Has the Isthmian League been watered down?

Once upon a time, when I was a young boy, if the Wands were drawn to play an Isthmian League club in one of the various cup competitions, it brought an air of anticipated excitement to our supporters, players and club officials. In fact, it brought a sense of awe to everyone associated with our club. At the time, it has been said, Cray Wanderers were punching above their weight in the Metropolitan League and were competing alongside such teams as Arsenal, West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur XIs, which included former first-teamers and soon-to-be stars alike. Players like Clyde Best and Peter Grotier, who were to know some fame with the Hammers in the Football League during the 1970s, plus former Spurs double-winning player and England cap Ron Henry, graced the Grassmeade pitch, such was the standard of that league.

Yet the very mention of an Isthmian League side arriving for a cup match for Cray to take on was an absolute thrill in itself. Teams like Barking, Leytonstone and St Alban's City visited Grassmeade, while a few years on Barking, Walthamstow Avenue and St Alban's City honoured us with their presence at Oxford Road in the 1970s. And they were all pretty hard teams to play against. Even Maidstone United and Bromley, whom Cray have played on numerous occasions, were Isthmians back in the late 1960s, despite struggling a bit in that league. Things have definitely changed for both of those clubs since then, including one of them becoming defunct and then resurging and both clubs experiencing life in the English Football League at some point in their varied histories.

Mixed results were had by the Wands against the visiting Isthmian Leaguers. St Alban's visited Grassmeade and left with a 7-0 victory in the London Senior Cup but the Wands forced draws against Barking and Leytonstone in the F A Amateur Cup. A 3-1 victory against Maidstone United was also recorded back in the late 1960s. The Wanderers then got 'revenge' over St Alban's 2-0 at Oxford Road in the early 1970s, again in the London Senior Cup, while a similar scoreline against Walthamstow Avenue sent them packing in the F A Cup, also at Oxford Road.

Along with the Southern League, the Isthmian League was considered at the time to be one of the strongest non-League competitions to play in and it certainly showed when their players arrived at Grassmeade and Oxford Road for those cup games.

But those types of games have all but gone now. Walthamstow and Leytonstone now play under the Dagenham & Redbridge badge in the National League, both having been hoovered up by the Daggers in the 1970s when both East London clubs were struggling, St Alban's City joined the Wands in the Isthmian League Premier Division at the start of this season after dropping from the National League South and Barking are currently plying their trade in the Essex Senior League.

Yes, I did mention that the Wands themselves are now Isthmian League Premier Division members, but it took the club fifty years on from the Metropolitan League to get there. Various stumbling blocks along the way prevented our club from progressing as far as it has got today. Things like losing Grassmeade, inability to erect floodlights at Oxford Road, lack of promotion options in the footballing pyramid at the time and so on were the main causes.

The present Isthmian League Premier Division (as I type this in 2026) contains just two of the original clubs from the mid to late 1960s. These are Dulwich Hamlet and St Alban's City. So, does that mean the quality of the Isthmian League has been watered down since those days? It is certainly difficult to tell if the standard of football or players has changed but, with regard to the clubs now competing for the chance to gain promotion to the National League South from this league, times have moved on since the dizzy days of the late 1960s, as have many of the clubs who were Isthmian Leaguers back then. A proper promotion and relegation system is now in place, which is something that was never happening back in the 1960s. That took a major overhaul of the pyramid system in the 1990s for clubs to finally earn promotion through merit and now face relegation instead of re-election. Football at grassroots level has undoubtedly got stronger and that is mirrored throughout the pyramid system.

And, of course, over the years since their Grassmeade days the Wands have got stronger themselves as they look to complete yet another consecutive season in the Isthmian League Premier Division. We could only dream of that ever happening back in the 1960s...!

Trevor Mulligan