1975–76 Kent Football League
The 1975–76 Kent Football League season was the tenth in the history of the Kent Football League, a football competition featuring teams based in and around the county of Kent in England.
The league comprised one division and there was also a league cup competition, the Challenge Cup.
League table
[edit]| Season | 1975–76 |
|---|---|
| Champions | Sittingbourne |
| Matches played | 342 |
| Goals scored | 1,265 (3.7 per match) |
← 1974–75 1976–77 → | |
The league featured teams from nineteen clubs, including seven reserves teams. Eighteen of the clubs competed in the previous season and they were joined by Maidstone United Reserves.[1]
During the latter part of the season, following liquidation and reformation of the club, the Tonbridge Reserves team was renamed Tonbridge AFC Reserves.[2]
The league was won by Sittingbourne, their first league title in the reformed Kent League.[3]
At the end of the season four teams left the league: both the Ashford Town Reserves and Margate Reserves teams were disbanded and resigned;[4][5] Tonbridge AFC Reserves resigned as their re-election was unlikely as the league was reducing the participation of reserves sides in the division; and Ramsgate Reserves may have suffered a similar fate had they not been replaced by the club's first team.[6]
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts | Season End Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sittingbourne | 36 | 26 | 5 | 5 | 87 | 38 | 2.289 | 57 | |
| 2 | Dartford Amateurs | 36 | 23 | 10 | 3 | 93 | 42 | 2.214 | 56 | |
| 3 | Tunbridge Wells | 36 | 23 | 9 | 4 | 100 | 37 | 2.703 | 55 | |
| 4 | Sheppey United | 36 | 23 | 9 | 4 | 91 | 44 | 2.068 | 55 | |
| 5 | Deal Town | 36 | 23 | 4 | 9 | 74 | 29 | 2.552 | 50 | |
| 6 | Medway | 36 | 22 | 5 | 9 | 90 | 43 | 2.093 | 49 | |
| 7 | Crockenhill | 36 | 20 | 4 | 12 | 84 | 52 | 1.615 | 44 | |
| 8 | Kent Police | 36 | 15 | 10 | 11 | 80 | 45 | 1.778 | 40 | |
| 9 | Snowdown Colliery Welfare | 36 | 17 | 5 | 14 | 64 | 53 | 1.208 | 39 | |
| 10 | Slade Green Athletic | 36 | 15 | 5 | 16 | 51 | 63 | 0.810 | 35 | |
| 11 | Maidstone United Reserves | 36 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 59 | 62 | 0.952 | 34 | |
| 12 | Margate Reserves | 36 | 12 | 6 | 18 | 53 | 79 | 0.671 | 30 | Resigned (team disbanded) |
| 13 | Herne Bay | 36 | 11 | 7 | 18 | 59 | 72 | 0.819 | 29 | |
| 14 | Whitstable Town | 36 | 10 | 5 | 21 | 61 | 100 | 0.610 | 25 | |
| 15 | Folkestone & Shepway Reserves | 36 | 10 | 4 | 22 | 50 | 79 | 0.633 | 24 | |
| 16 | Ashford Town Reserves | 36 | 8 | 5 | 23 | 57 | 117 | 0.487 | 21 | Resigned (team disbanded) |
| 17 | Dover Reserves | 36 | 4 | 9 | 23 | 36 | 92 | 0.391 | 17 | |
| 18 | Tonbridge AFC Reserves | 36 | 4 | 7 | 25 | 38 | 87 | 0.437 | 15 | Resigned |
| 19 | Ramsgate Reserves | 36 | 2 | 5 | 29 | 38 | 131 | 0.290 | 9 | Re-elected (replaced by first team) |
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal average.
Challenge Cup
[edit]The 1975–76 Kent Football League Challenge Cup was won following a replay by Sheppey United who defeated Sittingbourne in the final[7] with the first match played at Sittingbourne and the second at Sheppey.[8]
The competition, contested by all nineteen clubs in the league, comprised five single match tie rounds culminating in the final.
Quarter-finals, Semi-finals and Final
[edit]| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||||||
| Tunbridge Wells | 0 | 3[a] | ||||||||||||
| Medway | 0 | 1[a] | ||||||||||||
| Tunbridge Wells | 1 | 0[b] | ||||||||||||
| Sittingbourne | 1 | 1[b] | ||||||||||||
| Maidstone United Reserves | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Sittingbourne | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Sittingbourne | 2 | 2[c] | ||||||||||||
| Sheppey United | 2 | 4[c] | ||||||||||||
| Slade Green Athletic | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Sheppey United | 4 | |||||||||||||
| Sheppey United | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Kent Police | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Folkestone & Shepway Reserves | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Kent Police | 2 | |||||||||||||
Second Round
[edit]- Ashford Town Reserves 0 – 3 Medway
- Crockenhill 1 – 1 Folkestone & Shepway Reserves
- REPLAY: Folkestone & Shepway Reserves 3 – 0 Crockenhill
- Kent Police 0 – 0 Snowdown Colliery Welfare
- REPLAY: Snowdown Colliery Welfare 1 – 0 Kent Police
- Maidstone United Reserves 5 – 2 Ramsgate Reserves
- Sittingbourne 3 – 1 Deal Town
- Slade Green Athletic 2 – 0 Margate Reserves
- Whitstable Town 1 – 4 Sheppey United
- Tunbridge Wells 3 – 0 Herne Bay
First Round
[edit]- Dover Reserves 3 – 7 Margate Reserves
- Tonbridge AFC Reserves 0 – 1 Deal Town
- Folkestone & Shepway Reserves 2 – 0 Dartford Amateurs
- Byes for the other thirteen clubs
Sources:
- Final: "County Soccer Details: Results: Saturday: Kent League Cup, final". Kentish Express. 14 May 1976. p. 27. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "County Soccer Details: Results: Tuesday: Kent League Cup, final replay". Kentish Express. 14 May 1976. p. 27. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- Semi-finals: "Senior Soccer Details: Results: Saturday: Kent League: League Cup semi-finals". Kent Messenger. 16 April 1976. p. 16. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "Senior Soccer Details: Results: Tuesday: Kent League: Cup semi-final replay". Kent Messenger. 16 April 1976. p. 16. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- Quarter-finals: "Results: Kent League Cup". Thanet Times. 9 March 1976. p. 39. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "Results: Kent League Cup". Thanet Times. 30 March 1976. p. 27. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- Second Round: "Results: Kent League Cup". Thanet Times. 13 January 1976. p. 30. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "Soccer Results: Kent League Cup". Thanet Times. 20 January 1976. p. 22. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "Soccer Results: Kent League Cup". Thanet Times. 27 January 1976. p. 27. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- First Round: "Results: Kent League Cup". Thanet Times. 18 November 1975. p. 30. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "Results: Kent League Cup". Thanet Times. 2 December 1975. p. 28. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
References
[edit]- ^ "Two-div plan dropped". Evening Post. Chatham. 2 July 1975. p. 18.
- ^ "Angels fall but soccer goes on". Kent & Sussex Courier. Tunbridge Wells. 26 March 1976. p. 25.
- ^ "First Division past winners / runners-up". kentleague.com. 2013. Archived from the original on 17 April 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
- ^ Bennett, Mike (9 July 1976). "Building for the future". Kentish Express. Ashford. p. 28.
- ^ "Reserves may be disbanded". Thanet Times. Margate. 2 March 1976. p. 34.
- ^ Carpenter, Gordon (9 July 1976). "League bans the reserves". Kentish Messenger. Larkfield, Maidstone. p. 17.
- ^ "Archives: League Cup Winners". SCEFL: Southern Counties East Football League. February 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
- ^ "County Soccer Details: Nearly 3,000 people ...". Kentish Express. Ashford. 14 May 1976. p. 27.