At the end of the 19th century, the battle for First Division places involved unwisely scheduled post-season test matches
As the 1897-98 season roared towards its final furlong, the battle to avoid relegation from the First Division was white hot. Seven of the 16 teams were in danger of being forced to endure the post-season test matches that pitted the top two of the Second Division with the bottom two of the First to decide the final make-up of the following year’s top flight. “However the final positions may be allocated there will be a finer set of test games this April than ever before,” trilled Sporting Life in February. It is fair to say they got that one wrong.
By the time the season ended the league’s own president was declaring the tests “a distinct failure” and proclaiming that “the sooner we get rid of them the better”, while plans were made to gift the two losing sides promotion as a final apology for inventing the cursed system in the first place.
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