footballwriting.co.uk is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The National League play-offs. Where exactly do you start?!?!? This past week it’s really blown up off the pitch when on it the action has really delivered in abundance.
Let’s start with the good stuff, well for Oldham and Southend Utd fans it is, not so much for York City and Forest Green Rovers. The former of course are heading to Wembley in just under a week’s time whilst the latter will feel aggrieved it’s not them having finished second and third behind champions Barnet and points miles in front of the others.
The Latics and Shrimpers were well worth their wins and a trip to the capital but there is a lot behind these wins that don’t sit right with a lot of people and not just for the fans of the losing clubs but also those Wembley bound, so grab a subscription via the offer below and see what you think about the in’s and out’s of what can only be described as a ‘bury your heads in the sand’ moment.
The content below was originally paywalled.
The dates of these games have caused the first murmurings of problems and not just in the top division. The North and South divisions completed their eliminators and semi finals in relatively good time but had to wait a week to play the finals due to Non League Finals Day interrupting in the middle.
Long in the past it seems cup finals were the curtain dropper to the end of the season at any level. Whilst none of the sides involved were in the FA Trophy Final surely these games could have been moved to the Saturday before for the Step 2 sides instead of having the week long wait?
It’s not as if a neutral stadium had been arranged for either game so be sensible and just get the games played in a timely manner. Back to the National League itself now.
The first issue has been the date set for the final, Sunday 1st June. Why on earth are non-league clubs still playing in June? It’s plain ridiculous and all for having a final at Wembley.
Now I fully appreciate we would all love to see our sides play at Wembley and the players would love to play there too, but when told this was the only date available the league SHOULD have cut their losses at the time and found another stadium for use much earlier in May before they booked Wembley.
I know it’s a showpiece occasion and somewhere might cost more but the though process around this from Mark Ives has been staggering. Last season the eliminators were three days after the end of the season with the semi-finals three days further on, the final then not long after.
This season, well! When I looked at the dates when they were announced I was willing Barnet to the title even more strongly than I already was. The campaign finished on Monday 5th May, the eliminators didn’t take place until 14th and 15th May followed by the semi-finals on 20th and 21st May.
The gaps between these games are just incredible! Nine days between the final game of the season and the first eliminator, then a further six days to the first semi-final and that winner waiting another 12 days to play the final.
If as a player you’ve managed to stay sharp and motivated, a massive well done! At a time when they see other players heading off on holiday, they were putting in the hard yards but waiting and constantly waiting for a game to play.
Take York and Forest Green players, finish on the 5th May but don’t play until 20th May, two weeks of solid prep and training but lacking a match to stay fit in that period, it’s pretty ridiculous to ask them to do so, the reason I believe why both went out at the semi-final stage.
Oldham and Southend had at least played once days earlier, good victories that offered those watching some excellent excitement as play-off’s do but in my opinion to the complete disadvantage of sides who should have had more advantage, cock up yet again from Mark Ives, all for the want to play a Wembley final.
And then to the fiasco that’s engulfed the level since both teams won the right to play at Wembley, the tickets. It’s been a painful week for the supporters and officials of both clubs since reaching the final.
Only then did it transpire Wembley Park tube station is shut this coming weekend for engineering works by TFL. A reduced capacity was announced capping it at some 35,000 between the two clubs with both sides expected to fill out around 60,000 between them.
Much has been levelled at the National League and a lot of it rightly so. That reduced capacity would have fitted for some of the clubs within the division, seemingly banked upon by the league to not cause an issue.
Now, while they might have not had an inkling of these works before booking the stadium they have known since and just sat on the information, classic board level of burying your head in the sand and hope it’s all gone away by the time they re-emerge.
Not surprisingly, the press officer Tom Scott has had the full barrels of it all whilst the rest of them play dumb and wait for Sunday to all blow over. There has been a slight increase in numbers which now sits at 43,000 but it’s still not enough for these two clubs.
Whether the numbers can increase further before Sunday remains to be seen, but whatever happens it’s left quite the stain on the top level of non-league football. Questions should be asked of the board at the summer AGM of how it descended into this farce.
Ives would be a convenient scapegoat for the others being he’s already out of a job; very handy it would seem. It’s something that won’t be forgotten about either so with the National League desperate for 3 up, 3 down they might want to think about their strategy going forward.
