Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

[HeavyDracula]

Dispute with the neighbouring health club that own their ground, apparently.

[Nesta]

Bit of a choke by Bootle in the North West Counties, after winning 20 league games on the trot, just needed to make it 21 to win the league and promotion, but could only draw against Northwich Victoria, allowing groundsharers City of Liverpool to snatch the title with a 2-0 win at Irlam.

[Nesta]

Elsewhere in South Sefton, Marine suffer the first relegation in their history from the NPL premier, after defeat at champions Farsley Celtic.

[torres]

Aye. Sorry to see this happen to a genuinely cracking club but they have been flirting with relegation for the last few years.. Maybe a couple of seasons in a lower division will help them to regroup a little.

[Third rate Leszno]

Nesta, I think it's harsh to suggest that Bootle had even 'a bit of a choke'. 61 out of 63 points available from their last 21 games and coming from about 20 points behind to turn a one-horse race into a thrilling title fight are not stats that suggest choking.

Marine have had a few years of late or even last-day escapes now, and this had a feeling of inevitability about it. It's disappointing but not a disaster, and at least there'll be some new visitors to College Road next season, rather than the same old, same old.

[Kevin S]

Histon won the Eastern Counties League so will be back up at step 4 next season.

[Nesta]

Lesz, yeah, maybe harsh, but bloody hell, what a time for the winning run to end, particularly after they must have thought the hard part was done the previous week against CoL. Yeah, Marine's number was up. I don't know enough about the club's inner workings to know if they've been doing anything conspicuously wrong, or if they've just been living within their means financially, with the usual result of struggle on the pitch.

[torres]

It was an incredible run from Bootle, they'll be kicking themselves they fucked up at the last hurdle though.

[slackster]

Vase finalists Cray Valley Paper Mills won the step 5 SCEFL. Tunbridge Wells had yet another dreadful season bumping along near the bottom.

(They will be dancing on the streets of, er, Cray, as Wanderers also won the step 4 Isthmian SE Division)

[longeared]

Worksop Town were champions of the NCEL Premier thanks to winning their last eighteen games. They've got a chance of completing the double as the League Cup has still to be finished. Semi finals are tomorrow night - Hemsworth MW v Worksop, Liversedge v Swallownest - with the final at the Keepmoat in a fortnight.

[Ray de Galles]

Molesey got relegated back to the Combined Counties from the Isthmian South Central after four seasons, all but one of which was spent struggling near the foot of the table.

The club never really seemed to make anything of being in a higher league, crowds have stayed resolutely low even for the eighth tier (with an average of around 60) and the stadium and facilities just keep getting more dilapidated. Even as an obsessive I've only been there three or four times this season and when I have the people in the clubhouse seem far more interested in televised football or darts than the actual game being played in the stadium.

There is talk of redeveloping the clubhouse and stand but only, I think, as a sweetener for developing the last chunk of land next the stadium for housing. This has been done twice before to pay off the club's debts with no discernible benefit to the actual club.

I think they're always going to suffer from being hidden away (literally by all the above-mentioned housing) in a relatively unsalubrious part of town while the local cricket and even rowing club are far more central to the life of the area. The football club don't help themselves by making next to no productive effort to connect with local schools, junior football set-ups or the wider population. Perhaps that would be hopeless anyway given that the area has the typical Home Counties focus on elite football and the strength of rugby locally too.

[Ray de Galles]

Then again, even The Moles' plight pales next to illustrious neighbours Walton & Hersham who have been relgated from the Combined Counties Premier in to its D1, the tenth tier. The Swans have had so much further to fall too.

I fell like I've written this post recently, that might be the case or it might just be that W&H's decline just keeps reaching now lower levels. Very much the junior tenant to Walton Casuals (who managed to stay in the Southern League Premier South on the final day) at the new "Elmbridge Sports Hub" council facility with a crowd now averaging in the double figures and a real torpor around them, I think they might not be long for the world.

[Third rate Leszno]

Lesz, yeah, maybe harsh, but bloody hell, what a time for the winning run to end, particularly after they must have thought the hard part was done the previous week against CoL.

They're not using it as an excuse, because it was the same for both teams, but the weather played a big part in the final day draw. As you and torres probably know, it's quite an open ground and a 50mph gale whipping across from corner flag to corner flag made it really hard to play football and things degenerated into a game of throw ins and headers - not really to Bootle's strengths after they've played some decent stuff on the ground for most of their winning run. Fair play to CoL too, they've been brilliant all season and will do well at the next level.

[Ray de Galles]

Did we cover the fact that a Jersey side (Jersey Bulls, I mean I ask you?) have joined Guernsey in the English pyramid and will play in the tenth tier Combined Counties D1 next season?

I think they'll have to cover all the travel and associated costs of visiting teams and will apparently be playing in a 7000 capacity stadium.

[Sean of the Shed]

The badge is appalling



And their ground is called Springfield Stadium

[Sean of the Shed]

Jersey Bulls, I mean I ask you?

I would have named the club Balowski.

[Capybara]

"Bulls hit form"
"Bulls hit for six"
"New kit is Bulls hit"

[delicatemoth]

"Like showing a red card to a Bull"
"Bulls up!"
"Don't have a cow, man"

[Third rate Leszno]

I would have named the club Balowski.

Dudek

[Uros Predic]

I presume it was the release of the club allocations for non-league steps 1-6 this past week which prompted the Jersey Bulls references.

Two interesting new additions to the Spartan South Midlands League Division One in the form of two Greek teams; St Panteleimon, and the fantastically named New Salamis, which I suspect is is pronounced differently to how I'd think.

Also, is the Northern Premier League just working through points of the compass? I see their step 4 leagues having switched from North and South to East and West have now gone North-West and South-East.

[Ray de Galles]

I presume it was the release of the club allocations for non-league steps 1-6 this past week which prompted the Jersey Bulls references.

Well, that and my specific post about them <<<< realises Uros has him on 'Ignore Poster'

[Uros Predic]

Aye, I meant that the club allocations presumably prompted your post, but stuck a rogue 's' on reference.

[longeared]

The NPL has to all intents and purposes gone back to north and south divisions, they've just dressed it up with some fancy renaming. Don't know what the rationale is, probably to remove enormous journeys for the north-east clubs such as Morpeth playing Wisbech last season, a round trip of almost 500 miles. All fairly moot anyway as there will be another reshuffle next season as the NPL will have the new step 4 division.

Round here the main news of the divisional allocations was Emley being shifted over to the North West Counties, meaning their fixture programme now includes a visit to Cleator Moor Celtic in deepest Cumbria. Over 150 miles each way which is ridiculous for step 6. There's now four Yorkshire clubs in this division, Emley, Shelley, Steeton and newly promoted Golcar United in Huddersfield. This makes it even weirder that, a level higher, Silsden got shifted from North West Counties to the NCEL having never played in this league before. They're based up near Skipton and further north and west than all the above mentioned clubs. So as things stand if any of these clubs change division there's a reasonable likelihood they'll end up changing league as well.

[Snake Plissken]

Is that Steeton which shares a railway station with Silsden?

[Southport Zeb]

Yes. Steeton have followed Silsden's model for moving up to the North West Counties in that they left their own ground in the village to use the rugby ground in Keighley. Silsden eventually got their own ground up to the necessary standards. Not sure if Steeton have any plans to do similar.