During the 1982–83 English football season, Gillingham F.C. competed in the Football League Third Division, the third tier of the English football league system. It was the 51st season in which Gillingham competed in the Football League, and the 33rd since the club was voted back into the league in 1950. Two months into the season, Gillingham were in third place in the Third Division league table, a position which at the end of the season would secure promotion to the Second Division, but the team then experienced a run of seven games with only one victory which left them in 12th place at the end of 1982. Their results did not improve in the new year, with only one victory in the first fourteen games of 1983, resulting in them slipping to 19th in the table, only two places above the positions which would result in relegation to the Fourth Division. Six wins in the final eleven games of the season, however, meant that Gillingham finished the campaign 13th out of 24 teams in the division.
Gillingham also competed in two knock-out competitions. They lost in the second round of the FA Cup, but reached the third round of the Football League Cup for the first time in more than a decade, losing at that stage to Tottenham Hotspur of the First Division. The team played 54 competitive matches, winning 19, drawing 14, and losing 21. Tony Cascarino was the club's leading goalscorer, scoring 15 goals in the Third Division and a total of 19 in all competitions. Micky Adams and Mark Weatherly made the most appearances, both playing 51 times. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, during the season was 14,446 for the League Cup game against Tottenham.


The 1982–83 season was Gillingham's 51st season playing in the Football League and the 33rd since the club was elected back into the League in 1950 after being voted out in 1938. It was the club's ninth consecutive season in the Football League Third Division, the third tier of the English football league system, since the team gained promotion from the Fourth Division in 1974. In the eight seasons since then, Gillingham had achieved a best finish of fourth place, one position away from promotion to the Second Division, in the 1978–79 season. The club had never reached the second level of English football in its history.
Keith Peacock was the club's manager for a second season, having been appointed in July 1981. Paul Taylor served as assistant manager and Bill Collins, who had been with the club in a variety of roles since the early 1960s, held the posts of first-team trainer and manager of the youth team. Dick Tydeman was the team captain. The team's kit for the season consisted of Gillingham's usual blue shirts, white shorts and white socks. The away kit, to be worn in the event of a clash of colours with the home team, was all-red. The team prepared for the new season with a number of friendlies. Steve Butler, a 20-year-old forward, played during the pre-season on a trial basis and scored five goals, but he was serving in the army at the time and the club could not afford to pay for his release. After leaving the armed forces and playing for several other clubs, he would eventually sign for Gillingham in 1995. Writing in the matchday programme for the first game of the season, Peacock expressed disappointment that he had not been able to add any new players to the squad ahead of the new season.


Gillingham began the season with a game at their own ground, Priestfield Stadium, against Oxford United on 28 August; Oxford won 1–0. A week later, Ken Price scored Gillingham's first league goal of the season away to Exeter City. His team were held to a 2–2 draw, however, after conceding a goal with two minutes of the game remaining, and their winless league run continued with a 2–1 defeat away to Bristol Rovers. A goal from Tony Cascarino gave Gillingham their first league win of the season at the fourth attempt on 11 September as the team beat Millwall 1–0 at Priestfield. Gillingham lost 1–0 away to Wrexham on 18 September but then won their next four league games. Cascarino took his league goalscoring tally to four in seven games with the second goal in a 3–0 win against Walsall and the only goal in a 1–0 victory over Reading. The reporter for the Sunday Mercury contended that Gillingham could have potentially scored twice as many goals against a very poor Walsall team. Jeff Johnson, a midfielder newly signed from Newport County, made his debut against Reading.
The team began October with a 2–0 victory away to Sheffield United with goals from Mark Weatherly and Steve Bruce. It was the first time that Sheffield United had lost at home for 17 months. A 2–1 win at home to Preston North End on 9 October took Gillingham up to fifth place in the Third Division league table. A week later, the team's run of wins came to an end with a 1–0 defeat away to Cardiff City; the result meant that Gillingham had won four out of five league games at Priestfield but only one out of five away from home. Three days later, they beat Orient 4–0 at Priestfield to move back up from ninth to sixth in the table; Neil Grewcock scored twice in the victory having registered his first goal of the season ten days earlier against Preston, but the three goals would prove to be the only ones he scored in 27 appearances during the campaign. A goal from Bruce, scored from a penalty kick, gave Gillingham a 1–0 win away to AFC Bournemouth on 23 October and took them up to third in the table, a position which at the end of the season would secure promotion to the Second Division. The next game drew Priestfield's biggest attendance of the season so far, but the crowd of 5,919 saw Gillingham defeated 3–1 by Huddersfield Town.
On 2 November, Gillingham won 2–1 away to Chesterfield, but it would prove to be their last league victory for nearly two months. They lost 1–0 away to Portsmouth and were held to a 1–1 draw at Priestfield by Doncaster Rovers, who had lost every previous away game since the start of the season. The final game of November resulted in a 2–0 defeat at home to Wigan Athletic, and Gillingham also lost their first two league games of December, away to Newport County and Plymouth Argyle. The team's last two games of 1982 took place on consecutive days. On 27 December, a goal from Weatherly was enough to give them a 1–0 victory over Southend United at Priestfield, ending a run of five Third Division games without a win. A 1–1 draw away to Brentford the following day meant that Gillingham ended 1982 in 12th place in the Third Division league table at the end of 1982; they had won only one of their last seven league games.


During January, Gillingham played six matches and did not record any victories. Their first match of 1983 was on 1 January at home to Lincoln City, who were top of the league table, and resulted in a 2–0 defeat. Two days later, they began a run of four consecutive draws with a match away to Bradford City which finished 1–1. On 8 January, Gillingham played Exeter City at Priestfield; the score was 3–2 to Exeter at half-time and 4–4 at the end of the game. Dean White, who had not scored in nine previous appearances since the start of the season, scored three of Gillingham's goals, the first hat-trick by a Gillingham player since November 1976. The next two games, away to Oxford United and at home to Wrexham, both ended 1–1. Phil Handford, an 18-year-old midfielder from the youth team, made his debut against Exeter, and Martin Hodge, a goalkeeper signed on loan from Everton, made the first of four appearances in place of regular starter Ron Hillyard against Oxford. Peacock was keen to sign Hodge on a permanent basis but the club could not afford the transfer fee which Everton stipulated. Gillingham's final match of January was away to Millwall, who were 24th out of 24 teams in the league table going into the game. Cascarino scored a goal inside the first minute, but Gillingham then conceded four goals and lost 4–1. After a 0–0 draw with Walsall, Gillingham won their first game of 1983 at the eighth attempt, beating Chesterfield 3–1, but then went a further six games without a victory.
After a goalless draw away to Preston North End, Gillingham lost consecutive games to Cardiff City and Orient, and then lost 5–2 to AFC Bournemouth, the highest number of goals the team conceded during the season. The correspondent for The Daily Telegraph wrote that Gillingham "fell apart" after John Sitton was sent off after less than half an hour. Peacock made changes to the team's midfield for the game against Huddersfield Town on 12 March; Colin Duncan was in the starting line-up for the first time in over a year, and Dave Mehmet, a new signing from Charlton Athletic, made his debut. Mehmet scored the second of Gillingham's two goals as they fought back from three goals down with 20 minutes of the game remaining, but the final score was 3–2 and Gillingham dropped to 19th in the league table, only two places above the positions which at the end of the season would result in relegation to the Fourth Division. The bad run continued with a 2–0 defeat at home to Sheffield United on 15 March, but four days later Gillingham defeated Portsmouth, who were top of the league table going into the game, with a goal from Duncan in the 87th minute. Cascarino, the team's joint top goalscorer for the season so far, made his return as a substitute having been absent for a month with a broken collarbone. He scored in each of the next three games, a 2–0 win away to Doncaster Rovers and draws with Southend United and Brentford. Richie Bowman also scored against Doncaster in his first appearance since a serious knee injury in December 1981.
On 9 April, first-half goals from Weatherly and Bruce gave Gillingham a 2–0 win over Newport County, but Bruce broke his leg late in the game as a result of a reckless tackle on Newport's Tommy Tynan; he would be absent from the team for the remainder of the season and the first month of the following campaign. Gillingham extended their unbeaten run to six games with a goalless draw with Reading, and then beat Plymouth Argyle 2–1 at Priestfield with two goals from Cascarino. The team ended April with a 2–2 draw away to Wigan Athletic despite playing much of the second half with only ten men after John Sharpe was sent off. The result left them 14th in the league table with three games remaining. On 3 May, a crowd of 2,716, the lowest of the season at Priestfield, saw Gillingham beat Bradford City 3–0, and the team achieved another win in their final home game of the season, beating Bristol Rovers 1–0. Gillingham's unbeaten run ended in the final game of the season, a 3–1 defeat away to Lincoln; Cascarino scored his fifth goal in the last five games. The result meant that Gillingham ended the campaign 13th out of 24 teams in the Third Division league table.


As a Third Division team, Gillingham entered the 1982–83 FA Cup at the first round stage and were paired with Dagenham of the Alliance Premier League, the highest level of non-League football. A goal from Cascarino gave Gillingham a narrow win over their semi-professional opponents and took them into the second round, where they faced Northampton Town of the Fourth Division. The initial match at Priestfield resulted in a 1–1 draw, necessitating a replay at Northampton's County Ground stadium. Weatherly scored twice for Gillingham and with two minutes remaining the score was 2–2, but Northampton then scored a third goal to win the match and eliminate Gillingham from the competition. It meant that Gillingham missed out on a prestigious match at home to Aston Villa, the reigning holders of the European Cup, in the third round.


As a Third Division team, Gillingham entered the 1982–83 Football League Cup at the first round stage; their opponents were fellow Third Division side Orient. The first leg of the two-legged tie took place at Priestfield on 31 August. Cascarino scored twice in a 3–0 victory. In the second leg at Brisbane Road, Orient scored twice in the first half but Gillingham held on for a 3–2 win on aggregate. In the second round, Gillingham played Oldham Athletic of the Second Division. The first leg again took place at Priestfield and Gillingham scored twice in the second half to win 2–0 on the night. Oldham won the second leg at Boundary Park 1–0, but Gillingham again won on aggregate and reached the third round (last 32) of the League Cup for the first time since the 1971–72 season.
In the third round, played as a single match, Gillingham played at home to Tottenham Hotspur of the First Division, who had reached the final of the competition in the previous season. After conceding a goal in the first 15 minutes, Gillingham equalised when Johnson scored. Tottenham scored a further goal each side of the half-time break to make the score 3–1, but Price reduced the deficit with just over 20 minutes remaining. Tottenham scored a fourth goal in the final minute to win 4–2 and eliminate Gillingham from the competition.


During the season, 28 players made at least one appearance for Gillingham. Weatherly and Micky Adams made the most, both playing 51 times. Five other players took part in more than 45 of the team's 54 competitive games. Five players made fewer than five appearances, but none played only once. Hillyard's 47 appearances took him past the milestone of having played 400 games for Gillingham. Cascarino was the team's leading goalscorer; he scored 15 goals in the league and a total of 19 in all competitions. Weatherly was the only other player to reach double figures, scoring a total of 12 goals.


Bruce and Adams were both voted into the Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year for the Third Division by their fellow professionals. Weatherly won the club's own Player of the Year award. At the end of the season, Adams was transferred to Coventry City of the First Division for a fee of £85,000, a new record for the highest transfer fee received by Gillingham. The team's league performance improved in the following season as they finished 8th in the Third Division league table.


During the 1983–84 English football season, Gillingham F.C. competed in the Football League Third Division, the third tier of the English football league system. It was the 52nd season in which Gillingham competed in the Football League and the 34th since the club was voted back into the league in 1950. The team started the season poorly and were near the bottom of the league table after six games, but won five times in October to move into the top half, where they remained at the end of 1983. After only playing one league match in January, Gillingham were 10th in the 24-team table at the end of February but were in the advantageous position of having up to four games more to play than the teams above them. During March and April, however, they played 15 games and only won three times to fall out of contention for promotion to the Second Division. After winning three out of four games in May, the team finished the season 8th in the table, missing out on promotion by five places.
Gillingham also competed in three knock-out competitions. They lost in the first round of both the Football League Cup and the Associate Members' Cup but reached the fourth round of the FA Cup, at which stage they held Everton of the First Division, the highest level of English football, to two goalless draws before losing a second replay. The team played 55 competitive matches, winning 23, drawing 12, and losing 20. Dave Mehmet was the club's leading goalscorer, with 17 goals in all competitions. John Leslie made the most appearances, missing only one game. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, was 17,817 for the second of the two replays against Everton.


The 1983–84 season was Gillingham's 52nd season playing in the Football League and the 34th since the club was elected back into the League in 1950 after being voted out in 1938. It was the club's 10th consecutive season in the Football League Third Division, the third tier of the English football league system, since the team gained promotion from the Fourth Division in 1974. In the nine seasons since then, the team had achieved a best finish of fourth place, one position away from promotion to the Second Division, in the 1978–79 season. The club had never reached the second level of English football in its history.
Keith Peacock was the club's manager for a third season, having been appointed in July 1981. Paul Taylor served as assistant manager and Bill Collins, who had been with the club in a variety of roles since the early 1960s, held the posts of first-team trainer and manager of the youth team. Before the new season, Gillingham signed two new players: John Leslie, a forward, arrived from Wimbledon, and David Fry, a goalkeeper, joined the club from Crystal Palace, both on free transfers. Peacock also attempted to sign another forward, Mike Barrett, but although his club, Bristol Rovers, accepted Gillingham's proposed transfer fee, the player chose to reject the move. Players leaving Gillingham included Micky Adams, who was transferred to Coventry City of the First Division for a fee of £85,000, a new record for the highest transfer fee received by the club.
The team's kit for the season consisted of Gillingham's usual blue shirts, white shorts and white socks. The away kit, to be worn in the event of a clash of colours with the home team, comprised red shirts, black shorts and black socks. The players prepared for the new season with several friendlies, mostly against other Football League teams but including a match against the national team of Japan, a game attended by the
Japanese ambassador as well as by Sir Stanley Rous, a former president of FIFA, the sport's global governing body.


Gillingham's first match of the season was away to Sheffield United on 27 August; Leslie made his Gillingham debut, as did Andy Woodhead, a 17-year old defender from the club's youth team. Keith Edwards gave the home team the lead in the first half and then scored three more times in the second half to complete a 4–0 victory. The first league game of the season at Gillingham's ground, Priestfield Stadium, took place a week later against Hull City. Ray Daniel, a teenaged midfielder signed on loan from Luton Town, made his debut. Gillingham conceded a goal in the first half and, although Leslie equalised with his first goal for the club shortly after the interval, ultimately lost 2–1. Another loan player, Paul Garner, made his first appearance against Bolton Wanderers on 6 September in defence; Forward Tony Cascarino, the team's leading goalscorer in the previous season, made his first appearance of the campaign as a substitute for Garner. Goals from Dave Mehmet and Mark Weatherly gave Gillingham their first win of the season. Gillingham drew 1–1 with Plymouth Argyle on 10 September but then lost to both Oxford United and AFC Bournemouth. Fry made his debut against Bournemouth, replacing Ron Hillyard, who had been the team's first-choice goalkeeper since 1974. Steve Bruce, a defender who was only 22 years old but had already played nearly 200 games for Gillingham, returned to the team for the same game after missing the start of the season due to a broken leg. At the end of September, Gillingham were 22nd out of 24 teams in the Third Division league table.
Having lost their last two league games of September, Gillingham won their first five matches of October. They began the run by defeating Brentford 4–2 at Priestfield on 1 October with two goals from each of Leslie and Mehmet. A week later, Terry Cochrane, a winger newly signed on loan from Middlesbrough, made his debut and scored the first goal in a 2–0 victory at home to Preston North End. His move to Gillingham would be made permanent later in the month. Cochrane scored again in the next game away to Burnley; after taking a 2–0 lead, Gillingham conceded two goals, but Mehmet scored in the final five minutes to secure a 3–2 victory. Against Exeter City on 18 October, Gillingham scored twice in the first eight minutes and went on to win 3–1. A 2–1 victory away to Wigan Athletic four days later, in which Cochrane scored his third goal in his first four games for the team, meant that for the third consecutive season Gillingham had followed a slow start to the season by winning at least four league games in October. Draws away to Orient and at home to Millwall meant that at the end of the month Gillingham were 10th in the table.
Gillingham won 2–0 at home to Lincoln City on 5 November with goals from Jeff Johnson and Mehmet. A week later, their unbeaten run ended at eight games as they lost 3–1 away to Walsall; while travelling to the game, Clifford Grossmark, who had served as chairman of the club's board of directors for more than 20 years, suffered a heart attack and died, a fact which was not revealed to the players until after the match. In the next game, against Rotherham United, Gillingham took a 2–0 lead through goals from Weatherly and Mehmet but were reduced to ten men shortly before the end of the first half when Johnson was sent off. Although Rotherham scored twice after the interval, both Weatherly and Mehmet scored again and Gillingham won 4–2. Russell Musker, a midfielder signed from Bristol City, made his debut in the game. Gillingham began December with a 1–0 win away to Port Vale, Cochrane scoring the only goal of the game less than a minute from the start. Hillyard played his first game since September in a 2–0 defeat away to Scunthorpe United on 17 December. On Boxing Day, Gillingham achieved their biggest win of the season with a 5–1 victory at home to Southend United. It was the first time the team had scored more than four goals in a game since February 1982 and left them 9th in the league table. Gillingham ended 1983 with two defeats, losing 3–0 away to Bristol Rovers and 1–0 at home to Wimbledon on 31 December, the first time they had lost at Priestfield since mid-September. John Sharpe, a defender who had been a regular in the team since 1978, was injured against Bristol Rovers and would not play again for nearly a year. Cascarino, who had been out injured, returned to the side against Wimbledon. The result left Gillingham 11th in the table at the end of the calendar year.


Four of Gillingham's five league games originally scheduled for January were postponed, two of them because of the team's continuing involvement in the FA Cup, with the result that the team played only one Third Division match in the month, at home to Sheffield United. Bruce scored twice and Weatherly and Cochrane added a goal each as Gillingham took a 4–0 lead, but their team-mates John Sitton and Peter Shaw then both scored own goals; the game finished 4–2 to Gillingham. At the end of the month, Gillingham were 12th in the league table but had the advantage that they had between two and five more games still to play than every team above them. They secured a 3–2 win away to Brentford on 4 February and, despite conceding a goal inside the first minute, continued their unbeaten run a week later by beating AFC Bournemouth 2–1. The team's next two matches both ended in draws, 0–0 at home to Bradford City and 2–2 at home to Millwall, and they remained unbeaten in the Third Division in 1984 when two goals from Mehmet and one from Cascarino gave them a 3–0 victory at home to Wigan Athletic on 25 February. At the end of the month, Gillingham were 10th in the table, seven points below the top three places which would result in promotion, but still with the advantage of having played up to four fewer games than all the teams above them.[a]
Gillingham began March with a match against Exeter City, who were 24th in the league table, but were held to a 0–0 draw, and their undefeated league run then came to an end as they were beaten 4–0 by Lincoln City. Gillingham fell further out of contention for the promotion places after losing 3–1 to Walsall on 10 March, a result which left them 13 points below third place. Four days later, Gillingham played away to Oxford United, who were top of the table. Phil Cavener, making his first appearance in the starting line-up, scored a goal inside the first minute and Gillingham won 1–0. It was the first time during the season that Oxford had failed to score in a home league game. Against Preston North End on 17 March, Gillingham scored two goals in the first half through Musker and Brian Sparrow, a defender making the final appearance of a loan spell from Arsenal, but conceded twice in the second half. The team's next two games both ended in 1–0 defeats, at home to Burnley and away to Newport County, meaning that they had won only once in the last seven games. Colin Clarke, a forward signed on loan from Peterborough United, made his debut against Burnley. In the last game of March, goals from Leslie and Mehmet, neither of whom had scored for over a month, and Cascarino secured a 3–1 win over Orient; despite the victory, Gillingham were again 13 points below third place.
A goal from Cascarino gave Gillingham a second consecutive win as they beat Bolton Wanderers 1–0 on 7 April, but it would prove to be the only victory they achieved in eight matches during the month. Four days later they lost 3–2 away to Bradford City after having been 2–1 up at half-time; Clarke scored the only goal of his eight-game loan spell. Weatherly, who had not played since sustaining a knee ligament injury in January, made his return as a substitute. Leslie scored a late equaliser to secure a draw against Port Vale on 14 April, and the next game against Hull City also ended in a draw. Gillingham's winless run continued on 20 April as they played 23rd-placed Southend United and lost 3–1. Against Bristol Rovers on 23 April, Musker scored an equaliser inside the final ten minutes after Gillingham had conceded a goal, but Bristol Rovers then scored again to win the game. Gillingham fell to a third consecutive defeat against Rotherham United and finished the game with ten men after Cochrane was sent off. Having gone six games without a victory, Gillingham won their first three games of May, beginning with a 2–1 defeat of Plymouth Argyle. In the next game, at home to Newport County on 5 May, Musker scored inside the first minute and Cascarino added two more goals before ten minutes of the match had elapsed; Gillingham went on to win 4–1. Two days later, Gillingham conceded a goal against second-placed Wimbledon just ten seconds after the start of the match, but came back to win 3–1. Gillingham's final game of the season was at home to Scunthorpe United on 12 May. Mehmet scored his 16th league goal of the season in a 1–1 draw which meant that Gillingham finished the season 8th in the league table, 13 points below the promotion places.


As a Third Division team, Gillingham entered the 1983–84 FA Cup at the first round stage; their opponents were AP Leamington of the Southern League, who had progressed through four qualifying rounds to reach this stage of the competition. A goal from Phil Handford gave Gillingham a 1–0 victory at Leamington's Windmill Gound and took them into the second round, where they faced another Southern League team, Chelmsford City, at Priestfield. Although Gillingham were held to a 1–0 lead at half-time, they scored five times after the interval and won 6–1. Gillingham's third round opponents were fellow Third Division team Brentford; with less than 15 minutes of the match at Priestfield remaining, Brentford were winning 3–1 and seemed set for victory, but Gillingham scored four goals in the final 11 minutes to secure a 5–3 win and reach the fourth round (last 32) of the competition for only the third time in the club's history.
Gillingham's opponents in the fourth round were Everton of the First Division, the highest tier of English football. The match took place at Everton's ground, Goodison Park, and Gillingham held their higher-level opponents to a goalless draw, meaning that a replay at Priestfield was required. The second match was also goalless at the end of the regulation 90 minutes and went into extra time. Shortly before the end of the additional period, a long clearance out of the Gillingham defence reached Cascarino, who found himself in the clear with only Everton's goalkeeper Neville Southall to beat, but the Gillingham forward hit a weak shot which was blocked by Southall and the final score was again 0–0. In a review of Cascarino's autobiography, published sixteen years later, Dave Hill of the magazine When Saturday Comes described the moment as "one of the great misses [of all time]"; in the book Cascarino himself attributed it to a sudden attack of self-doubt at the crucial moment, writing "Panic was clouding my brain like a fog. [Southall] narrowed the angle and stood his ground. Impulsively I reached for the trigger and kicked an awful shot that almost dribbled into his hands". As Gillingham won a coin toss to decide the venue of the second replay, it also took place at Priestfield. The match resulted in a 3–0 victory for Everton, ending Gillingham's participation in the FA Cup for the season. The reporter for The Daily Telegraph wrote that Gillingham's decision after winning the coin toss for the choice of ends to play with a strong wind behind them in the first half backfired as it led to them relying too much on long-range shots which lacked accuracy. The gate receipts of £35,070 (equivalent to £140,000 in 2023) for the second replay were a new club record.


As a Third Division team, Gillingham entered the 1983–84 Football League Cup at the first round stage and were drawn to play Chelsea of the Second Division. The first leg of the two-legged tie took place at Priestfield on 30 August; Shaw scored for Gillingham in the first half and the score was 1–1 at half time, but Chelsea scored a second goal after the interval. The second leg took place two weeks later at Stamford Bridge and resulted in a 4–0 victory for Chelsea, making the aggregate score 6–1 and eliminating Gillingham from the competition. Kerry Dixon scored all the goals in the second leg, making him the second player inside three weeks to score four times in a game against Gillingham.


Gillingham entered the 1983–84 Associate Members' Cup, a new competition exclusively for Third and Fourth Division clubs, at the first round stage and were paired with fellow Third Division side Millwall; the match took place nine days after the teams had drawn 2–2 in the league. Both teams scored two goals in the first half and a third after half-time; with the scores level after 90 minutes the match went into extra time. With three minutes of the additional period remaining, 17-year old Teddy Sheringham scored to give Millwall a 4–3 win, meaning that Gillingham were eliminated from the tournament.


During the season, 28 players made at least one appearance for Gillingham. Leslie made the most, playing in 54 of the team's 55 competitive matches. Mehmet and Sitton also played 50 or more times, and another six players made 40 or more appearances. Seven players made fewer than five appearances, four of whom played only once. Mehmet was the team's top goalscorer, scoring 16 times in the league and once in the FA Cup. Cascarino scored 15 goals and Weatherly and Leslie also reached double figures.


For the second consecutive season, Bruce was voted into the Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year for the Third Division by his fellow professionals. Having attracted the attention of several First Division clubs with his performances, the defender left Gillingham at the end of the season to join Norwich City for a fee of £135,000. Shaw won the club's own Player of the Season award. Writing in the matchday programme for the final game of the season, Peacock contended that injuries restricting the players available for selection had been the primary reason for the decline in the team's performances in the final months of the season and their inability to remain in contention for promotion. He added that the club was "close to developing a side with genuine promotion potential". The following season, Gillingham matched their best performance since returning to the Third Division, finishing fourth and missing out on promotion by one place. It would not be until 2000 that the club reached the second level of English football for the first time.


During the 1984–85 English football season, Gillingham F.C. competed in the Football League Third Division, the third tier of the English football league system. It was the 53rd season in which Gillingham competed in the Football League, and the 35th since the club was voted back into the league in 1950. Gillingham started the Third Division season with five wins in the first seven games and were challenging for a place in the top three of the league table, which would result in promotion to the Second Division. The team's performances then declined, culminating in a 7–1 defeat to York City in November which left them in mid-table. They then won 12 out of 16 games to climb to second place, before a poor run in March meant that they again dropped out of the promotion places. Gillingham finished the season fourth in the table, missing promotion by one place.
Gillingham also competed in three knock-out competitions, reaching the fourth round of the FA Cup and the second round of the Football League Cup but losing in the first round of the Associate Members' Cup. The team played 56 competitive matches, winning 30, drawing 9, and losing 17. Tony Cascarino was the club's leading goalscorer, scoring 20 goals in all competitions. Keith Oakes made the most appearances, playing 54 times. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, was 8,881 for a League Cup game against Leeds United in September.


The 1984–85 season was Gillingham's 53rd season playing in the Football League and the 35th since the club was elected back into the League in 1950 after being voted out in 1938. It was the club's 11th consecutive season in the Football League Third Division, the third tier of the English football league system, since the team gained promotion from the Fourth Division in 1974. In the 10 seasons since then, the team had achieved a best finish of fourth place, one position away from promotion to the Second Division, in the 1978–79 season. The club had never reached the second level of English football in its history.
Keith Peacock was the club's manager for a fourth season, having been appointed in July 1981. Paul Taylor served as assistant manager and Bill Collins, who had been with the club in a variety of roles since the early 1960s, held the posts of first-team trainer and manager of the youth team. Dave Mehmet was the team's captain.
Having attracted the attention of several First Division clubs, the highly rated young defender Steve Bruce left the club before the new season to join Norwich City for a transfer fee of £135,000. In his place, Gillingham signed two experienced defenders, Keith Oakes from Newport County and Joe Hinnigan from Preston North End. The club also signed two players who were out of contract: Tarki Micallef, a midfielder who had last played for Newport, and Dave Shearer, a forward who had most recently played for Grimsby Town. Another forward, Paul Shinners, joined Gillingham from semi-professional club Fisher Athletic. The team prepared for the new season with friendlies against Brighton & Hove Albion of the Second Division and near-neighbours Maidstone United, the previous season's champions of the Alliance Premier League, the highest level of non-League football. The club also held an open day, during which supporters could obtain players' autographs and watch a specially-arranged training session. The team's kit for the season consisted of Gillingham's usual blue shirts, white shorts and white socks. The away kit, to be worn in the event of a clash of colours with the home team, comprised red shirts, black shorts and black socks. Home appliance manufacturer Zanussi signed a three-year sponsorship agreement with the club, meaning that the company name was displayed on the players' shirts.


Gillingham's first game of the season was at home to Newport on 25 August; Oakes made his debut against his former club and Hinnigan also played his first game for Gillingham. The match ended in a 1–1 draw; Tony Cascarino scored Gillingham's first goal of the season. A week later, he scored again as the team gained their first win of the campaign, defeating Orient 4–2; Shearer made his debut as a substitute. Victories against Cambridge United and Wigan Athletic, in both of which Cascarino scored, meant that after four games Gillingham were top of the Third Division league table. On 18 September, Gillingham were defeated for the first time during the season, losing 2–0 away to Hull City, but then won their next two league games and were third in the table at the end of September.
In the first match of October, Gillingham were 3–0 down to Plymouth Argyle in the second half but scored three goals, including two in the last five minutes, to secure a draw. The team then lost three consecutive league games, culminating in a 5–2 defeat away to Brentford. Martin Robinson, a forward newly-signed from Charlton Athletic, made his debut on 13 October against Bristol City. David Fry, the club's reserve goalkeeper, replaced the injured Ron Hillyard for the Brentford game, and retained his place until late November. Gillingham defeated Reading on 23 October to record their first win for five games, and were moments away from beating Bradford City four days later but conceded a last-minute equaliser. The team's first match of November was away to York City and resulted in a 7–1 defeat; it was the first time Gillingham had conceded seven goals in a game since 1961. The poor run of results meant that the team had slipped to 11th out of 24 teams in the Third Division.
Robinson scored his first goal for the club to secure a 1–0 win away to Burnley on 6 November, which would prove to be the first of four consecutive league victories. Shearer scored the winner in a 2–1 victory at home to Rotherham United and repeated the feat as Gillingham won by the same score away to Bolton Wanderers on 24 November, the first time Bolton had lost a Third Division match at home since August. Hillyard returned to the team against Bolton and made his 450th appearance for Gillingham. Shearer extended his run of scoring in consecutive league games with two goals in a 4–0 win at home to Preston North End on 1 December, which took Gillingham back up to third in the table. The team's winning run came to an end with a 2–0 defeat away to Lincoln City on 15 December; a week later Gillingham beat Doncaster Rovers 1–0 despite having to play more than half the game with only ten players after John Leslie had to be substituted and subsequently John Sharpe also went off injured. The team's final home match of 1984 was against Derby County on 26 December; the attendance of 7,140 was the highest of the season for a Third Division match at Priestfield Stadium. Gillingham won 3–2 despite having Mehmet sent off; the midfielder angrily pulled off his shirt and threw it at the referee as he walked off the pitch. Three days later the team beat Bristol Rovers 4–1, their seventh win in eight league games, and ended 1984 second in the table.


The team's first match of 1985 was a 2–0 defeat away to AFC Bournemouth on 1 January. Gillingham finished the game with only nine players after both Terry Cochrane and Shearer were sent off; it was the first time in the club's history that two Gillingham players had been dismissed in the same game. Eleven days later, Jeff Johnson was the fourth Gillingham player to be sent off in less than three weeks when he was dismissed in a 2–0 win over Orient; Shearer was injured in the same game and would not play again until March. Robinson scored both goals in the victory, and also scored in the team's first two league games of February, a draw with Swansea City and a win over York City. Hillyard again suffered an injury against Hull City on 26 February which was expected to keep him out of the team for up to six weeks. Fry took his place and conceded only one goal in the next three games, which included a 2–0 win over Brentford on 9 March during which Mehmet scored from the first penalty kick awarded to Gillingham since the previous May. Victory over Newport County on 12 March meant that Gillingham had won 12 out of their last 16 league games and were second in the table.
Gillingham's unbeaten run came to an end with a 3–1 defeat to Bristol City on 16 March; Fry was dropped for the next game and replaced by the Republic of Ireland international goalkeeper Jim McDonagh, whom Peacock had signed on loan from Notts County. Another new signing, defender Dave Rushbury, made his debut on 23 March against Millwall, a game which Gillingham lost 2–1. A draw against Burnley, who were struggling near the bottom of the table, left Gillingham in fifth place at the end of March, two positions below the places which would result in promotion. Derek Hales, a veteran forward signed from Charlton Athletic, made his debut against Burnley in place of Shearer, who had suffered another injury in the match against Millwall. Gillingham beat Cambridge United on 2 April to end a run of four games without a win, before losing to Derby four days later, after which they were in fourth place.
Hales scored his first goal for the team in a 3–2 victory over AFC Bournemouth on 9 April. Four days later Gillingham played Rotherham United, who were in poor form having won only once in their previous eleven league games; Rotherham won 1–0 meaning that Gillingham failed to reduce the gap between themselves and third-placed Millwall, who also lost. Gillingham beat Walsall 1–0 on 16 April, but a defeat and a draw in their next two games meant that they were again in fifth place at the end of April. Hillyard returned to the team for the game at home to Lincoln City on 4 May. Gillingham were losing the match 2–1 with five minutes remaining, but then scored twice to secure a 3–2 victory, although the win did not improve their position in the table. A 3–2 defeat against Bristol Rovers on 7 May meant that, even though Gillingham beat Doncaster Rovers four days later, they were now ten points off third place with only two games left and therefore a maximum of six more points available, making promotion an impossibility. Shearer returned to the team for the penultimate game of the season, a 2–0 win away to Reading. It was Gillingham's tenth league win of the season away from home, a new club record. The team's final game of the season was at home to Wigan Athletic; Shearer, who had not scored a goal in his previous six appearances, scored Gillingham's only league hat-trick of the season in a 5–1 victory. Gillingham finished the season in fourth place and thus missed out on promotion by one place.


As a Third Division club, Gillingham entered the 1984–85 FA Cup at the first round stage; their opponents were a semi-professional team, Windsor & Eton of the Isthmian League. Gillingham took a 2–0 lead but conceded a goal close to the end of the game and only a save from Fry in injury time denied Windsor & Eton a draw. In the second round, Gillingham beat Colchester United of the Fourth Division 5–0; Shearer scored a hat-trick in the team's biggest away win of the season. The teams from the First and Second Divisions entered the competition at the third round stage and Gillingham were paired with Cardiff City of the Second. Several key players were missing, as Mehmet, Cochrane and Shearer were all suspended and Cascarino injured. Leslie scored a late winner to secure a 2–1 victory and send Gillingham into the fourth round, where they played away to Ipswich Town of the First Division. In front of 16,547 spectators at Portman Road, Gillingham came back from two goals down to draw level but then conceded a third goal and were eliminated from the competition. Although the winning goal came courtesy of a lucky deflection off a Gillingham player, Peacock conceded that Ipswich deserved to win as they had been the better team over the whole game.


As a Third Division team, Gillingham entered the 1984–85 Football League Cup at the first round stage and played Colchester United. Gillingham won both legs of the two-legged tie and progressed to the next round by an aggregate score of 5–2. In the second round, they played Leeds United of the Second Division. The first leg drew an attendance of 8,881, the largest of the entire season at Priestfield; after Gillingham conceded a goal in the first half, Cascarino quickly equalised but Leeds scored again shortly before the end of the game. For the second leg, Shearer was included in the starting line-up for the first time and scored an early goal to level the aggregate score. Both teams scored again before half-time, but Leeds scored two goals in the second half to win the tie 5–3 on aggregate and eliminate Gillingham from the League Cup.


Gillingham entered the 1984–85 Associate Members' Cup, a competition exclusively for Third and Fourth Division clubs, at the first round stage, and were again paired with Colchester, meaning that the two teams had met in three different competitions during the season. The tournament was regarded as of little importance and the first leg of the two-legged tie drew an attendance of only 963, the lowest recorded for a competitive match at Priestfield since the Second World War. Teenagers Paul Collins, who had made only one previous appearance for the first team, and Ian Young, who had made none, were both included in a Gillingham team held to a 2–2 draw by their Fourth Division opponents. Two weeks later, Colchester won the second leg 2–0, eliminating Gillingham from the competition by an aggregate score of 4–2.


During the season, 26 players made at least one appearance for Gillingham. Oakes made the most, playing in 54 of the team's 56 competitive games; Mehmet and Cascarino both played 50 or more times. Young made the fewest appearances, playing only once. His appearance in an Associate Members' Cup game was the only match he played for Gillingham and he never played in the Football League for any club. Four other players made fewer than five appearances during the season, including another teenager, Paul Edwards, who played as a substitute in both Associate Members' Cup games. He was the only player to appear for Gillingham during the season without being selected in the starting line-up at any point, and like Young he did not make any other first-team appearances.
Fifteen players scored at least one goal for Gillingham. Cascarino was top scorer with 16 goals in Third Division matches, 2 in the FA Cup, and 2 in the League Cup for a total of 20 in all competitions; Shearer was the second-highest scorer with 16 and Mehmet and Robinson also reached double figures. It was the first of three consecutive seasons in which Cascarino was Gillingham's top scorer.


Writing in the matchday programme for the final game of the season, Peacock acknowledged that the club's supporters would be disappointed at the team's failure to secure promotion, and said that to achieve it in the subsequent season, "we must improve our performance level by 10 per cent". Cochrane won the club's Player of the Year award. Cascarino was voted into the Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year for the Third Division by his fellow professionals, the fourth consecutive season in which a Gillingham player had been selected. During the break between seasons, there was speculation that he might move to a higher-level club, with Coventry City of the First Division reported to be interested in signing him, but ultimately he remained at Gillingham. With a largely unchanged squad, Gillingham were again contenders for promotion in the 1985–86 season. They were in the top three as late as early April, but three defeats in the last six games meant that they finished fifth and again missed out.


During the 2022–23 English football season, Notts County competed in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system; this was their fourth season at this level following their relegation from EFL League Two in 2019. The team was involved in an intense race with Wrexham for the league title and the solitary automatic promotion place, with the two clubs dominating the 2022–23 National League season, together surpassing previous divisional records for points, wins and goals scored. Though Notts earned 107 points over the campaign, Wrexham claimed the title by a four-point margin, requiring the former to enter a six-team play-off to determine the second promoted club. Here, the team overturned a 0–2 deficit to defeat Boreham Wood 3–2 in extra time in the semi-final. It then gained a place in the English Football League (EFL) by beating Chesterfield 4–3 on penalties in the 2023 National League play-off final following a 2–2 draw at Wembley Stadium. The team fared less well in cup competitions, losing to Coalville Town in the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup and to Maidstone United on penalties in the fourth round of the FA Trophy.
Led by first-year head coach Luke Williams, Notts County played 51 competitive matches, winning 34, drawing 13, losing four, and breaking numerous club records. Macaulay Langstaff scored 42 goals during the campaign, setting new club and league records for the most goals scored by a player in a single season, while Matt Palmer made the most appearances, featuring in all 51 games. The necessity of a team with such a high points tally having to win promotion via the play-offs prompted discussion about increasing the number of promotion and relegation places between the National League and EFL, while the team's rivalry with Wrexham featured in season two of the television programme Welcome to Wrexham. The season was affected by the sudden death, on 30 March, of Jason Turner, the club's chief executive officer, at the age of 50.


A founding member of the English Football League (EFL) in 1888, Notts County (nicknamed the Magpies) were relegated to non-League football for the first time in 2019. The 2022–23 season was the club's fourth consecutive season in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system, with each of their three previous campaigns ending in defeat in the play-offs. Under the management of Neal Ardley, Notts had finished third in the 2019–20 season, losing the 2020 National League play-off final 3–1 to Harrogate Town. Ardley was dismissed during the 2020–21 season and replaced as head coach by Ian Burchnall. The team finished fifth, and reached the semi-finals of the play-offs, losing 4–2 in extra time at Torquay United. In 2021–22, Burchnall's only full season in charge, Notts again finished fifth. Rúben Rodrigues gave the Magpies a 1–0 lead in their home play-off quarter-final against Grimsby Town at Meadow Lane, Nottingham. However, Grimsby found an equalising goal in the final moments of normal time, and won the match 2–1 late in extra time.


On 27 May, four days after the play-off defeat to Grimsby, Burchnall departed Notts to take the role of head coach at League One side Forest Green Rovers. His assistant Michael Doyle followed four days later. Several players also departed during the off-season: Dion Kelly-Evans, Alex Lacey and Tyreace Palmer were released, Kyle Wootton made a free transfer to Stockport County, and Lewis Knight and Callum Roberts were sold for undisclosed fees to Gateshead and Aberdeen respectively. The club also agreed to terminate the contract of forward Elisha Sam. There was one additional departure during the season, with Notts agreeing to terminate the contract of Joel Taylor on 13 March.
Several Notts players, who would make first-team appearances for the club during 2022–23, were also loaned to other clubs during the season. Frank Vincent was loaned to Aldershot Town in August, initially for one month, but then until January. In November, before his release, Taylor was loaned to Dagenham & Redbridge, originally for two months, and then for one month further. Before making his senior debut for the Magpies at Bromley in March, Tiernan Brooks spent time on loan at Hednesford Town and Boston United, while Kairo Mitchell was loaned to Eastleigh for the remainder of the season in February having found his playing time at Notts increasingly limited. Ed Francis was the final player to be loaned out, moving to Gateshead until the end of the season in March.


Burchnall was replaced as head coach by former Swindon Town manager Luke Williams, with Ryan Harley as his assistant. Notts County's first player signings came before Williams's arrival, with wing-back Tobi Adebayo-Rowling the first announced on 29 May. The Magpies added two other players to their defensive ranks during the off-season, with Aden Baldwin's signing announced on 23 June, and that of fellow centre-back Geraldo Bajrami coming the following day. Notts also made three attacking signings in the off-season, all of whom featured in the National League North's 2021–22 team of the season. Notts paid undisclosed fees for Gateshead duo Macaulay Langstaff and Cedwyn Scott, who had scored 28 and 24 league goals respectively in the 2021–22 season, with Langstaff also winning the National League North's player of the year award. Joining them from Kidderminster Harriers was winger Sam Austin. Notts made two further permanent transfers as the 2022–23 season progressed: John Bostock, who joined the Magpies on 7 December having been without a club since departing Doncaster Rovers in the summer, and forward Junior Morias, who joined the Magpies on 15 March from Dagenham.
Notts County brought in five players on loan during the 2022–23 season, starting with Leicester City goalkeeper Brad Young, who joined on 26 August. Intended as a season-long loan, an injury forced his return to Leicester in January. In Young's place, the Magpies secured the loan of Archie Mair from Norwich City. Midfielder Quevin Castro joined on a four-month loan from West Bromwich Albion in September. Following Castro's departure, Notts secured the loan of winger Jodi Jones from Oxford United for the remainder of the season. The club's final loan signing was midfielder Connor Lemonheigh-Evans, who joined on loan from Stockport in February. Though intended to be a loan until the end of the season, Lemonheigh-Evans was recalled by Stockport on 24 March.


Notts County played a series of friendlies to prepare for the new season, defeating Basford United 5–1 in their first match. The Magpies then played a behind-closed-doors match against Leicester City at the latter's training ground on 9 July, coming from behind to win 2–1. After a 2–0 win at Alfreton Town on 12 July, Notts played two 70-minute matches against Cambridge United at St Neots Town's Rowley Park on 16 July. Notts lost the first match 2–0, but won the second 3–2 through a seven-minute hat-trick from Langstaff. Following a 1–1 draw at Boston United on 20 July, Notts County played Nottingham Forest in their only home game of pre-season. Forest, fielding a "youthful starting XI", took 1–0 and 2–1 leads, but Notts levelled twice, and the match finished 2–2. In their final pre-season match, Notts played at fellow National League side York City, with the Magpies winning 1–0.
Key


The 2022–23 National League season saw 24 teams play 46 matches each: two against every other team, with one match at each club's ground. Three points were awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for defeats. At the end of the season, the top-ranked team won promotion to EFL League Two. Unlike the divisions of the EFL, where the runner-up was also guaranteed to win promotion, the National League runner-up entered a six-team play-off, featuring the teams finishing between second and seventh place, to determine the second promoted club.


Notts County hosted Maidenhead United on the opening day of the season; Langstaff scored two goals on his debut in a 3–0 win. The first away game, a week later at Boreham Wood, ended 2–2, and was the first of three consecutive draws. Following a 1–1 draw at Gateshead, Notts hosted Chesterfield in their second home match of the season. After falling 2–0 down in the 55th minute, Luke Williams made a double substitution in an effort to salvage something from the game, with Austin and Scott coming on in favour of Jim O'Brien and Mitchell. The effects were immediate; Langstaff pulled a goal back in the 60th minute, and headed a second three minutes later from Austin's cross. The match finished 2–2, but Notts fell to tenth place in the league. The Magpies then won consecutive matches for the first time that season, with a 4–1 win at FC Halifax Town (which featured another brace for Langstaff) and a 1–0 home win over Solihull Moors. Notts County finished August in fifth place with twelve points from six matches.
September began with a 5–0 away win at Dagenham in which Langstaff scored a hat-trick. Notts were then due to play Bromley at home on 10 September, but this match was postponed following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. When football resumed on 13 September, the Magpies won a fourth consecutive match, this time defeating Aldershot 2–0. The next game, played four days later at Dorking Wanderers, saw Dorking's James McShane score a hat-trick, including goals in the 90th and 95th minute, as Notts County's unbeaten start to the season was ended with a 3–1 loss. Notts were away again the following week, this time at York, with loanee Quevin Castro putting the Magpies 1–0 ahead after five minutes with a long-range free kick. Although Fraser Kerr equalised for the home side, Langstaff restored Notts County's lead against his former club shortly before half-time, and scored a second in the second half to seal a 3–1 win. September ended with Notts in third place, taking 21 points from 10 matches.
On 10 October, Langstaff was announced as the National League's player of the month for September. Having previously won the same award for the month of August, Langstaff became the first player to win consecutive National League player of the month awards. His prolific early-season form was receiving increasing media attention, including favourable comparisons to Manchester City's Erling Haaland. Langstaff joked that friends were sending him messages every week to remind him that Haaland was closing in on his goal tally. He told Paul Taylor of The Athletic that comparisons with the City forward were a "massive, massive privilege" and that he hoped "to stay ahead of him", but continued "... it is about Notts; about winning promotion and nothing else. If you asked me whether I would rather get more goals than Haaland this season or, alternatively, win promotion – I would pick promotion without hesitation."
In their first match of October, Notts County defeated Altrincham 3–1 at home. As a result of the previous league leaders Chesterfield's 2–1 defeat to Maidenhead the same day, Wrexham (nicknamed the Red Dragons) and Notts County moved into first and second place in the table, beginning the intense race between the two teams for the league championship. By coincidence, Notts hosted Wrexham in their first meeting of the season three days later. The match attracted 10,741 spectators, and was won 1–0 by the Magpies through a 13th-minute goal by Langstaff, who was able to finish a well-worked free kick routine. The victory put Notts top of the table, a position they retained for the remainder of October after a 3–2 win at Woking, a 3–0 home win over Maidstone United, and a 6–1 win at Wealdstone. The latter was the first time Notts had scored six goals in an away league match since a 6–0 win at Chelsea in February 1924. In their final match of October, Notts stretched their winning run to seven with a 4–0 home win over Torquay, ending the month in first place with 39 points from 16 matches.


Notts County's seven-match winning run came to an end in their first match of November, a 1–1 draw at home to Bromley. Notts drew again in their next game, played at Southend United on 8 November; Langstaff and Scott gave Notts 1–0 and 2–1 leads, but Southend levelled twice to secure a 2–2 draw. This result, combined with Wrexham's 3–1 win over Scunthorpe United the following night, saw the Magpies fall to second place. It was the first of four consecutive rounds of fixtures where Notts County and Wrexham would exchange first position. Wrexham were held to a 0–0 draw at Wealdstone on 12 November, allowing Notts to regain top spot with a 2–0 win at Eastleigh. The following week, Notts were held to a 0–0 draw at home to Yeovil Town, a match notable for drawing a record National League crowd of 16,511, the result of a discounted ticket promotion. On the same afternoon, Wrexham defeated Aldershot 2–0, meaning November ended with Notts County in second place, with 45 points from 20 matches.
Notts regained top spot on 3 December; that afternoon, they defeated Scunthorpe 4–1 at Glanford Park while Wrexham were held to a 1–1 draw at York. Notts County's next match, played at Maidenhead on 10 December, was described by Oliver King of the Nottingham Post as a "thrilling encounter". First half goals from Rodrigues, Castro and Langstaff had given Notts a 3–1 lead, but the home side fought back in the second half to level the score at 3–3. In the 83rd minute, Langstaff scored his second when he steered Kyle Cameron's cross past the Maidenhead goalkeeper, and Notts won 4–3. The Magpies finished December with two home matches, the first a 2–0 win over Gateshead in which leading goal scorer Langstaff sustained an injury, keeping him out the following match. Notts fared well without their most prolific forward, defeating Oldham Athletic 4–1 on 26 December, and ended 2022 in first place, taking 57 points from 24 matches.
Notts faced Oldham again in the first match of 2023, played on New Year's Day at the latter's Boundary Park. Langstaff returned from injury; he and Scott scored, but the game finished 2–2. The Magpies won their next match 3–0 at Aldershot on 7 January, but were then held to a 1–1 draw with Boreham Wood in their first home game of the year. There then followed an 18-day break in league matches, caused firstly by Notts County's participation in the FA Trophy and then the postponement of their scheduled visits to Chesterfield and Solihull due to freezing weather conditions. Wrexham won two league matches during this period, allowing them to take a three-point lead at the top of the table. With the Red Dragons involved in the FA Cup, the Magpies drew level on points with a 1–0 home win over Halifax on 28 January. They then retook top spot in the final game of January, a 2–1 win in their rearranged game at Solihull. Notts found themselves 1–0 down, but secured victory via two Rodrigues penalties, meaning Notts ended January in first place, taking 68 points from 29 games.


Notts County's first match in February was at Torquay, a 2–1 win for the Magpies despite playing the final 25 minutes with only ten men. The following week, Notts travelled to Chesterfield for their rearranged game; Langstaff opened the scoring for the away team, controlling a long pass from goalkeeper Sam Slocombe and beating Ross Fitzsimons. Although Chesterfield equalised before half time, they were reduced to ten men in the second half, and Adam Chicksen's 71st minute goal secured a 2–1 away win. Notts scored four goals in each of their next three matches, first beating Barnet 4–1 at Meadow Lane and then beating Yeovil away by the same scoreline, Langstaff scoring a hat-trick in the latter. A 4–0 home win over Southend was Notts County's 25th league match unbeaten, a club record brought to an end on 25 February when Inih Effiong's 86th-minute goal gave Dagenham a 2–1 win at Meadow Lane. On 28 February, Wrexham defeated Chesterfield 2–1 to move ahead of Notts; as a result, the Magpies ended February in second place, with 83 points from 35 matches.
Notts were held to a 1–1 draw at Bromley in their first game of March, but then won back-to-back home games against Dorking and Eastleigh; in both matches, the Magpies won 3–1 having fallen 0–1 behind. Notts were then held to another 1–1 draw at Barnet on 18 March, a result that led to the team falling three points behind Wrexham. Notts followed this with a 4–0 home win over Scunthorpe on 25 March, with Langstaff scoring his 38th and 39th goals, equalling the club record for most goals scored in a single season by an individual player. The record was broken in Notts County's final game of the month, played at Altrincham on 28 March, when Langstaff finished a quickly taken free kick from Bostock to put the Magpies 1–0 up. Archie Mair saved a first half penalty for the away team, and Rodrigues's second-half penalty made the final score 2–0 to Notts. This match was brought forward from 1 April due to Altrincham's involvement in the FA Trophy, allowing Notts to end March top of the table on goal difference, with 97 points from 41 matches.


In their first game of April, Notts defeated Wealdstone 3–0, with Langstaff scoring to break the National League record for most goals in a season. That same afternoon, Wrexham lost 3–1 at Halifax, meaning the Magpies and Red Dragons were tied on 100 points. Having already beaten or expected to surpass previous divisional records for wins, points and goals scored, the two teams met at Wrexham's Racecourse Ground on 10 April. With only the champions certain to win promotion, and the runner-up at risk of not going up at all, there was significant interest in the match; it received international coverage from The New York Times, and was characterised in the press as the biggest game in National League or non-League history. Notts led 1–0 at half time through a Bostock free kick in added-on time, but Wrexham established a 3–2 lead during the second half. In the sixth minute of injury time, the Magpies were given the chance to equalise when they were awarded a penalty for a handball, but Wrexham's goalkeeper Ben Foster saved the subsequent attempt from Scott, and the Red Dragons held on to win, taking a three-point lead at the top of the table with a game in hand.
Notts defeated Woking 3–0 at home in their next match, temporarily reducing the gap on Wrexham to one point following the latter's draw at Barnet. However, Wrexham would defeat Yeovil on 18 April to win their game in hand and move four points clear, meaning a victory in either of their two remaining matches would clinch the title. That victory duly came on 22 April, when the Red Dragons beat Boreham Wood. That same day, Notts played their final away match of the season at Maidstone, a 5–2 win in which O'Brien scored a hat-trick. In their final match of the regular season, Notts drew 1–1 with York at Meadow Lane, with Langstaff scoring his 42nd goal. Notts ended the regular season in second place with 107 points from 46 matches, a points tally sufficient to have won any previous National League title.


Under the National League's play-off format, second place Notts County and third place Chesterfield advanced directly to the semi-final stage; the pair's opponents were decided in two quarter-finals involving the teams finishing between fourth and seventh. Notts ultimately faced Boreham Wood, the latter having beaten Barnet 2–1 in their quarter-final. Although Boreham Wood had finished 35 points behind Notts in the league standings, closer in points to the relegation places than to the Magpies, Williams anticipated a close match. He told reporters "... on the day, we know that anything can happen and I don't think there is much difference between any of the teams that a fixture is a given". Two days before the match, Boreham Wood signed Eastleigh goalkeeper Joe McDonnell on an emergency loan due to an injury sustained by first-choice goalkeeper Nathan Ashmore in the quarter-final. Notts named the same starting eleven as their final regular season match against York City.
The semi-final, played at Meadow Lane on 7 May, was attended by 15,617 spectators. The Magpies missed a series of chances during the first half, and their wastefulness was punished in the 37th minute when Femi Ilesanmi scored from close range to put Boreham Wood 1–0 up. Aden Baldwin then had two opportunities to equalise for Notts from long range, but Boreham Wood doubled their lead when Lee Ndlovu pounced on a loose pass from Bostock to Baldwin and found himself one-on-one with Slocombe. The away team led 2–0 at half time. Early in the second half, Baldwin's third long-range effort found the back of the net to reduce the deficit to 1–2. The Magpies then had the chance to equalise when they were awarded a penalty for a foul on Rodrigues; Rodrigues took the penalty himself, but saw it saved by McDonnell. The match remained 1–2 until the sixth minute of injury time, when a powerful cross from substitute Jodi Jones met the head of Baldwin, who directed the ball into the net to make the score 2–2 in the final moments of normal time. Both sides had chances in extra time, but the scores remained tied until the final minute, when Jones's effort from the edge of the penalty area found its way past McDonnell, giving Notts a last-ditch 3–2 victory and sparking a pitch invasion from jubilant supporters.
Baldwin's two goals were the first of his professional career. Speaking to reporters after the match about his equalising goal, Baldwin said "it is one of the best feelings I have ever felt – for Jodi to cut in and hit it as hard as he did, I just needed to connect with it, which I did, and I had that realisation that we could only go on to win the game from there." Jones's goal was his first since October 2018; he had suffered from a series of anterior cruciate ligament injuries which had prevented him from playing for much of the intervening period. Discussing the immediate aftermath of his goal, Jones told Ben Fisher of The Guardian "I remember trying to pull my shirt off; I was just so excited I didn't know what to do. I saw all the bench coming towards me, the gaffer trying to chase me but he couldn't keep up." The win meant that Notts County qualified for the play-off final, played at Wembley Stadium on 13 May.


Notts County faced Chesterfield (nicknamed the Spireites) in the final, the latter having beaten Bromley 3–2 in extra time in the semi-final. Notts County had previously played at Wembley Stadium in the 1990 Third Division play-off final, 1991 Second Division play-off final, 1994 Anglo-Italian Cup final, 1995 Anglo-Italian Cup final, 1996 Second Division play-off final and 2020 National League play-off final. Asked what a win would mean to the club after missing automatic promotion, Williams said "we would feel some sort of justification, a sense of confirmation, that all our hard work paid off". He anticipated "a real huge clash between two very good teams for the level". Williams named an unchanged starting eleven from that which had begun the semi-final.
Watched by 38,138 spectators, the Magpies had to defend an indirect free kick in their own penalty area in the opening minutes, after Slocombe inadvertently took two touches of the ball following a goal kick. Slocombe saved the subsequent attempt from Jeff King, but gave away a penalty for a foul on Andrew Dallas shortly after, and Dallas put Chesterfield 1–0 up; this remained the score at half time. Notts came close to equalising through Austin and Rawlinson during the second half, but the match remained 1–0 until the 87th minute. Awarded a free kick along the left-hand side, Bostock caught goalkeeper Ross Fitzsimons out of position and equalised for the Magpies at the near post. The score was 1–1 at full time.
Chesterfield regained their lead early in the first half of extra time through Armando Dobra, who had time and space to place a shot past Slocombe. Langstaff and Rawlinson both had opportunities to equalise for the Magpies, but the Spireites led 2–1 at half time in extra time. Notts equalised early in the second half through Rodrigues, whose bouncing volley looped into the back of the net. There was no further scoring, and the match finished 2–2, meaning the second promoted club would be decided by a penalty shoot-out. Late in extra time, Williams substituted Slocombe, who had not saved a penalty during the season, for Archie Mair, who had. Mair saved two of Chesterfield's first four penalties, while Langstaff, Rodrigues and Jones all scored with Notts County's first three kicks. This gave Bostock the opportunity to win the match for the Magpies, but his attempted panenka hit the crossbar. Joe Quigley scored Chesterfield's fifth and final penalty, leaving Cedwyn Scott to seal promotion for his team with Notts County's final kick.
Notts County won promotion despite leading their two play-off matches for a combined total of about one minute. In post-play-off final interviews, Williams paid tribute to his team, saying "I've learned that when these guys look like they are done, they are not – they have another roll of the dice". Williams credited the Notts goalkeeping coach Tom Weal for his role in Bostock's equaliser, revealing that, in pre-match analysis, Weal had noticed the Chesterfield goalkeeper's tendency to leave "big, big gaps" when defending free kicks, and had put this "in the mind of the players". Bostock was able to joke about his penalty miss: "I thought it was crossbar challenge", he told BT Sport. Bostock's miss meant the promotion-winning penalty was taken by Scott, who admitted to being "a bit nervous" as he prepared to take his kick following "the affairs that happened at Wrexham" (the pivotal league match where he had seen his injury-time penalty to equalise saved). "That hit me hard" he said, but this time "gladly I put it away".


Notts County entered the FA Cup at the fourth qualifying round stage, where they were drawn at home to Coalville Town of the Southern Football League's Premier Division Central. After making eight changes from their previous league game, the Magpies found themselves 1–0 down almost immediately. Although Austin quickly equalised for Notts, Coalville restored their lead in the 23rd minute, and led 2–1 at half time. In the second half, Notts brought on two first-team regulars, Palmer and Rodrigues, and were level in the 66th minute through Austin's second goal of the game. Langstaff was brought on immediately afterwards in an effort to win the match, but Coalville retook the lead in the 86th minute through Luke Shaw, and held on to win 3–2 in a major upset.


Notts County's FA Trophy campaign began in the third round at home to Chorley of National League North. Notts made six changes from their previous league match, including bringing in Bostock for his first start for the club. Chorley took a 1–0 lead through Connor Hall, but Notts were soon level through Austin, who equalised in the 33rd minute. In first-half injury time, Scott Leather turned a cross from Nemane into his own net to give Notts the lead. With no further scoring, Notts won 2–1.
In the fourth round, the Magpies were again drawn at home, this time against fellow National League club Maidstone United. Notts made six changes to their starting eleven from their previous league match, and also included youth team members Madou Cisse and Charlie Gill on the bench; both made their debuts in this match. Regan Booty gave Maidstone a 1–0 lead with a first-half penalty, and the away side extended their lead when Roarie Deacon fired into an empty net from 45 yards, after Notts were caught in possession. Chicksen reduced the deficit to 1–2 shortly afterwards, and Notts levelled the game late on when Austin was able to follow up on his own rebound. The match went to penalties, with the away team winning 6–5, Palmer seeing the decisive penalty saved by the Maidstone goalkeeper.


Notts County played 51 matches in the 2022–23 season: 46 in the league, two in the play-offs, one in FA Cup qualifying and two in the FA Trophy. Matt Palmer was the only player to feature in every game, starting 48 times and being brought off the bench as a substitute in the other three matches. Across all competitions, Notts made use of 30 different players, four of whom were goalkeepers. A total of nineteen different players scored 128 goals between them across all competitions.


Numbers in parentheses denote appearances as substitute.


Notts County's season was affected by the sudden death, on 30 March, of Jason Turner, the club's chief executive officer, at the age of 50. Among those paying tribute to Turner were the club's owners, Christoffer and Alexander Reedtz; head coach Luke Williams, players from the club and officials from others. The club's first match following Turner's death, the home game with Wealdstone on 7 April, was attended by his family, and preceded by a minute's applause, with the team and coaching staff wearing t-shirts bearing Turner's image. Williams dedicated his team's 3–0 win to Turner: "I think that was fitting for Jason," he told BBC Radio Nottingham. Notts made a large banner featuring Turner in tribute to him; this was taken to Wembley Stadium and displayed there during the play-off final. The players also included a framed photo of him in their celebrations after being presented with the play-off trophy.


The team broke numerous club records during the 2022–23 season. The 1997–98 team had held Notts County's record for most points in a season (99) and fewest league defeats (5). Its 2022–23 counterparts bettered both of these records, accumulating 107 points and being beaten only 3 times. The 32 wins achieved during 2022–23 surpassed the previous record of 30 held by the 1970–71 team. Between 24 September 2022 and 25 February 2023, Notts County were unbeaten in 25 league matches. This exceeded the previous record of 19 league matches, achieved between 26 April 1930 and 17 December 1930, encompassing the final game of the 1929–30 season and first 18 of 1930–31. In the latter season, Tom Keetley scored 39 goals for the Magpies as they won promotion from Third Division South. This stood as the record for most goals scored for Notts County by an individual player in a single season until beaten by Macaulay Langstaff's 42 goals during 2022–23. Langstaff also broke the previous National League record for goals in a season, beating Ricky Miller's 40 goals for Dover Athletic in 2016–17. In total, the team scored 117 league goals during the 2022–23 season, 10 more than its 1959–60 counterparts and the previous record holder.


A Notts County player was recognised as National League player of the month four times during the 2022–23 season. Three of these awards were won by Macaulay Langstaff, who was player of the month for August, September and March. Kyle Cameron was named player of the month for December. Langstaff was awarded National League player of the year, while he and Cameron were also named in the National League's team of the year, alongside their Notts County teammates Adam Chicksen, Matt Palmer and Rúben Rodrigues. Luke Williams won manager of the month awards twice during the season, in October and March.


Promotion meant Notts County regained their status as the oldest EFL club, an important part of their identity before relegation in 2019. Luke Williams described it as an "enormous ... massive moment in the history of the club. We have shut the door on the worst times the club has experienced since its beginning". The team returned to Nottingham the day following the play-off final, greeted by hundreds of supporters at Meadow Lane. There were no civic celebrations in the city's Old Market Square to mark the team's achievement, with Nottingham City Council, months away from effectively declaring bankruptcy, initially announcing that none could take place due to pressure on the council's budget. Following criticism, the council announced that it wanted to stage an event before the start of the following season, though Notts County eventually declined this invitation. Council leader David Mellen apologised for the initial decision, saying it had "not been the council's finest hour".
The necessity of Notts County having to win promotion via the play-offs despite finishing the season with 107 points, a record for a team finishing second, led to "increasing scrutiny" of the number of promotion and relegation places between the National League and EFL. "We want to make it [more promotion places] happen," Mark Ives, the National League's general manager, said following the play-off final. "Everyone would think it is fair that the two teams with more than 100 points went up. We were at risk of that not happening. The issue for me is when and how it works." His sentiments were echoed by other figures within the National League, including Chesterfield's manager Paul Cook, who described the league's solitary automatic promotion place as "an absolute sporting disgrace", continuing "Notts County should have gone up automatically without a doubt." In February 2025, the 72 National League clubs wrote to the EFL to formally request an additional promotion and relegation place between the two leagues. Coverage of this referenced Notts County's experience, and Dagenham's managing director Steve Thompson cited it as a reason to support the change.
Notts County's season-long rivalry with Wrexham was the focus of several episodes of season two of Welcome to Wrexham, the FX show documenting actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's takeover of the Red Dragons. Episode 2, titled "Nott Yet", focused on Notts County's 1–0 win over Wrexham in their first meeting of the season, while episode 12, "Hand of Foz", documented Wrexham's 3–2 win in the second and pivotal match. The final episode, "Up the Town?", featured interviews with Luke Williams, John Bostock, Macaulay Langstaff and Cedwyn Scott, and the episode ended with footage of Scott's promotion-winning penalty at Wembley. Scott described the latter as "a nice touch", drawing supportive comments from both McElhenney and Reynolds.


Ælfwynn or Ælfwyn (died 8 July 983) was a member of a wealthy Anglo-Saxon family in Huntingdonshire who married Æthelstan Half-King, the powerful ealdorman of East Anglia, in about 932. She is chiefly known for having been foster-mother to the future King Edgar the Peaceful following his mother's death in 944, when he was an infant. She had four sons, and the youngest, Æthelwine, became the chief secular magnate and leading supporter of the monastic reform movement. Ælfwynn donated her estates for his foundation of Ramsey Abbey in 966 and was probably buried there.


Ælfwynn was the wife of Æthelstan Half-King, Ealdorman of East Anglia, who was called the Half-King because it was believed that he was so powerful that King Edmund I (r.  940–946) and his brother King Eadred (r.  946–955) depended on his advice. He was a strong supporter of the monastic reform movement and a close friend of Dunstan, who was one of its leaders and a future Archbishop of Canterbury and saint. Æthelstan married Ælfwynn soon after he became an ealdorman in 932. Her parents are not known, but she came from a wealthy Huntingdonshire family. The late tenth-century writer Byrhtferth of Ramsay wrote that her son Æthelwine: "had a distinguished lineage on his mother's side. In praising her, Archbishop Dunstan said that she and her kindred were blessed." She had a brother, Æthelsige, who acted as a surety when estates in Huntingdonshire were sold to Peterborough Abbey.
Ælfwynn had four sons, Æthelwold, Ælfwold, Æthelsige (his uncle's namesake) and Æthelwine. Æthelwold was appointed an ealdorman for part of his father's territory of East Anglia by Edmund's elder son King Eadwig (r.  955–959) in 956, perhaps in preparation for Æthelstan's retirement shortly afterwards to become a monk at Glastonbury Abbey. In the same year, Æthelwold married Ælfthryth, and after his death in 962 she became the wife of King Edgar the Peaceful (r.  959–975) and the mother of King Æthelred the Unready (r.  978–1016). Ælfwold witnessed Edgar's charters as a thegn from 958 to 972. Ælfwynn's third son, Æthelsige, also witnessed charters as a thegn from 958. He was part of Edgar's inner circle, serving as his camerarius (chamberlain) until 963.
King Edmund's younger son, the future King Edgar, was born around 943 and his mother Ælfgifu died in 944. Edgar was sent to be fostered by Ælfwynn, which the Medieval Latin expert Michael Lapidge sees as a "token of her power and influence". It enabled Æthelstan's family to strengthen its ties with the royal family. Edgar was probably brought up in Huntingdonshire, which was the location of Ælfwynn's estates and later of Æthelwine's home. In about 958 Edgar gave Ælfwynn a ten-hide estate at Old Weston in Huntingdonshire as thanks. The historian Robin Fleming comments that the ætheling (prince) was profoundly influenced by his upbringing:


Thus, the ætheling was reared in the household of one of his father's closest allies and raised among the Half-King's own brothers and sons, five of whom at one time or another were ealdormen. Since Half-King was an intimate of the reform circle, in particular with St Dunstan, Edgar came of age in an atmosphere dominated by the ideals of monastic reform. Some of Edgar's affection for monks and his determination to revive Benedictine monasticism must have been acquired in this household of his youth.
Ælfwynn's youngest son, Æthelwine, was a few years older than Edgar and probably brought up with him. Æthelwine was appointed ealdorman of East Anglia when Æthelwold died in 962, and he became the dominant lay figure in government, attesting charters in first place among the ealdormen, following the death of his chief rival, Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia, in 983. After Æthelsige left Edgar's service, he was active in his brother's administration of East Anglia until he died on 13 October 987.
Æthelwine was called Dei Amicus (friend of God) because he was the leading lay patron (after Edgar) of the monastic reform movement, and in 966 he founded Ramsey Abbey, together with Oswald, the Bishop of Worcester and later Archbishop of York. Ælfwynn supported Ramsey in preference to the religious houses favoured by her husband, and her estates, including the property donated by Edgar, formed part of the endowment for Ramsey. She may have played a crucial role in its establishment. Her second son, Ælfwold, was a strong supporter of monastic reform who ordered the killing of a man who illegally claimed property belonging to Peterborough Abbey. He and his wife were also benefactors of Ramsey and he was buried there following his death on 14 April 990. Æthelwine ceased attesting charters in 990 and he died on 24 April 992 after a long illness. He was also buried at Ramsey.


Ælfwynn died on 8 July 983. Her husband was buried at Glastonbury Abbey, whereas Ælfwynn was probably buried at Ramsey. She was recorded in the Ramsey necrology as "our sister", the donor of Old Weston, and her death was commemorated each year on 8 July, the same day as King Edgar.


Arthur Oswin Austin (December 28, 1879 – June 7, 1964) was an American electrical engineer and inventor. He is the inventor of the Austin transformer, a double-ring toroidal transformer used to supply power for lighting circuits on radio towers. Austin's research included improvements to radio transmission equipment and the effects of lightning on high-voltage transmission lines and aircraft. He was a fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and of the Institute of Radio Engineers, and was an expert in high-voltage insulators and fittings. His work on transmitting antennas included both military and civilian projects.
A native of California, Austin graduated from Leland Stanford University with a degree in electrical engineering. He lived for a few years in New York, where he worked for General Electric and the Lima Insulator Company, but spent most of his adult life in Ohio where he married, worked for the Ohio Brass Company and founded the Austin Insulator Company. He bought a large estate in Barberton, Ohio, lived in the mansion, and built an extensive outdoor electrical laboratory on the grounds.


After graduating from college in 1903, Austin worked for General Electric in Schenectady, New York. He left General Electric in 1904 and worked for Stanley Electric Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts for a short time. He was hired by Pacific Gas and Electric, initially acting as their eastern representative doing electric insulator testing, and then moving to the company's San Francisco office in 1905. In 1906, he moved to Lima, New York, to work for the Lima Insulator Company, serving as manager and chief engineer. The company's factory was destroyed by fire in 1908, after which Austin moved to Ohio to work for Akron Hi-Potential Porcelain Company. Akron Porcelain became a subsidiary of the Ohio Brass Company which in turn was purchased by Hubbell in 1978.
During the First World War, the US Navy planned work on a military radio facility in Monroe, North Carolina, using arc converter transmitters produced by the Federal Telegraph Company, generating approximately 1 MW of power. Ohio Brass was contracted to supply the antenna insulators, with Austin assigned to the project. The war ended before Federal could deliver the arc converters and the station was never built.
Austin invented an electrically heated, oil filled porcelain insulator used to support radio transmission towers. Previous porcelain insulator designs had sufficient mechanical strength and electrical insulation for their intended purpose, but could be fragile enough that a tower might be brought down by a vandal with a .22 caliber rifle. Austin's design used a porcelain tube in combination with a bakelite sleeve, the latter having sufficient strength to support the tower if the porcelain was damaged. The porcelain was kept under compression, increasing its strength. The assembly was filled with oil kept warm by a 120-watt electric heater; a thermostat kept the exterior of the insulator above the dew point, preventing moisture from condensing on its surface which would result in leakage of radio frequency (RF) energy. The resistance to condensation in damp weather led Spokane, Washington's radio station KHQ to use this type of insulator in their 826-foot (252 m) 5,000 watt transmission tower which the Spokesman-Review described in 1945 as "the tallest self-supporting tower in the world".
Austin invented an insulated perch which prevented birds from resting on electrical transmission line insulator strings and was granted a patent on the invention in 1928. Austin was a fellow of both the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers. He was a member of several other professional societies, including the American Ceramic Society, the American Society for Testing Materials, the American Electric Chemical Society, the Sigma Xi scientific fraternity and the National Academy of Science.


In the late 1920s, AM radio station WHK in Cleveland, Ohio was investigating ways to improve their signal coverage. Chief engineer E. L. Grove believed that the station's poor signal coverage was due to the effect of other steel-frame buildings in the vicinity of their transmitter site atop a downtown office building, poor grounding, and power loss from the antenna's support towers. After obtaining permission from the Federal Radio Commission, a new transmitter was built on a hill nine miles south of the city, leaving the studio downtown. Grove consulted with the Ohio Brass Company, where Austin was the chief engineer. A plan was devised to build a transmitting tower in several sections, with each section isolated from the others by insulators, eliminating the parasitic electrical currents induced in the steel structure by the antenna's radiating element. Austin had previously worked on sectionalized high-tension power line towers and held a patent on that design.
Some radio stations had already built towers which were insulated from the ground, but WHK's design was the first to use insulators in the tower itself, dividing it into multiple isolated sections. In addition to the structural insulators, the tower included special ladders with "jack knife" sections at the insulated joints; during transmitter operation, the ladder sections were kept open to preserve the electrical isolation, but could be closed to allow workers to climb the tower for maintenance. During initial testing, the 1,000 watt WHK signal could be heard in New Zealand whereas the previous transmitter, with the same power level, was not even audible throughout all of Cleveland. Austin was granted U.S patent 1,968,868 for this tower design.
Tower lighting was provided by gas carried through copper pipes which transitioned to non-conductive porcelain tubes at the tower joints. A 1932 article in Radio Engineering magazine described the use of gas lighting in towers consisting of multiple electrically isolated segments as in the WHK design, stating that electrical lighting would be impractical due to the need for isolation transformers at every insulating joint. The author speculated that external floodlighting, neon tubes driven from the radiated RF energy, or wind generators might all be practical alternatives to the use of gas.


Austin invented the Austin ring transformer, a type of toroidal transformer with an air gap providing radio frequency isolation between the primary and secondary windings while passing 50/60 Hz power. These are used at the bases of radio transmission towers to allow electrical power to be fed to the tower lights without interfering with the radio-frequency feed. The primary winding is mounted on the ground or on the tower's foundation, with the secondary on the energized tower structure. The windings are usually at right angles to each other and oriented so rain water can drip off the secondary without hitting the primary ring. If an optional lightning protection spark gap is installed, it is oriented with the arc path horizontal, so as to make the arc self-extinguishing.
Austin ring transformers are well suited for use on towers which are approximately one half wavelength tall. This type of tower will have a large base impedance leading to high voltages across the base insulators which make choke-type power feeds impractical. The large air gap between the primary and secondary windings results in a low coupling capacitance and high breakdown voltage.
The 1971 Austin Insulator product catalog listed 21 standard types with power ratings from 0.7 to 7.0 kVA weighing 70–340 pounds (32–154 kg), with the larger units only available on special order. Despite Austin having been issued a large number of patents, there are no known patents on this particular invention. Patrick Warr of Austin Insulators was quoted by Radio World:


I'm not aware that there was ever any patent. There was a story related to me by my predecessors when I first came to work here. It seems that Arthur Austin was happily making ring transformers when he was approached by Hughey and Phillips, a company based somewhere around Los Angeles that was into several types of lighting. Austin told them he wasn't interested in the West Coast market, as he had enough to do in Ohio, and told them how to make the transformer, and to "go ahead and make it."


Arthur Oswin Austin (who preferred to be called A. O. Austin) was born on December 28, 1879, in Stockton, California, to Oswin Alonzo and Mary Louisa Austin. He attended high school in Stockton then went to Leland Stanford University, graduating in 1903 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in electrical engineering.
Austin married Eleanor Briggs on December 28, 1907, in New York City. In 1919, Eleanor was killed (and Arthur injured) in an automobile accident on Massachusetts's Mohawk Trail. Two years later, Austin married Eleanor's sister Augusta in Los Gatos, California; the couple had two daughters, Barbara and Martha. Austin had a brother, Edward, who worked on building Ohio Brass's manufacturing facility in Niagara Falls, Ontario.


By the 1920s, Austin was a wealthy man. In 1926, he purchased 275 acres from the estate of O. C. Barber in Barberton, Ohio, for an undisclosed price. The parcel included the Barber mansion, the gate house, and several barns and other buildings. Construction was of red brick, white concrete block, royal blue trim, and red terra cotta tile roofs. The house, which had gold-leaf ceilings, was described in 2005 by the Akron Beacon Journal as having 52 rooms, "a breathtaking vista from its east-side perch", and being "the most opulent residence between New York City and Chicago". The house was surrounded by 35 ancillary buildings including barns.
Austin died at the age of 84 on June 7, 1964, in Barberton after a two-month illness. The Akron Beacon Journal described him in an obituary as "one of the foremost electrical experts of the century". After his death, his heirs were unable to maintain the estate. There was an effort on the part of the Barberton community to preserve the property for its historic value, but funding could not be secured and the house was torn down. It was estimated at the time that upkeep of the mansion cost $3,000 (equivalent to $29,900 in 2024) per month.
In addition to his professional activities, Austin was involved in a number of civic duties. He was a director of the Barberton Citizens Hospital, a charter member of the local chamber of commerce (serving as president in 1928) and the Barberton Rotary Club (serving as president in 1941–1942). He was a Republican, a Mason and a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, and a member of the First United Presbyterian Church of Barberton. His hobbies included photography and gardening. As of 2024 the Barberton Community Foundation manages the A.O. Austin Engineering Scholarship Fund, awarded to Barberton students seeking post-secondary engineering degrees.