POLY AND THE BUCK HOUSE PITCH

Jamie Cureton played his 1000th game of football yesterday and NO he wasn't around when the second oldest football league was formed in 1889. The first football league, of course, was THE Football League founded in 1888, a year later the, now named,  Ebac Northern Football League, took shape. It is now a league for semi-professional and amateur players, sponsored by Ebac, a local dehumidifier manufacturer!

There are two divisions in this 9th Tier of the pyramid, covering an area from Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Northern Cumbria and the Northern half of North Yorkshire.
Promotion is to the  Northern Premier League Division One East or West.

In the East are clubs such as AFC Mansfield, my local Stocksbridge Park Steels and the historic Sheffield FC.
In the west are Clitheroe, Glossop NE and Colwyn Bay.
Middlesbrough Ironopolis-three times league winners in the 1890s.
Present holders are Marske United.

In 1885, when the FA sanctioned professionalism, the Football League absorbed clubs from the North and Midlands, where paying men to play was common place.
In the south, Woolwich Arsenal went professional in 1891, very much out of line with the local teams, south of Birmingham. An attempt to form The Southern League failed but instead,
The Southern Alliance, remaining amateur, was formed in 1892, to "oppose" what was going on "north of Watford".
Seven clubs joined in, only to see the Alliance dissolve a year later.
The seven teams involved (with their league position after the first season) were:
the Old St Stephens (also known as Shepherd's Bush FC), who won the league,
Erith (in Surrey-no longer exists) 2nd,
Tottenham Hotspur 3rd,

Polytechnic 4th (originally Hanover United FC from Chiswick) the first club to use United in their name and presently member of the AFA. The club was formed from the Royal Polythechnic Institution, now the University of Westminster.
 On October 7th 2013, the Polytechnic was invited to play their Southern Amateur League match at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the 150th year of the Football Association.
On October 7th 2013 The Polytechnic Club was invited by HRH Prince Edward to play their Southern Amateur League match v The Civil Service. Poly won 2-1.
https://polytechnicfc.wordpress.com/poly-history/

Slough Town 5th (now in National League South),
Windsor and Eton 6th (once dissolved due to debts and now reformed as Windsor FC) and
Upton Park 7th (one of the original amateur successes, now dissolved).

It has to be said that not every team played everyone else so the division final tally was a bit random. Tottenham played 12 games and so did winners St Stephens.