Southern League Division One

Brighton & Hove Albion Southern League Division One Overview

Brighton & Hove Albion spent 13 seasons in Southern League Division One between 1903 and 1920, recording three top three finishes and winning the championship once.

The Albion were eligible for promotion to the top flight for the 1903-04 season after winning the Division Two title and defeating Watford in a promotion playoff. But before accepting a place in Division One, there was much debate among the Brighton committee over whether the club could afford the additional costs.

Some members felt that the Albion would be better served by continuing to play in Division Two, but the impassioned argument of manager John Jackson won the day and Brighton took their spot in Division One.

It proved to be a good decision as within seven seasons, Brighton were crowned champions. Not that many people saw the title win of the 1909-10 season coming – in four of the Albion’s first six seasons in Division One, they finished in the bottom four as the club initially struggled to adapt to life at a higher level.

Jackson’s side finished 17^th of 18 in their debut campaign, only avoiding a immediate relegation back to Division Two because bottom side Kettering Town withdrew and Portsmouth Reserves were not allowed to seek promotion as Pompey’s first team were already in Division One.

Frank Scott-Walford let the Albion to a surprise third placed finish in the 1906-07 season, although they were some way off the top two of champions Fulham and runners up Portsmouth. Scott-Walford departed a year later with Brighton back in the more familiar surroundings of 17^th and his place was taken by Jack Robson which proved to be the catalyst for the club’s golden period in the Southern League.

Robson delivered the Southern League Division One title for Brighton in the 1909-10 season. The Southern Professional Charity Cup was added to complete a league and couple double and at the start of the 1910-11 season, the Albion beat Football League holders Aston Villa in the Charity Shield to be crowned Champions of England.

Include the two midweek leagues that Brighton also won under Robson’s management – the Western League Division One A in 1908-09 and the Southern Alliance League in 1913-14 – and you have a grand total of five trophies in six seasons.

The secret to Robson’s success in Division One was sorting out Brighton’s form away from home. Throughout most of their Southern League stay, the Albion were extremely difficult to beat at the Goldstone Ground. On the road however they were often atrocious.

Brighton played 492 games in Division One, winning 192. 148 of those victories came at the Goldstone with just 44 being recorded on the road – an average of just over three a season. In the 1903-04 and 1905-06 seasons, Brighton recorded just one win all year on the road. In 1907-08, 1908-09 and 1913-14 that rose to three.

The most ridiculous season for highlighting the contrast between Brighton’s home and away form came in 1912-13. The Albion finished in a respectable ninth spot but won only one away game out of 19. At the Goldstone, they were victorious in 12, drew five and lost once.

It was not just Southern League Division One points that were hard to come by away from Hove; goals rarely flowed with any regularity either. The Albion scored 205 times in 246 away games in their 13 seasons in the division compared to 470 in 246 home.

In the 1905-06 season, Brighton put the ball in the back of the opposition net just six times in 17 away games. In 1908-09, they scored 14 in 20. That 1912-13 campaign provided nine goals in 19. Even in the 1909-10 title winning season, Robson’s side averaged less than a goal a game away from the Goldstone, scoring 19 times in 21 outings.

In fact, there were only three seasons in which the Albion scored at an average of a goal a game or more during their 13 Division One seasons – 1903-04, 1904-05 and 1906-07.

The Southern League took a four year break between 1915 and 1919 as World War I raged. It returned for the 1919-20 season, which proved to be the Albion’s last in the competition. At the completion of the campaign, Watford and Norwich City proposed that the Southern League clubs should join the Football League to form a brand new Division Three South.

It was a suggestion which had been mooted on several occasions previously but had always received short shrift from the Football League. In a post-war world in which the country seemed to have a new appetite for football though, the Football League had a change of heart and approved the idea ahead of the 1920-21 season at their AGM on Saturday 29^th May 1920. The League also announced that a Division Three North Section would be added for 1921-22.

Brighton left the Southern League with an overall record of 192 victories, 118 draws and 182 defeats from their 492 games. They scored 675 times and conceded 642.