Football League test matches were a series of post-season football play-off matches organised by the Football League, to determine the membership of each division, between the worst finishers of the First Division and the best of the Second Division.
Unlike the modern-day English Football League play-offs, which is only contested between the four teams below the automatic promotion places in each division, test matches involved the bottom teams of the First Division and the top teams of the Second Division going head-to-head.
This meant that the Second Division champions were not guaranteed top-flight football, as was the case with Small Heath in 1893.
From 1896 until 1898, the series was revamped with into a mini league format, with four teams competing for two First Division places.
As the 1898–99 First Division was expanded to include two more teams, the 1898 test match series was ultimately a dead rubber as all four competing teams were elected into the top tier.