The Combination

The Combination was a league in the early days of English football. It had two formats. The first was only for the 1888–89 season. It was for teams across Northern England and the Midlands. It finished before the season end. The second started with the 1890–91 season. It continued until 1911. The league had teams mostly from North West England and later Wales.

There was also another league called the Football Combination. This was a competition for reserve teams from the South of England. There was also a small league called the Lancashire Combination around the same time.

The first Combination started in 1888. The is the same year the Football League started. Clubs who couldn't play in the Football League started the Combination. The Crewe Alexandra secretary J. G. Hall helped start the league. The clubs who wanted to play in the league were Small Heath Alliance, Walsall Town Swifts, Derby Midland, Notts Rangers, Burslem Port Vale, Leek, Crewe Alexandra, Newton Heath, Witton, and Blackburn Olympic. There were three other clubs, Mitchell St George's, Halliwell, and Derby Junction, who wrote to say they agreed with all decisions. Northwich Victoria also wrote to ask to be a part of the league. A. M. Sloane, the chairman of Bootle, chaired the meeting. The clubs agreed that there would be no more than 20 team in the league. They also agreed that each team would play at least 8 matches home and away.^[2] Harry Mitchell of St George's became president of the Combination.

The Football League was successful very quickly, but the Combination did not have very good organisation. There was poor planning and the teams did not play some games. From October 1888, the media were talking about how it was difficult to follow the competition.^[3] By January 1889, the media were saying that "it is becoming the exception rather than the rule to keep a Combination fixture" (more games were not played than played).^[4] The Combination therefore did not finish its first season. It finished in April 1889 and there was no winner.^[5]

There was a board meeting on 5 April 1889. The meeting was finished in 25 minutes. Everyone agreed to cancel the Combination. The meeting was so quick that the person from Darwen was there too late, as he had missed his train. However, a dozen of the people from the clubs had another meeting afterwards. This helped to start the Football Alliance.^[6]

The teams who had people at the meeting were Bootle, Blackburn Olympic, Burslem Port Vale, Crewe Alexandra, Grimsby Town, Lincoln City, Newton Heath, Small Heath and South Shore. Bootle, Crewe, Grimsby, Newton Heath and Small Heath then started the Football Alliance the year after.

The second format of the Combination started in 1890. The first twelve members were:^[7]

• Burton Swifts
• Chester
• Denton
• Derby St Luke's
• Gorton Villa
• Hyde
• Leek (not related to the current Leek Town)
• Macclesfield
• Northwich Victoria
• Stafford County (not related to the current Stafford Rangers)
• Witton (from Blackburn, not to be confused with Witton Albion from Northwich)
• Wrexham

Five of the teams later played in the Football League. For Macclesfield, this was only in 1997–98. Glossop North End, who joined in 1894, were also joined the Football League, much earlier, in 1898.

Later, more Welsh teams played in the Combination. The reserve teams of the Football League clubs such as Everton and Crewe Alexandra also played in the Combination. When the league ended in 1911, none of the original teams still played in the Combination except Wrexham, who used their reserve team in that league. After it ended, there was the Cheshire County League instead, and later the North West Counties Football League.

The champions of the league were as follows:^[7]