THE THIRD DIVISIONS
The lower levels of the Football League (i.e. from level 6 down) are regionally based to help clubs with finances and stop them travelling hundreds of miles for games. The same thing happened in the Third tier of the league for 31 years between 1921 and 1957, when the clubs were split into Northern and Southern Divisions.The Football League was started in 1888 and, for the first four years, was just a single league of 12 and then 14 clubs. A second tier was added in 1892 and the league gradually increased to a total of 44 teams when, in 1920, a third tier of 22 clubs was added. That lasted just the one season as another 20 clubs were added in 1921 and the Third Division North and Third Division South were created. There were initally 20 teams in the North and 22 in the South and both expanded to 24 teams by 1950 to give us the 92 clubs that are part of the current top 4 tiers.
The two Third Divisions both had promotion to the Second tier and relegation out of the league, but in order to keep the geography honest, clubs were occasionally moved from one to another. Five of them - Coventry City, Mansfield Town, Port Vale, Shrewsbury Town and Walsall - were shuttled around. Coventry and Shrewsbury both spent one season in the North before moving south while Mansfield, Port Vale and Walsall moved four times each.
The two divisions had served their purpose by the end of the 1957-58 season and the teams were split into a full Third Division and Fourth Division the following season. The top 12 in each league stayed into the third tier and the bottom 12 formed the new fourth tier.