|
Post by bigmartin on Apr 16, 2024 8:23:25 GMT
It must be hard for those non-London southern clubs. Brackley, Banbury, Peterborough Sports, kings Lynn, Gloucester and Hereford all playing in the Northern league. The time and cost implications must be significant for the smaller clubs Actually completely unfair. Football does this sometimes. Tries to be clinical in some areas (VAR), and absolutely mindlessly shafts clubs in other areas. Very strange sport I've always thought.
|
|
|
Post by HTC on Apr 16, 2024 9:12:16 GMT
it's not a football problem though - the basic issue is that the population of England isn't distributed equally.
it's something like 40 million people living south of the line between the Wash and Bristol Channel, and 20 million north of it, so you're trying to fit two regional leagues into an area where the distribution just doesn't really work.
While the old system of the Ishtmian / Southern / Northern Premier league had other issues, it did fit a bit more naturally into the population borders.
|
|
|
Post by timberwolf on Apr 16, 2024 9:12:55 GMT
It must be hard for those non-London southern clubs. Brackley, Banbury, Peterborough Sports, kings Lynn, Gloucester and Hereford all playing in the Northern league. The time and cost implications must be significant for the smaller clubs You can blame a northern league for that happening at the outset of the pyramid system causing more southern teams to get promoted. Going back to the old division 3 north and south days possibly shrewsbury or vale might have then been the most northern teams who played in the southern section. If this came about again i,d guess MK might have to be put into the north section.
|
|
|
Post by HTC on Apr 16, 2024 9:23:23 GMT
Problem at the outset of the current non-league system as I understand it was in the Northeast.
In that area, you had strong clubs like Spennymoor / Blyth / Bishop Auckland and others in the Northern League that just didn't want to join a national system. The league up there was really good, and the clubs just couldn't see the point of the extra costs / travelling time to be involved with a league with games against Northwich & Runcorn. This meant the original conference league in the early 80s already had a built in southern/midlands bias, and that's persisted ever since.
Changed a bit in recent years with teams like Spennymoor / South Shields now happily at NLN level, but for a long time, clubs would frequently refuse promotion from the Northern League to the nominally higher NPL north division, as they'd be dropping to a lower quality of football with lower crowds and more travel. Think it was pretty much only Gateshead at the higher levels of non league football for most of the 80s/90s/00s.
|
|
|
Post by timberwolf on Apr 16, 2024 9:42:20 GMT
Problem at the outset of the current non-league system as I understand it was in the Northeast. In that area, you had strong clubs like Spennymoor / Blyth / Bishop Auckland and others in the Northern League that just didn't want to join a national system. The league up there was really good, and the clubs just couldn't see the point of the extra costs / travelling time to be involved with a league with games against Northwich & Runcorn. This meant the original conference league in the early 80s already had a built in southern/midlands bias, and that's persisted ever since. Changed a bit in recent years with teams like Spennymoor / South Shields now happily at NLN level, but for a long time, clubs would frequently refuse promotion from the Northern League to the nominally higher NPL north division, as they'd be dropping to a lower quality of football with lower crowds and more travel. Think it was pretty much only Gateshead at the higher levels of non league football for most of the 80s/90s/00s. That is totally true. A bit short sighted for me as south west clubs have a bigger trek to those based in essex but theat league was a bit of a royston vasey one.
|
|
|
Post by Count de Stockport on Apr 17, 2024 7:42:27 GMT
Tamworth confirmed as NLN champions. They've not been back at that level for long, have they?
|
|
|
Post by Imposter on Apr 17, 2024 7:47:41 GMT
Tamworth confirmed as NLN champions. They've not been back at that level for long, have they? Successive promotions. They were one of the relegation favourites I believe.
|
|
|
Post by timberwolf on Apr 17, 2024 9:53:45 GMT
Tamworth confirmed as NLN champions. They've not been back at that level for long, have they? Successive promotions. They were one of the relegation favourites I believe. Hope they are next season for goodness knows why but they are a team i have never liked when we played them. Possibly biased as i got a rescue dog that was originally owned by somebody who lived there and was badly treated.
|
|
|
Post by Stranded Hatter on Apr 17, 2024 14:11:35 GMT
Us suggesting they should merge is no different to Premier League fans suggesting league 1 or 2 clubs should merge, down with that sort of thing Some on here are banging on about history, but if you go back to the earlier days of the game a number of present clubs are around because they merged with others. A lot depends on how happy fans of smaller clubs are and how much they want to travel up the pyramid. When i moved to yorkshire there was regular talk about bradford city and PA merging but what stopped it mainly was one of those sides was always better than the other. Only problem with any merger is it aint really that but a takeover. Merging when clubs have existed for a 15/20 years (if that) is a bit different to merging when they've got 115/120 years of history - and probably some animosity.
|
|
|
Post by Stranded Hatter on Apr 17, 2024 14:12:22 GMT
With so few teams going up out of NLN/NLS and so many going down, is it all that disadvantageous to have slightly different numbers in NLN and NLS?
Think the problem would be that a 23/25 split means that one team isn't playing each week, which has greater financial implications at that level than higher up the leagues, whereas a 26/22 split means the 26 team league is really difficult to fit into a 'normal' season, particularly if it's a bad weather year given the overall quality of pitches being that bit lower.
Makes you wonder if expanding both leagues to 24 teams was really the right decision.
|
|
|
Post by Stranded Hatter on Apr 17, 2024 14:21:09 GMT
Successive promotions. They were one of the relegation favourites I believe. Hope they are next season for goodness knows why but they are a team i have never liked when we played them. Possibly biased as i got a rescue dog that was originally owned by somebody who lived there and was badly treated. Were Tamworth the ones who had a bunch of teenagers who would stand the other side of a roundabout and give it out to County fans? Or was that Telford. Honestly they've all blurred into one at this point.
|
|
|
Post by HTC on Apr 17, 2024 14:45:30 GMT
Nuneaton and Tamworth were always known to be a bit fightier than your average non-leaguers - not sure if it's because they picked up most of the banned Birmingham / Wolves etc. fans over the years (much like Borehamwood did with the north London equivalent) or whether they were always like that.
|
|
|
Post by timberwolf on Apr 18, 2024 8:32:32 GMT
Nuneaton and Tamworth were always known to be a bit fightier than your average non-leaguers - not sure if it's because they picked up most of the banned Birmingham / Wolves etc. fans over the years (much like Borehamwood did with the north London equivalent) or whether they were always like that. Worked in nuneaton in 1978 and it felt like a town with a league club with the interest shown unlike macc at the time who were real non league. The atmosphere at their old manor road ground was on a different scale to when they moved that was like their neighbour bedworth united. Shows what moving grounds can cause especially if they are opposite sides of the town even if they were a similar distance from the town centre.
|
|
|
Post by Philcounty on Apr 21, 2024 12:14:38 GMT
Gateshead unable to compete in this year's NL playoffs.
|
|
|
Post by tgttiw on Apr 21, 2024 12:26:53 GMT
Nuneaton and Tamworth were always known to be a bit fightier than your average non-leaguers - not sure if it's because they picked up most of the banned Birmingham / Wolves etc. fans over the years (much like Borehamwood did with the north London equivalent) or whether they were always like that. Worked in nuneaton in 1978 and it felt like a town with a league club with the interest shown unlike macc at the time who were real non league. The atmosphere at their old manor road ground was on a different scale to when they moved that was like their neighbour bedworth united. Shows what moving grounds can cause especially if they are opposite sides of the town even if they were a similar distance from the town centre. I remember their old ground. Absolutely nothing wrong with it other than being tired. Walking distance from the centre of Nuneaton. He ground miles out and the non league equivalent of flat pack.
|
|