1978–79 Southern Football League

Worcester City won the championship, winning their first Southern League title.

At the end of the season the Alliance Premier League was established as a new, national top division of non-League football.

Thirteen clubs from the Premier Division joined the new league, leading to a restructuring of the Southern League for the next season, in which it was divided solely into Midland and Southern divisions.

Several clubs left the Division One North at the end of the season to join the Northern Premier League, which had also lost clubs to the new Alliance Premier League, whilst Premier Division club Atherstone Town folded.

The rest of the clubs were distributed between newly created Midland and Southern divisions.