The 1962/63 season saw one of the coldest winters ever and the club’s record defeat.
Goals were going in on a regular basis at either end and the signing of Alan Spence was
to prove a master-stroke.
The big freeze came early in the New Year and for several weeks football was at a
standstill but it came a week too late for Southport. On a bitterly cold Boxing Day the
team made the trip to Oldham. Boundary Park was more like a skating rink as far as
Southport were concerned and 14662 witnessed the biggest ever defeat in the Football
League with Bert Lister registering six of them. The fans and players had to live with the
memory of this for over seven weeks until the team could at last take the field again.
Even then the next game at Torquay saw a 5-1 defeat and everyone was glad to get back
on home soil for the first time in three months for a 1-0 win against Brentford.
The bright spot was a 6-3 win over Workington on Easter Saturday and Southport only
tasted defeat once in the last eleven matches to finish in a highly respectable 13th place,
the best in 7 years. The goals against column showed 106 which was the most the club
was to concede in a single season in the Football League. In an odd quirk the 72 goals
scored proved to be the most the club recorded in all the post-war League years.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brentford | 46 | 27 | 8 | 11 | 98 | 64 | 1.531 | 62 |
| 2 | Oldham Athletic | 46 | 24 | 11 | 11 | 95 | 60 | 1.583 | 59 |
| 3 | Crewe Alexandra | 46 | 24 | 11 | 11 | 86 | 58 | 1.483 | 59 |
| 4 | Mansfield Town | 46 | 24 | 9 | 13 | 108 | 69 | 1.565 | 57 |
| 5 | Gillingham | 46 | 22 | 13 | 11 | 71 | 49 | 1.449 | 57 |
| 6 | Torquay United | 46 | 20 | 16 | 10 | 75 | 56 | 1.339 | 56 |
| 7 | Rochdale | 46 | 20 | 11 | 15 | 67 | 59 | 1.136 | 51 |
| 8 | Tranmere Rovers | 46 | 20 | 10 | 16 | 81 | 67 | 1.209 | 50 |
| 9 | Barrow | 46 | 19 | 12 | 15 | 82 | 80 | 1.025 | 50 |
| 10 | Workington | 46 | 17 | 13 | 16 | 76 | 68 | 1.118 | 47 |
| 11 | Aldershot | 46 | 15 | 17 | 14 | 73 | 69 | 1.058 | 47 |
| 12 | Darlington | 46 | 19 | 6 | 21 | 72 | 87 | 0.828 | 44 |
| 13 | Southport | 46 | 15 | 14 | 17 | 72 | 106 | 0.679 | 44 |
| 14 | York City | 46 | 16 | 11 | 19 | 67 | 62 | 1.081 | 43 |
| 15 | Chesterfield | 46 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 70 | 64 | 1.094 | 42 |
| 16 | Doncaster Rovers | 46 | 14 | 14 | 18 | 64 | 77 | 0.831 | 42 |
| 17 | Exeter City | 46 | 16 | 10 | 20 | 57 | 77 | 0.740 | 42 |
| 18 | Oxford United | 46 | 13 | 15 | 18 | 70 | 71 | 0.986 | 41 |
| 19 | Stockport County | 46 | 15 | 11 | 20 | 56 | 70 | 0.800 | 41 |
| 20 | Newport County | 46 | 14 | 11 | 21 | 76 | 90 | 0.844 | 39 |
| 21 | Chester City | 46 | 15 | 9 | 22 | 51 | 66 | 0.773 | 39 |
| 22 | Lincoln City | 46 | 13 | 9 | 24 | 68 | 89 | 0.764 | 35 |
| 23 | Bradford City | 46 | 11 | 10 | 25 | 64 | 93 | 0.688 | 32 |
| 24 | Hartlepools United | 46 | 7 | 11 | 28 | 56 | 104 | 0.538 | 25 |
Source: Wikipedia the free encyclopedia and reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
FINAL TABLE LANCASHIRE COMBINATION (DIVISION 1) '62-'63 ======================================================= 1. Morecambe 42-68 (153-40) 31 6 5 Champions ------------------------------------------------------- 2. Chorley 42-68 (137-59) 31 6 5 3. Ashton United 42-58 (101-57) 25 8 9 4. Horwich RMI 42-55 (107-59) 25 5 12 5. Netherfield 42-53 (125-69) 23 7 12 6. Lancaster City 42-52 (96-61) 23 6 13 7. Marine Crosby 42-50 (92-73) 22 6 14 8. Nelson 42-48 (95-81) 22 4 16 9. Fleetwood 42-47 (97-71) 23 1 18 10. South Liverpool 42-43 (76-65) 20 3 19 11. New Brighton 42-41 (83-76) 18 5 19 12. Southport II 42-41 (80-76) 17 7 18 13. Clitheroe 42-40 (80-81) 17 6 19 14. Rossendale United 42-40 (103-138) 17 6 19 15. Skelmersdale United 42-35 (73-90) 15 5 22 16. Burscough 42-35 (68-93) 15 5 22 17. Bacup Borough 42-34 (81-110) 14 6 22 18. Earlestown FC 42-31 (88-132) 14 3 25 left 19. Prescot Cables 42-31 (71-108) 13 5 24 20. Leyland Motors 42-25 (54-106) 9 7 26 ------------------------------------------------------- 21. Darwen 42-16 (41-117) 5 6 31 Relegated 22. Lytham 42-13 (34-173) 5 3 34 Relegated
Source: The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.Author Dinant Abbink
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