"New" League teams

[davethegrave]

A lot has been made of the the fact that this is our first season in the Football League after a wait of 123 years.

I was trying to work out how many other "new" teams are still in the league - that is those with no previous league history.

The first one I consider is Wimbledon who were one of the first to benefit from being voted into the league. Their status was then stolen from them so I don't consider that they have been relegated from the league.

That was in the days when teams like Hartlepool and Southport would constantly finish around the bottom of the league but were always re-elected.

Then the following have come up and stayed.

Crawley, Salford, Harrogate, Forest Green Rovers, Burton, Cheltenham, Fleetwood, Morecambe, Wigan, Wycombe, Stevenage.

That's more than I thought really. Does this mean that there is a big shift in the way football clubs are run?

PS - I think maybe Peterborough come into this list but that was a bit before my time.

[boomboom]

Yes, Peterborough (and Oxford Utd) can be added to that list.

[davep]

I think that Peterborough came up from the Midland League around about 1960 - and they are now the joint highest fairly recent non-league club in the pyramid along with Luton. Slightly more recently promoted from non-league than Peterborough was Oxford United. Not sure whether MK Dons should be included? Cambridge United have been up and down between League and non-league since first coming up from non-league football. Of course some have come up - gone down - then folded - Scarborough, Rushden & Diamonds, Maidstone Town. 12 ex-league teams in the National League Premier next season. 9 ex-league teams in the Conference North. None in the Conference South (Maidstone United not the same team as the former Maidstone Town).

[davethegrave]

I don't think that you can count MK at all.

Also Luton dropped out and then got back in like several others such as Tranmere.

I'll delete Cambridge then. I'd forgotten that.

[davep]

I wasn't suggesting that Luton were a 'new league team' - I can remember then winning the League Cup (beating Arsenal in the final) - just stating that Luton and Peterborough are currently the only teams that played non-league football during my lifetime to be playing as high as the Championship (following Wycombe's relegation at the end of last season).

[VCLXI]

I remember Doncaster and Yeovil quite recently managed to get to the Championship level.

[davethegrave]

Yeovil are no longer in the league though.