The Football League Second Division 1892/93 was the first season of the Football League Second Division as the second highest English football league . The first game day took place on September 3, 1892 and the last "test match", which was decisive for promotion and relegation, on April 17, 1893. With the introduction of this second division within the Football League Association , the top English division was renamed from “Football League” to “Football League First Division”.
The first second division champion was the Birmingham-based club Small Heath , which then failed to move up to the First Division due to a defeat against Newton Heath . In contrast, the second and third placed Sheffield United and FC Darwen qualified for the elite league after defeating FC Accrington and Notts County . For FC Bootle , the first season was also the last, as the club dissolved immediately afterwards due to financial problems. The Lincoln City , Crewe Alexandra , Burslem Port Vale and Walsall Town Swifts , who ranked behind FC Bootle , also had to fear that they would remain in the class, but then all received enough votes in the re-election process of the league association to take part again in the following season 1893/94 Second Division to participate. In the Second Division, which was expanded to 15 teams in 1893, instead of Sheffield United, FC Darwen and FC Bootle, the following five clubs took the vacant places: Notts County, Liverpool FC , Newcastle United , Woolwich Arsenal , Rotherham Town and Middlesbrough Ironopolis ; Accrington FC waived and then broke up.
Before the automatic promotion and relegation rule between the first-class First Division and the second-rate Second Division, which first came into effect at the end of the 1898/99 season, potential promoters from the Second Division had to prove themselves in play-off- like “test games”. Participation in the game was also dependent on an election procedure of the league association, which had to decide whether a club might participate. Also in the 1892/93 season there were test matches between the last three first division clubs Notts County, Accrington FC and Newton Heath as well as the best second division clubs Small Heath, Sheffield United and Darwen FC, from which Newton Heath, Sheffield United and Darwen FC as the sporting ones Winners emerged and then each secured a majority of the votes of the league association.
Fred Wheldon