Another disappointing season saw Southport finish in 20th place, without a win in their last 17 league games. Yet they 'began in tremendous fashion; the first six games yielded nine points, including five cut of six away from home; but at Haig Avenue Southport rarely shone, winning only five league

Magnificent victories over Wigan Athletic (10-2) in a pre-season friendly and Aldershot (4-1) in the opening home fixture raised supporters' hopes but the side were consistent only in their inconsistency and found away points particularly elusive; their first away win came at Stockport in January — 4-1, including an Alan

To follow 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

For the only time in League history, Southport finished last in their division—the 92nd team in the league—with a paltry 26 points. Trevor Hitchen's return as manager in June 1958 was no surprise; speculation had been rife ever since Hitchen had piloted VVigan to their shock Cup win the previous November.

Although at the A.G.M. the directors resolved to do their utmost to finish in the top half of the table and made twelve close season signings, Southport ended in 23rd place and thus became founder members of the Fourth Division. Pre-season hopes were raised when Stan Mortensen was appointed Team Supervisor

After the success of the previous season 1956-57 proved a bitter disappointment. The attack suffered from the absence of Bromilow in November and December at the Melbourne Olympics and Beadnell was kept out of league football through stomach trouble and never played for Southport again. Too often the defence collapsed

Curing one of their best seasons ever - Southport finished fifth with 57 points - six club records were created, four of which still stand. After losing at Hartlepools on October 8th the Club went a record 19 games without defeat. winning 12 and drawing 7, before losing 2-1 away to

Although Southport, who switched to an old gold and black rayon strip, had the best defensive record in the tour divisions of the Football League, goals were in such short supply that, in fact, only three league clubs scored fewer. Southport recorded six goalless draws in their league programme, including

As in the previous season Southport began in confident fashion, picking up thirteen points from their first ten games. Alec Gaskell, a product of the Leigh and District League, was a tireless worker at centre-forward who constantly harassed opposing defences and soon attracted the attention of several first division clubs.