English football's biggest underachievers

[Wymsey]

Over-achievers (given past club history, size of area etc.):

 

Bournemouth

Brentford

Burnley

Wolves

 

 

 

[dsr-burnley]

1 hour ago, BenTheFox said:

I wonder if it had something to do with the players being fitter and more 'hardened' having worked in the traditional industries and perhaps having done more physically demanding work. Maybe a case of adding 2 and 2 and getting 5 though. 

It might have been then, but that can't still be true.  Even in the heavily-cut modern county of Lancashire, we have Burnley in the PL, Blackpool, Preston and Blackburn in Champ, Accrington, Fleetwood and Morecambe in L1.  Not to mention the parts that were cut, such as Man C, Man U, Liverpool, Everton, Rochdale, Oldham, Wigan, Bolton, Salford, Barrow.

 

Compare that with the entire south coast.  Devon - Plymouth and Exeter.  Dorset - Bournemouth,  Hampshire - Portsmouth, Southampton, Aldershot.  Sussex, both parts - Brighton and Crawley.  Kent - Gillingham.  Not a right impressive line-up, is it.

 

PS - if you want an over-achiever, Accrington Stanley coupled with John Coleman.  Population 35k, and in a similar position to Dudley (mentioned earlier up the thread) with Blackburn and Burnley both 5 miles away.  Coleman has just completed 20 years managing the club (two spells) and if ever a man deserves a "Manager of the Year Lifetime Achievement" award, if such a thing exists, it's him.

[Foxdiamond]

Much more comfortable with this topic with our recent success bringing us much further up the list. Looking at this does depend on your starting point or knowledge of other clubs. As an oldie I can remember West Ham success in 1960s and cup wins in 1975 and 1980. Leeds were massive under Revie. Chelsea were not up to much apart from league win in 1955 then early 70s trophies. Their recent history has displaced Spurs as the main rivals to Arsenal.  I would suggest fans of Birmingham must look at lack of major honours with much regret. Clubs that have mixed with the top 2 divisions seem more a disappointment than teams that never competed at that level. Sort of so near but so

far 

[Wymsey]

Please delete this post - wrong thread.

Edited 7 January 2022 by Wymsey

[Stadt]

Port Vale are in the mix for overachievers, they’ve never won anything major but for the size of Burslem they’ve done incredibly well.

[Finnaldo]

On 09/01/2022 at 13:56, Stadt said:

Port Vale are in the mix for overachievers, they’ve never won anything major but for the size of Burslem they’ve done incredibly well.

Unless I’ve misread then Vale Park itself holds just under double the population of Burslem itself. 
 

I mean no doubt they get support from other areas of Staffordshire, but considering that South Staffordshire is firmly Villa catchment and North Staffordshire must be mostly Stoke, they have done well to carve out what they have.

[PAULCFC]

Bristol City......

[LutterworthLCFC]

Always thought that Rugby Town and Nuneaton should be playing higher than they are now considering the size of their towns. Both towns have a higher population than Burnley. 

[BenTheFox]

50 minutes ago, LutterworthLCFC said:

Always thought that Rugby Town and Nuneaton should be playing higher than they are now considering the size of their towns. Both towns have a higher population than Burnley. 

You're right, both could be doing better but that for me is more of an indictment of how much Burnley overachieve. The fact that they have two league titles to their name and have played in the top flight for the past six seasons, finishing as high as 7th in one of them is remarkable. 

Edited 11 January 2022 by BenTheFox

[CosbehFox]

In Newark for work, another town what doesn't have a non league club higher up the pyramid 

[purpleronnie]

3 hours ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

In Newark for work, another town what doesn't have a non league club higher up the pyramid 

Dudley must have a population 10 times that of Newark, don't think they have a team higher than step 6, that must take some beating.