The Southern League (Part 1) 1971-1979

Towards the end of the 1970/71 season the Southern League laid out plans, alongside the Northern Premier League, to form a pyramid of semi-professional clubs linked to eventual promotion to the Football League. The creation of that pyramid aimed at achieving automatic promotion to the Football League would take a further 8 years.

As a start the Southern League offered places in its newly constructed set-up to 32 non-member clubs.  Wealdstone and Maidstone United from the Isthmian League accepted their invitations. Wealdstone thus entered semi-professional football after spending 71 years as an amateur club.

The then manager, Alan Humphries, believed the Southern League required a “different” type of player to those that flourished in amateur football and retained just 2 amateurs, Tommy Mahon and Gary Austin, for the club’s inaugural season in semi-professional football. The new squad contained 2 players supporters would have recognised, Dixie Hale who had been a part of Watford’s midfield in the 1960s, and Cliff Jones the ex-Tottenham Hotspur and Welsh international winger.

The team made a faltering start to the season and despite continual tinkering with the squad, Alan Humphries was “promoted upstairs” and subsequently resigned.  He was replaced by ex-St Albans City manager, Syd Prosser.

The club spent 1 season in the Southern League Division 1 North, 1 season in Division 1 South and, following promotion in 1974, 6 seasons in the Southern League Premier Division before becoming founder members of the Alliance Premier League in 1979.

Over those 8 seasons the club played 324 matches, winning 126, drawing 82 and losing 116, in the process scoring 489 goals and conceding 470.

During the Southern League Division 1 South championship winning season striker George Duck smashed Matt Farrell’s goal scoring record by scoring 62 goals in all matches that season. George remained at the club from 1972 until 1979 during which he scored 251 goals in all matches, a record that comfortably still stands.

The 1973/74 Championship winning team included as its captain John McCormick, who had been signed directly from Crystal Palace where he had played over 200 games between 1965 and 1973. It also included Terry Dyson who had been a part of Tottenham Hotspur’s double winning side of 1961 and their victorious European Cup Winners Cup side of 1963 in which he scored 2 goals in a 5-1 victory over Atletico Madrid.

The 1977/78 season saw the club enjoy its best run to date in the FA Cup defeating Football League clubs Hereford United in the 1st Round Proper and Reading in the 2nd Round Proper, before losing to then 1st Division QPR 4-0 at Loftus Road.

In the same season the club competed in the Anglo-Italian Tournament for semi-professional clubs. The first 2 games were played at Lower Mead in March 1978 and resulted in a 4-3 victory over Paganese and a 1-0 defeat to Udinese. In June the team went to Italy and lost both matches, 1-0 to Reggiana and 2-0 to Arezzo.

In 1979 the club became founder members of the Alliance Premier League, entry to which was based on the average position over the previous 2 seasons in both the Southern and Northern Premier Leagues. Wealdstone scraped in on the back of their 8th place finish in the 1977/78 season.

During the 8 seasons Wealdstone competed in the Southern League between 1971 and 1979:

Author Mick Fishman

[22/06/2022]

Results and Match Reports (season by season) can be viewed by clicking on the link (s) below:-