You can’t take your eyes off a title race. Whether you’re looking at the top end of non-league or it’s trying to break out of the County Leagues and into the next echelons of football.
Just when you think one team has the edge they get pulled back in and just when you think things start to look settled for others, those twists and turns that always materialise spring their ugly heads and muddy the waters.
Football is about being competitive, as is any sport. Once it loses that edge then it becomes repetitive, predictable, and boring to watch because the outcome is going to be the same in 99 out of 100 instances.
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It’s why so many are turning away from the professional levels, if your club doesn’t have money then it’s going to be there to make up the numbers, while the ambition might be there to break that, the reality is it’s a 1% chance to do it consistently.
Money is there in non-league football as well, but not to the extent of those plying their Premier and Football League trade. Whilst it seems to provide much more success the higher you go; it doesn’t always translate into the same much lower down.
A three horse race in the National League until just recently, but while Barnet might be beginning to surge clear both York City and Forest Green Rovers are not yet out of it.
There is ground to make up, but it’s not impossible to do so, those mentioned twists and turns have a habit of turning up when you least want them to.
They constantly appear in both the National League South and North where seemingly no one wants to claim the title outright. Ahead of midweek games this week, the tables tell us there are as many as seven clubs in the mix down South and around five in the North who can steal a march on each other.
While it’s a nightmare for those watching closely, everyone else will be hoping for as much drama as they can all deliver in the next six weeks, bookmakers unsure which twist or turn will have the most impact.
The full time and hybrid clubs are not all having it their own way at both ends of the country. Brackley Town and Curzon Ashton are ensuring that those with daily interaction with their players aren’t pulling clear.
Most have ten more games left to play, the margin for error diminishes by the week if they all keep winning, but some will face off against each other so either way points have to be dropped.
The South is no different, Worthing are leading a pack of full time and hybrid teams, but all are within close quarters. Their Easter weekend playing fellow challengers Dorking Wanderers and Eastbourne Borough could be the pivotal games although they fall just a week before the final games.
However, judging by the way these sides are also taking points off each other it could well come down to that weekend to decide where the title will be going.
Also down in the south, the progress of Horsham FC keeps on ticking over every year. A consistent improvement on placement season after season they look set to continue that this year, but they are also not yet out of the title race.
A loss at the weekend to Wingate & Finchley was a missed opportunity with the only two sides above them also losing, and the two chasing them both winning. These are the fine margins, this time of the season where that margin for error slims out dramatically.
With only eight fixtures left to play for most of the teams it needs a run of form at the right time, especially when there are three sides who believe they still have a shot at making the play-offs.
But this is everything you want from football, drama, action, decisive moments, maybe not if you’re a fan of any side at the top end or indeed the bottom end.
On the whole the game needs this kind of adrenaline rush to keep the game fresh and current, that way it will entice more to forgo the overpriced and predictable Premier League and find their way to a local team whose identity hasn’t been sold to the money nor the TV stations, strap in for the last few weeks, plenty is going down to the wire.
