The Football League thread II

New owners likely on the way, playing in Birmingham and so on and so on. It seems bleak right now but I don't see it lasting.


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It wouldn't have been a proper season without some play off heartbreak. I went along to FC United last night (housemate is a season ticket holder) and despite finishing 20 points ahead of Ashton, they conceded an equaliser in the 93rd minute and then lost the tie in the 122nd. In the Evo-Stik league play-offs take place over one leg. I really can't stand this system of promotion and relegation.

Wrexham finished on 98 points in the Conference one year and still didn't get promoted. The play offs should be altered to give the team who finished highest more of an advantage imo. For example:

6th v 5th
Winner of that vs 4th
Winner of that vs 3rd (Final)

I think it would be more useful to give the Conference an extra promotion slot considering how the standard of that league has increased in recent years. A play-off between 3rd in the Conference and 22nd in League 2 would be a lot more entertaining I think and has been taken on in Scotland this season as well as being the norm in Germany for longer.

Wrexham finished on 98 points in the Conference one year and still didn't get promoted. The play offs should be altered to give the team who finished highest more of an advantage imo. For example:

6th v 5th
Winner of that vs 4th
Winner of that vs 3rd (Final)

Oh I agree with you, it's effectively League Three. Problem with doing that is that it would have to be voted on by the football league clubs, and turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

Sounds like a pretty epic match though.

I like the playoff system - it keeps the season more interesting - and would introduce playoffs for the final relegation place in a league.

I heard about that, such a shame as FC United have been there or there abouts for the last 4 years or so. Great support as well, almost 3000 fans there yesterday.

My 2nd team Lancaster City finished on 96 points in 2nd place a few years back. They got beat by Colwyn Bay in the playoff final after finishing 26 points ahead of them. Colwyn Bay got promoted the year after and are now playing in the CN whilst Lancaster are still in the same division. Sometimes it's just not fair.

What was your average, Midlander? FC United probably got a few more in quite a lot of games towards the end of the season in the Evo-Stik.



Not really! The game itself was fairly boring. Considering FC United can't actually defend that well, Ashton didn't get anywhere near scoring until Chris Baguley came on and when he did he ran the show because he was so much fitter. It had been a silly end to the season with the same groups of players at each club playing twice a week for months and him being fitter just made the difference. FC United finally started shooting in extra time (their first had been a penalty) but Ashton scored with their only two real chances, and one of those was a gift.

I sort of understand that the play offs do keep things more interesting, as teams in 8th or 9th can still hope for promotion and therefore keep playing their best teams rather than blooding new players, but I don't think it makes up for the fact that a team in 8th or 9th weeks before the end of the season can go up. If you're that low down, you haven't earned it over the course of the season, especially in a league where the team that finishes 2nd, a point off first, can be so easily beaten due to being exhausted.



Fifth year in a row in the play offs, I think. This is the first time they didn't get to the final. It's verging on Brentford levels of depressing. I understand why only one team goes up automatically here because there's multiple divisions feeding into fewer divisions, but it's still just so crushing.

Yeah, we've not been in a year, bout time we went back there

Ah, fair enough. Hopefully there'll be a fair few decent players knocking around that you can pick up cheaply. Is your budget really that bad?! I'd have thought with the crowds you get compared to some your budget should be ok.

Indeed! Gateshead have had a wonderful upturn in results since he came in. Probably one of the best non-league managers around. The positive if they go up though is that that's one relegation spot taken! Mills is a pretty awful manager in reality. Tactically very naive, and he'll get found out in the league as he did with York. One problem with Gateshead is they'd probably set all kind of unwanted records for worst home and away attendences in the league. We've been moaning at Accrington this year, but even they bring more than Gateshead!

Halifax - Gateshead final would be brilliant, though!

Wrexham finished on 98 points in the Conference one year and still didn't get promoted. The play offs should be altered to give the team who finished highest more of an advantage imo. For example:

6th v 5th
Winner of that vs 4th
Winner of that vs 3rd (Final)

Maybe it won’t be as bad as I’ve made it out to be. I guess our budget is the healthiest it has been for a long time because the money we made from our two finals last season went to paying off all our debt. So we’re no longer in debt. Also, it looks like the Welsh FA (and several sources) are helping by funding us to improve our pitch and facilities. So I guess that will let us have a bit more of a budget as we won’t have to worry about spending on other things, that pitch is a complete mess too so we would have had to spend a fair bit on it. Although our average attendance is in the top five for this league, it’s actually been pretty low for us and with being a fan-owned club we rely heavily on our gates, so getting attendances below 2,500 when we’ve probably estimated for 3,000 upwards will put a bit of a dent into our budget. I know our performances have been poor but I don’t understand, three years ago we nearly lost this club and would have had to watch a different club (or at least under a different name), in a lower league and in a different ground, so regardless of our performances I’m just happy to still be able to sit in the Racecourse and watch the team I’ve watch since I was seven.

Yeah, I don’t imagine their attendances would increase greatly if they do go up a league. Only 303 away fans against Grimsby tonight, it’s only a two and a half hour trip which is pretty manageable on a weeknight. As expected more than usual for their away games but still pretty poor. It’s a shame but that’s how it is with some of these teams. You’ve got to admire the ones who make the away trip when there are only a handful of them. I think Braintree had the least fans to the Racecourse this season with less than 15 and I expect Gateshead weren’t too far behind. In a way it’s quite sweet because they are your genuine football fans who have the utter most love for their club, none of these little ****s that you get when Luton visit or something.

They were both tight first legs. Cambridge really have hit a dry patch in front of goal at the moment. I had this game on in the background and it was horrendous. Hopefully that’ll be a better game on Sunday! Tonights match sounded as if it was better but I didn’t watch it. Both ties are still all up for grabs in the second leg.

Thanks for reminding me. That was painful, possibly more painful than losing in the final the last season because we actually deserved to go up that season.

Reading pitch invaded, only to find that Brighton had in fact claimed the last play-off place, how unfortunate.