March 2024 Update

There have been a large number of changes made to the database and in particular the functionality of the statistical sections of the website during March.

Player and Manager stats

Many players over the years have taken part in friendly or pre season tournaments, games that are not traditionally counted for statistical purposes. You will notice therefore that whenever you view player statistics, whether for a whole squad or for an individual player, you will by default see “heritage qualifying” stats, those that are traditionally considered to “count”.

You can still elect to view all, or just league only, cup only, or “other”.

From an individual player record you can still see the full list of all games by clicking on the season name.

The managers stats now also follow the same style, whether looking at the full list of managers or an individual manager, by default you will see their “heritage qualifying” statistics.

Match Lists

The match results lists now show the score after extra time/pens rather than just the score at FT. For example a penalty win will show the result of the penalty shootout 4-3 and “Win (Pens)” rather than 2-2 “Draw”.

Although it adds nothing to the statistics, the opponents crest will also be displayed, where it is in the database (more will be added over time), for no other reason than it looks nice.

Club names:
Over the years many clubs change their name but remain the same entity, as did Southport twice between 1888 and 1921. I’ve been working to identify as many of these changes amongst our opponents as possible and to merge superfluous records so that we can more accurately show head to head results.
For example Southport have played games against Hartlepool United, Hartlepool and Hartlepools United but whilst known by different names it has always been the same club. The results from these games therefore are now linked together.
This does not mean that, for example Hereford United and Hereford FC are now linked, as these are distinct clubs, with the latter being formed following the closure of the former.

Data additions:

Whilst data will continue to be added wherever something new is discovered, I am more concerned currently with validating data already gathered against the newspaper archives. With that in mind a number of late 80s and early 90s friendlies have been added from the archives of the Southport Visiter. Wherever possible that also includes lineups and goalscorers.

Games played by the original association club “Southport (1)”, their successors “Southport (2)”, aka Wanderers, alongside Southport Crescent and Southport Recreation have now been added to the database. None of these games form the history of the current club but do add to the historical picture of football in the town and what led to the creation of Central. I will provide links to these records in due course, and line-ups for these games will also follow.