2019/20 National League North

[DarkSithLord]

Big signing for York City as they sign experienced defender Steve McNulty

 

[Minstermen central]

Big signing for York City as they sign experienced defender Steve McNulty

For once will enjoy that nasty bastard Styche being bullied.

 

[Dean]

Brilliant signing surprised he’s dropped down below national league but what a ruthless winner. Will drag everyone around up to a better standard and will no doubt secure another promotion. You’ll love him!

 

[bristolbull]

another one in..jordan nicholson,hopefully will be able to boost our woeful goals record from last season...what can we expect darlo fans?

 

[AndyPark]

He’s a good player on his day, ended up as our top scorer.
Very lightweight and will bottle challenges. But he’s a good player on his day.

Hell of a commute for him though, Peterborough to Hereford...

 

[#Beebot]

another one in..jordan nicholson,hopefully will be able to boost our woeful goals record from last season...what can we expect darlo fans?

One of the single worst players I've seen in a Barnet shirt, but consistently decent at NL North level with Nuneaton and Darlington.

 

[Lucky Bobble]

One of the single worst players I've seen in a Barnet shirt, but consistently decent at NL North level with Nuneaton and Darlington.

We had him on loan and didn't want to keep him. Brackley would be a natural club for him geographically, but too insubstantial to make an impact in games.

 

[#Beebot]

We had him on loan and didn't want to keep him. Brackley would be a natural club for him geographically, but too insubstantial to make an impact in games.

In his eight games for us he just kept falling over every time an opposing player got within 5 yards of him. I have no idea what Westley saw in him to sign him twice and Allen shipped him straight out on loan to you guys as soon as he came in.

 

[The Lone Ranger]

Welcome to the forum. Yes all released on 3rd July 1pm

Cheers, thanks

 

[Minstermen central]

Watson has said we are not signing anyone else,wanted team all sorted for start of training Monday.
Very happy with the 5 new signings.
Bond,McNalty and mc Laughlin experienced,McGuire 27years old and proven goal scorer,Jameson similar age and experience in goal.Plus Blyth young player of year Green.

For me any team wanting to league will have to finish above Spennymoor,signed well and kept last years team closely followed by Alty.
Boston & Telford are dark horses.
Chester and Brackley always do well.
Hereford have signed well but Styche will probably have a meltdown at some point.

Not sure what’s happening at kiddy they seem to be weaker at the moment,

 

[Lucky Bobble]

Anyone know anything about our new defender Thierry Audel?

 

[Harrier94]

We've signed Alex Prosser after his release from Villa, looks like he'll be a decent squad player in midfield.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Anyone know anything about our new defender Thierry Audel?

Commanding defender, but was a little inconsistent with us (probably due to injuries). If he can stay fit, I'm sure he'll be a success at that level.

 

[Lucky Bobble]

We've signed Alex Prosser after his release from Villa, looks like he'll be a decent squad player in midfield.

Barely played for us when on loan, but looked decent when he did.

 

[CFC4LIFE]

Very impressed with York's recruitment this season. Think they will challenge along with spenny and alty for the title.

 

[Harrier94]

Barely played for us when on loan, but looked decent when he did.

He sounds decent. We lacked players at cm last year so another squad player is always welcome

 

[Darlo On Tour]

another one in..jordan nicholson,hopefully will be able to boost our woeful goals record from last season...what can we expect darlo fans?

Very featherweight Jordan is he tends to drift in and out of games, then again somehow has a knack of chipping in with some stunning goals.

 

[Darlo On Tour]

Anyone know anything about our new defender Thierry Audel?

Yeah he's French

 

[Lucky Bobble]

Perhaps I should have said 'anyone know anything useful...'!

Sad to hear others so positive about Spennymore, York, Altrincham etc.

I can't argue with them, but our recruitment looks a bit half-hearted again comparatively, one step forward, one back, and still pencil thin squad depth.

Another top 7 finish, but can't see us challenging for first currently, and having seen us fail in 5 playoffs, I've no faith we'll ever go up that way.

Also worried they'll be such a focus on the rebuild, there's a ready made excuse lined up already...

 

[Darlo On Tour]

Watson has said we are not signing anyone else,wanted team all sorted for start of training Monday.
Very happy with the 5 new signings.
Bond,McNalty and mc Laughlin experienced,McGuire 27years old and proven goal scorer,Jameson similar age and experience in goal.Plus Blyth young player of year Green.

For me any team wanting to league will have to finish above Spennymoor,signed well and kept last years team closely followed by Alty.
Boston & Telford are dark horses.
Chester and Brackley always do well.
Hereford have signed well but Styche will probably have a meltdown at some point.

Not sure what’s happening at kiddy they seem to be weaker at the moment,

I wouldn't be so sure about Jameson? Not unless he's vastly improved under the guidance of our new manager Alun Armstrong. He was a fairly decent shot stopper when he was with us.
I'll never forget his howler at Stockport. Hopefully he's improved with age and time.

 

[Darlo On Tour]

Perhaps I should have said 'anyone know anything useful...'!

Sad to hear others so positive about Spennymore, York, Altrincham etc.

I can't argue with them, but our recruitment looks a bit half-hearted again comparatively, one step forward, one back, and still pencil thin squad depth.

Another top 7 finish, but can't see us challenging for first currently, and having seen us fail in 5 playoffs, I've no faith we'll ever go up that way.

Also worried they'll be such a focus on the rebuild, there's a ready made excuse lined up already...

One thing about Brackley they'll always be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.

As for Spenn£ they've got Brad's wishing well, throw a coin in it and a player magically appears.
Unsure about the other two's cheque books. Time will tell on who's done some decent summer recruitment player-wise as the season develops.

 

[Minstermen central]

I wouldn't be so sure about Jameson? Not unless he's vastly improved under the guidance of our new manager Alun Armstrong. He was a fairly decent shot stopper when he was with us.
I'll never forget his howler at Stockport. Hopefully he's improved with age and time.

Armstrong was desperate to sign him for you,so that must be a good sign.
Whitley was excellent end of season when he got his chance so not sure who will get the shirt anyway.
For once looking forward to the season to start ,can’t you compete with Spennymoor and stop them from getting all the good local talent.

 

[Quakerz]

Armstrong was desperate to sign him for you,so that must be a good sign.
Whitley was excellent end of season when he got his chance so not sure who will get the shirt anyway.
For once looking forward to the season to start ,can’t you compete with Spennymoor and stop them from getting all the good local talent.

Jameson was an excellent keeper for us in the Evostik, but half of our fan base have short memories about that.

In the NLN he was more than competent, but had a string of bloopers which shot his confidence. It didn't help that half of our clueless fan base didn't rate him because of this, but I maintain that despite said shot confidence and bloopers he was still a decent NLN keeper even then.

He clearly seems to have flourished at Blyth, so if he's improved from being an already decent keeper then York have nothing to worry about.

 

[Quakerz]

Armstrong was desperate to sign him for you,so that must be a good sign.
Whitley was excellent end of season when he got his chance so not sure who will get the shirt anyway.
For once looking forward to the season to start ,can’t you compete with Spennymoor and stop them from getting all the good local talent.

We can't get near the sorts of packages that they can offer, even though we offer "alright" money ourselves

 

[Quakerz]

Watson has said we are not signing anyone else,wanted team all sorted for start of training Monday.
Very happy with the 5 new signings.
Bond,McNalty and mc Laughlin experienced,McGuire 27years old and proven goal scorer,Jameson similar age and experience in goal.Plus Blyth young player of year Green.

For me any team wanting to league will have to finish above Spennymoor,signed well and kept last years team closely followed by Alty.
Boston & Telford are dark horses.
Chester and Brackley always do well.
Hereford have signed well but Styche will probably have a meltdown at some point.

Not sure what’s happening at kiddy they seem to be weaker at the moment,

I think York are the stand out candidates for the title. Not only have they signed extremely, extremely well but they now have a top notch manager to go with it. They're full time and I expect them to smash this league like it hasn't been smashed for years. I just can't see how they can be stopped - unless of course they manage to stop themselves by pressing the famous YCFC self destruct button. But on paper - wow.

Altrincham and Spendy will of course be very good and will push York, but for me York will finish top. A pretty obvious top 3 if you ask me.

Boston have made some good signings but they always seem to every year. Telford should be strong. Agree about Brackley and Chester - there's potentially the top 7.

Hereford have made good signings but they need to improve a lot so maybe this is one year too early, however they should push at the play offs. I expect Southport and Kiddy to be better - they're both full time as well.

It's going to be really difficult to break into the top 10 for most of the other clubs in this league but there is always a surprise package. Maybe it can be Darlo, maybe BPA again (they always get written off every pre season, because they always seem to have their funding cut, but it always magically re-appears)

 

[Quakerz]

Jesus I forgot full time Gateshead as well. Although they've sold "nearly 100 season tickets" it looks like they're bankrolled again.

 

[Minstermen central]

I think York are the stand out candidates for the title. Not only have they signed extremely, extremely well but they now have a top notch manager to go with it. They're full time and I expect them to smash this league like it hasn't been smashed for years. I just can't see how they can be stopped - unless of course they manage to stop themselves by pressing the famous YCFC self destruct button. But on paper - wow.

Altrincham and Spendy will of course be very good and will push York, but for me York will finish top. A pretty obvious top 3 if you ask me.

Boston have made some good signings but they always seem to every year. Telford should be strong. Agree about Brackley and Chester - there's potentially the top 7.

Hereford have made good signings but they need to improve a lot so maybe this is one year too early, however they should push at the play offs. I expect Southport and Kiddy to be better - they're both full time as well.

It's going to be really difficult to break into the top 10 for most of the other clubs in this league but there is always a surprise package. Maybe it can be Darlo, maybe BPA again (they always get written off every pre season, because they always seem to have their funding cut, but it always magically re-appears)

Darlo will do better,got a good manager.Rivers & Atkinson are very good for this league.Dont think we have helped cause he wanted players we signed.
In an ideal world you could do with us and spendymore going up to help you get back to where you belong.
What has happened to Ainge

 

[Pogogacy]

I think York are the stand out candidates for the title. Not only have they signed extremely, extremely well but they now have a top notch manager to go with it. They're full time and I expect them to smash this league like it hasn't been smashed for years. I just can't see how they can be stopped - unless of course they manage to stop themselves by pressing the famous YCFC self destruct button. But on paper - wow.

Altrincham and Spendy will of course be very good and will push York, but for me York will finish top. A pretty obvious top 3 if you ask me.

I very much hope you're right of course, but for the moment my attitude is one of cautious optimism rather than "we're going to smash this tinpot league".

Although I'm very happy with the quality of signings Watson has made, there are still a couple of weaknesses I see with the squad:

1) Lack of balance in defence. McNulty and Newton are going to be at the heart of the defence next season. Both are very solid but quite old and slow. I know this is less of an issue at NLN because teams play so direct and strength and organisation are more important attributes in defenders than pace at this level. Still, If we're going to play 3 at the back (which Watson seems to favour) I would ideally like a quicker, younger more mobile centre back to play alongside them. Our other options for centre back are Joe Tait or Tom Allan and, whilst they're perfectly competent NLN defenders, I'm not convinced either are really good enough for a title winning side.

2) Lack of balance in midfield. Our first choice midfield three is going to be Andy Bond, Paddy McLaughlin and Kieran Green. I think they're all excellent players for this level, but they're also all rather attack minded. This might not be so much of a problem if they're disciplined enough to keep their shape and not all bomb forward at the same time, but I would ideally sacrifice one of them for a more defensive minded midfielder if possible.

Perhaps I'm overthinking things and overestimating the quality of this league. It might turn out that these weaknesses I've identified aren't actually all that important at this level and we go on to storm the title regardless as you predict. As you say, our squad is very strong on paper. But then again Wes York, David Ferguson, Adam Bartlett and Jake Wright all looked like class signings on paper too, but none of them have really delivered so far. We seem to have a habit of turning good players bad and I think it's because the entire culture of the club is rotten from the top down and will continue to be until Jason McGill and his merry band of sycophants leave.

It's possible that this season we may be successful on the pitch despite the off-pitch shambles, and I think we've got characters with the kind of drive, focus and winning mentality (both in the playing squad and management) to make that happen now, but we'll see soon enough I guess. Should be an interesting season.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Always seen Andy Bond as a more defensive-minded midfielder - certainly whenever he's played us in recent years. In fact, last two times I've seen him, he played right back for Fylde.

 

[Pogogacy]

Always seen Andy Bond as a more defensive-minded midfielder - certainly whenever he's played us in recent years. In fact, last two times I've seen him, he played right back for Fylde.

Their second top scorer last season though wasn't he? Seems to be described as an attacking midfielder by Watson too.

In any event I'm happy that both of our new midfield recruits (Bond and Green) have been described as tough tackling, combative and hard-working. Those are qualities that we've desperately lacked in midfield for years.