Football Club History Database

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Home Page Main A-Z Index League Table Archive (Under construction)
Introduction & Explanation List of Leagues Included List of Cup Details Included List of Leagues Not Yet Included Bibliography / Source List /Links

Welcome to this database of football club histories, covering the clubs of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland from the dawn of competitive football to the present day. It covers clubs from the biggest names way down to village clubs and long forgotten names from the past.

The breadth and depth of the information contained in the database is solely dependent on the information I have at the time. Lists of the leagues and seasons that are included can be found by following the link below, while a similar list is available of the information I need to improve the database. (Any help gratefully received.)

Cup football is included to a lesser extent, but this is one area I intend to spend some more time on in the future, expanding to further competitions and to include more detailed results from the data already there. Expansion to include more Scottish and Northern Irish football (and other European countries!) is another area that I am looking at, also to include more reserve leagues/divisions when time allows.

How to use the database

The database currently lists the main statistical records for about 11100 clubs. Each record is organised in the same way - a seasonal summary of highpoints, league table information (Pld - W - D - L - F - A - Pts - Pos), and then available cup information. At the present, the database is organised by Club Name, not by actual club. This means that a club that has played under several different names (e.g. Clapton Orient/Orient/Leyton Orient) will have its record split across several records, while a club name used for 2 or more different clubs (e.g. Hastings United) will look like a combined record. I appreciate that is illogical and confusing, but it made the construction and checking of the database easier - it may be amended at some point in the future. (Clubs with the same name from totally separate areas, such as Milton United (Oxon) and Milton United (Staffs), where the playing periods may overlap, will in all likelihood have already been split). I've recently adopted a new convention, where, if the suffix is merely added by me to separate clubs for my own purposes, I will use square brackets - although it will take some time for me to catch up with names marked with normal brackets.

Extracts from the database may be used in non-commercial publications and match day programmes, providing that appropriate acknowledgment to the Football Club History Database is given (for instance, print the URL).

Reserve Teams

Perhaps it is appropriate to include a word or two about reserve teams here. As of now, I am only including data relating to reserve (or lower) sides that compete against first teams. As some leagues hold competitions expressly for reserve elevens, but also allow some to compete in the main league structure, I can sometimes be incorrect when I show a side joining / leaving a league, if the period before / after is played in a reserve division of the same league. Also, particularly in the days before the 1st World War, determining what constitutes a reserve team can be tricky - the "first team" could compete simultaenously in two leagues, or I could have got it completely wrong and got the first and reserve sides the wrong way around! In the North East, the second team was known as the "A" team until comparitively recently.

Club names

Where a club has changed names, I have tried to show the date I believe the change was made. In most cases, I would think this is correct - obtained from when amended monikers were shown in league tables, cup results, etc. Sometimes, clubs assume new names almost by stealth over a period of years - usually this is the adoption of the suffix "Town". The date given in the database is then a case of a best guess - as usual, any further information about name changes will be gratefully received

Sponsors

For sake of continuity, all competitions within club records are shown with their unsponsored name. However, the FCHD recognises the part that sponsors play in the modern game, and a page giving details of sponsored competition names is being developed.

Work In Progress

At the moment I am correcting errors found by correspondents, and adding bits and pieces of miscellaneous information, and collate as much as I can about the Anglian Combination, Wiiltshire League, Gwent County League, the Northants Combination, the West Riding County Amateur League and get restarted with the Welsh League.

INFORMATION NEEDED

A summary of information needed to complete irritating gaps :

Central Midlands League - missing tables are : 83/84 Div One, 84/85 Sen & Div One, 85/86 Sen & Div One, 87/88 Div Two

North Eastern League - tables for 39-40, 44-45, 45-46, 46-47 and 63-74, plus all the Division 2 tables (26-35, except for 33-34)

Kent League - the final table for 1966-67 If you can help, I can be reached on rrundle9@gmail.com

FUTURE PLANS

My priorities for future updates currently lie something like this :

The above order will definitely change at some point - I'm not too good at setting myself targets!, and depends to some degree as to what information I have to hand at any particular time.
Also when time allows, I would like to "attack" some defunct leagues, such as the Aetolian or Parthenon Leagues.
Home Page Main A-Z Index League Table Archive (Under construction)
Introduction & Explanation List of Leagues Included List of Cup Details Included List of Leagues Not Yet Included Bibliography / Source List /Links