2017/18 National League North

Gutted I can't make Telford away at the weekend, but hoping the boys come back with 3 points & we can carry on with this rich vein of form.

AndyPark said:

Gutted I can't make Telford away at the weekend, but hoping the boys come back with 3 points & we can carry on with this rich vein of form.

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Never mind mate you can look forward to Spenny away on the Bank Holiday Monday
We'll be their on Saturday to watch the lads stuff Telford. Well hopefully? Should be a good few going to Telford i would have thought?

Darlo On Tour said:

Never mind mate you can look forward to Spenny away on the Bank Holiday Monday
We'll be their on Saturday to watch the lads stuff Telford. Well hopefully? Should be a good few going to Telford i would have thought?

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I'd expect a good 250 to make the trip down at the weekend, very decent for a 350 mile round trip.
Aye, I'll be with you's for Spennymoor a week on Monday like. Bringing my little 5 year old niece to the Southport home game next weekend too.

Darlo On Tour said:

I noticed the only goal of the game was put away by Marcus Dinanga, not sure how long he's been turning out for AFC Telford United. Actually I thought he was still playing for Matlock Town.

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Been there all season mate. They signed him on loan from Burton in the summer. one of their better players.
I heard Andy Morrelll was being muted as the new Nuneaton manager.

AndyPark said:

I'd expect a good 250 to make the trip down at the weekend, very decent for a 350 mile round trip.
Aye, I'll be with you's for Spennymoor a week on Monday like. Bringing my little 5 year old niece to the Southport home game next weekend too.

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Yeah Deffo!! Whatever the following let's get behind the lads and cheer them on to another victory.
Aye, that'll be good, we'll all be there a week on Monday giving our lungs a good work out. Nice one let's hope it's not too cold for little un". I'm fairly confident she'll enjoy the afternoon mate.

DarkSithLord said:

I heard Andy Morrelll was being muted as the new Nuneaton manager.

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Not going to be much use if he can’t shout instructions from the sidelines.

York Trust voting on McGill's proposals tonight.

https://www.thenonleaguefootballpap...orters-trust-members-to-vote-on-shareholding/

Article in the Hull Daily Mail says North Ferriby's budget is £76,000 this year which meant "Ferriby have barely stood a prayer". Does anyone know anything of the other budgets in the league? I have no idea about Brackley's, except that I think more money was put in under the previous manager, hence Kevin Wilkin's doing a good job with his resources. but frankly, I've no idea really about anyone's budget.

i'd say our budget is not very big.....anyone who ends up half decent leaves within months to another conf north club. due to wages.

the difference of course for Curzon to NFU is NFU have not known how to manage a small budget for a while due to their mass overspending ways so no doubt this season was a big culture shock.

My sister resides in Leamington and I just noticed their team is playing right now at Spennymoor Town, an 20:30 kick-off! I can't decide what is odder, the time of the week, the KO time, the fact that they have to travel all that way (400 miles round trip) to a team in what is supposed to be a regional division. Wouldn't it make more sense for Leamington to play in NL South, or are there simply too many southern teams there already?

Wonder how many hardy souls out of the Leamington support (assuming they have any fans) have made the long hike...

Lucky Bobble said:

Article in the Hull Daily Mail says North Ferriby's budget is £76,000 this year which meant "Ferriby have barely stood a prayer". Does anyone know anything of the other budgets in the league? I have no idea about Brackley's, except that I think more money was put in under the previous manager, hence Kevin Wilkin's doing a good job with his resources. but frankly, I've no idea really about anyone's budget.

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Our CEO came out and said at the start of the season, Martin Gray was spending around £325k on our squad. However, after he left and some of our larger earning players leaving and going out on loan this has come down to circa £285k. I'd imagine that's still keeping us in the top 8-9 budgets in the league. If I had to make a guess it would be banded into:

The full timers
York
Salford
Harrogate
Kidderminster

The larger Budget PT'ers
Brackley
Stockport
Spennymoor
Southport
Darlo

The rest

The smaller budgets
North Ferriby
Gainsborough
Leamington
FC United
Curzon Ashton

^When did Stockport go part-time? Is it likely to happen to York if they don't go up this season (or later seasons, given that Kidderminster are still full-time)?

LondonOrn said:

My sister resides in Leamington and I just noticed their team is playing right now at Spennymoor Town, an 20:30 kick-off! I can't decide what is odder, the time of the week, the KO time, the fact that they have to travel all that way (400 miles round trip) to a team in what is supposed to be a regional division. Wouldn't it make more sense for Leamington to play in NL South, or are there simply too many southern teams there already?

Wonder how many hardy souls out of the Leamington support (assuming they have any fans) have made the long hike...

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Spennymoor have a fixture pile up due to pitch issues and FA Trophy progress. The kick time is due to the fact Leamington were stuck in traffic on the way up.

16 Leamington fans in a crowd of 635 tonight

Thanks for the info, it's fascinating to hear what goes on in the lower reaches of the English football pyramid - in many ways, not that much different from what happens in the professional divisions.

My last paragraph was actually a bit tongue-in-cheek because given the famous case of Leigh taking just ONE fan to Dagenham and Histon having no fans at all at Wrexham, both of which occurred in a higher division, I'm amazed Leamington brought any away fans at all for such a long midweek trip, let alone that many! Show how passionate we are about football in this country compared to others, even Italy if this is anything to go by:

Lone Udinese football fan wins hearts in Italy

Thursday 22 March 2018 National League North Result

Att. 635 - Spennymoor Town 1 Leamington 0

Fairly sure Nuneaton are full time as well.

Spennymoor have secured the loan signing of 20-year-old defender Adam Curry from Hull City until the end of the season.

Harrier94 said:

Fairly sure Nuneaton are full time as well.

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Yeah i think they are full time.

We're full-time too now. It quietly happened mid-season when we were changing most of our squad.

Jordan Nicholson joins Brackley on loan from Barnet.

He's been dreadful for us - a bizarre deadline day signing who Westley inexplicably thought would be a good replacement for Jamal Campbell-Ryce. He's nowhere near L2 standard and totally unsuitable for a relegation battle, but it seems like he did well in his 18 months on loan at Nuneaton.

LondonOrn said:

^When did Stockport go part-time? Is it likely to happen to York if they don't go up this season (or later seasons, given that Kidderminster are still full-time)?

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We went part time during the summer we got relegated to this division and have been ever since.

We are supposedly moving to a full time / part time hybrid next season which will allow us to keep the better part time players who cannot commit to full time (Warburton and Hinchliffe to name but 2), but also develop other players in a full time environment. From memory, the likes of Adam Thomas and Darren Stephenson have already been putting in extra training sessions. Most of our signings (incl loan signings) and contract extensions in the latter part of this season have been on the basis of us moving them onto full time basis when next season. Like Rhys Turner, Jamie Stott, Paul Turnbull, Dan Cowan, Jimmy Ball, Sam Minihan etc.

York Trust voted against, so there are various pieces about it. Some suggesting a break-even model now (which they have no choice in really because that's effectively what they voted for).

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/sport/yo...ers_Trust_vote_against_Golden_Share_Proposal/

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/sport/yo...Brown_recommends_budget_cuts_and_price_hikes/

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/sport/yo...e_of_confidence_quest__feels_like_blackmail_/

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/sport/yo...ls_of_part_time_football_ahead_of_Trust_vote/

York have been put up for sale

https://www.yorkcityfootballclub.co.uk/news/chairmans-statement

Notice Gray again shoving his view of ‘sod the clubs future I want a budget’ approach.

Conf north is tough, the bankrolled sides make it no easier (and may get another in Warrington) but it’s not impossible.

Solihull, bracelet, Blythe, darling last season etc etc

7 places up for grabs, if likes of Stockport/York cannot get a top 7 even on their fate budget it’s just sheer bad management

Games this weekend

Telford vs Darlington
Chorley vs Boston
Curzon vs Tamworth
FCUM vs BPA
Harrogate vs Gainsborough
Kidderminster vs Salford
NFU vs Blyth
Southport vs Alfreton
Stockport vs Leamington

Our game is absolutely massive.......possibly a season deciding one even with 10 games left........momentum can be key and we have our two biggest games of season back-to-back..........well with Salford away chucked in between.

I expect Alfreton, Boston and Gainsborough to lose.....is then how Telford, FCUM do with easier home games and what us/Tamworth do with this 6 pointer

If we play like Tuesday it could be double figures, like lambs to slaughter.
Glad Im stick at work.

BigDaveCUFC said:

Conf north is tough, the bankrolled sides make it no easier (and may get another in Warrington) but it’s not impossible.

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Are Warrington bankrolled? Most of our mistakes in the transfer market or out of favour youngsters seem to spend some time there.

Darlington are looking at the possibility of an away game in pre-season to Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven in July.

Can't wait for that away day like.

I was led to believe that the NL North is weaker in quality than its southern counterpart, hence why promoted teams tend to fare more poorly, but is it so much the case now? Would be interesting to see how Torquay in the South get on compared to York and Stockport...

As for those two, given how poorly Stockport did in their first two seasons at this level I would say York are doing reasonably well, hopefully they won't be down here anything like as long. I am only speculating having only seen one Conference/NL North game (surprise packages Workington vs Fleetwood in an Easter Monday promotion tussle in 2010) but is the reason why York and Stockport have struggled to adapt not so much because opponents "raise" their game (they may be ex-league but that doesn't make particularly prestigious, as most of the NLN teams would encounter that kind of opposition pretty regularly during the early stages of the FA Cup proper) but because in addition to the culture shock, with the still more primitive facilitilies, poor pitches, lack of atmosphere, it's the high level of work rate? (I am not going to make the somewhat cliched assumption it's because of the league being more physical although that tends to be the pattern as you go down the leagues.) Of course just working hard doesn't totally compensate for lack of skill, but as we have seen with Burnley this season (and based on our encounter with them at Turf Moor) when a well-organized team works really hard, in terms of getting in your face, closing you down etc. it can be very difficult to make your more skilled players count. I would imagine that work rate is high in that division with very few if any shirkers because there are a lot of hungry players eager to prove themselves and move up the divisions, as well as older (ex-)pros who just want to play football as long as they can and clearly aren't there just for the money.