Relegation is a word fans of football clubs know too well. After a season of proving you are not good enough to play in a division, your reward is being dropped into a weaker league and being replaced by a side from the division below.
While the Football League has operated a promotion and relegation system internally since 1892-93, it took more than 90 years - until 1986 - before it started relegating sides out of its lowest division (and into what is now known as the National League).
Before then, the bottom sides faced re-election, where other sides would decide at the league’s AGM whether to vote to keep them in the division, or whether to replace them with sides from non-league.
Lincoln City became the first team relegated from the Football League entirely on merit in 1986-87, and were replaced by Scarborough - the first team to enter the Football League entirely on merit.
Since then, promotion to the Football League has offered newly promoted clubs a gravity-defying presence. While relegation from the Premier League is highly likely for newly promoted sides - in all but three seasons (2001-02, 2011-12 and 2017-18) at least one promoted side was immediately relegated - not one side has been promoted from non-league on merit, only to come straight back down.
Put into context, there has been 34 full seasons with a direct promotion/relegation system between the Conference and Football League. To date, not one side promoted on merit (out of 50 so far) has gone straight back down.
Enter teams 51 and 52: Barrow AFC and Harrogate Town. Going into this season, both will have thought they could have success at this level if they recruited well. After all, teams in their position are far more likely to experience back-to-back promotions.
There have been 10 back-to-back promotions - including three as fourth tier Champions, and three as play-off winners - since 1986. That’s one in five promoted teams going on to immediately win promotion again. On top of that, four teams entered the play offs and failed to win promotion.
And while there have been some near misses (Macclesfield Town finished 22nd in 2018-19 after winning the Conference in 2017-18), the average position is a very comfortable 11th - the position Harrogate Town currently occupy after 33 games of this season.
But while Harrogate are playing to type and having a very comfortable season, the same cannot be said about Barrow. The Bluebirds were voted out of the Football League in 1972 and - with more than a little irony - were the first side in more than 30 years to be voted back into the Football League when the National League decided to end last season on points per-game.
As Barrow didn’t enter the division the typical way (The National League held their end of season play offs, and Harrogate won them), it is perhaps not a surprise to see them perform against type. Sitting 22nd and only out of the bottom two on goal difference, Barrow are on their third manager of the season and have struggled for consistency.
If Barrow are relegated it will be the first time a side promoted to the Football League on merit has ever gone straight back down. The Bluebirds will not want that unwanted piece in the history books.
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