Midland Football League

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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.

Contents 1 Midland League 1889-1960 1.1 Champions 2 Midland Counties League 1961-1982 3 Midland League 1994-2005

[edit] 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, e.g. 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.

[edit] Champions

1890 Lincoln City 1891 Gainsborough Trinity 1892 Rotherham Town 1893 Rotherham Town 1894 Burton Wanderers F.C. 1895 Loughborough Town F.C. 1896 Kettering Town F.C. 1897 Doncaster Rovers F.C. 1898 Mexborough Town F.C. 1899 Doncaster Rovers F.C. 1900 Kettering Town F.C. 1901 Sheffield United Reserves 1902 Barnsley Reserves 1903 Sheffield Wednesday Reserves 1904 Sheffield United Reserves 1905 Sheffield United Reserves 1906 Sheffield Wednesday Reserves 1907 Sheffield United Reserves 1908 Sheffield Wednesday Reserves 1909 Lincoln City 1910 Chesterfield F.C.

1911 Grimsby Town F.C. 1912 Rotherham County F.C. 1913 Rotherham County 1914 Rotherham County 1915 Rotherham County 1920 Chesterfield F.C. 1921 Lincoln City 1922 Worksop Town F.C. 1923 Sheffield Wednesday Reserves 1924 Mansfield Town F.C. 1925 Mansfield Town F.C. 1926 Mexborough Town F.C. 1927 Scunthorpe & Lindsey United 1928 Gainsborough Trinity 1929 Mansfield Town F.C. 1930 Scarborough F.C 1931 Grimsby Town Reserves 1932 Bradford Park Avenue Reserves 1933 Grimsby Town Reserves 1934 Grimsby Town Reserves 1935 Barnsley Reserves 1936 Barnsley Reserves 1937 Barnsley Reserves 1938 Shrewsbury Town F.C.

1939 Scunthorpe & Lindsey United 1940 Peterborough United 1946 Shrewsbury Town F.C. 1947 Grimsby Town Reserves 1948 Shrewsbury Town F.C. 1949 Gainsborough Trinity 1950 Nottingham Forest Reserves 1951 Nottingham Forest Reserves 1952 Nottingham Forest Reserves 1953 Nottingham Forest Reserves 1954 Nottingham Forest Reserves 1955 Notts County Reserves 1956 Peterborough United 1957 Peterborough United 1958 Peterborough United 1959 Peterborough United 1960 Peterborough United

[edit] 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 is usually treated as a continuation of the former competition in reference sources. A few of the previous member clubs re-joined, with a number of new members, principally from the Central Alliance. With the formation of the Northern Premier League in 1968, the Midland League lost four of its most successful clubs, but by now the competition was a strong league again and more clubs were looking to join than the league had vacancies. To cater for this, the league formed a second division in 1975-76. This division became "Division One" while the previous clubs formed the "Premier Division". Clubs had to achieve a high level of facilities to join the Premier Division, and so very few clubs were able to move from the lower to the upper tier.

When senior football in the north of England was rationalised in 1982, the Midland League was one of those affected. The league closed down, merging with the Yorkshire League to form the Northern Counties East League as a feeder league to the Northern Premier League.

[edit] Midland League 1994-2005

The Staffordshire Senior League was formed in 1984 and was a true County league, taking its clubs from Staffordshire and the areas immediately adjacent. When the league wanted to raise its profile, and attract clubs from a wider area, the decision was made to rename the league as the "Midland League" with effect from the 1994-95 season. There is no direct connection to the earlier league of the same name, and the level of football was much lower, with the competition being a feeder to the North West Counties League in the pyramid.

The "new" Midland League consisted of two divisions for the first three seasons, and from 1997 a single grouping. With a merger with the Staffordshire County League in 2005, the new competition became known as the Staffordshire County Senior League, and the Midland League title again fell into disuse.