bit of a mystery. We were one of the bigger non-league clubs, playing in one of the better leagues, often managing to pull in huge crowds - 27,000 for one FA Cup game against fellow non-leaguers Hereford. I think we also hold the record of having put most league clubs out of the FA cup.
here's the list of re-election voting per season http://www.geocities.com/paulcrankshaw/re-election.html Wigan nearly got in for 1950, but typically weren't even close.
LOL! Wigan were the last team ever to be elected to the League! The club's a veritable fount of trivia. ------RM