Few people could ever claim to have had the same impact that Thomas Blundell Burnett had on sport in Southport. That his role in the history of the sport in this town has been almost forgotten for so long is a shame. He was the pioneer of association football in Southport, of that there is absolutely no doubt. He is also largely responsible for the reformation of Southport Cricket Club in 1883.

As we look towards the annual acts of Remembrance, we take time to honour the brave men who served and sacrificed their lives during times of conflict, including those connected to Southport FC. Th…

When Ne-Jai Tucker pulled on the Bermuda shirt to face Jamaica in a World Cup qualifier in September, he became only the fourth player ever to represent his country in a senior international fixture while registered with Southport. Full Senior Internationals (while at Southport) George Latham (#265) – Wales (1909–10)Southport’s first full international. Latham, a wing half, added to his Welsh caps during his spell at the club in the Edwardian era.

3UP | Urge the EFL to grant third promotion place to National League clubs

Southport Football Club has a proud and complex history. Its name runs through almost a century and a half of the town’s sporting life, from the earliest experiments with rugby and association football to the modern day. Yet in 2025 the picture of that history remains oddly inconsistent. Across the club’s public face, the story changes depending on where you look.

On 23 October 2025, Southport FC released a statement confirming that they would not fulfil their scheduled Liverpool County FA Senior Cup tie against City of Liverpool FC. The announcement set out the club’s reasons in unusually strong terms and has since prompted debate over integrity, governance and the relevance of county competitions in the modern game. The statement centred on a financial dispute arising from a series of loan agreements between the two clubs during the 2024–25 season, involving Finlay Heath and Renato De Oliveira Gomes.

The idea of heritage numbers has grown steadily in sport over the past two decades. First used in cricket, where players have long worn their Test cap number as a badge of honour, the practice has been adopted across codes. In rugby league, clubs such as Wigan, Leeds, and St Helens maintain published registers of every player to have represented them in a competitive first-team fixture, often commemorating centenaries or landmark matches by presenting players or their families with their number.

When Southport Central entered the Lancashire League in September 1889, only a year after their formation, they did so as an ambitious professional club determined to make their mark. The man chosen to lead them in their first season of competitive league football was George Dobson, a former Everton captain whose reputation brought instant authority to the seaside town’s new side.

As the second Rugby League Ashes test between England and Australia approaches on 1st November, attention turns to the Hill Dickinson Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, Everton’s new home. It marks the first major international sporting event at the ground since the club left Goodison Park at the end of last season. More than a century earlier, another link between England and Australia had already been written into local sporting history.

The IMG gradings introduced in rugby league have certainly divided opinion. Their aim is to reward sustainable, well-run clubs rather than those relying on short-term spending, but the shift has been controversial. Supporters of the system argue it will protect the sport’s future; critics say it undermines the idea that results should always decide who goes up and who goes down.

The IMG gradings introduced in rugby league have certainly divided opinion. Their aim is to reward sustainable, well-run clubs rather than those relying on short-term spending, but the shift has been controversial. Supporters of the system argue it will protect the sport’s future; critics say it undermines the idea that results should always decide who goes up and who goes down.

Why Southport’s latest cup run cannot be measured by old labels Southport’s crowd of 2,194 for the Fourth Qualifying Round tie with FC Halifax Town in October 2025 was an excellent turnout and the club’s best at this stage of the FA Cup for a century. It was not, however, the highest ever attendance for a Fourth Qualifying Round match. In 1923, when Southport were a Football League club, around 5,000 watched their game against New Brighton at the same stage.

When the Dundee Evening Post published a history of Third Lanark in 1901, it remembered John and Charles Weir as the “famous half-backs” of the Cathkin Park side in the 1880s. John’s later career with Everton and Scotland has kept his name alive, but Charlie’s story deserves telling too. His was a career that bridged Glasgow’s Volunteer tradition and the first wave of Scottish footballers to cross the border and try their luck in Lancashire.

When Southport were voted out of the Football League in 1978, it ended fifty-seven years of membership that had begun with their election to the newly formed Third Division North in 1921. The blow was heavy enough, but within a year the landscape of English football was about to change again. For the first time, the leading clubs from the Southern League and Northern Premier League were to be drawn into a new national competition.

When James Brown Meunier signed for Southport Central in the summer of 1906, he brought with him a background that made him stand out. Born in Birmingham in April 1885 to a French father and English mother, he had already been on the books at Manchester City without breaking through to first-team football. Central provided him with that long-awaited opportunity, and in doing so, gave the club one of its most cosmopolitan players of the pre-First World War era.

Today we celebrate the 99th birthday of Trevor Hitchen, the oldest living former Southport player and manager, the oldest living former football manager, and the seventh oldest former professional footballer in the country. Trevor holds a unique place in Southport’s history. Appointed as “Players’ Manager” in 1958, he took responsibility for every aspect of the playing side at Haig Avenue, from players and coaches to even the groundsman.

Floodlights, pay packets and the pull of the big city clubs: English football’s flirtation with Friday nights began with practicalities and ended, mostly, with television. In between, it gave Southport a distinct local identity and a weekly ritual that felt different to a Saturday at three. Tranmere Rovers led the way on Merseyside. When Dave Russell took over as manager in 1961 he made a conscious decision to stage games on a Friday evening, avoiding clashes with Liverpool and Everton in order to tempt neutrals.

Southport FC Women’s manager Keith Paterson has stepped down from his role two days after the opening league game of the new season. Paterson informed his players of the decision on Tuesday morning before making the news public later that day. Paterson took over the role in February 2024, overseeing 32 games and crucially a promotion from the Liverpool Women's league division 1 last season.

The Fair Game Index is designed to assess how well football clubs in England are run. Each year it scores clubs across eight areas: finance, governance, transparency, fan engagement, equality, diversity, environment, ethics and community. The principle is sound. With the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) beginning to take shape, any attempt to benchmark clubs against standards of good practice is valuable.

Southport Central continues to publish original features across governance, heritage, culture and context because it is the kind of coverage supporters cannot find elsewhere. Since the end of July we have brought you articles covering: Governance and oversight The Independent Football Regulator: What it Means for Southport FC and the Role of Supporters Football’s Financial Machine and Southport’s Place Within It…

As the new FA Cup campaign approaches, the usual clichés will surface again: giant-killings, the magic of the cup, David versus Goliath, and so on. This year is a little different for Southport, as it will mark the club’s 125th season in the competition. Yet with so much of Southport’s history still overlooked or misreported, you are unlikely to hear that number mentioned.

In September 1975 Southport were handed one of the great cup draws. Newcastle United, then a First Division side with Malcolm Macdonald among their stars, were paired with Jimmy Melia’s men in the second round of the Football League Cup. On paper it was a glamour tie, the kind of occasion Haig Avenue had long craved. Yet it was not played there.