A load of Bulls - Conference North 2018/19

[Capybara]

Hereford have sacked their manager, Peter Beadle, which seems a tad harsh after three successive promotions.

[Jobi1]

Steve Watson becomes the third person this season to have a crack at the York manager's job. You could put Pochettino in at the moment and he'd struggle to achieve anything, so God knows what Watson thinks he can do. Good luck to him though, seems like an actually sensible appointment for the first time in a few goes.

[Satchmo Distel]

York, Hereford and Darlington still struggling just above the bottom 3. Sacking Beadle has not helped Hereford.

[Jobi1]

York, Hereford and Darlington still struggling just above the bottom 3. Sacking Beadle has not helped Hereford.

Having a fixture against York has though.

[ingoldale]

Fun fact: Boston have used 40+ players this season.

That is number of players not their age*

[EIM]

FC United are on over 50. They're going down, I would have thought.

[Jobi1]

50 also being the number of pounds you need to pay for the honour of a trial for Nuneaton, who seem to be in somewhat desperate circumstances again.

[Sporting]

FC United are on over 50. They're going down, I would have thought.

Not really au fait with what's gone wrong there. What's gone wrong there?

[EIM]

Ha. Jesus. There's a question. I've written about it before on here, but I'll not be able to find it. A book has also been written, but a third of that is internecine point settling, and doesn't shed much light.

I'll reply in full later when I'm not in work. But essentially it's financial mismanagement, egos, lack of direction, loss of identity, and the failure of fan ownership to understand and participate in democracy.

[ursus arctos]

There's a thread here that begins with a link to the article that the MEN spiked

Said article.

[Sporting]

Thanks to both.

[Jobi1]

York have gone down the always ill-advised route of doing a fans' vote for next season's kit. I'm not particularly keen on any of the options, but if you could spare a minute to vote for the 'navy Y front' option, I'd be most grateful. Sadly I think the white Y will probably win, voted for mainly by fans of other clubs and York fans under the age of 25 who don't remember the nightmare Batchelor period of 2002/3 that it's far too similar to.

[ingoldale]

Fun fact: Boston have used 40+ players this season.

That is number of players not their age*

Up to 45 now. God knows how the book keeper keeps track of that...

[Simon G]

York have gone down the always ill-advised route of doing a fans' vote for next season's kit. I'm not particularly keen on any of the options, but if you could spare a minute to vote for the 'navy Y front' option, I'd be most grateful. Sadly I think the white Y will probably win, voted for mainly by fans of other clubs and York fans under the age of 25 who don't remember the nightmare Batchelor period of 2002/3 that it's far too similar to.

Just voted - it's a close run thing. White with 38% and navy with 37%

[Grimmer]

Just voted - it's a close run thing. White with 38% and navy with 37%

... and Blue Y wins.

[slackster]

Was watching Miriam Margolyes Dead Good Adventure on the beeb iplayer, and noticed she was wearing a football scarf at some point. An AFC Telford United scarf. Think she’s made some documentary about watching her first football match rather than being a New Bucks Head regular, mind.

Anyways, pleased to see Stockport leapfrog Chorley again after losing to their auto-promo rivals last week. Got nothing against Chorley, about who I know little apart from they come from Peter Kaye land, but it really is time the Northern Hatters started the climb back upwards, after doing their time downstairs. Hope they don’t mess up v bottom club Nuneaton on Saturday.

[Paul S]

The only thing I know about Chorley is that they beat Wolves 3-0 in the FA Cup in 1987 when they were in the fourth division.

[Crystal Staples]

Nuneaton have won 6 points at home this season (so far anyway) and apparently have only been able to name two subs in their last two matches, one of which is their second choice goalkeeper, and he was brought on as a striker.

We’ve kept managing to find new and inventive ways to cock up over the last 15 years, but to not win on Saturday would top the lot.

[Jobi1]

Congrats to Stockport. Definitely well past time they started heading back in the right direction.

York meanwhile, despite more manager changes, absurd levels of player turnover and astonishing financial losses have contrived to finish a place lower than last season. The manager has just come out and said in fact he doesn't believe big changes are needed this summer. He's saved me the cost of a season ticket with that statement anyway, so that was nice of him.

[slackster]

Well done getting over the line, Stockport. Long past time a bit of success was due up there.

[Crystal Staples]

Thanks both for the goodwill. We've been building to this for 3.5 years, after trying to go up on the cheap (2013-15) and short-termist throwing everything we've got at it (2015-16) both failed. Turns out developing players and patient, continual improvement is the way to go. So well done to the board and management for sticking to that strategy despite a hugely impatient fanbase. This summer we'll lose players to clubs that can pay more, as we have done for the last two years, but I expect we'll slowly build towards the next promotion, however long that may take.

Alternative summary, it was just a completion of the England semi-final portent, being that England's only appearances in the last four of major tournaments came in 1966, 1990, 1996 and 2018, and County were promoted in 1967, 1991, 1997 and now 2019.

[Paul S]

How long is it since Stockport were last promoted?

[DCI Harry Batt]

I'm going to guess about 17 or 18 years

[DCI Harry Batt]

Ooh no, only 11.

[Crystal Staples]

Yeah, that long long decline we went on actually included three years of upturned fortunes under the Trust, until the long term effects of inherited debt and loss of the ground proved too much.