Results and teams, 1967-82
Below are links to the Excel pages giving results and lineups for 1967/8 to 1981/2. Clicking on the relevant link takes you to the page for that season which will open in Ms Excel, but you might need to use the link to Google Sheets at the top of each page for best results. The pages will also make more sense if you scroll down to read the notes below the links first.
The above spreadsheets set out the results of all competitive first team matches and most friendlies in the 1967/8 to 1981/2 seasons, up to the end of the old BTFC after the latter season.
To access any season, click on the appropriate seasonal link above (eg Teams 67.8.xlsx for 1967/8). The file will then open but you will need to use the zoom control (top left hand side) , or click on "Google Sheets", to read the detail. When you are finished the back button on your browser will bring you back to this page.
For notes on the general format see Results and teams, 1950-67. For this period, increasingly so as time went on, the old 2-3-5 team formation was disappearing, replaced by 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or other variants. Numbers on shirts increasingly didn't indicate any particular position on the field. Most of the lineups in these pages are listed as they appeared in programmes, ie shirt number order from 1 to 11, but where the team has been taken from a match report, especially from an opposing paper, it may have listed players in formation order, eg with four defenders, four midfielders and then two strikers for 4-4-2. To keep it simple I've used shirt number order where this is known.
For general problems with the sources of information for this period see The Later Years (1967-82).
Competitions in this period
The "Results and Teams" pages show a key to the abbreviations for the various competitions in the top right hand corner of each seasonal page.
SL=Southern League, with the relevant division for that season shown. Up to and including 1970/1, the League was split into Premier and First Divisions, with four up and four down, as it had been since 1959/60. From 1971/2 to 1978/9 the First Division was split into North and South sections, with Bedford playing in the North section in 1974/5 and 1978/9. With the formation of the Alliance Premier League in 1979 and the departure of many of the senior SL clubs, the remaining clubs were divided into parallel Midland and Southern Divisions, with Bedford in the Midland section. In theory the winners of each section could be promoted to the Alliance Premier League but this depended on whether they wanted to be, and if so whether their ground met the APL's standards. If the winners were unwilling (eg Alvechurch in 1980/1) or unable (eg Bedford in the same season because of their ground tenure problem), the third placed club could go up, as Trowbridge did that year.
SLC= Southern League Cup, organised as in previous years, although in certain seasons the semi-finals were two-legged and in others only one-legged.
FAC=FA Cup, requiring no explanation
FAT=FA Challenge Trophy, from 1969/70. After the first two seasons Bedford were exempt until the First Round proper.
EPFC= Eastern Professional Floodlit Competition, in which Bedford played from 1964/5 to 1970/1 and again in 1973/4, when the whole competition was left uncompleted because of fixture congestion caused by power crises and bad weather, and 1974/5, when they were unable to complete their own fixtures. In the latter two seasons there was also an Eastern Professional Floodlit Cup (EPC) which suffered the same fate as far as the club were concerned.
MFC=Midland Floodlit Competition, a similar setup to the EPFC, entered only in 1971/2
BPC=(up to and including 1976/7) the Bedfordshire Professional Cup. This had been entered regularly since 1950 but had declined heavily in appeal. In 1977/8 it was abandoned and Bedford entered the Bedfordshire Senior Cup (BSC). This had been confined to amateurs until the abolition of amateur status in 1974, but it was now open to all clubs. In 1980/1 the County FA introduced a new Bedfordshire Premier Cup (in fact using the old Professional Cup trophy) played on a group basis, which Bedford entered in parallel to the BSC.
CPC=Cambridgeshire Professional Cup, entered only in 1967/8
HPC=Huntingdonshire Premier Cup. Bedford last entered this in 1966/7 but the semi-final replay and final were held over until 1967/8.
AFT=Anglia Floodlit Trophy, entered from 1970/1 to 1973/4 inclusive, with ties played on a two-legged basis