I’ve had a few days off from watching games, a new job and the weather ending hopes last midweek and a birthday weekend away a rare Saturday from being pitchside.
Occasionally though I do like the odd breather within the season, not too often mind but it’s not like burn out or anything more a reflection and reset, too much of a break and the season will fly by.
So for a change this week as the month of December begins, I’m going to pick out a few teams who have excelled themselves so far this season but know the hard work has to continue to get the rewards.
The content below was originally paywalled.
Steps 1 and 2 get a good balance of coverage so we’ll dip in just under that and see where we go. There are clubs you pick up from coverage or generally getting themselves out there as well as those you know from the people involved.
As you know my new creation this season (www.thesnlf.co.uk) for Sussex Non League Football, I’ve taken more of an interest this year across 56 clubs. But that doesn’t mean my eyes are off the ball elsewhere either.
Although the North of England is as far away as it ever could be for me right on the Sussex coast the eyes stretch further. I’m always interested to see what the attendances look like compared with their Southern counterparts as well as those doing well or unexpectedly not so.
Robbie Savage has a record at Macclesfield you can’t argue with, one defeat in 19 and 50 points on the board by the end of November. Beyond them the Northern Premier League is a very tight division. Granted they were expected to walk their way to promotion you still have to get out there and do it.
The sorry state of Blyth Spartans has been well documented this season, the fact they are eight points from safety with over half the campaign to play suggests if they can get a recruitment policy going every chance to avoid a double dip relegation. It will take a lot of work but always got to be optimistic until it’s impossible haven’t you?
When you look through a lot of the divisions there are names in there you know from watching non-league football for close on 40 years that have hit the heights at times but probably feel a million miles away currently.
Just in the North there, Stafford Rangers, Stalybridge Celtic and Hednesford Town, clubs who have tasted the National League in it’s various guises like Macc have.
The Southern League is no different, Kettering Town, Havant & Waterlooville and Merthyr Town likewise all wanting to get back to where they feel they belong and can contain themselves too.
The Isthmian Premier, the likes of Dover Athletic and Dartford and underneath them Kingstonian, Margate, Grays Athletic. Clubs with big pedigrees and history behind them, but that counts for nothing season after season.
In amongst all these clubs are those I refer to as the new kids on the block. Clubs that have been around the same length of time as those mentioned above but for whatever reason have seen strides made in the last 10-20 years.
The ‘made to take promotion or demotion’ from Step 5 which is your county league levels into the realms of the real semi-professional leagues has seen plenty flourish.
Some have stability at their Step 4 or 3 levels, others are wanting to upset the apple cart and defy the odds. You look at clubs like Cray Valley PM, Ascot Utd, AFC Totton, Dunston, Sporting Khalsa to name but a few, it’s what makes our pyramid so great that clubs two promotions away from the Football League are now playing sides who would have been a single relegation away back to county league football.
I maintain the hardest steps in the pyramid now is the jump from Step 5 to 4 and Step 2 to 1, primarily because going from travelling around your county and a lot of local distance compared to that shifting to as many as three counties takes it’s toll, moving from semi-pro National League North and South into a predominantly full time National League top division is extremely tough, surviving is the best most can hope for.
We’re in an age now where non-league can set its survival and success blueprint in stone almost, the greed through the top levels of the game will never stop by the looks of things and talk of a European Super League is never far away.
Attendances keep rising, more and more people are understanding that these levels are what football used to be like, the personal connection, great foot and drink, accessible players and managers and good people wanting to enjoy their Saturday afternoon or Tuesday evening without being lumped with another price increase, some mid-season, never change Premier League because we’re here to scoop up and entertain those left behind.
