Xàbia Shrimper
Co-founder of ShrimperZone
The list below might surprise a few people but it's been devised on several historical criteria:
a) the number of seasons in the Football League
b) the number of seasons at Level II (20pts per season)
c) the number of seasons at Level III (10pts)
d) the number of seasons at Level IV (5pts)
Simple calculation: [(b+c+d)/a] gives an average from which a table can be devised thus:
1. Hull City
2. Plymouth Argyle
3. Port Vale
4. Rotherham United
5. Bristol Rovers
6. Lincoln City
7. Chesterfield
8. Walsall
9. Stockport County
10. Shrewsbury Town
11. Tranmere Rovers
12. AFC Bournemouth
13. Doncaster Rovers
14. Southend United
15. Gillingham
16. Crewe Alexandra
17. Wrexham
18. Wycombe Wanderers
19. Mansfield Town
20. Scunthorpe United
Points to note: even though, by modern standards, they might not have any ground to claim that they are "the bigger club", the vast majority of teams above Southend United have spend a substantial amount of their history at Level II. (Yes, even Lincoln City (34%) and Stockport County (27%) as opposed to the Shrimpers (> 9%)!)
Of course this list doesn't prove who is actually the BIGGEST club never to have played top-flight football; that's really a personal opinion which would fluctuate wildly between geographical divides. But this list does prove that Southend United are *historically-speaking* punching above their weight at the moment ...
a) the number of seasons in the Football League
b) the number of seasons at Level II (20pts per season)
c) the number of seasons at Level III (10pts)
d) the number of seasons at Level IV (5pts)
Simple calculation: [(b+c+d)/a] gives an average from which a table can be devised thus:
1. Hull City
2. Plymouth Argyle
3. Port Vale
4. Rotherham United
5. Bristol Rovers
6. Lincoln City
7. Chesterfield
8. Walsall
9. Stockport County
10. Shrewsbury Town
11. Tranmere Rovers
12. AFC Bournemouth
13. Doncaster Rovers
14. Southend United
15. Gillingham
16. Crewe Alexandra
17. Wrexham
18. Wycombe Wanderers
19. Mansfield Town
20. Scunthorpe United
Points to note: even though, by modern standards, they might not have any ground to claim that they are "the bigger club", the vast majority of teams above Southend United have spend a substantial amount of their history at Level II. (Yes, even Lincoln City (34%) and Stockport County (27%) as opposed to the Shrimpers (> 9%)!)
Of course this list doesn't prove who is actually the BIGGEST club never to have played top-flight football; that's really a personal opinion which would fluctuate wildly between geographical divides. But this list does prove that Southend United are *historically-speaking* punching above their weight at the moment ...
