A place which should have a FL team?

Dark_Side_of_the_Lune said:
Always surprised me that somewhere like Gloucester hasn’t yet Cheltenham have. Anyway just be thankful none of those north east mining towns turned pro
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Gloucester is one of the few (maybe the only?) working class towns in England where the main game is rugby union. Played across the community from the more typical private school kids to clubs based in council estates.

Gloucester City FC has always punched below it’s weight and had issues with flooding of its ground whereas Cheltenham have had a good chairman down the years who has made many more sensible decisions than bad ones. To achieve league one status with the crowds they get is remarkable. You can say the same about Accy but I would argue they have the advantage of access to a bigger pool of players given the North Wests population.
 
Many of the above named towns and cities did apply for league membership in the old days when voting took place but since the voting stopped its changed. One of the strangest applications was by The Argonauts in late 20s who applied and would have used Wembley for home games but not voted in, they never actually played a game it was just a money venture.
 
April13th1970 said:
Fareham, Guildford, Andover
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Historically you would have thought Eastleigh would be the place to have another football
league team in Hampshire when football developed in the 1900s.

It’s a few miles North of Southampton, and had a massive railway works which was the main employer in the town. Classic League division 3 South profile.

But it never happened and most people there support Southampton. Eastleigh are in the National League currently and were looking higher when Stewart Donald (yes, the one who was Chair at Sunderland buying Will Grigg on Netflix) was previously involved.

Andovers (and Basingstoke’) football standing reflect that both towns had a population of 30000 in the 1960s prior to a planned relocation of Londoners to the two towns. Basingstoke play at level 4 of non league whilst the third generation of ex Londoners board trains or get in cars to watch London teams 50 miles away.
 
There is only 1 team in Kent which is based in the EFL and that's Gillingham.
 
London has been mentioned in a different context but seeing it mentioned made me wonder why there isn’t a London FC or similar.
 
CherryTreeGardens said:
York City were in the EFL until 2004, in Division 2 in the 70s. Back again in 2012, out again 2016.
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Fair play, but If they ain't in the football league currently then York doesn't have a football league club 😉

Lancaster would be the better example as they've never been anywhere near the league whereas York maintained it for the majority of their history. Neither are particularly big cities to be fair, but a "War of the Roses" fixture in the football league wouldn't have been too shabby!
 
Shootz said:
Read somewhere that they missed out on being elected to the old fourth division back in the day because a chairman who had promised to vote for them had fallen asleep pissed!!
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Yes, that’s a true story. Another didn’t make it to the vote. They’ve just gone full time for the first time in the clubs history, so pushing for another chance.
 
Yeah and Salford struggle to fill a mini bus for away games
Macseasider said:
That's very vague tho isn't it. Like saying Salford is a Manchester United area but they still have a club.

Both maybe Wolves and Leeds areas but that's predominantly because they haven't got a team in the first place.
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MartonBornandBred said:
Agree with Lancaster. The only city in Historic Lancashire without a football league team.
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What's weird about Lancaster is it doesn't have any sporting team of note.

Places like Warrington and Wakefield have very strong rugby league traditions, Chelmsford is where Essex play county cricket, Gloucester is a rugby stronghold and Lancaster has... er... nothing.
 
With regards to Wakefield,
There has been several attempts to put together a Wakefield AFC.
The first to my knowledge was a team that came out of our under 18 league that I signed for but that fell by the way side after a couple of years.
The next attempt was the famous Emley side that won the FA vase and took West Ham to a replay in the FA cup.
Now that side had potential but after a game against Staylybridge that attracted a crowd of nearly 4 thousand. crowds were less than when at Emley. In the end they gave up and moved back to Emley.
More recently Chris Turner the ex Man Utd keeper fronted a consortium to establish another Wakefield side but again I haven't seen anything about this in recent local news.
The best supported side in the region is Ossett United who play their football in the Northern Premier League who average 500+ but to achieve this town and Albion had to amalgate.
I don't think Wakefield will ever have a side that challenge any of the other local sides.
 
midfield general said:
With regards to Wakefield,
There has been several attempts to put together a Wakefield AFC.
The first to my knowledge was a team that came out of our under 18 league that I signed for but that fell by the way side after a couple of years.
The next attempt was the famous Emley side that won the FA vase and took West Ham to a replay in the FA cup.
Now that side had potential but after a game against Staylybridge that attracted a crowd of nearly 4 thousand. crowds were less than when at Emley. In the end they gave up and moved back to Emley.
More recently Chris Turner the ex Man Utd keeper fronted a consortium to establish another Wakefield side but again I haven't seen anything about this in recent local news.
The best supported side in the region is Ossett United who play their football in the Northern Premier League who average 500+ but to achieve this town and Albion had to amalgate.
I don't think Wakefield will ever have a side that challenge any of the other local sides.
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Went to watch Wakefield v Fleetwood in an FA Cup match in Sept 08. Still have the matchday programme from the game which Fleetwood won 0-3.
 
It was Crawley; Palace to the north, Brighton to the south, Gillingham to the north-east and Portsmouth to the south-west.
 
Dark_Side_of_the_Lune said:
Always surprised me that somewhere like Gloucester hasn’t yet Cheltenham have. Anyway just be thankful none of those north east mining towns turned pro.
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Poor old Gloucester City hadn’t been able to even play in their own City for 13 yearscbut looks like since 2020 they have but then with the pandemic had no fans able to attend for some time after.
Think they were on the verge of going out of business as a result.
 
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