The Non - League thread

[Royalist]

AFC Totton talking about dropping leagues and unpaid players too and i'm sure a few more sugar daddies out there might get bored.

I've not got the energy to pretend to be surprised any more!

[Four Of Clubs]

OK - can't say I've looked at the eastern end of NL round here - just seen Thurrock being mentioned on NLM as a big sticking point in sorting out promotion issues post-Play Offs.

Further to what I've written above, seems as if Croydon could be going to the Kent league from CCL along with Rye and Crowborough and Ash Utd may NOT be down - all part of the STEP05 leagues desperation to keep their numbers to a 20 club minimum - even a late rumour abounding that Bracknell may be 'invited' to take a place in the Hellenic Premier after finishing 4th in Div One.

UPDATE Appears the Robins elevation is at the expense of Rayners Lane - who are NOT taking promotion from Div One East - sounds like more financial troubles at the root cause - Manager has also just walked.

[Christof]

Neil Baker and Jon Underwood appointed as joint first team managers at Slough today. Previously at Godalming Town, play decent football, happy with that.

[Terminal Boardom]

I am not surprised that Keith Scott was avoided. Too many local clubs know what he is like.

[Royalist]

I'm surprised some Slough fans wanted him!

How does a joint manager team work? Is it just because they cannot commit to the job all the time or equal 'leadership'?

[AthleticoSpizz]

37 y.o. Glenn Little released from Wrexham

[Barry the bird boggler]

UPDATE Appears the Robins elevation is at the expense of Rayners Lane - who are NOT taking promotion from Div One East - sounds like more financial troubles at the root cause - Manager has also just walked.

Bracknell promoted, Headington, Rayners and Woodley were the 3 teams above them in the league and all fail ground grading for the Premier or don't want promotion.

The Hellenic Premier has to have 20 teams next season to retain its Step 5 Status so Bracknell offered final place.

All needs to be rubber stamped at the AGM later this month of course.

Bracknell believe they can put finances together to at least be reasonable at Step 5

Incredible with the amount of technical businesses in Bracknell that they struggle to get sponsorship deals year on year. But then I suppose it's all a catch-22 at that level for all clubs....

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Incredible with the amount of technical businesses in Bracknell that they struggle to get sponsorship deals year on year. But then I suppose it's all a catch-22 at that level for all clubs....

without being unduly unkind, why would any business want to be associated with that shower of shit?

The club's been a laughing stock for a decade, with possibly the worst results in that period of any team in the entire first 7 or 8 steps of the pyramid. They are only a few northern accents and a full set of shorts away from being a living embodiment of Barnstoneworth United.

[Royalist]

Considering the last few times i went they had pretty much just friends and family watching bar a literal handful of hardcore fans there is no reason anyone would gain anything by sponsoring them! Am surprised so many Non league clubs get any at all to be honest!

[Terminal Boardom]

I am really looking forward to next season when I can get back to watching Windsor and catch up with everyone at Stag Meadow and elsewhere in the CCL

[Royal Rother]

Good news. Didn't know you were coming back! When's that? To stay?

[Huckleberry Hound]

Neil Baker and Jon Underwood appointed as joint first team managers at Slough today. Previously at Godalming Town, play decent football, happy with that.

I used to watch Unders play for Staines Town. Good defender iirc.

[Royalist]

Was told there was something about MyFC being linked to Slough on their forum. Just went on and cannot find it...

Just gets worse for Slough!

[Royal Rother]

Saw it myself this morning on their forum.

Supporters were very doubtful their Chairman would entertain the idea but report was that their badge was shown on the MyFC website next to an article saying they had received contact from a number of clubs...

Doesn't seem to be there now either.

[Four Of Clubs]

### Can someone do the honours if needs be and rename the title please? I've done it for this particular post but can't remember how its been arranged in the past ###

In the interests of keeping our ever-popular thread on page one ..... and the owing to the fact that I've :-

a) finally managed to throw my youngest off of WoW or Memrise or iPlayer or whatever he's been doing on this machine -
b) produced a 'summary' of moves and shakes pre-13-14 NL season.

I think most of these are confirmed now but there are still a few 'teetering on the brink' scenarios such as -
AFC Totton: possibly due to go under which might f£ck up bits of the the Southern League;
Thurrock ongoing appeal against a points deduction - which would impact relegation positions in the Ryman Isthmian but probably only reprieve Carshalton Athletic?

Anyway --- I'd settle down with a large Nescafe/Ovaltine/Guinness/Bailey's ... or whatever sustains you ... as there's a lot to get through and none but the most staunchly Anorak-clad is likely to make it through to the end without artificial assistance!

Local 'local' sides in BOLD as is the convention.... and one's I found noteworthy in RED

Pre-Season 13-14 Non-League Changes:

{STEP} 01 Conference National
Chester (League Champions)
F.C. Halifax Town (Playoff Winners)
Welling United (League Champions)
Salisbury City (Playoff Winners)

Teams relegated from Football League Two
Barnet - in a new ground 'The Hive' in Edgware.
Aldershot Town - and start the season on -10 points

02 Conference North
Teams promoted Northern Premier League Premier Division
North Ferriby United
Hednesford Town

Teams promoted from Southern League Premier Division
Leamington

Teams relegated from Conference National
Stockport County
Barrow
Telford

02 Conference South
Teams promoted from Isthmian Premier Division
Whitehawk F.C. - were considering changing their name to 'Brighton City' but this was refused by the FA or some such authority - I think?
Concord Rangers F.C.

Teams promoted from Southern League Premier Division
Gosport Borough

Teams relegated from Conference National
Ebbsfleet United


03 Isthmian Premier
will feature six new clubs in a division expanded from 22 to 24 clubs:
A.F.C. Hornchurch, relegated from the Conference South
Billericay Town, relegated from the Conference South
Dulwich Hamlet, promoted as champions of Division One South
Grays Athletic, promoted as champions of Division One North
Maidstone United, promoted as play-off winners of Division One South
Thamesmead Town, promoted as play-off winners of Division One North


04 Division One North
will feature six new clubs in a division expanded from 22 to 24 clubs:
Barkingside, promoted as runners-up of the Essex Senior League
Burnham Ramblers, promoted as champions of the Essex Senior League
Dereham Town, promoted as champions of the Eastern Counties League
Erith & Belvedere, promoted as champions of the Kent League
Sittingbourne, transferred from Division One South
VCD Athletic, promoted as runners-up of the Kent League

04 Division One South
will feature five new clubs in a division expanded from 22 to 24 clubs:
Carshalton Athletic, relegated from the Premier Division
Guernsey, promoted as runners-up in the Combined Counties League
Hastings United, relegated from the Premier Division
Peacehaven & Telscombe, promoted as champions of the Sussex County League
Redhill, promoted as runners-up in the Sussex County League


03 Southern Premier (Fixtures to be published Wed 17th July)
Biggleswade Town, promoted as play-off winners of Division One Central
Burnham, promoted as champions of Division One Central
Corby Town, relegated from the Conference North
Hinckley United, relegated from the Conference North
Hungerford Town, promoted as play-off winners of Division One South & West
Poole Town, promoted as champions of Division One South & West
Truro City, relegated from the Conference South - evidently sorted their Tax bill

04 Division One South & West features five new clubs:
Four clubs transferred from Division One Central:
Fleet Town
Godalming Town
Guildford City
Thatcham Town
Stratford Town, champions of the Midland Football Alliance

04 Division One Central features seven new clubs:
Aylesbury United, runners-up in the Spartan South Midlands League
Dunstable Town, champions of the Spartan South Midlands League
Egham Town, champions of the Combined Counties League
Kettering Town, relegated from the Premier Division
Marlow, champions of the Hellenic League
Potters Bar Town, transferred from the Isthmian League Division One North
St Ives Town, runners-up in the United Counties League

STEPS 05 & 06
Combined Counties
05 Premier (22 Teams) 4 new
Alton Town - Transferred in from Wessex prem
Frimley Green promoted from Div One
Mole Valley SCR promoted from Div One
Westfield promoted from Div One
06 Div One (16) 2 new
Dorking relegated
Sandhurst Town relegated

Warlingham resign

Hellenic League
05 Premier (20 Teams) 4 new
Abingdon United – voluntarily demoted from Southern League 1 S&W
Bracknell Town promoted 1 East
Brimscomb & Thrupp promoted from 1 West
Wootton Bassett Town promoted 1 West (groundsharing @ Cirencester Town)
06 One East (14) 2 new
Burnham Reserves – in from Reserve league?
Wokingham & Emmbrook – voluntarily demoted from Premier – ground move to Lowther Rd
AFC Hinksey move groundshare to Abingdon Town
06 One West (16) 3 new
Easington Sports transferred from One East
Shortwood Reserves in from Reserve league
Tuffley Rovers promoted from Gloucs Senior League

Lambourn Sports resign – back to N.Berks after only 1 season – odd as rumours abounded they had been throwing some money around to try and upgrade their facilities.
Thatcham Reserves resign

Wessex League
05 Premier (22) 4 new
Sholing voluntary demotion from Southern League 1 S&W
Winchester City relegated from SL 1 S&W
Brockenhurst – promoted from Wessex One
Whitchurch Utd promoted from Wessex One
GE Hamble – formerly Hamble ASSC now renamed Folland Sports for 13-14
06 Division One (17) 3 new
Andover Town = new club formed by current leaseholders of the old Andover FC’s stadium (Portway) – squad were previously with college sides (Sparsholt and Andover?)
Plan is to start the season based at the Hants FA’s site at Winklebury (W area of Basingstoke nr Milestones museum) and move back into a refurbished Portway late in the Autumn.
Hayling Island – relegated from Premier
New Milton Town –relegated from Premier - proposed merger with Bashley fell through

Locks Heath from the Hants Premier League (and former members of the Wessex) were appealing their exclusion from the constitution following the AGM – no confirmed outcome yet but presume general silence and their inclusion in the HPL line-ups suggest they were unsuccessful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plenty of chops and changes in the next levels down (Town and County Levels) but I doubt if anyone but myself and AP are likely to be the slightest bit interested at these ‘hardcore’ NL levels.

However to sum up briefly news from ‘close to home’:
South Reading have folded: – reportedly had something to do with Marlow’s elevation to STEP04, and the problems of the ongoing availability of their dual-registered players. Seemingly Marlow are now busy dual-registering half of Highmoor/IBIS’s first team?
Westwood Utd have been demoted.
The usual source of up to date info here would have been the ‘goalpost’ forum - but the re-vamped Reading Post ‘getreading’ website doesn’t have seem to have such a readily available link to the forum which has gone virtually dormant of late anyway. Suspect its all moved to twitter.
Wraysbury move to RSL from E.Berks - Eton Wick make a welcome return to the East Berks and Bracknell Rovers from the lower tiers of the E.Berks leap up at least two levels and across to join the RSL Senior Division.

Reading Senior League: Senior Division constitution 13-14
Reading YMCA
Woodcote Stoke Row
Marlow United
Cookham Dean
Sandhurst Devels
Highmoor Ibis Res
Mortimer
Theale
Taplow United
Rotherfield United
Newbury FC Res
Frilsham & Yattendon
Wraysbury (Moved from EBL)
Bracknell Rovers (Moved from EBL)

[Royal Rother]

Good stuff.

I feel sorry for AFC Totton. Windsor & Eton had some good times battling with them a few years back and there were good people involved.

They got screwed / manipulated by a guy called Mick Budny and have never been on an even keel since.

[Four Of Clubs]

... forgot to mention (minor point) Southern League have 'switched stimulants' from Glue to Gas!

New sponsors for 13-14 season;

Farewell - Evostik League Southern -

- hello and take a bow - Calor League.

[Yellowcoat]

Many thanks for the helpful detail. Handy to see it all summarised together.

[Royalist]

Good stuff.

I feel sorry for AFC Totton. Windsor & Eton had some good times battling with them a few years back and there were good people involved.

They got screwed / manipulated by a guy called Mick Budny and have never been on an even keel since.

Totton, Truro and Windsor all fighting it out for promotion at the same time and 2 of them could be out of business and another with huge debts. Find it bizarre clubs spend above their means at non league level as at least in the football league there is the carrot of Premiership TV Money.

Sadly it doesn't look like i'll be getting to many games this year so an early Thank you to Four of Clubs for keeping me up to date!

[Christof]

04 Division One South & West features five new clubs:
Four clubs transferred from Division One Central:
Fleet Town
Godalming Town
Guildford City
Thatcham Town
Stratford Town, champions of the Midland Football Alliance

Excellent summary as ever FoC - Godalming and Guildford are both appealing against the move from D1C to D1S&W, which I think should be decided this week sometime. This has a knock-on effect with fixtures, as none of the Central or S&W ones can be finalised until the outcome is known.