Royce Franklin, a life member of the Association of Football Statisticians, digs up yet more fascinating facts about football
ONLY FOUR teams have played in the top five tiers of English football – Carlisle United; Grimsby Town; Luton Town and Oxford United.
Lincoln City has been in the Football League for 104 seasons. They are still the longest-serving team without ever being in the top tier. They have been relegated from the league more than any other team – five times. Apart from 2011, when they were last demoted, they have returned at the first attempt.
At end of 1986/87 season, it had been agreed one team would be relegated automatically from the Football League. Lincoln was the first team to suffer and the last day was the only time Lincoln had been bottom throughout the season. They returned to the league on the last day of the following season by beating Wycombe 2-0. They were promoted in top spot which, ironically, was the only time they headed the league throughout the season. At the Wycombe game there was a then record Conference gate of 9,432 (subsequently broken by Oxford United who had 11,065 for their Boxing Day clash with Woking in 2006).
Eric Cantona played for Leeds United before moving to Manchester United. His first game in England was against Oldham which Latics won 2-0 at Boundary Park.
In these days when players seem to move for the sake of it, the example of Nathan Pond is there to behold. He plays for Fleetwood Town and recently appeared at Oldham in his team’s 1-0 loss to Latics. He has played for Fleetwood at seven different levels during his team’s unprecedented rise through the football pyramid. His first promotion with Fleetwood was in 2004 from the North West Counties League First Division and his last in May, 2014 was to League One.
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