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The Second World War played havoc with sporting events and football as much as any other.

The league programme did get underway with Blackpool sitting in first place, unbeaten with 6 points from three games, when the programme was abandoned.

The football world appeared to have more of a grasp of the situation well before the Government. The Munich Agreement whilst popular with the majority of people was viewed with suspicion by many in the football world. Indeed George Kay manager of Liverpool made his distrust of Hitler well known and joined the Territorial Army. He entreated his players to join, as did West Ham’s manager Charlie Paynter.

To see how footballers were prepared to help their country was well presented in April of 1939. Well in advance of hostilities being declared. Bolton had a home game against Sunderland. Before the start Harry Goslin, Bolton captain made a speech urging the men in the crowd to join the Territorials. All the playing staff of thirty five either joined the Terriers or undertook other essential occupations.

This course of action encouraged other clubs to follow suit. Being fit was a boon to those who joined the forces and most were understandably given posts as Physical Fitness Instructors.So not too many of them actually saw combat. However the lead was what was needed to encourage Joe Public to enrol,too.The clubs really did set a great example. Wolves. for instance, had ninety-one of their staff join-up. Seventy-six from Liverpool and a host of other teams were responsible for any number in excess of forty staff members. To be different, most of Arsenals players joined the R.A.F. Around 800 footballers volunteered to join-up.

Some footballers did see action. One in particular was Wilf Mannion, a future England regular. He was reported killed in France but was actually rescued from Dunkirk. He managed to "fit-in" a war-time international game against Scotland before being posted to South Africa, being readied for the invasion of Sicily.

Some players never made it back home. One who didn’t was Bolton’s Harry Goslin. He died fron shrapnel wounds. Others who didn’t make it included, Walter Sidebottom also of Bolton considered a future international. He was torpedoed. Joe Rooney of Wolves died in an air raid. There were many others including eight on Arsenals books.One was Bill Dean a goalkeeper who claimed"I’ve fulfilled a lifes ambition and played for Arsenal". He died in action just over a year later.

Quite a few players were wounded and many were told they wouldn’t play again. Of course British Spirit prevailed and many proved the doctors wrong. Bil Shorthouse of Wolves. Stan Mortensen had bad head injuries when his Wellington bomber crashed. Jackie Stamp of Derby County was wounded in the Dunkirk evacuation  He defied the doctor’s prognocis.Probably the most unlikeliest recovery was Roy White (Spurs).He was torpedoed during the evacuation and when he was eventually rescued he’d gone blind. After two months in hospital his sight returned.After the war he became a Spurs regular.

The game itself became regionalised with a travel limit of 55 miles imposed by the government. London had a ready made grouping and they were supplimented by teams on the periphery of the capital. Clubs like Reading, Aldershot and Brighton. There were six other regions. Some regions had two divisions. London’s two divisions were both played in two sections.Giving a total of ten divisions in all.

Due to the travel restrictions players tended to play for the team nearest to where they were stationed. Not surprisingly Aldershot were the envy of many other clubs.

The leagues were tinkered with on a regular basis  until they became League North, League South and League West. They ran like this until the war ended and became League North, League South and division three operated on a north/south split thru’ to the end of the 45/46 season.

During these years the F.A.Cup was discontinued and replaced by the Football League War Cup. It ran on similar lines to the F.A. Cup. In addition there was the The London  War Cup. two years later a league North Cup was introduced.

These were desparate times for some teams who found it hard to put out a decent squad. It appears league tables were very much a "hit and miss" affair. The public didn’t seem to mind too much but those who were able to watch a game could most probably have done so on a Sunday. And we thought Sunday football was a new inovation when it started a few years ago.