National League Playoffs

So now the National League Season is over we have some more National League matches to play.

In the old days the league was the league and that determined final positions.

These days if you finish 7th you are in with a chance of promotion.

My team Eastleigh finished in 7th.

Assuming they are going to be promoted they have to :

1) Beat Wrexham.

2) Beat Salford City in the semi-final.

3) Beat the other semi-final winner in the final.

The second semi-final is between Solihull Moors and AFC Fylde or Harrogate Town.

The odds are against it but I will be following with interest.

It starts on Thursday.

Season End Approaches

Saturday morning and it is pouring with rain so I may as well blog as go for a walk.

How has the season gone and where are my picks at the end of the long and gruelling challenge?


ARSENAL (1)

Losing at home to Crystal Palace (unforgiveable) and losing away to Wolverhampton Wanderers (Half Expected) has left that possible third place out of our own hands. This team seems full of players who are happy to pick up a fortune and not so keen to battle in the trenches. Unai Emery needs to start replacing them this summer and I hope he is given the budget to do so.

I would like us to finish fourth because Chelsea have to play Manchester United but I have a feeling that we will finish fifth and that may prove beneficial as we have no chance of winning the Champions League but the Europa League is perfectly achievable.


BRENTFORD (2)

Brentford have fallen victim to the Bolton Blues as Bolton are on strike. The Bolton v. Brentford fixture has been cancelled or postponed so the lads can have a rest this weekend. With Bolton in financial crisis the match may never take place so I am glad that the mid table position means that whatever happens there is no major impact on the club.

Brentford are firmly established as a Championship Club and with a new stadium being built are on the verge of great things (we hope). I think my Championship choice this season will be remain my Championship side next season.


SOUTHEND UNITED (3)

Southend are flirting with relegation at the moment so they may drop off my list at the end of the season if they do eventually go down. Southend and Plymouth are on 47 points, one above the next two clubs. AFC Wimbledon and Scunthorpe United are on 46 points and are set to be relegated if they do not win at least one of their last two matches. Walsall need to win at least one and Bradford City are already down.

Fixtures away to Rochdale and home to Sunderland suggest that the away fixture is our best chance as Sunderland are in the playoff places and will be fighting to the end of the final match.


EXETER CITY (4)

Exeter are hanging on in the playoff positions and currently sit 7th in the table. The top six are guaranteed their playoff or promotion places but we have to look behind us to Colchester, Carlisle, Stevenage and Newport County. These four are on 64 points with Exeter on 66 points.

The remaining fixtures are Oldham Athletic at home and Forest Green Rovers away. The home match is the best chance of three points but that playoff place will probably require at least a point against Forest Green.


EASTLEIGH (5)

Eastleigh are safely into the playoffs having made 7th place assured. If Harrogate lose then 6th place is possible but we would need to beat Boreham Wood away to obtain that lofty level. Stranger things have happened but promotion from 7th place is perfectly possible and you have to use whatever system is in operation and make the most of it.

"I would love it if" (Kevin Keegan ... and it never happened) Salford were beaten by Eastleigh in the playoff final. That would be a major high for me following a long season where Eastleigh dropped off for a while but have returned to challenge at the end of the season.


WESTON-SUPER-MARE (6)

Mostly positive news up until now but here it stops. Weston have been relegated from the National League South and will be playing in the Southern League next season. The final fixture is at home to Dulwich Hamlet.


TIVERTON TOWN (7)

Tiverton have gone from challenging for promotion to flirting with relegation. This is highly unlikely as in order to go down four teams below us would have to win. Could Basingstoke, Gosport, Hendon and Walton Casuals all win? If that happens and Tiverton lose at home to Beaconsfield Town then the club would be relegated but that would require a five match accumulator to come in and how often does that happen?

I think Tiverton are safe in the division for another season.


BARNSTAPLE TOWN (8)

Barnstaple are the second of my selections to be definitely relegated. When I say definitely I have seen so many reprieves and transfers and fiddles as clubs go out of business that anything could happen but in the normal course of events I would expect to see Barnstaple in the Western League next season.


BUCKLAND ATHLETIC (9)

My current Western League pick are at home to Shepton Mallet today but are safely in the middle of the table and will be back in the Western League next season.


EXMOUTH TOWN (10)

The final game of the season for Exmouth is an important one and I will try and find out the result as soon as possible after the match. Tavistock are on the same number of points at the top of the table with a better goal difference.

Exmouth are away to Bodmin and need to win to give themselves the best chance of taking the South West Peninsula League title. Tavistock are away to Plymouth Argyle. This is the reserve team but they have access to first team players and I hope one or two first teamers are coming back from injury as that would make Plymouth stronger and make the Tavistock task that much tougher.

Good luck Exmouth but at least I would not have to change my selection if you remain in this league.


ELMORE EAGLES (11)

Elmore are away to Bovey Tracey. Bovey Tracey are second in the table with Elmore in fifth place. It looks like Stoke Gabriel will be the team moving up to the Premier Division from Division One East. The restructuring proposals in the Non League Paper suggest that the East and West Divisions will be kept but the Premier Division will be disbanded. I hope the Football Association are not as stupid as I have them down as but they have screwed up football all over the country in the past.

The F.A have spoken and it means F.A.

I have watched the F.A. try and force their plan on local clubs year after year and they usually end up upsetting everyone without necessarily improving the overall situation.

The Midlands area has undergone myriad changes over the years although I have not gone back to read about how many were F.A. plans and how many were local leagues vying to become lead dog as the pyramid became "a thing" and leagues wanted to be as high up the ladder as they could be.

I read in this week's Non League Paper that the South West Peninsula League will have two teams promoted from each of its two divisions. The South West Peninsula League has THREE divisions and there was no explanation of what will happen to the Premier Division. I hope the F.A. know but I could not find it in the report.

If, as is implied, the East and West Divisions are regraded category 6 then the Premier Division must be regraded Level 5. Will it operate alongside the Western League? "Two leagues in the South West" suggests perhaps but in the pictures it looks like the two subsidiary divisions only so the Premier Division just disappears.

The current league works well in the area and few teams are promoted to the Western League. If the F.A. impose promotion then club after club will go bankrupt travelling to Bristol every other weekend. I spoke to the Club Chairman of Elmore before they moved from the Western to the South West Peninsula League .... before they went bankrupt and the reserves became the first team. They were not happy having to travel all the way to Bristol every other week.

The F.A. of course do not care. They just want a simple pyramid that is easy to administer and that means 2-4-8-16 even though the country is geographically a triangle and 3-9-27 would allow a lot more teams access to the pyramid as well as having fewer lateral moves as promotion and relegation would iron out a lot of the fiddling necessary to keep leagues roughly equal in size.

I also see that the Football League has had undue influence in standardising the divisions at 24 teams when a few years back the trend was down to 22 or 20 teams in a division. I think 20 teams allows for bad weather interruptions and other competitions can fill the weeks when no matches are scheduled.

I would add the text straight from the paper but it made no sense when I read it. The words seem designed to be flexible and flaky so that after the event the F.A. can say that whatever happens is actually what they meant. The pictures show areas for each league but they are not touching so there is plenty of room for fudging when it comes to allocations.

I have made the decision to let it all happen and then see how it turns out. After all, what choice do I have? The Pyramid is changing and it will never be the same. There will be winners and losers as there always are but I hope football in the South West is not bankrupted out of existence.

Half Time 6th April

The scorelines look to favour my teams at half time.

What could possibly go wrong in the second half?

Arsenal take on Everton on Sunday.

Brentford 2 Derby 2

Fleetwood 0 Southend 1

Cheltenham 0 Exeter 1

AFC Fylde 1 Eastleigh 2

Weston-super-Mare 3 Dartford 0

So at this point four wins and a draw with Weston performing way above bottom of the league.

Now this is where it all starts to go wrong ...

Basingstoke 2 Tiverton 0

Evesham 1 Barnstaple 0

Buckland 1 Brislington 1

Torpoint 0 Exmouth 1

One win, a draw and two defeats in the last four.

Roll on the Second Half.