For two clubs in north-east Italy relegation from Serie A was just the start of the problems. Gavin Willacy saw the trouble unfold
If Sheffield Wednesday, Reading or Ipswich get relegated from the Championship in May, their fans would be safe in assuming that the beleaguered club will kick off next season in League One. And if Southampton stay in the third division, you can at least expect them to be on the starting line again come August.
Gary Howard looks back at the 1949-50 Division Two season
The long-term significance
The post-war boom in football attendances reached a peak in 1949-50. On December 27, 1949, a record aggregate of 1,272,155 spectators watched the 44 League games, an average of 28,193. Even a rail strike in London didn’t hamper fans’ enthusiasm – 100 Brentford fans hired aeroplanes to take them to Hull. Second Division Tottenham were the best-supported team in the country, a feat achieved only once since, by Manchester United in 1974-75. Spurs went on to win the League title the next season. They quickly declined after that, but were revived in the late 1950s under the management of Bill Nicholson who had been a wing-half in their back-to-back title winning teams of 1949-51.
Accrington Stanley are struggling to stave off the possibility of going bust for a third time. Neil Billingham looks at how the generosity of the Lancashire people is helping them through their latest crisis
To go bust once is unfortunate. To go bust twice is careless. But to go bust three times? In August when Accrington Stanley were given eight weeks to pay an outstanding tax bill of £308,000 or face being wound up the other north-west clubs came together to help. Neighbours Burnley hosted a friendly match against Accrington which saw more than 5,000 fans turn up at Turf Moor, raising £50,000 for the club. Three days later, fans from across the region turned up at Stanley’s League Two match against Darlington to swell the attendance to 3,228, more than doubling the season’s average.
Altrincham have a history of cup upsets. But as Richard Pulford argues they never seem to get the credit they deserve
The 2009-10 FA Cup began on August 15, just ten weeks after Chelsea’s win last season. The press will again be looking for this season’s giantkillers and again we’ll all have a bout of collective amnesia about the greatest giantkillers of all. People always mention Yeovil Town when this comes up. The most famous giantkilling moments? A close run thing between Ronnie Radford’s goal for Hereford in 1972, Blyth Spartans’ run to the fifth round in 1978, or Sutton United beating Coventry in 1989 – yawn.
With Carlisle Utd facing an average away trip of 257 miles, their chairman is calling for League One and League Two to be merged on a regional basis. Roger Lytollis reports
Carlisle United managing director John Nixon wants fixtures played on Christmas Day and supporters issued with rattles and rosettes as they enter Brunton Park. Well, possibly not. But many would hardly be surprised, having heard Nixon argue that the Football League’s bottom two divisions should be regionalised, 51 years after Division Three North and South were scrapped.