Following Chesterfields relegation this week I thought it would be interesting to look back to when I first started supporting the County (that was in 1970) to see how many clubs from that time are no longer in the league.
The final tables from 69-70 showed Chesterfield as champions of division 4, the bottom three of Division 3 were Southport Barrow and Stockport County, the bottom 5 of division 4 were Workington Newport County Darlington Hartlepool and Bradford Park Avenue. Other clubs in the league that are longer in the EFL were Orient Tranmere Halifax Wrexham Aldershot Chester York Torquay.

So in total we've lost 13 from the North and Midlands and only 3 from the South.
I just thought it was interesting, but sad for all those supporters. I saw the County play at all of those grounds except for Bradford Park Avenue and Wrexham.

Thanks for that post, I wondered whether the north-south divide was like it is for everything else, just money. You didn’t mention Gateshead whose director’s apparently turned as white as sheets at the re-election meeting when they heard the bad news.

Interesting post, a lot of Football League history between those clubs. And if I'm right, six of those clubs mentioned have reformed since then. Although thankfully all remain at some level of the pyramid.

I was particularly sorry to see Chesterfield go, due to family links to that town. To some extent, I wish Orient were still in the league as I have a slight soft spot for them, in that I could easily have chosen to follow them instead of QPR (same tube line).... and obviously Wrexham being a Welsh club, I'd like to see them back in the League.
With the play-offs now being so difficult in the Conference, with 6 teams chasing one place, the only real way to go up is automatically. That takes a hell of a lot of doing, and any club achieving automatic promotion can breath a huge sigh of relief. Thinking of the likes of Torquay, they'll need to win two successive divisions outright, back to back, to get back to the League, or hope and pray they can succeed in winning two play-offs, but much much harder play-offs than the one we came up via. We only had 4 teams chasing the last place, now they've got 6 it's a total lottery.
It's distinctly possible some of those lovely football names are gone, gone forever.

For me, the next move should be to merge the North & South, top 12 in each Division, to form The National League, Championship Division.......at least get some of those big names playing each other again in some capacity, otherwise, long term the supporters will disappear, and so to will the clubs themselves.
I'm so glad we qualified for the inaugural season of The Conference South, it was so important to our long term future. Many of the clubs we left behind have still yet to progress any further........ WE REALLY DO HAVE MUCH TO BE GRATEFUL FOR GUYS!

The Conference might be extending playoff places down to seventh, but doesn't switching to one-leg ties mean if you finish second or third you now need to get through only two games to go up? One at home and the final neutral?

A lot more northern clubs have lost League status since 1970 than southern, but there must have been a heck of a lot more in the lower divisions to start with.

Looking at the current tables for the National North & South, it's clear there's more of an "ex-League" heritage in the North.