At the end of every season, two teams face the ignominy of relegation from the Football League. This season, it was Notts County and Yeovil Town who suffered arguably the most damning and painful relegation in English football, two teams with a combined history of 281 years of football.
Yeovil have spent the majority of their history in the non-league game, but for Notts County, it is a first relegation from the bottom division in their 157 year history. No-one has a god-given right to anything in football, that is the nature of the sport and one of the beauties of it, but the relegation of a founding member of the Football League and the oldest professional football club on the planet is tinged with sadness even for those with no association with the Magpies.
Relegation from the Football League is notoriously damaging and difficult to bounce back from, and today we wanted to put that theory to the test. We asked you on Twitter whether we should look at the 7 most recent teams relegated from League Two, or the first 7 relegated following the division being rebranded in the 2004-05 season. You answered the latter, and we’re not nicknamed the people’s channel for nothing.
So let’s see if there are more reasons to be optimistic or pessimistic for the hordes of Yeovil Town and Notts County supporting subscribers to this channel.
Here are the first 7 teams relegated from League Two: Where are they now?
7. Cambridge United – League Two
Cambridge United manager head coach Colin Calderwood during the Sky Bet League Two match between Macclesfield Town and Cambridge United at Moss Rose Ground on May 4, 2019 in Macclesfield,…
The first team relegated from League Two in the 2004-05 season, a season in which the division was actually won by Yeovil Town, was former second tier outfit Cambridge United. In a season which began under the stewardship of Herve Renard, who now manages the Morocco national team, and ended under the stewardship of former Worksop Town centre-back Steve Thompson, Cambridge accrued a miserly 8 wins from 46 games.
The end result was just 30 points and a 24th placed finish. Returns to the Football League almost came in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 campaigns, as Cambridge finished as runners-up in the Conference on both occasions, but ultimately couldn’t secure promotion via the play-offs. In the end, it would take almost a decade for the U’s to make their Football League return, with promotion being secured via a 2-1 play-off final win over Gateshead.
Cambridge have been playing in League Two ever since, which is a total of five seasons, although they only narrowly avoided relegation this season, finishing one place above the relegation zone. Former Nottingham Forest manager Colin Calderwood is the man in charge at the Abbey Stadium right now, and the club averaged a little over 4,000 fans at home this season.
6. Kidderminster Harriers – National League North
I’ve fond memories of watching my team regularly play Kidderminster Harriers when I was younger, which should go some way to dispelling the suggestions that I support Man City, Man Utd, Barcelona or any other European giants that tend to crop up in the comments. Kidderminster joined Cambridge as the other team relegated from League Two back in 2004-05, in what was just their fifth season at that level.
Kidderminster have never bounced back into the Football League, and after ten seasons in the fifth tier, they were relegated once more into the National League North in 2016. It was almost very different for Kiddy, who only missed out on promotion to League Two by two points to Mansfield three years earlier.
Since dropping into the sixth tier, they have finished second once, but lost their play-off semi-final to Chorley. Former Football League regular and marquee signing James O’Connor is currently serving as caretaker boss at Aggborough, where Kidderminster have had an average attendance of 1,602 this season.
5. Rushden & Diamonds – Extinct
A general view of Nene Park, the home of Rushden & Diamonds FC, taken on July 6, 2011 in Irthlingborough, England. Rushden & Diamonds went into administration on Wednesday July 6 having…
Few clubs show how damning falling out of the Football League can be better than Rushden & Diamonds. In truth, Rushden & Diamonds already had problems off the field in the Football League, and the club had been handed over to the supporters’ trust prior to their relegation. The seeds may have been sown for the Diamonds demise in League Two, but those problems were compounded following a 24th place finish and relegation to the Conference.
Three mid-table finishes were followed by a more promising Lee Tomlin-inspired play-off campaign in 2009-10, but the club failed to seize that opportunity, and the 2010-11 season would be their last. Rushden & Diamonds were expelled from the Conference and faced a winding up order over a reported £750,000 worth of debt. The club entered administration in July 2011.
Since then, a phoenix club, namely AFC Rushden & Diamonds has been formed. That team started out in the tenth tier and has since won three promotions in seven seasons, taking them up to the Southern League Premier Division, where they finished 9th this season. The new Rushden & Diamonds are managed by Andy Peaks, and had an average attendance of 561 this season.
4. Oxford United – League One
The second team relegated from League Two in the 2005-06 season, Oxford United make it two from two for Britain’s two great university cities in this seven already. Oxford almost made an immediate return to League Two, but were losing play-off semi-finalists following a second place finish in the 06-07 campaign. The goals of James Constable fired them to promotion not long after though, with a 2010 Wembley win confirming their return to the big time.
Following six seasons in League Two, Oxford won promotion once again in 2016, this time with the goals of Kemar Roofe sending them into the third tier for the first time since 2001. They have held their own in League One ever since, and finished slap bang in mid table under the guidance of former long-term MK Dons boss Karl Robinson last season. Oxford also come in slap bang in the middle of the League One attendance charts, with an average of 7,315 being the 12th highest in the division.
3. Torquay United – National League
Jamie Reid and Jason Banton of Torquay United celebrate with the Vanarama National League South Trophy as Torquay United are crowned champions following the Vanarama National League South…
Moving onto the 2006-07 season, Torquay United are a team with a bit of previous when it comes to great escapes, but they couldn’t come up with one in the 06-07 campaign. In a tumultuous season which saw two boardroom changes and five different managers, including Leroy Rosenior for just 17 minutes – the shortest managerial appointment in football history – it should perhaps come as little surprise that the Gulls finished dead last.
They finished 3rd in the Conference the following season, and bounced back via the play-offs following a 4th placed finish the season after that. Five seasons of league football followed, before the Devon-based outfit were relegated once more in 2014.
They dropped into the National League South last season, but won promotion this season, meaning they’ll be back in the National League next season. Experienced former Bristol City and Yeovil Town boss Gary Johnson is the current Torquay manager, and they averaged over 2,500 in the sixth tier this season.
2. Boston United – National League North
The second current National League North side in this seven, Boston United were relegated from the Football League along with Torquay United in the 2006-07 season. That brought an end to a five-year stay in the Football League, Boston’s only five seasons in the top four tiers of English football, and even their promotion from the Conference in 2002 was shrouded in controversy.
Unlike the others in this seven, Boston didn’t drop from League Two into the Conference, but instead dropped two divisions into the Conference North due to FA rules having entered a voluntary administration. They finished tenth in the Conference North, but administration saw them automatically relegated once again, this time down to the seventh tier.
Boston returned to the Conference North, or National League North as it is now known, in 2010, and just finished their ninth consecutive campaign at that level with a mid-table finish. Craig Elliott is the current Pilgrims boss, and the club had an average home attendance of 1,105 this season.
1. Wrexham – National League
Barney player manager Edgar Davids looks to bring the ball down during the Skrill Conference Premier match between Barnet and Wrexham AFC at The Hive Stadium on October 13, 2013 in London,…
Completing this seven, as the first team relegated from League Two in the 2007-08 campaign – the other team was recent League Two play-off semi-final losers Mansfield by the way – Welsh outfit Wrexham are one of the best supported clubs in the non-league game. A former second tier side with a record attendance over 35,000, Wrexham famously knocked Porto out of the 1984-85 European Cup Winners’ Cup.
The Red Dragons had been a league club since 1921, but they brought that 87 year stay in the Football League to an end in 2008. They have finished in the National League play-off places in four of the 11 seasons since that relegation, including the season just gone, but have as of yet been unable to get across the line and win the play-offs.
Wrexham finished fourth in the National League this season, but lost their play-off quarter-final to seventh-placed Eastleigh. They’ll go again next season, under the watchful eye former Premier League player Bryan Hughes, and backed by over 5,000 a week at home on average.
So, to conclude, of the first 7 teams relegated from League Two following the Football League’s re-branding in 2004-05, two are in the Football League, Oxford United are the best placed as a mid-table League One side, two are in the National League, two are in the National League North and one no longer exists.
The picture looks a little brighter if one includes Mansfield Town, who went down along with Wrexham in 2007-08, and are now a top end League Two side, but not by much, and it becomes far more polarised if you look at the entire period between 2004 and now.
In that case, three clubs – namely Chester City, Darlington and Hereford United – join Rushden & Diamonds in having gone out of business, whilst Luton Town have risen from the ashes and won promotion to the Championship this season.
All in all, it’s clear that relegation from the Football League has some pretty severe and unsurprising consequences. Revenues and levels of professionalism fall, and the fact that only two teams win promotion from the National League – and now with the added struggle of a handful of bank-rolled clubs in English football’s fifth tier – a return to the Football League is far from a given, regardless of the club’s size or stature.
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