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Wow and it seems like yesterday and some amazing times in that forty years perhaps what fans of no other club could experience apart from maybe Wimbledon.
Like the years before it 40 unforgettable years.
From The Lancashire Combination to Europe. My God how fantastic.
Gratitude to everyone who have made that possible and well done to everyone who has come on board since.Re Wimbledon Donny we eclipse their achievements simply because we played in Europe and the League Cup final. Sadly for the Dons English clubs were banned from Europe when they lifted the FA cup.
We are the only club to have played in
FA Trophy finalFootball league trophy final (under its different guises)
League Cup final
FA Cup final
Community shield.
Not bad for a little club smack bang in the middle of the 2 most successful Cities in British football. Best club best fans end of.COYL.
40 years in the league & for me personally, i’m celebrating 40 years as a supporter.
Everything you said donny in your OP, i totally agree with. But i also agree with nuneaton. We totally eclipse wimbledon for the reasons he himself mentioned.
I remember feels like only yeterday i was at work when i got ‘ phone call to say we where elected to the football league
I was sat in a History lesson in my last year at school and the teacher came over to me and told me.
I couldn’t wait to get home to see my brother and my Dad as he’d been watching us since the 1940’s.There wasn’t a very broad spectrum of conversation for ages after the announcement, in fact with my Dad, two brothers and my sister all being Latics fans WAFC took up most of the conversations for years.
The last team ever to be elected to the Football League.Spot on Sammy
I know this is a very tenuous achievement but I’m sure we were one of the first teams to qualify for the centenary tournament at Wembley as well.
Wow and it seems like yesterday and some amazing times in that forty years perhaps what fans of no other club could experience apart from maybe Wimbledon.
Like the years before it 40 unforgettable years.
From The Lancashire Combination to Europe. My God how fantastic.
Gratitude to everyone who have made that possible and well done to everyone who has come on board since.Funnily enough don we were the last team to play Wimbledon at Selhurst Park before they were franchised off to Milton (shithole) Keynes.
A fortunate set of circumstances gained us our league place.
The rule (although not really a rule more a collective agreement I believe) was that the team who finished champions of the then Northern Premier League would be the only one to apply for election, the thinking being that if only one team from the league was to apply it would give them a better chance.
The Southern League also adopted this same policy and Bath City was the only other non-league team to apply.Latics finished second in the league that season some six points behind Boston United but their ground was not up to football league standards so the honour was passed to us and the rest, as they say, is history.
Here’s how the voting went:-
York City FL 49 re-elected to Division Four
Rochdale FL 39 re-elected to Division Four
Hartlepool FL 33 re-elected to Division Four
Wigan Athletic NP 26 (2nd vote 29) elected to Division Four
Southport FL 26 (2nd vote 20) not re-elected
Bath City SL 23I still don’t understand how we ever got voted in that year. For years previously we’d been massively dominant in non league and by quite a way the best supported non league club. But by then we’d started to wane a little and our crowds were dropping. Couple that with the fact that Wimbledon got elected the season earlier (I think). It was unheard of for 2 new clubs to be voted in.
In true Wigan Athletic fashion, everything was against us but we overcame it all. Some things never change.
I still don’t understand how we ever got voted in that year. For years previously we’d been massively dominant in non league and by quite a way the best supported non league club. But by then we’d started to wane a little and our crowds were dropping. Couple that with the fact that Wimbledon got elected the season earlier (I think). It was unheard of for 2 new clubs to be voted in.In true Wigan Athletic fashion, everything was against us but we overcame it all. Some things never change.
Very true.
For the reasons you’ve mentioned I completely forgot about our application, resigned to the fact it would never happen and most certainly not this time, and being shocked and surprised when the news came through.If there ever was an example of “when you least expect it”……
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