The Monday Moment returns today and for the first time on www.footballwriting.com getting its own relaunch and bringing you the best writing around the game below the Football League.
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Join me as I look back at the last seven days of non-league football and pick out the stories you might have missed from across the pyramid despite the wet weather once again intervening:
The Isuzu FA Vase. The hardest competition to win in my opinion, why? Because if you check out the history of the competition very few clubs return to Wembley the following year, let alone winning it two years in a row. Since its inception in 1974 only seven sides have made back to back finals and only four teams have won consecutively.
The eight (and a few more with last week’s postponements) are now just two wins away from playing under the arch in May as part of Non League Finals Day, and whilst a fair few are in the thick of title and play-off races, the Wembley talk has to be shelved at times for the bread and butter.
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Have you heard of Non League HQ? No? Well if you love a stat or simply keeping up with non-league across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Women’s game from the top to the lower reaches then you’ll be in the right place.
Set up by Matt Cooke and Andy Forward these guys keep a lid on everything and this season a regular one page feature in the Non League Paper, top scorers, hat-trick hero’s, you name it they keep it updated. Pop along to www.nonleaguehq.com where they’ve now incorporated the excellent Peter Miller’s projection of league allocations for next season.
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When is the best time to pick up some form? Answer, well any time really is good but when the business end is in sight timing the run is extremely important.
It’s taken a little while for Billericay Town to spark into life under Danny Scopes but quietly the Essex outfit moved into the Isthmian Premier Division play-off places at the weekend as the county along with Kent dominate the top seven.
Ricay appointed Scopes in early September, after some time out from a fantastic spell at Aveley, and following Gary McCann is no easy task but with Head of Recruitment Adam Drew arriving from Chelmsford the pair have overhauled the squad and now settling down they’ve found the consistency so many are lacking in that division to make an impact.
The story of that league is win two games and move up six or seven places, lose two games and drop the same amount, avoid that scenario and you’re in the thick of the promotion race.
The disparity of games played also doesn’t help, one or two sides should they win all their games in hand will be in the mix but as per the point above its finding a team that can do that, however it does make for great viewing if you’re not attached to any of the 22 teams!
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Enjoy the next seven days of football wherever your team is heading for.
