Alan Hawley only played 1 game for us in 1976?

3 days to first test match 🏏

Ten days til the first World Cup match and sixteen days til the first England game.

Crewe only team never to win a League title, and Col U team currently on longest run without a promotion.

Pointless fact as the question is about teams that haven't played in the top flight. And I spent years telling students to read the question. Mea Culpa 🙏🙏

Notts County were a founder member of the football league so definitely played in the top division, albeit there was only 1 at the time.

Rochdale were within about 30 seconds of winning the title last season until York scored, shades of Jon Main at Hampton

The name rings a bell but only made a couple of appearances for us

Do any of our older fans remember right back Alan Hawley, who played for us briefly in the early 1970s ? He passed away on the 7 October 2025, aged 79. He spent the first 12 years of his career at Brentford, having made his first appearance at 16 years, 3 months and 22 days, to become the Bees youngest ever debutant.

Would it be Crewe who haven't won a title ? The other one on my mind is Salford.

$6mDM - Colchester got promoted from the Conference about 20 or 30 (?) years ago.

Does "winning a league" mean any league or just the league their first team play in? Was the Lancashire Combination a league made up of first teams or did it include reserves?

I guess the Rochdale supporter that was with StuntPegg on one of her vblogs forgot about that Combination triumph 125 years ago as it was he who said they had never won anything. I don't recall Colchester having too many promotions. Could it be them that has gone the longest?

Spartan- Rochdale did indeed go over 50 years without a promotion.

Newport were last promoted in 2013. Longest current run spans 20 seasons.

Bournemouth won Division 3 in the 1980s.

Rochdale won Lancashire Combination in the 1900s.

Speaking of Bournemouth, they have secured planning approval for the expansion of Dean Court to just over 20,000 capacity.

I think it might be Bournemouth who have never won a title.

I think Rochdale was the team that went longest without a promotion.

Oh yeah. I prefer Rochdale as well - mainly because of Rotherham’s Evans link.

White v red rose. Probably annoy both parties.

I think you're doing what I do sometimes and conflating Rochdale and Rotherham, Trig.

Shirley has to be Bromley.

Didn’t Rochdale win a title under Evans?