The 1937–38 Southern Football League

Southern Football League

The Southern League is an English football competition featuring semi-professional and amateur clubs from the South West, South Central and Midlands of England and South Wales...

 season saw Guildford City

Guildford City F.C.

Guildford City Football Club is a football club based in Guildford, Surrey, England. The club was originally established in 1921, folded in 1974 and were reformed in 1996...

 win the title. Ipswich Town

Ipswich Town F.C.

Ipswich Town Football Club are an English professional football team based in Ipswich, Suffolk. As of 2011, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02....

 were again the only Southern League club to apply for election to the Football League, and this time were successful.

Final table

The league featured three new clubs:

• Bristol Rovers II
• Colchester United
• Swindon Town II

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv1	Pts2	Notes
1	Guildford City Guildford City F.C. Guildford City Football Club is a football club based in Guildford, Surrey, England. The club was originally established in 1921, folded in 1974 and were reformed in 1996...	34	22	5	7	94	60	1.57	49
2	Plymouth Argyle II Plymouth Argyle F.C. Plymouth Argyle Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Plymouth, Devon, that plays in Football League Two.Since becoming professional in 1903, the club has won five Football League titles, five Southern League titles and one Western League title. The 2009–10 season was the...	34	18	9	7	98	58	1.69	45
3	Ipswich Town Ipswich Town F.C. Ipswich Town Football Club are an English professional football team based in Ipswich, Suffolk. As of 2011, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02....	34	19	6	9	89	54	1.65	44	Elected to the Football League
4	Yeovil & Petters United Yeovil Town F.C. Yeovil Town F.C. are an English association football team based in Yeovil, Somerset. The club play in League One after having won the League Two championship in 2004–05...	34	14	14	6	72	45	1.6	42
5	Norwich City II Norwich City F.C. Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. As of the 2011–12 season, Norwich City are again playing in the Premier League after a six-year absence, having finished as runner up in the Championship in 2010–11 and winning automatic promotion.The...	34	15	11	8	77	55	1.4	41
6	Colchester United Colchester United F.C. Colchester United Football Club is an English football club based in Colchester. The club was formed in 1937, and briefly shared their old Layer Road home with now defunct side Colchester Town who had previously used the ground from 1910....	34	15	8	11	90	58	1.55	38
7	Bristol Rovers II Bristol Rovers F.C. Bristol Rovers Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Bristol, that competes in Football League Two. The team plays its home matches at the Memorial Stadium, in the Horfield area of the city....	34	14	8	12	63	62	1.02	36
8	Swindon Town II Swindon Town F.C. Swindon Town Football Club are a team based in Swindon, Wiltshire. Currently in League Two, Swindon have been managed by Paolo Di Canio since 23 May 2011...	34	14	7	13	70	76	0.92	35
9	Tunbridge Wells Rangers	34	14	6	14	68	74	0.92	34
10	Aldershot II Aldershot F.C. Aldershot Football Club was an English Football League club, which was wound up in the High Court in March 1992. They became the first Football League club since Accrington Stanley to resign from the League during the course of a season. The club was nicknamed the Shots for both the last syllable...	34	10	12	12	42	55	0.76	32
11	Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town F.C. Cheltenham Town Football Club is an English football club playing in League Two, the fourth tier of English football. Founded in 1887, the team has played at four different grounds, namely Agg-Gardner's Recreation Ground, Carter's Field and now the Abbey Business Stadium, although it is more...	34	13	5	16	72	68	1.06	31
12	Exeter City II Exeter City F.C. Exeter City Football Club is an English football club, based in Exeter, which is owned by its fans through the Exeter City Supporters Trust.The club was a member of the Football League from 1920 to 2003...	34	13	5	16	71	75	0.95	31
13	Dartford Dartford F.C. Dartford F.C. are an English football club based in Dartford, Kent. After finishing as champions of the Isthmian League Division One North in the 2007–08 season, they compete in the Isthmian League Premier Division. They finished in 8th position in their first season...	34	9	11	14	51	70	0.73	29
14	Bath City Bath City F.C. Bath City Football Club are a semi-professional football club based in Bath, Somerset. They play in the Conference National league after gaining promotion from the Conference South via the play-offs in May 2010...	34	9	9	16	45	65	0.69	27
15	Folkestone Folkestone F.C. Folkestone Football Club was the name of two English football clubs based in the town of Folkestone, Kent. It is unclear if the two clubs were in fact connected, but neither has any formal connection to Folkestone Invicta, who took over the Cheriton Road stadium after the demise of Folkestone F.C....	34	10	6	18	58	82	0.71	26
16	Newport County II Newport County A.F.C. Newport County Association Football Club are a professional football club based in the city of Newport, south Wales, who currently play in the Conference National, the highest level of the National League System and fifth highest of the overall English football league system...	34	10	6	18	56	86	0.65	26
17	Barry Barry Town F.C. Barry Town FC are a football team based in Barry. They dominated the League of Wales during the 1990s, but finished bottom in 2003-04 and were relegated...	34	8	7	19	50	88	0.56	23
18	Torquay United II Torquay United F.C. Torquay United Football Club, nicknamed the Gulls, are an English association football club based in the tourist resort town of Torquay, Devon. They played in the Conference National in 2008–09, but were promoted to Football League Two after a 2–0 win over Cambridge United on 17 May 2009 at Wembley...	34	8	7	19	46	81	0.56	23

<sup>1 The system of using goal average to separate two teams tied on points was used up until the 1976-77 season.

2 The points system: 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for losing.</sup>

Football League election

Ipswich Town were the only non-League club to apply for election to the Football League Third Division South. Having been unsuccessful the previous season, this time they won more votes than both Football League clubs, the first time a non-League club had topped an admission ballot since 1920.

Club	League	Votes
Ipswich Town Ipswich Town F.C. Ipswich Town Football Club are an English professional football team based in Ipswich, Suffolk. As of 2011, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02....	Southern League	36
Walsall Walsall F.C. Walsall Football Club are an English association football club based in Walsall, West Midlands. They currently play in League One. The club was founded in 1888 as Walsall Town Swifts, an amalgamation of Walsall Town F.C. and Walsall Swifts F.C. The club was one of the founder members of the Second...	Football League Third Division South Football League Third Division South The Football League Third Division South was a level of English professional football which ran in parallel to Third Division North from 1921 to 1958....	34
Gillingham Gillingham F.C. Gillingham Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Gillingham, Kent. The only Kent-based club in the Football League, they play their home matches at the Priestfield Stadium...	Football League Third Division South Football League Third Division South The Football League Third Division South was a level of English professional football which ran in parallel to Third Division North from 1921 to 1958....	24