1951–52 Southern Football League

The 1951–52 Southern Football League season saw Merthyr Tydfil win the championship for the third successive season. Five Southern League clubs applied to join the Football League at the end of the season, but none were successful.

Final table

No new clubs had joined the league for this season.

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv1	Pts2
1	Merthyr Tydfil	42	27	6	9	128	60	2.13	60
2	Weymouth	42	22	13	7	81	42	1.93	57
3	Kidderminster Harriers	42	22	10	10	70	40	1.75	54
4	Guildford City	42	18	16	8	66	47	1.4	52
5	Hereford United	42	21	9	12	80	59	1.36	51
6	Worcester City	42	23	4	15	86	73	1.18	50
7	Kettering Town	42	18	10	14	83	56	1.48	46
8	Lovells Athletic	42	18	10	14	87	68	1.28	46
9	Gloucester City	42	19	8	15	68	55	1.24	46
10	Bath City	42	19	6	17	75	67	1.12	44
11	Headington United	42	16	11	15	55	53	1.04	43
12	Bedford Town	42	16	10	16	75	64	1.17	42
13	Barry Town	42	18	6	18	84	89	0.94	42
14	Chelmsford City	42	15	10	17	67	80	0.84	40
15	Dartford	42	15	9	18	63	65	0.97	39
16	Tonbridge	42	15	6	21	63	84	0.75	36
17	Yeovil Town	42	12	11	19	56	76	0.73	35
18	Cheltenham Town	42	15	4	23	59	85	0.69	34
19	Exeter City II	42	13	7	22	76	106	0.71	33
20	Llanelly	42	13	6	23	70	111	0.63	32
21	Gravesend & Northfleet	42	12	7	23	68	88	0.77	31
22	Hastings United	42	3	5	34	41	131	0.31	11

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

^{2 The points system: 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for losing.}

Football League elections

Five Southern League clubs applied for election to the Football League. However, none were successful as all four League clubs were re-elected.

Club	League	Votes
Darlington	Football League	49
Exeter City	Football League	47
Walsall	Football League	45
Workington	Football League	40
Wigan Athletic	Lancashire Combination	9
Worcester City	Southern League	3
Bath City	Southern League	1
Merthyr Tydfil	Southern League	1
Peterborough United	Midland League	1
Nelson	Lancashire Combination	0
North Shields	North Eastern League	0
Headington United	Southern League	0
Yeovil Town	Southern League	0
New Brighton	Lancashire Combination	0