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      VANARAMA NATIONAL LEAGUE
2019/20
     

See notes below table
 

Leading League goalscorer:
 Scott Quigley
(Barrow)
 20 goals

Sadly this will be remembered as the season of the coronavirus pandemic which saw the last National League matches being played in March.  With 101 games left unplayed a points per game table replaced the traditional points table - full details to the right below the league table. The revised table saw a couple of important changes. Barnet replaced Stockport in the lowest play-off place while at the bottom Ebbsfleet replaced Maidenhead in the third relegation spot by the narrowest of possible margins. Mind you, in a normal season Maidenhead would have been relegated as well but for the evening up of the size of divisions following Bury losing their EFL place at the start of the season.

Congratulations to champions Barrow who regained the Football League place they lost at the end of the 1971/72 season.

The Wembley play-off final to decide the second club to be promoted to the Football brought together two clubs with very different histories. Until a year previously Notts County could boast as being the oldest League club in the world but after a year in non-league surroundings they were hoping to regain that League place. As a contrast their opponents were Harrogate Town who had only been in the top division of the National League for two season and had only been a full-time professional club for a year longer than that. The result - well the team from 'the town full of teashops'  beat Notts County 3-1 to claim their place in the Football League.

OK, the match at Wembley was sadly played behind closed doors - but you know there's always going to be a programme......

Not so fortunate were Fylde who a year previously had missed their chance of a Football League place when they lost to Salford in the play-off final. This season they were relegated although they did have a match to remember narrowly losing 2-1 away to Premier League Sheffield United in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup.

  P W D L F A Pts

PPG

Position
Change
    1 Barrow 37 21 7 9 68 39 70 1.892 Promoted -
    2 Harrogate Town 37 19 9 9 61 44 66 1.784 Promoted -
    3 Notts County 38 17 12 9 61 38 63 1.658 Play Off -
    4 Yeovil Town 37 17 9 11 61 44 60 1.622 Play Off -
    5 Boreham Wood 37 16 12 9 55 40 60 1.622 Play Off -
    6 FC Halifax Town 37 17 7 13 50 49 58 1.568 Play Off -
    7 Barnet 35 14 12 9 52 42 54 1.543 Play Off +4
    8 Stockport County 39 16 10 13 51 54 58 1.487 -1
    9 Solihull Moors 38 15 10 13 48 37 55 1.447 -1
    10 Woking 38 15 10 13 50 55 55 1.447 -
    11 Dover Athletic 38 15 9 14 49 49 54 1.421 +1
    12 Hartlepool United 39 14 13 12 56 50 55 1.410 -3
    13 Bromley 38 14 10 14 57 52 52 1.368 -
    14 Torquay United 36 14 6 16 56 61 48 1.333 +1
    15 Sutton United 38 12 14 12 47 42 50 1.316 -1
    16 Eastleigh 37 11 13 13 43 55 46 1.243 +1
    17 Dagenham & Redbridge 37 11 11 15 40 44 44 1.189 +1
    18 Aldershot Town 39 12 10 17 43 55 46 1.179 -2
    19 Wrexham 37 11 10 16 46 49 43 1.162 +1
    20 Chesterfield 38 11 11 16 55 65 44 1.158 -1
    21 Maidenhead United 38 12 5 21 44 58 41 1.079 +1
    22 Ebbsfleet United 39 10 12 17 47 68 42 1.077 Relegated -1
    23 AFC Fylde 37 9 12 16 44 60 39

1.054 Relegated -
    24 Chorley 38 4 14 20 31 65 26 0.684 Relegated -
   
   

Notes - 
The 2019/20 National League season was abandoned before its completion due to the coronavirus pandemic. The competition was originally suspended on March 16th to at least April 3rd but on April 22nd with no football having been possible the season was abandoned - apart from the play-offs which were played behind closed doors. With clubs having played differing numbers of matches at the point of suspension the National League - as did EFL Leagues 1 and 2 - decided to use an average points won per game (PPG) system rather than the traditional points system to decide final league placings. Goal difference would decide placings where clubs finished on the same PPG. The first part of the table above shows details of the traditional table and is followed by the PPG figures which been used to decide final table positions. The final column shows the differences in league positions the move from points to PPG made to each club. 

Promoted Promoted
Champions Barrow were automatically promoted back to the Football League. Harrogate Town were promoted to the Football League for the first time through the play-offs. With one extra club needing to be be promoted to the EFL to replace Bury who had lost their EFL place in  August 2019 only Macclesfield Town were relegated from the Football League to the National League.

Relegated
To keep membership of the National League at 24 clubs the bottom 3 clubs (usually 4) were relegated - Fylde and Chorley to the National League North and Ebbsfleet to the Southern section. Promoted to the National League from the Northern Section were champions King's Lynn and play-off winners Altrincham while promoted from the South were champs Wealdstone and play-off winners Weymouth.
   
   
All the Play Off matches were played behind closed doors.

Play Off Qualifiers Play Off
Fri Jul 17 Boreham Wood 2 - 1 FC Halifax Town
Sat Jul 18 Yeovil Town 0 - 2 Barnet
Play Off Semi Finals
Sat Jul 25 Harrogate Town 1 - 0 Boreham Wood
Sat Jul 25 Notts County 2 - 0 Barnet
    
Play Off Final (at Wembley)
Sun Aug 2 Harrogate Town 3 - 1 Notts County
Harrogate Town were promoted to the Football League.

 


Did You Know.....
...The programme with the most unlikely opponents on the cover - try Rushden Salvation Army v Juventus. Yes, the match really took place.
Read more about this and other programme facts and figures...

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