This series tells the story of Arsenal’s early years in the Football League from 1893 onwards. The [first episode is here.](https://blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/28296)
By Tony Attwood
Look at the league table for 1906/7 and you will see a club at the top of the league that can hardly surprise you if you have been considering the early history of league football in England – for it was Newcastle United. They had won the league in 1905 and indeed won it again in 1906 and 1909. Football was indeed a northern sport.
But in second place there appeared Bristol City who had only been admitted to the League in 1901, as part of the League’s constant attempt to move from being a primarily northern league to one bringing in clubs from across England – and to win in its battle with the Southern League as the main provider of football matches in the south of the country.
And indeed the fact that Bristol City, this complete newcomer to Division One, finished the 1906/7 season in second place (five places above Woolwich Arsenal who had been leading the way for southern based clubs for so long) shows that there most certainly was strength in the clubs outside the Football League.
Indeed we can see the strength of the Southern League at this time by considering the final table of the 1906/7 season…
P
Team
P
W
D
L
GF
GA
Pts
1
Fulham
38
20
13
5
58
32
53
2
Portsmouth
38
22
7
9
64
36
51
3
Brighton & Hove Albion
38
18
9
11
53
43
45
4
Luton Town
38
18
9
11
52
52
45
5
West Ham United
38
15
14
9
60
41
44
6
Tottenham Hotspur
38
17
9
12
63
45
43
7
Millwall
38
18
6
14
71
50
42
8
Norwich City
38
15
12
11
57
48
42
9
Watford
38
13
16
9
46
43
42
10
Brentford
38
17
8
13
57
56
42
11
Southampton
38
13
9
16
49
56
35
12
Reading
38
14
6
18
57
47
34
13
Leyton
38
11
12
15
38
60
34
14
Bristol Rovers
38
12
9
17
55
54
33
15
Plymouth Argyle
38
10
13
15
43
50
33
16
New Brompton
38
12
9
17
47
59
33
17
Swindon Town
38
11
11
16
43
54
33
18
Queens Park Rangers
38
11
10
17
47
55
32
19
Crystal Palace
38
8
9
21
46
66
25
20
Northampton Town
38
5
9
24
29
88
19
The League continued to accept clubs up to the first world war, but after that, in 1920, most of the top division of the Southern League opted to joined the Football League and thus create a Third Division. This move was so popular that the following season almost every Southern League club opted to join the 3rd division and then the Division split into two: the Third Division (South) and the Third Division (North) with the winners of each section moving to the Second Division by way of promotion and two clubs going down from the second division. Where both relegated clubs were from the same part of the country, one or two Midlands teams would move from the north division to the south, or vice versa to keep the numbers balanced.
Now I mention this history simply to give a more complete overview of Arsenal’s position in the world of football. Woolwich Arsenal had made professionalism the heart of their club’s philosophy and thus joined the Football League when they were the only professional club in the south. Now of course they welcomed other professional teams as gradually the leagues turned professional.
Arsenal’s philosophy and principle was that it represented working men and that therefore footballers could and should be paid – hence their turning away from leagues such as the Souther League.. (The third divisions north and south continued until 1958/59 when the top half of each league combined into a national Third Division, and the remainder joined the Fourth Division).
But to return now to our main theme… Our last episode was [1905/6: Arsenal profitable and stable while representing the south](https://blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/28374) and we found Arsenal 12th in the league. But it was the FA Cup that grabbed attention, Arsenal going out of the competition 2-0 in the semi-final to Newcastle – the game played as today on neutral ground, although with a very modest attendance of under 20,000.
1906/7 saw an improvement in league form, taking Woolwich Arsenal up to 7th by the end of the season – and it is also interesting to note that 1906/7 began with something that we have become familiar with in 2026 – a heat wave, taking temperatures into the 90s. What made this so noticeable was that in the match against Manchester City on 1 September, five Manchester City players were reported as leaving the pitch early because of the heat; Arsenal won 4-1. However It was also noted in the local Manchester paper that Arsenal could have had many more goals, but restrained themselves so as not to take an unfair benefit of the Manchester players’ problems with the temperature.
By mid-September Arsenal were in fact top of the league but the form moved against them as the season continued and they finished the season in 7th – their best position in the first division so far. They were in fact only four points off the second placed club (Bristol City) but the Arsenal defence was the problem, letting in 58, the most of any of the top ten clubs of that season.
The season ended with talk about ex-manager Phil Kelso returning to help Woolwich Arsenal with a further push towards winning the First Division for the first time. There was also talk in the local newspapers about players drinking a lot (which was hardly uncommon) , but the media worked up a frenzy on this occasion and centre forward Peter Kyle left under a cloud.
Meanwhile the initial excitement of a first division league team in Plumstead seemed to be wearing off. The rest of the league were still northern, and the other southern teams of note were still in the Southern League. Arsenal’s brave move into the Football League had not persuaded others to follow them.
But Arsenal and Chelsea were now in the same league and each ground was full for the derby matches and with the Southern League remaining amateur, Arsenal determined to battle on.