Wrexham beat Notts County, but that so much was resting on this game in the first place has reignited a familiar National League conversation piece. twoht
As denouements go, it was certainly a strikingly dramatic one. Six minutes into stoppage-time at the end of the National League match between Wrexham and Notts County at The Racecourse Ground on Easter Monday and with the home side leading 3-2, a blow of the referee’s whistle brought a late chance at redemption for the visitors for handball.The result put Wrexham three points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand and three left to play.
More or less since its formation in 1888 the Football League had effectively been a closed shop, with the only way in coming through a byzantine system called ‘re-election’. At the end of each season, the bottom four clubs in the league would have to reapply for their place for the following season, along with any clubs who wanted to be voted in themselves from outside, and the four clubs with the most votes would be admitted for the following season.
This was a theme that reared its head almost every time a club was replaced from here on. In 1972, Barrow were the unwitting victims of Hereford United’s success in the FA Cup. In 1977 and 1978, the relative outposts of Workington and Southport were replaced by Wimbledon and Wigan Athletic.By the end of the 1970s, the tide was starting to turn.
The decision to finally allow automatic promotion and relegation finally came about as a result of Super League talk. In September 1985, with the game in crisis and crowds having hit record lows, 10 clubs – including Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Newcastle and Southampton – got together to discuss reforms for the game.
Perhaps the success of automatic promotion and relegation has been an unlikely reason for this stasis. After all, in more than three and a half decades of it, no club has ever been relegated straight back into the non-league game after just one season in the EFL, while the non-league football landscape is littered with the half-breathing cadavers of clubs who fell through that particular trapdoor and were unable to stabilise themselves.
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