Category Archives: Non league football

The Future of Non League Football – flexibility in kick off times to boost takings

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s idea, which follows the same principal as all of our others in being filed in the section “Not rocket science” comes from the ever amusing Putajumperon who combines watching Watford with local grass roots football.

The ritual Sunday morning scouring of the fixtures pages in Non League Paper has become an obsession for me, and a concern for my wife. I’m optimistically looking for two things; the perfect midweek game to go to, and the possibility of a second game at the weekend.

Like so many other football supporters (notice I didn’t say “fans”) I was dragged to football by my forefathers and am now dragging my young son along too. The team that was chosen for me was an average Division 4 Watford side; not a glamorous club, but it was a step up from Isthmian League Wycombe Wanderers games I’d seen thus far. Fast forward 35 years and I’ve started watching non league football again. I’d even say I’ve fallen in love with football again as a result. I won’t give up Watford (I can’t) but now I want to see as much football as possible, and I mean real football not the self-satisfying top league… And this brings me back to the NLP’s fixtures pages and my goal: two games a week, with or without Watford.

With midweek games it’s easy, there’s always something nearby to sate my desires, but Saturday is a serious problem. With Watford at home I can only optimistically hope there’ll be an early, or late, kick-off nearby so I can get two games in (there’s five or six teams right on the doorstep). I know I’m not alone in this quest, and I know I’m not alone in being disappointed. The thing is if all these (non-televised) clubs could work together they could very easily tweak kick off times so supporters could attend two games.

Take Saturday 14th April. At 2.15pm 87,231 supporters left Wembley Stadium after the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Everton. 45 minutes later (when most of those fans were standing in hideously lengthy queues for trains outside Wembley Park) Hendon FC kicked off an important play-off chasing match with just 224 supporters watching.

When you add to the mix that, showing one’s semi-final ticket, admission to the game was only £5 it’s staggering that, as far as I’m aware, I was the only one at both games. Given that Budweiser sponsor both the FA Cup and now Wembley FC where Hendon play you’d have thought some promotion of the latter’s game could have easily drawn at least 100-200 supporters over from Wembley, to watch Hendon, and The Grand National, and use their bar. Of course this is an extreme example but with the need for cash lower down the game, I’d have thought promotion of games to get fans in is essential, after all 100 extra fans at this game would’ve resulted in £750+ extra on the takings. (The crazy thing is, when I left Hendon there were still supporters queuing for trains home from Wembley).

At the moment Leagues teams are more than happy to send their youngsters out on loan to Non League teams so surely a bit of promotion, in return, for those down the pyramid really wouldn’t go amiss. I’m certainly not suggesting endorsing an advent of feeder clubs (that would be a disaster for the identity of clubs and supporters alike), but connections already exist between clubs. Watford have this season had strong links with both Harrow Borough and Wealdstone amongst others. We have some great academy stars who’ve really benefited from this opportunity. In our case I know there are a fair few Watford supporters that try to see these non leaguers play, but sadly game times don’t always permit it.

Its true Watford and Wealdstone have gone someway to building the relationship with a joint “At Your Place” fans forum but let’s be honest supporters want to watch live matches. I suggested this season to both clubs that this could’ve happened when Wealdstone’s home FA Trophy Semi kicked off at the same time as a Watford home match but being the only one asking it fell on deaf ears.

As I see it this can only work if this comes from the clubs primarily, but with league approval. At present leagues, and clubs, seem to fall over themselves to move any game to other days for TV audiences, (usually at the expense of their own fans), so how about moving games to boost attendances and increase the coffers of the lower league teams. I’m not suggesting a “Tranmere Friday Night” scenario for the “smaller” club, but just a couple of hours movement so supporters can, for example, roll out of Vicarage Road and get to The Sun Postal Sports & Social Club in time for kick off (or vice versa). And whilst we’re at it let’s get reduced entrance for season ticket holders in both directions..

You can follow Put A Jumper On on Twitter here.

The Future of Non League Football – Plastic Fantastic

Posted on by
Reply

It seems that every winter we are caught out with inclement weather. We have the wrong type of snow, wind, rain and sunshine in this country and that has an impact on the Non Leagues more so than our professional cousins. Postponed games have to replayed and without any willingness to extend the season, fixture pile ups ruin the competitiveness of the league. But there is a solution, as the guru of Non League cup competitions Damon Threadgold explains.

In the last few seasons a number of leagues have gone to the very edge of ‘the FA sanctioned summer’ thanks to fixture pile ups caused by frozen or waterlogged pitches in the winter months. It’s ridiculous when you get teams having to cram those postponed games into one month at the end of the season [more on that later]. We sit back and think ‘why don’t the FA just sanction league extensions?’ But, as they won’t eat into their valuable cricket-watching time down at their local village green, we have to think of another way.

Synthetic pitches. Hmmm … OK, we all remember the horrors of the 80s, Luton and QPR playing on fruit shop grass where the ball bounced higher than the average space hopper. You want that! No, you don’t, pipe down at the back. Synthetic pitches have moved on a tad since those heady days of big hair and tight shorts, now they are less burn-inducing industrial rugs and more dry-weave-top-sheet and luxury spa resort, threaded with real grass and bedded on a synthetic earth of rubberised peas to get that regular bounce and feel. FIFA sanction their use and England have even played qualifiers on the stuff so what the hell is the problem?

In fairness, the FA have taken some tentative steps in the right direction by allowing the use of One Star FIFA sanctioned pitches in some tournaments. However, for some unfathomable reason they refuse to allow the FA Cup and FA Youth Cup to be played on plastic pitches. So, if, as a club, you see FA Youth competition as a valuable learning asset, you can’t install a synthetic pitch because you will have to retain or borrow a grass one to enter. The FA Cup is a potentially lucrative competition to a number of non-league clubs, particularly those at Step 2, 3 and 4, so installing a plastic pitch is an unwise move because it bars your entry to the Old Jug. Continue reading →

The Future of Non League Football – Ask and ye shall receive

Posted on by
Reply

Continuing our series on what can be done to improve Non League football, the genius that is Beat The First Man raises the subject that clubs themselves are sometimes their own worst enemies.

You know what gets my goat in non league football? Well, apart spurious ground grading regulations, inept officiating, and clubs playing fast and loose with the financing rules. It is clubs, well-meaning so often, not utilising the skills base that presents itself to them on a fortnightly basis.

Clubs need fans. Of course they need their monies over the gate, over the bar, at the tea hut. But they need them in other ways, and all too often they are reluctant, unwilling, or simply too pig-headed to ask.

The old cliche of fans ganging together to pay the wages, or paint a fence, is one which we are all far too familiar with. On the one hand you would hope that clubs learn from the errors of those who went before them. But equally there is something “blitz spirit” about everyone rocking up to the ground in mid June to spruce up the changing rooms. And we do it because we want to help, to be part of the club in any small way we can. Non league football is run by volunteers, after all (at least, the *real* non league is).

But why should it stop there? On any given matchday, there will be an assortment of men and women with all manner of skills standing on the sidelines. All with their own lives, true. And not all necessarily willing or able to give their time to the club for free. But it doesn’t have to be free. Continue reading →

The Darts hit the bullseye of promotion after 26 years of hurt

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve never really hidden my admiration for the progress Dartford have made on and off the pitch in the past few seasons.  Just a year or so ago I waxed lyrical about my upbringing just down the road from Watling Street and my afternoons spent running around the terraces here..  Back in “the day” they were one of the top Non League teams in England, along with the likes of Wealdstone, Altrincham and Weymouth.  In an age when there wasn’t any automatic promotion to the Football League, the top non league clubs had to apply for election to the League each season and hope that the Football League Chairman were satisfied with the contents of the “envelopes”.  Consequently only seven clubs were elected into the league by this method, the last being 1978.

Dartford came close to making the step from the Non Leagues to the Football League on a number of occasions, the last one was in 1974 after they won the Southern League, and reached the final of the FA Trophy.  Ten years later, after the formation of the Football Alliance (basically now the Blue Square Bet Premier), they finished third, the highest place they have finished in their history.  Since then it was a tale of woe that saw them penniless and homeless in a space of a few years.  A nomadic existence followed at places like Erith, Thurrock and Gravesend before a local council with a vision stepped in, finding them a home back in the town. Continue reading →

Gone and forgotten – part 1 – Manchester Central FC

Posted on by
2

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them” so said William Shakespeare. The final line to bring that up to date is “and then there are those who achieve greatness buy spun king loads of cash on a project”

Let me take you back to 1931. The Empire State Building has just been completed in New York City, A banking crisis threatens the European economy and the first screenings of Dracula and Frankenstein scare the living daylights out of film goers in London. But in a closed meeting room at the Football League headquarters in Preston there was a monumental debate raging.

At the time there was no automatic promotion between the Football League and the Non Leagues. In fact the 92 team Football League was basically a closed shop, with no team ever “elected” to join the league at the annual end of season vote. The process used to be that any non league club could throw their hat into the ring to be elected as a new member club but it would require a majority vote from the Football League club chairman. And unsurprisingly they were a close knit group who didn’t like outsiders. In fact it wasn’t until 1951 that Workington became the first club to join the Football League in this way at the expense of New Brighton. Occasionally an incidence would occur when they found themselves a team short and they would send a telegram to a non league club and ask if they wanted to join the party.

You didn’t have to even prove you were a successful club to apply for election. Take the case of The Argonauts in 1928 who applied for entry to the league without ever actually playing a game. The one thing they had going for them apart from having an eccentric chairman was that they had agreed a lease to play at Wembley Stadium. The excellent Twohundredpercent website tells the story of the most bizarre club nearly to play in the league brilliantly.

In the same year that the Argonauts were making their audacious bid, a new team was being formed in Manchester. Manchester Central were formed by Man City director John Ayrton (at the time there were no rules about having a stake in more than one club) who saw an opportunity to utilise the Belle Vue Stadium he owned in the east part of the city for more than just a weekly speedway meeting. In their first season they joined the Lancashire Combination League, finishing a disappointing seventh. However, this didn’t stop Ayrton applying to take the club into the Football League at the end of their first season. Unsurprisingly their bid failed. Continue reading →