The English Football Pyramid was the brainchild of the controversial former Maidstone United chairman Jim Thompson and it changed lower league football forever.
To mark the publication of a new book called “Pyramid Schemes” by Maidstone author Fred Atkins, we looked at the impact the new system has had on football in the county where the idea for a new league system first took hold.
Kent Football got a raw deal before 1979. An archaic election meant system its clubs stood almost no chance of reaching the Football League and plenty had tried.
The league’s predominantly northern members didn’t like travelling south of Watford and they almost always invoked the ‘Old Pals Act’ voting for their neighbours, knowing the favour would be returned if they fell on hard times.
Gillingham were the only Kent side ever elected, first in 1920, then again in 1950 and no one else came close. Folkestone tried repeatedly during the 1930s, but never got more than five votes.
In 1983 Maidstone, the Alliance Premier League’s runners-up received 26 votes, the highest ever tally by a losing candidate. They were told to come back the following year as champions, but when they did their vote went down.
Things didn’t really change until automatic promotion was introduced in 1987 and although only two Kent sides, Bromley and Maidstone have been promoted to the Football League, seven have made it to the National League, with Ebbsfleet and Dover making the play-offs.
As well as the abovementioned, Dartford, Margate and Welling have spent several seasons in the de facto fifth division.
The author believes that despite what the non-league game existing in what he describes as a “permanent state of chaos,” in Kent at least football is far healthier than it was 45 years ago.
“Crowds are up, pitches have improved drastically, stadia and facilities have improved almost everywhere other than Canterbury,” he says.
“The odds were stacked against Kent clubs under the old election system because the league was a predominantly northern competition and its members didn’t like travelling south of Watford.
“It didn’t matter how good you were on the pitch, you were at the mercy of an electorate who almost always looked after each other. Now everyone knows that if you’re good enough on the pitch you will get your rewards.”
The new system came at a price, however, and for every side that made it to the Football League, another went bust trying. We look at the winners and losers from the past 45 years…
Rankings
The pyramid makes it easy to rank Kent’s sides now, but back in 1979 it was more complicated.
The Southern and Isthmian leagues were of roughly the same stature and the Kent League was a feeder to both, but we excluded clubs who played in London’s amateur leagues.
We’ve also used the pre-1963 border and included clubs from the Greater London Boroughs of Bexley and Bromley.
When judging the biggest winners and losers, we’ve treated reformed clubs like Dartford, Dover and Maidstone as one club and perhaps more controversially, have considered Folkestone Invicta as the heirs to Folkestone & Shepway, given that they inherited their fan base, ground and colour. Feel free to disagree in the comments.
Key: FL: Football League; SL: Southern League; IL: Isthmian League; KL: Kent League; KAL: Kent Amateur League
Winners
A lot of clubs have done well under the new structure, with 12 forcing their way into the top 30. The highest climbers are either Folkestone Invicta (depending on which side of that debate you sit), or Cray Wanderers, who are 14 places better off, but the biggest transformation has taken place at Hayes Lane, where Bromley have gone from being an unremarkable Isthmian League side that played to gates of a few hundred, to a League Two outfit watched by over 3,000 fans every Saturday.
Losers
Canterbury City were just outside the top 10 in 1979 – they’re now 45th and have been homeless for a quarter of a century. Hythe, Ashford and Margate have all slid down the rankings but they are still with us, unlike Darenth Heathside, Dartford Glentworth, Kent Police, and Snowdown Colliery Welfare who have all vanished completely.
Most volatile
Maidstone United’s plummet from Division 4 of the Football League to Division 4 of the Kent County League remains the biggest fall in the history of a system that was designed by their former chairman, but they’ve been promoted 10 times and relegated thrice since, which at least keeps things interesting.
Running to a standstill
Apart from a solitary season in 1989-90, when they finished behind Maidstone, Gillingham have been Kent’s highest-ranked side since Arsenal left Woolwich.
Gravesend & Northfleet remain third: they dipped into the seventh tier for a couple of years in the 80s but have otherwise bounced between the fifth and sixth, despite regular turbulence and a change of name.
Tonbridge are about as stable as it gets, never lower than the eighth tier, never higher than the sixth, but even they look volatile compared to their neighbours Tunbridge Wells.
They’ve remained in the Kent League and its successor, the SCEFL, since they were reformed in 1968, never getting relegated, never getting promoted.
