So the first season a fourth tier (and 92 clubs) was introduced we finished 2nd in Division 4 and got promoted.
Next season may very well statistically be 'the worst' with data to back it up. Unless we are champions of course
The only reason we ended up in the fourth division is that the old third north and south divisions were being amalgamated and the fourth division formed. As far as I can tell ( I wasn't around at the time and stand to be corrected), the fourth division was formed from the clubs who finished in the bottom half of each third division, north and south. We therefore ended up in division four by default. This season is sure to be our second lowest position ever in our football league history. Just looked it up, our previous worst was 20th in Division Three South in 1927-28. The season we were relegated to the fourth division was 1957-58 ( year I was born!), we finished 19th. Just looked at the home gates for that season, highest was 20k for Northampton, lowest was just under 7k for Gillingham, last game of the season when they would already have been down. Average at a guess was about 13k. Highest home attendance the following season was 28k for the visit of Port Vale. They had several gates over 20k. Lowest was 10k for Oldham, 4th game of the season after they had lost two and drawn one of their opening 3 games that included a 4-1 thumping at Shrewsbury. They beat Oldham and don't seem to have looked back from that point on.What is very clear from both of these two seasons is that the City support was far greater than almost anyone else in the third south or fourth divisions.