Ups & Downs

[Kevin S]

Basically, it's not in the NPL's gift to confirm the promotions and playoffs yet until the two parallel regional leagues (Southern and Isthmian) have also finished and the FA has confirmed that everything is in order. This is because of the restructuring.

[ad hoc]

I don't even understand it. (And not just because of the ridiculous overuse of capital letters)

[Jah Womble]

Apart from being very badly worded, that seems ridiculously incompetent at this stage of the season.

[longeared]

South Shields celebrated promotion from Northern Premier League Division One North last night, then this morning the league have issued this statement.

[Capybara]

Hereford are Southern League champions following last night's win at one of the Biggleswades.

[Jobi1]

Guiseley gone from the National League. Been a fair while coming that one.

[Patrick Thistle]

Accrington go up to League One. Their first promotion to the third tier.

Bury were relegated to League Two on Saturday.

[Diable Rouge]

Salford only need a draw to play in the National League Premier next season, after Harrogate lost tonight.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Dunstable are really bad. Gosport, at least both times Hitchin played them, have given it a good crack. They get decent crowds too. I don't like losing a derby-mate but in my book Gosport deserve to stay up more than Dunstable.

[N est à?]

Not a confirmed relegation yet, amazingly, for Gosport Borough from the Evo-Stik southern premier who have 11 points so far, because with only one relegation slot due to league resturcturing, they can still catch Dunstable Town, who have a whopping 13.

Excitingly, the two are playing each other at Dunstable in a rearranged fixture on thursday 26th april, which will be the penultimate game for both teams. I sure would like to be present for the lap of honour of whichever of them the drop.

[Kowalski]

Caernarfon Town have been promoted to the WPL and Prestatyn Town have been relegated from the WPL.

[ursus arctos]

PSV’s win over Ajax today gives them the Eredivisie title

[blameless]

St.Mirren won the Scottish Championship (and thus the automatic promotion place) after drawing with Franchise yesterday. Congrats to our monochrome Paisley brethren.

[Ray de Galles]

Westfield sealed the Combined Counties Premier title last night and succeeded where Man City failed by doing so in the red hot atmosphere of their Woking Derby game against Knaphill, winning 4-1. They now have 100 points and a plus 101 goal difference with 6 games remaining.

[Diable Rouge]

Shredded Wheat FC had a bloody good manager too.

The Jack Charlton ad must only have aired in Ireland.

[Kevin S]

8th place and the League Cup final wasn't too shabby tbf.

Edit - and winning the Full Members too.

[N est à?]

It's a stretch to call him a good manager in 1992.

[Kevin S]

Shredded Wheat FC had a bloody good manager too.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Good for them. Though I think their late 30s moniker, 'Shredded Wheat' would provide them with a bit more cachet.

[Gangster Octopus]

Welwyn Garden City've booked their place in Step 4 for next season, winning the Spartan South Midlands.

[blameless]

Poor old Brechin City were relegated from the Scottish Championship weeks ago - their record is currently P32 W0 D4 L28 F19 A73 Pts4

If they were a racehorse, they'd have been shot sometime in November to prevent further unnecessary suffering.

[Kevin S]

As for the promotions and relegations, it's basically the same in step 3 but with only one team coming down from each to keep the numbers up (i.e. 3 relegated in total, one from the top divisions in the Isthmian, Southern and NPL)

In these top divisions there are six teams (three champions and three playoff winners) going up to the National League being replaced by six coming down.

The numbers to create the fourth division at this level will be inflated by promoting more Step 4 teams. Currently each of the three leagues has two divisions in its second tier.

These six divisions will each promote 3 or 4 teams (21 promotions total, and remember only 3 are coming down).

It will be the first and second teams going up plus the better of the two 3rd place teams in each league~, plus a team from each division's playoffs*.

In these divisions, only the bottom clubs (a total of 6) will be relegated to the local step 5 leagues.

~ i.e. comparing the Isthmian North 3rd placed team against the Isthmian South 3rd placed team - better one goes up. And the same for Southern East vs Southern West, and NPL North vs NPL South.
* either teams 3-6 or 4-7 depending which division has the better 3rd placed team

[Kevin S]

Here's the proposed geographic zoning:
http://www.evostikleaguesouthern.co....819-seas-47185

The green area - representing an Isthmian division for the eastern counties and the north-east corner of London, is good news for the clubs in our region. I suspect it won't be the strongest league at that level, though having said that the ECL teams which have gone up have generally done ok - I think only one has come back down again in recent times.

Looks a bit rubbish at step 3, though, with the likes of Leiston facing potentially very long journeys out west across that new pink division. (Edit, but I suppose it's no longer than the distance from the north to the south of the NPL.)

[slackster]

The non-league step 3/4 reduced relegations & inflated promotions will be a bit weird this year, as a new league is introduced at both levels from next season.

[longeared]

Basford United bought their way to promotion from the Northern Premier League Division One South last weekend.

Knaresborough Town are promoted from NCEL Division One, they'll clinch the title if they win at Hallam tonight (should the game take place, it probably won't given that Hallam were off on Tuesday and there's no way the pitch will have dried out since then)

Clipstone were relegated from the NCEL Premier a couple of weeks back with their single point from 36 games, though relegation at steps 5 and 6 could potentially be a bit unpredictable what with the reorganisation and possibility of various lateral movements.