1952–53 Southern Football League
# 1952–53 Southern Football League

The 1952–53 Southern Football League season was the 50th in the history of the league, an English football competition.

No new clubs had joined the league for this season so the league consisted of 22 clubs from previous season. Headington United were champions for the first time in their history. Five Southern League clubs applied to join the Football League at the end of the season, but none were successful.

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GR | Pts |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Headington United | 42 | 23 | 12 | 7 | 93 | 50 | 1.860 | 58 |
| 2 | Merthyr Tydfil | 42 | 25 | 8 | 9 | 117 | 66 | 1.773 | 58 |
| 3 | Bedford Town | 42 | 24 | 8 | 10 | 91 | 61 | 1.492 | 56 |
| 4 | Kettering Town | 42 | 23 | 8 | 11 | 88 | 50 | 1.760 | 54 |
| 5 | Bath City | 42 | 22 | 10 | 10 | 71 | 46 | 1.543 | 54 |
| 6 | Worcester City | 42 | 20 | 11 | 11 | 100 | 66 | 1.515 | 51 |
| 7 | Llanelly | 42 | 21 | 9 | 12 | 95 | 72 | 1.319 | 51 |
| 8 | Barry Town | 42 | 22 | 3 | 17 | 89 | 69 | 1.290 | 47 |
| 9 | Gravesend & Northfleet | 42 | 19 | 7 | 16 | 83 | 76 | 1.092 | 45 |
| 10 | Gloucester City | 42 | 17 | 9 | 16 | 50 | 78 | 0.641 | 43 |
| 11 | Guildford City | 42 | 17 | 8 | 17 | 64 | 60 | 1.067 | 42 |
| 12 | Hastings United | 42 | 18 | 5 | 19 | 75 | 66 | 1.136 | 41 |
| 13 | Cheltenham Town | 42 | 15 | 11 | 16 | 70 | 89 | 0.787 | 41 |
| 14 | Weymouth | 42 | 15 | 10 | 17 | 70 | 75 | 0.933 | 40 |
| 15 | Hereford United | 42 | 17 | 5 | 20 | 76 | 73 | 1.041 | 39 |
| 16 | Tonbridge | 42 | 12 | 9 | 21 | 62 | 88 | 0.705 | 33 |
| 17 | Lovells Athletic | 42 | 12 | 8 | 22 | 68 | 81 | 0.840 | 32 |
| 18 | Yeovil Town | 42 | 11 | 10 | 21 | 75 | 99 | 0.758 | 32 |
| 19 | Chelmsford City | 42 | 12 | 7 | 23 | 58 | 92 | 0.630 | 31 |
| 20 | Exeter City II | 42 | 13 | 4 | 25 | 71 | 94 | 0.755 | 30 |
| 21 | Kidderminster Harriers | 42 | 12 | 5 | 25 | 54 | 85 | 0.635 | 29 |
| 22 | Dartford | 42 | 6 | 5 | 31 | 40 | 121 | 0.331 | 17 |

## Football League elections

Five Southern League clubs applied for election to the Football League. However, none were successful as all four League clubs were re-elected.

| Club | League | Votes |
| - | - | - |
| Shrewsbury Town | Football League | 46 |
| Accrington Stanley | Football League | 45 |
| Walsall | Football League | 41 |
| Workington | Football League | 36 |
| Wigan Athletic | Lancashire Combination | 17 |
| Peterborough United | Midland League | 6 |
| Yeovil Town | Southern League | 2 |
| Bath City | Southern League | 2 |
| Headington United | Southern League | 0 |
| Hereford United | Southern League | 1 |
| Nelson | Lancashire Combination | 0 |
| New Brighton | Lancashire Combination | 0 |
| North Shields | North Eastern League | 0 |
| Worcester City | Southern League | 0 |
