Past Seasons - 1981/1982

Division: Northern Premier League

In fact the Centenary year was a considerable success. John Johnson and assistant Len Traynor assembled the best squad of the early 'eighties which included the returning Gary Cooper as a prolific scorer alongside Joe Strong, who took the `Player of the Year' award. In defence, Ray Mawson continued to provide strength at full-back and later in the season Southport gave a first chance to Paul Evans in goal; he was to render invaluable service over the next seven years, clocking up 190 N.P.L. appearances. Mike Ryman and Barry Hedley ran the Youth team, while Geoff Clarke, who had taken over the secretarial duties, proved more reliable than most.
The season began with the September l0th reunion of old players at the Bold Hotel to celebrate the club's Centenary, an event which occurred to the authors in the course of their researches for the data for this book! A total of 125 former
Football League players attended with their wives or girl friends and entertainment was provided by cartoonist Bill Tidy. It was a night those present will never forget as players covering the entire League history of the club were assembled under one roof. As far as can be ascertained it still remains the largest such gathering any Football League club has convened.
Just over a month later, on October 19th, Tom Finney came to open the newly refurbished Social Club under the main stand; it was announced on the night that John Church had agreed to become president of the new Southport F.C. On the playing front matters had improved to the extent that by March the club actually made an application to join the Football Alliance, conditional upon their finishing in the top three places. Though this failed to materialise, a harvest of 46 points from 42 games (in the last season when a victory earned two points rather than three) was substantially better than could have been hoped.

Sources: The Sandgrounders: The Complete League History of Southport F. C., by Michael Braham and Geoff Wilde (Palatine Books, 1995). ISBN 978-1-874181-14-9
Position Team P W D L F A Pts
1 Bangor City 42 27 8 7 108 60 62
2 Mossley 42 24 11 7 76 43 59
3 Witton Albion 42 22 10 10 75 44 54
4 Gateshead 42 19 14 9 65 49 52
5 King's Lynn 42 19 12 11 61 36 50
6 Grantham 42 18 13 11 65 53 49
7 Burton Albion 42 19 9 14 71 62 47
8 Southport 42 16 14 12 63 55 46
9 Marine 42 17 12 13 64 57 46
10 Macclesfield 42 17 9 16 67 58 43
11 Workington 42 18 7 17 62 60 43
12 Worksop Town 42 15 13 14 52 60 43
13 South Liverpool 42 13 13 16 55 57 39
14 Goole Town 42 13 13 16 56 60 39
15 Oswestry Town 42 14 11 17 55 59 39
16 Buxton 42 14 11 17 48 56 39
17 Lancaster City 42 13 12 17 47 50 38
18 Gainsborough 42 10 13 19 60 69 33
19 Tamworth 42 10 9 23 31 56 29
20 Morecambe 42 9 11 22 43 86 29
21 Matlock Town 42 7 12 23 38 72 26
22 Netherfield 42 5 9 28 31 91 19