2003–04 Southern Football League

The 2003–04 Southern Football League season was the 101st in the history of the league, an English football competition.

It was the last season for the Southern Football League as a feeder for the Conference Premier. At the end of the season, the Premier Division was replaced as a

. The Premier Division lost more than half its clubs to newly formed divisions, and the two regional divisions had a number of their clubs promoted to the Premier Division to replace them. Thus, the Southern Football League divisions downgraded to 7-8 levels.

Premier Division

The Premier Division consisted of 22 clubs, including 17 clubs from the previous season and five new clubs:

• Two clubs promoted from the Eastern Division:
  • Dorchester Town
  • Eastbourne Borough

• Two clubs promoted from the Western Division:
  • Merthyr Tydfil
  • Weston-super-Mare

• Plus:
  • Nuneaton Borough, relegated from the Football Conference

Crawley Town won the division and were promoted to the Conference National. Clubs finished higher than 14th position were to transfer to the newly created Conference North and South divisions and clubs finished higher than 18th position plus winners of divisions One were to participate in the play-offs for a two final spots in Conference North/South.

There were no relegation from the Premier Division this season, though, due to league reform, clubs remained in the division downgraded from sixth tier to seventh.

League table

Southern Football League
Premier Division

Season	2003–04
Champions	Crawley Town
Promoted	Crawley Town
Matches played	462
Goals scored	1,238 (2.68 per match)
← 2002–03 2004–05 →

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Crawley Town	42	25	9	8	77	43	+34	84	Promoted to the Conference National
2	Weymouth	42	20	12	10	76	47	+29	72	Qualified for the Conference South
3	Stafford Rangers	42	19	11	12	55	43	+12	68	Qualified for the Conference North
4	Nuneaton Borough	42	17	15	10	65	49	+16	66
5	Worcester City	42	18	9	15	71	50	+21	63
6	Hinckley United	42	15	14	13	55	46	+9	59
7	Newport County	42	15	14	13	52	50	+2	59	Qualified for the Conference South
8	Cambridge City	42	14	15	13	54	53	+1	57
9	Welling United	42	16	8	18	56	58	−2	56
10	Weston-super-Mare	42	14	13	15	52	52	0	55
11	Eastbourne Borough	42	14	13	15	48	56	−8	55
12	Havant & Waterlooville	42	15	10	17	59	70	−11	55
13	Moor Green	42	14	12	16	42	54	−12	54	Qualified for the Conference North
14	Merthyr Tydfil	42	13	14	15	60	66	−6	53	Qualified for the play-offs
15	Tiverton Town	42	12	15	15	63	64	−1	51
16	Bath City	42	13	12	17	49	57	−8	51
17	Dorchester Town	42	14	9	19	56	69	−13	51	Qualified for the play-offs, then qualified to the Conference South
18	Chelmsford City	42	11	16	15	46	53	−7	49	Qualified for the play-offs, then transferred to the Isthmian League
19	Dover Athletic	42	12	13	17	50	59	−9	49	Transferred to the Isthmian League
20	Hednesford Town	42	12	12	18	56	69	−13	48
21	Chippenham Town	42	10	17	15	51	63	−12	47
22	Grantham Town	42	10	15	17	45	67	−22	45

Play-offs

	Semifinals					Final
	16P	Bath City	2
	17P	Dorchester Town	4
						15P	Tiverton Town	1
						17P	Dorchester Town	3
	15P	Tiverton Town	1
	18P	Chelmsford City	0

	Semifinals					Final
	1ed	King's Lynn	0
	1wd	Redditch United	1
						14P	Merthyr Tydfil	0
						1wd	Redditch United	3
	14P	Merthyr Tydfil	W/O

Stadia and locations