1997–98 Western Football League

Western Football League
Season	1997–98
Champions	Tiverton Town (Premier Division) Bishop Sutton (Division One)
← 1996–97 1998–99 →

The 1997–98 season was the 96th in the history of the Western Football League.

The league champions for the fourth time in their history (and the fourth time in five seasons) were Tiverton Town, who finished the season unbeaten. The champions of Division One were Bishop Sutton.^[1]

Final tables

Premier Division

The Premier Division was increased from 18 to 20 clubs after there was no relegation to the First Division last season. Two clubs joined:

Keynsham Town, runners-up in the First Division.
Melksham Town, champions of the First Division.

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GDiff¹	Pts²	Notes
1	Tiverton Town (C)	38	36	2	0	154	20	+134	110
2	Taunton Town	38	31	3	4	107	28	+79	96
3	Melksham Town	38	22	7	9	75	37	+38	73
4	Bridgwater Town	38	22	6	10	73	43	+30	72
5	Paulton Rovers	38	19	6	13	76	69	+7	63
6	Mangotsfield United	38	18	8	12	76	50	+16	62
7	Barnstaple Town	38	18	5	15	79	64	+15	59
8	Brislington	38	17	8	13	62	55	+7	59
9	Calne Town	38	16	9	13	68	67	+1	57
10	Backwell United	38	15	7	16	70	68	+2	52
11	Bridport	38	16	4	18	62	72	–10	52
12	Chippenham Town	38	13	11	14	53	57	–4	50
13	Bideford	38	14	6	18	68	90	–22	48
14	Elmore	38	10	8	20	54	100	–46	38
15	Westbury United	38	9	8	21	39	65	–26	35
16	Bristol Manor Farm	38	8	10	20	37	73	–36	34
17	Keynsham Town	38	10	4	24	46	94	–48	34
18	Odd Down	38	9	6	23	33	80	–47	33
19	Chard Town (R)	38	8	8	22	44	77	–33	32	Relegated to the First Division
20	Torrington (R)	38	2	8	28	21	88	–67	14	Relegated to the First Division

First Division

The First Division was reduced from 20 clubs to 19, after Keynsham Town and Melksham Town were promoted to the Premier Division, and Amesbury Town left the league. Two clubs joined:

Bitton, promoted from the Gloucestershire County League.
Street, promoted from the Somerset Senior League – rejoining after leaving the league in 1960.

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GDiff¹	Pts²	Notes
1	Bishop Sutton (C) (P)	36	26	8	2	86	25	+61	86	Promoted to the Premier Division
2	Yeovil Town Reserves (P)	36	24	6	6	95	47	+48	78	Promoted to the Premier Division
3	Devizes Town	36	22	7	7	83	38	+45	73
4	Street	36	21	7	8	61	32	+29	70
5	Clyst Rovers	36	20	10	6	89	39	+50	67*
6	Minehead	36	16	14	6	60	39	+21	62
7	Dawlish Town	36	17	10	9	78	48	+30	58*
8	Crediton United	36	15	8	13	65	67	–2	53	Left to join the Devon County League
9	Exmouth Town	36	15	6	15	68	60	+8	51
10	Bitton	36	14	8	14	55	53	+2	50
11	Wellington	36	13	10	13	72	54	+18	49
12	Ilfracombe Town	36	14	7	15	75	67	+8	49
13	Larkhall Athletic	36	12	7	17	45	58	–13	43
14	Welton Rovers	36	9	6	21	51	78	–27	33
15	Warminster Town	36	9	5	22	40	83	–43	32
16	Glastonbury	36	9	4	23	41	86	–45	31
17	Frome Town	36	8	6	22	47	74	–27	30
18	Heavitree United	36	3	7	26	34	135	–101	16
19	Pewsey Vale	36	3	8	25	40	102	–62	14*

* Clyst Rovers, Dawlish Town and Pewsey Vale all had three points deducted for fielding ineligible players.

^{1 The system of using goal difference to separate two teams tied on points was used.}

^{2 The points system: 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for losing.}

References

↑ Robinson, Michael (ed.), Non-League Football Tables 1889–2006, Soccer Books, 2006

Western League

Premier Division	Bitton Bradford Town Bridport Brislington Bristol Manor Farm Buckland Athletic Cadbury Heath Chipping Sodbury Town Clevedon Town Cribbs Gillingham Town Hallen Longwell Green Sports Melksham Town Odd Down Shepton Mallet Sherborne Town Street Wells City Willand Rovers

Division One	Almondsbury UWE Ashton & Backwell United Bishops Lydeard Bishop Sutton Calne Town Chard Town Cheddar Chippenham Park Corsham Town Devizes Town Hengrove Athletic Keynsham Town Malmesbury Victoria Oldland Abbotonians Portishead Town Radstock Town Roman Glass St George Warminster Town Wellington Welton Rovers Westbury United Wincanton Town

Seasons	1892–93 1893–94 1894–95 1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17

1997–98 in English football

« 1996–97

1998–99 »

FA competitions

Premier League and
Football League

Football Conference

Football Conference
Conference League Cup

Lower leagues

European competitions

Related to national team

Club seasons

Premier League	Arsenal Aston Villa Barnsley Blackburn Rovers Bolton Wanderers Chelsea Coventry City Crystal Palace Derby County Everton Leeds United Leicester City Liverpool Manchester United Newcastle United Sheffield Wednesday Southampton Tottenham Hotspur West Ham United Wimbledon

First Division	Birmingham City Bradford City Bury Charlton Athletic Crewe Alexandra Huddersfield Town Ipswich Town Manchester City Middlesbrough Norwich City Nottingham Forest Oxford United Portsmouth Port Vale Queens Park Rangers Reading Sheffield United Stockport County Stoke City Sunderland Swindon Town Tranmere Rovers West Bromwich Albion Wolverhampton Wanderers

Second Division	Blackpool Bournemouth Brentford Bristol City Bristol Rovers Burnley Carlisle United Chesterfield Fulham Gillingham Grimsby Town Luton Town Millwall Northampton Town Oldham Athletic Plymouth Argyle Preston North End Southend United Walsall Watford Wigan Athletic Wrexham Wycombe Wanderers York City

Third Division	Barnet Brighton & Hove Albion Cambridge United Cardiff City Chester City Colchester United Darlington Doncaster Rovers Exeter City Hartlepool United Hull City Leyton Orient Lincoln City Macclesfield Town Mansfield Town Notts County Peterborough United Rochdale Rotherham United Scarborough Scunthorpe United Shrewsbury Town Swansea City Torquay United

Non-League	Newport

Summer 1997 transfers
Winter 1997–98 transfers

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