1976–77 Kent Football League
The 1976–77 Kent Football League season was the eleventh 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
| Season | 1976–77 |
|---|---|
| Champions | Medway |
| Matches played | 271 |
| Goals scored | 846 (3.12 per match) |
← 1975–76 1977–78 → | |
The league featured teams from seventeen clubs, including three reserves teams. Fifteen of the clubs competed in the previous season together with two additional teams:[1]
- Faversham Town joined from the Athenian League.
- Ramsgate joined from the Southern League and replaced their reserves team.
The Dartford Amateurs team from the previous season was renamed Dartford Glentworth.[2]
The league was won by Medway, their third league title in six seasons[3] and part of a league and cup double – a feat they had previously achieved (when named Chatham Town) in the 1971–72 season.
At the end of the season both bottom clubs applied for re-election: Slade Green Athletic were successful; Folkestone & Shepway Reserves were initially refused (perceived to be part of the League's agenda to remove reserves teams from the division)[4] however following an appeal to the Kent County FA they were reinstated.[5]
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GAv | Pts | Season End Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Medway | 32 | 25 | 5 | 2 | 93 | 24 | 3.875 | 55 | |
| 2 | Sittingbourne | 32 | 21 | 5 | 6 | 68 | 48 | 1.417 | 47 | |
| 3 | Dartford Glentworth[a] | 31 | 19 | 7 | 5 | 57 | 35 | 1.629 | 45 | |
| 4 | Sheppey United | 32 | 17 | 8 | 7 | 70 | 37 | 1.892 | 42 | |
| 5 | Faversham Town | 32 | 16 | 7 | 9 | 53 | 28 | 1.893 | 39 | |
| 6 | Kent Police | 32 | 14 | 11 | 7 | 53 | 39 | 1.359 | 39 | |
| 7 | Maidstone United Reserves[a] | 31 | 15 | 7 | 9 | 56 | 43 | 1.302 | 37 | |
| 8 | Deal Town | 32 | 13 | 9 | 10 | 50 | 44 | 1.136 | 35 | |
| 9 | Crockenhill | 32 | 14 | 5 | 13 | 54 | 51 | 1.059 | 33 | |
| 10 | Ramsgate | 32 | 14 | 3 | 15 | 47 | 53 | 0.887 | 31 | |
| 11 | Tunbridge Wells | 32 | 9 | 6 | 17 | 60 | 69 | 0.870 | 24 | |
| 12 | Whitstable Town | 32 | 10 | 4 | 18 | 37 | 54 | 0.685 | 24 | |
| 13 | Snowdown Colliery Welfare | 32 | 5 | 13 | 14 | 29 | 52 | 0.558 | 23 | |
| 14 | Herne Bay | 32 | 8 | 5 | 19 | 37 | 69 | 0.536 | 21 | |
| 15 | Dover Reserves | 32 | 5 | 10 | 17 | 24 | 52 | 0.462 | 20 | |
| 16 | Slade Green Athletic | 32 | 7 | 4 | 21 | 36 | 71 | 0.507 | 18 | Re-elected |
| 17 | Folkestone & Shepway Reserves | 32 | 2 | 5 | 25 | 32 | 87 | 0.368 | 9 | Re-elected (following appeal) |
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal average.
Notes:
Challenge Cup
The 1976–77 Kent Football League Challenge Cup was won by Medway[6] who completed a league and cup double – a feat they had previously achieved (when named Chatham Town) in the 1971–72 season.
The competition, contested by all seventeen clubs in the league, comprised five single match tie rounds (with the first round featuring one tie) culminating in a drawn final (played at Sittingbourne)[7] which required a replay (played at Sheppey United)[8] to decide the winner.
Quarter-finals, Semi-finals and Final
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||||||
| Medway | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Sheppey United | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Medway | 5 | |||||||||||||
| Deal Town | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Deal Town | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Maidstone United Reserves | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Medway | 3[b] | 3[c] | ||||||||||||
| Dartford Glentworth | 3[b] | 1[c] | ||||||||||||
| Herne Bay | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Faversham Town | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Faversham Town | 0 | 1[a] | ||||||||||||
| Dartford Glentworth | 0 | 2[a] | ||||||||||||
| Dartford Glentworth | 5 | |||||||||||||
| Folkestone & Shepway Reserves | 0 | |||||||||||||
Second Round
- Tunbridge Wells 0 – 1 Medway
- Sheppey United 3 – 0 Snowdown Colliery Welfare
- Dover Reserves 2 – 2 Deal Town
- REPLAY: Deal Town 3 – 1 Dover Reserves
- Crockenhill 1 – 1 Maidstone United Reserves
- REPLAY: (played at Crockenhill) Maidstone United Reserves 4 – 3 (aet) Crockenhill (score at 90 minutes 1–1)
- Herne Bay 4 – 1 Slade Green Athletic
- Faversham Town 0 – 0 Sittingbourne
- REPLAY: Sittingbourne 0 – 2 Faversham Town
- Dartford Glentworth 0 – 0 Whitstable Town
- REPLAY: Whitstable Town 0 – 3 Dartford Glentworth
- Folkestone & Shepway Reserves 4 – 1 Kent Police
First Round
Sources:
- Final: Richards, Brian (9 May 1977). "What a Pity This Show Had To End!". Evening Post. p. 17. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; Richards, Brian (16 May 1977). "It's a Medway Double!". Evening Post. p. 19. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- Semi-finals: "Senior soccer details: Results: Saturday: Kent League Cup semi-final". Kent Messenger. 7 April 1977. p. 75. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "Senior soccer details: Results: Saturday: Kent League Cup semi-final". Kent Messenger. 15 April 1977. p. 75. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "Soccer Results: Kent League Cup". Thanet Times. 19 April 1977. p. 23. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.;
- Quarter-finals: "Results: Kent League Cup". Thanet Times. 8 March 1977. p. 23. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "Senior soccer details: Results: Saturday: Kent League Cup 3rd round". Kent Messenger. 25 March 1977. p. 77. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- Second Round: "Senior Soccer Details: Results: Saturday: Kent League Cup 2nd round". Kent Messenger. 21 January 1977. p. 14. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "County Soccer Details: Results: Saturday: Kent League Cup, 2nd round replay". Kentish Express. 28 January 1977. p. 24. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "Senior Soccer Details: Results: Wednesday: Kent League Cup 2nd round". Kent Messenger. 11 February 1977. p. 72. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "Results: Kent League Cup". Thanet Times. 15 February 1977. p. 23. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "Fixtues. . .results. . .tables: Results: Saturday: Kent League Cup 2nd round". Kent Messenger. 25 February 1977. p. 72. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.; "Fixtues. . .results. . .tables: Results: Wednesday: Kent League Cup 2nd round". Kent Messenger. 25 February 1977. p. 72. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.;"Results: Kent League Cup". Thanet Times. 8 March 1977. p. 23. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- First Round: "Saturday soccer results: Kent League Cup". Thanet Times. 7 December 1976. p. 51. Retrieved 7 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
References
- ^ Carpenter, Gordon (5 July 1976). "Enter Faversham". Evening Post. Chatham. p. 20.
- ^ "Dartford Glentworth". Football Club History Database. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
- ^ "First Division past winners / runners-up". kentleague.com. 2013. Archived from the original on 17 April 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
- ^ Carpenter, Gordon (20 June 1977). "Reserves are given the boot". Evening Post. Chatham. p. 20.
- ^ "Folkestone repreived". Evening Post. Chatham. 1 July 1977. p. 48.
- ^ "Archives: League Cup Winners". SCEFL: Southern Counties East Football League. February 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
- ^ Richards, Brian (9 May 1977). "What A Pity This Show Had To End!". Evening Post. Chatham. p. 17.
- ^ Richards, Brian (16 May 1977). "It's a Medway Double!". Evening Post. Chatham. p. 19.