1979–80 Alliance Premier League

Alliance Premier League
Season	1979–80
Champions	Altrincham
Promoted to the Football League	None
Runners-up	Weymouth
Relegated to; Level 6	Redditch United
Promoted for next season	Frickley Athletic
Matches played	380
Goals scored	972 (2.56 per match)
Top goalscorer	G. J. Smith Northwich Victoria (29 goals)
Biggest home win	Maidstone United 6–0 Bath City
Biggest away win	Redditch United 1–5 Bangor City; Stafford Rangers 1–5 Weymouth
Highest scoring	Northwich Victoria 6–3 Barrow; Kettering Town 3–6 Stafford Rangers
	1980–81 →

The 1979–80 Alliance Premier League was the inaugural season of the Alliance Premier League – the first league outside the Football League to cover the whole of England.

Overview

Between 1979 and 2004 the single-division Alliance Premier League formed Level 5 of the English football league system. Since 2004 two regional divisions were added at Level 6.

The founder members of the Alliance Premier League were drawn from the Southern League and Northern Premier League, covering the country from Yeovil Town in the South West to Barrow in the far North. One club from Wales – Bangor City – also participated.

Teams

From the Northern Premier League

From the Southern League

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	HW	HD	HL	HGF	HGA	AW	AD	AL	AGF	AGA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Altrincham	38	16	3	0	45	9	8	5	6	34	26	+44	56	Alliance Premier League champions, no promotion
2	Weymouth	38	13	3	3	40	14	9	7	3	33	23	+36	54
3	Worcester City	38	12	6	1	29	15	7	5	7	24	21	+17	49
4	Boston United	38	11	7	1	40	20	5	6	8	12	23	+9	45
5	Gravesend & Northfleet	38	12	4	3	36	18	5	6	8	13	26	+5	44
6	Maidstone United	38	11	4	4	38	15	5	7	7	16	22	+17	43
7	Kettering Town	38	9	5	5	29	26	6	8	5	26	24	+5	43
8	Northwich Victoria	38	11	5	3	31	14	5	5	9	19	24	+12	42	Alliance Premier League Cup winners
9	Bangor City	38	9	6	4	21	18	5	8	6	20	28	−5	42
10	Nuneaton Borough	38	12	5	2	41	16	1	8	10	17	28	+14	39
11	Scarborough	38	8	8	3	32	14	4	7	8	15	24	+9	39
12	Yeovil Town	38	8	6	5	26	17	5	4	10	20	32	−3	36
13	Telford United	38	9	3	7	31	27	4	5	10	21	33	−8	34
14	Barrow	38	10	3	6	27	18	4	3	12	20	37	−8	34
15	Wealdstone	38	5	9	5	26	25	4	6	9	16	29	−12	33
16	Bath City	38	7	9	3	26	21	3	3	13	17	48	−26	32
17	Barnet	38	7	6	6	18	18	3	4	12	14	30	−16	30
18	AP Leamington	38	5	5	9	16	27	2	6	11	16	36	−31	25
19	Stafford Rangers	38	4	7	8	20	21	2	3	14	21	36	−16	22
20	Redditch United	38	4	5	10	18	29	1	3	15	8	40	−43	18	Relegated to the Southern League Midland Division

Source: ^[1]

Note: FA Trophy winners (Dagenham, Isthmian League Premier Division)

Results

Home \ Away	ALT	APL	BAN	BAR	BRW	BAT	BOS	GRN	KET	MDS	NOR	NUN	RED	SCA	STA	TEL	WEA	WEY	WRC	YEO
Altrincham		3–0	5–0	1–0	3–1	4–0	3–0	4–1	0–0	1–0	0–0	3–1	2–0	2–0	3–1	2–0	2–1	3–2	3–1	1–1
AP Leamington	1–4		1–1	2–1	0–1	1–2	2–0	0–1	1–3	0–2	2–2	0–0	0–2	1–1	2–0	2–1	0–0	0–2	1–0	0–4
Bangor City	1–1	3–2		1–1	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–2	1–1	1–0	0–3	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–2	0–2	1–0
Barnet	2–0	1–0	1–1		1–1	1–0	0–0	3–0	0–2	0–1	0–2	2–1	0–0	0–0	2–1	4–1	1–3	0–2	0–0	0–3
Barrow	1–3	6–2	1–1	3–1		2–1	0–1	1–1	1–2	0–2	1–0	1–0	2–0	0–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	0–1	1–2	2–0
Bath City	1–1	0–0	2–1	1–2	1–0		0–1	2–0	3–0	1–1	0–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–1	4–4	4–2	0–4	1–1
Boston United	2–5	2–0	3–1	1–1	3–0	3–2		4–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	2–2	2–0	2–2	3–2	3–1	0–0	2–2	1–1	3–0
Gravesend & Northfleet	0–2	3–2	1–1	1–0	5–1	2–0	0–0		2–2	1–0	2–1	2–2	1–0	3–0	2–0	1–2	3–0	2–3	3–2	2–0
Kettering Town	1–2	1–1	0–1	1–0	0–4	1–2	3–1	0–0		1–1	1–0	1–1	2–1	1–0	3–6	3–2	2–0	3–1	0–0	5–3
Maidstone United	2–2	0–0	0–1	2–0	2–0	6–0	1–0	3–0	1–3		3–4	1–1	4–1	2–0	2–0	3–0	3–0	1–1	2–1	0–1
Northwich Victoria	1–0	2–1	4–0	2–0	6–3	6–1	0–1	0–0	2–2	0–2		2–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	2–1	0–0	0–0	1–0	0–1
Nuneaton Borough	2–0	1–1	2–2	2–1	3–0	1–1	2–0	3–1	2–2	4–0	2–1		5–1	3–1	3–1	1–1	0–1	1–2	1–0	3–0
Redditch United	0–1	3–1	1–5	1–0	1–3	1–1	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–0	0–1	1–0		1–2	0–2	2–2	4–1	0–2	1–1	2–2
Scarborough	1–1	5–0	0–0	0–0	2–0	6–1	2–4	1–1	2–0	1–2	2–1	2–1	3–0		0–0	1–2	0–0	0–0	4–1	0–0
Stafford Rangers	1–2	1–1	0–1	1–2	1–1	4–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	1–1	4–1	0–1	1–1	3–1		0–1	0–1	1–5	0–0	2–1
Telford United	3–2	0–1	2–0	1–2	3–2	3–1	4–1	1–2	1–0	3–1	0–0	2–1	2–1	0–1	2–2		1–3	3–3	0–1	0–3
Wealdstone	1–4	1–2	0–0	2–1	2–1	1–1	1–1	0–0	2–2	0–0	0–1	2–2	2–0	2–4	2–1	0–0		1–1	2–4	5–0
Weymouth	0–0	2–1	4–2	1–1	1–0	1–2	3–0	1–0	3–1	1–1	2–0	2–0	6–0	0–1	2–1	3–2	4–0		1–2	3–0
Worcester City	3–2	1–1	0–0	2–1	2–0	2–1	0–0	1–0	1–4	3–1	2–1	1–1	3–0	0–0	1–0	2–1	2–1	1–1		2–0
Yeovil Town	3–2	1–0	1–2	5–0	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	1–1	3–0	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	3–1	0–2	1–1	0–1	0–2

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: Rothmans Football Yearbook 1980–81. Queen Anne Press, Macdonald Futura Publishers, London & Sydney, 1981.^[1]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

London

Barrow

Gravesend & Northfleet

London clubs:
Barnet
Wealdstone

class=notpageimage|

Locations of the 1979–80 Alliance Premier League clubs

Barnet

Wealdstone

class=notpageimage|

Locations of the 1979–80 Alliance Premier League London clubs

Promotion and relegation

Promoted

Frickley Athletic (from the Northern Premier League)

Relegated

Redditch United (to the Southern League Midland Division)

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Total^[1]^{[notes2 2]}
1	G. J. Smith	Northwich Victoria	29
2	Tommy Paterson	Weymouth	28
3	John Rogers	Altrincham	24
4	Aniello Iannone	Weymouth	22
5	J. P. Daubney	Maidstone United	21
6	Barry Whitbread	Altrincham	20
7	Bobby Brown	Boston United	19
8	R. O. Gauden	Scarborough	16
=	David Mather	Telford United	16
10	Roy Clayton	Kettering Town	14
11	M. J. Neale	Nuneaton Borough	13
=	M. C. Wheeler	Bath City	13
13	Colin Cowperthwaite	Barrow	12
=	J. N. Evans	Kettering Town	12
=	D. Gardner	AP Leamington	12
=	Gerry O'Hara	Worcester City	12
17	Neil Cordice	Wealdstone	11
=	Barry Howard	Altrincham	11
=	N. B. Johnson	Wealdstone	11
=	M. D. Phelps	Worcester City	11
=	P. Phipps	Kettering Town	11
=	P. T. Wilkey	Telford United	11

^ G. J. Smith's goals include also goals scored in the League Cup.
^ The number of goals is the sum of league and league cup goals.

Election to the Football League

As winners of the Alliance Premier League, Altrincham won the right to apply for election to the Football League to replace one of the four bottom teams in the 1979–80 Football League Fourth Division. The vote went as follows:

Club	Final Position	Votes
Darlington	22nd (Fourth Division)	49
Crewe Alexandra	23rd (Fourth Division)	48
Hereford United	21st (Fourth Division)	48
Rochdale	24th (Fourth Division)	26
Altrincham	1st (Alliance Premier League)	25

As a result of this, Altrincham failed to be elected to membership of the Football League, falling just one point behind Fourth Division's bottom club Rochdale.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Rollin, Jack (ed.): Rothmans Football Yearbook 1980–81, p. 939–947. Queen Anne Press, Queen Anne Press, London & Sydney, 1980.

External links

1979–80 Football Conference Results
Re-election Results Archived 9 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine

[2] G. J. Smith's goals include also goals scored in the League Cup.

[3] The number of goals is the sum of league and league cup goals.

[Rothmans-1] Rollin, Jack (ed.): Rothmans Football Yearbook 1980–81, p. 939–947. Queen Anne Press, Queen Anne Press, London & Sydney, 1980.

[1]

[notes2 1]

[notes2 2]