Non League Football 2017-18

[Tuna]

Hartlepool appoint ex Middlesbrough and Palace defender Craig Harrison as their new manager, he was previously manager of the all conquering welsh premier side TNS.

[Fox92]

Some big sides again. Got to be Tranmere's surely.

[SemperEadem]

Any chance of Hinckley playing back in the town?

[Dan LCFC]

Was having a bit of a thought about this... does anyone else think Loughborough under-achieve? Similar size to places like Burton, bigger than Yeovil, for example, but in my life I can't remember them even coming close to the Football League.

[boots60]

47 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

Was having a bit of a thought about this... does anyone else think Loughborough under-achieve? Similar size to places like Burton, bigger than Yeovil, for example, but in my life I can't remember them even coming close to the Football League.

Undoubtedly not in yours or any other Foxestalkers lives, Loughborough Athletic were proud but very unsuccessful members of the football league between 1895-1900.

 

[Dan LCFC]

3 hours ago, Worthington said:

Was thinking exactly this the other week Dan.

We have Barwell and Coalville not too far down the Pyramid and, at various times in the last 20 odd years have seen Hinckley, Enderby/Blaby and Shepshed all fielding teams within a league or two of the conference.

Loughborough though haven't produced a team of any note in my lifetime and it does seem odd. Maybe it's to do with the University concentrating on other sports or something to do with the transience of the population....Really hard to explain !

I hadn't ever really given it loads of thought but was talking to someone about non-league earlier and it does surprise me how bad Loughborough are. Is there a proper reason for them being so low on the pyramid? There are definitely clubs on there you'd fancy them to probably be above, for all I know it doesn't work like that.

 

Barwell on the flip side really over-achieve for me. Same size as Narborough (where I'm from, for some context) and they're a league below Stockport. Are they well backed?

[Harry - LCFC]

What other towns seem like they could have bigger clubs?

 

Lancaster has a population of 50,000 and their team is in the 7th tier. Morecambe is right next to them as well.

Halifax is another reasonably sized town, their ground is pretty impressive too. Wrexham similar too.

[Facecloth]

9 hours ago, Harry - LCFC said:

What other towns seem like they could have bigger clubs?

 

Lancaster has a population of 50,000 and their team is in the 7th tier. Morecambe is right next to them as well.

Halifax is another reasonably sized town, their ground is pretty impressive too. Wrexham similar too.

Halifax's stadium is a bit crammed into an industrial estate though.

 

Wakefield has a population of 75,000 and is classed as a city, yet has no team at all.

 

Also Basingstoke and Maidstone have lowly ranked teams with populations of over 100k.

Edited 29 May 2017 by Facecloth

[CosbehFox]

1 hour ago, Worthington said:

Think  Barwell have a couple of glazing companies behind them. Not sure if they're directly responsible for pumping £££ in, but someone is...

Loughborough, Cannock, Bracknell, Lowestoft....all similar sized towns with little historic impact in the game.

Guess it's just 'one of those things' !!!

Lowestoft have played at Conference North and South level. 

Cannock is basically Hednesford. 

 

Dudley doesn't really have a team of their own (although West Brom is next door) and neither do Wakefield. Durham are another town who have struggled to have a team of their own.  Lichfield and Warwick are two big towns who have non league clubs at the lowest steps.  

[MrsJohnMurphy]

Warrington population about 200,000

[Tuna]

2 hours ago, MrsJohnMurphy said:

Warrington population about 200,000

They like their rugby though. Same as Wakefield.

[CosbehFox]

On 2017-5-26 at 23:07, baker11 said:

Any chance of Hinckley playing back in the town?

Not a word about it. They have to start making some ground on that front or face numbers dropping. 

 

All provisional leagues out now down to Level 6. If St Andrews can keep their current squad, they have a decent chance of winning the UCL. 

 

The plans for a Midlands division at Step 3 and Step 4 are well on their way to being finished off. The plan is for Step 3 leagues to be 22 teams (currently 24) and Step 4 leagues to be 20 teams 

 

It means the following however for season 17/18:-

 

Only 1 team relegated from the Step 3 divisions 

The top 2 from Step 4 divisions go up and then 4 others via playoffs or other system. 

 

Only 1 team relegated from the Step 4 divisions (Good news for Loughborough Dynamo)

At the end of this season - 26 clubs to be promoted from Step 5 - 14 champions and the other 12 via inter-league playoffs or points per game. Of course this then knocks onto Step 6 making up numbers. 

 

Basically this is the season to finish in the top 2 or 3 of your division. Good news for the likes of Hinckley at Step 6 and lots of Midland clubs at Step 5 which currently have a bottleneck to gain progression. 

 

 

[Bilo]

I often wonder if there's ever going to be a Leicestershire club that could be the next non league club to see significant investment and become successful, such as Crawley, Fleetwood, Forest Green or Fylde.

 

It's an enormous county to have only one professional football club, and you'd fancy towns like Coalville or Loughborough to be able to sustain a Conference or even lower league level football club. I actually think the longer we are in the PL and relatively successful, the more likely such a scenario occurs as families get priced out and/or tickets for Leicester become harder to come by. 

[Bilo]

On 5/28/2017 at 18:35, boots60 said:

Undoubtedly not in yours or any other Foxestalkers lives, Loughborough Athletic were proud but very unsuccessful members of the football league between 1895-1900.

 

I think it was our original rivalry in the early days of Leicester Fosse as well. Strange to think that we could have a genuine Leicestershire derby had things gone differently for Loughborough.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Yeah Wakefield and perhaps Bath stick out as reasonably sized places with small clubs.

[boots60]

6 minutes ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

Yeah Wakefield and perhaps Bath stick out as reasonably sized places with small clubs.

Another 12 months & we can add coventry to the list ?

[CosbehFox]

4 hours ago, Bilo said:

I often wonder if there's ever going to be a Leicestershire club that could be the next non league club to see significant investment and become successful, such as Crawley, Fleetwood, Forest Green or Fylde.

 

It's an enormous county to have only one professional football club, and you'd fancy towns like Coalville or Loughborough to be able to sustain a Conference or even lower league level football club. I actually think the longer we are in the PL and relatively successful, the more likely such a scenario occurs as families get priced out and/or tickets for Leicester become harder to come by. 

It is a big county but there's only one significant sized city which means that city serves the main place of work etc. The next biggest town is Loughborough which is dominated by students and has very lit. All four of those clubs you've mentioned got lucky with their owners. 

 

It would have been interesting if Hinckley got up to the Conference when they lost that playoff final. They were spending more than they could have afforded it. But that one season would have saw a fair few decent away followings ; their set up was very similar to Solihull Moors. 

[Leicesterpool]

On 26/05/2017 at 23:07, baker11 said:

Any chance of Hinckley playing back in the town?

They need to move back, i think playing in the village of heather st johns is taking its toll on attendances. Quite a difficult place to get to.

[The People's Hero]

On 29/05/2017 at 07:50, Facecloth said:

Halifax's stadium is a bit crammed into an industrial estate though.

 

Wakefield has a population of 75,000 and is classed as a city, yet has no team at all.

 

Also Basingstoke and Maidstone have lowly ranked teams with populations of over 100k.

 

Maidstone are getting there, in fairness 

[Facecloth]

45 minutes ago, The People's Hero said:

 

Maidstone are getting there, in fairness 

What level they up to now? I knew they didn't have a league team, but didn't look what level they were at tbh.

[The People's Hero]

9 minutes ago, Facecloth said:

What level they up to now? I knew they didn't have a league team, but didn't look what level they were at tbh.

Conference. Spent money last year on upgrading stadium and pitch as per league rules and now hopefully can kick on. Often have higher attendances than a lot of league two teams. 

[Facecloth]

Just now, The People's Hero said:

Conference. Spent money last year on upgrading stadium and pitch as per league rules and now hopefully can kick on. Often have higher attendances than a lot of league two teams. 

Fingers crossed, always good to see different teams move up the leagues.

[The People's Hero]

4 minutes ago, Facecloth said:

Fingers crossed, always good to see different teams move up the leagues.

I believe they just made the difficult choice to go full time 

[CosbehFox]

On 2017-5-30 at 21:19, The People's Hero said:

I believe they just made the difficult choice to go full time 

What about the pitch staying 3G until promotion to the FL?

[Tuna]

Ilkeston have gone bust.

 

That's 7 years after formation after the original Ilkeston Town, yes you guessed it, went bust.

 

Maybe they can reform as Shambles FC?