The Non - League thread

[Christof]

Is it correct that all of Slough's 7 games in hand are away? That's pretty remarkable. A while until postponements become less likely

Not quite (played 22 so far, 13 at home and 9 away). The postponements have been due to clashes with Cup games or weather-related, and every weather-related one has been an away match. I got to Biggleswade town centre with a sinking feeling as I saw the STFC supporters coach going the other way, to then find the inevitable postponement an hour before kick-off. Apparently the pitch was looking much better than when we played there last season (and got beaten 3-0), both teams wanted to play, yet the man in black doesn’t.

3G is the future, the FA need to grasp this, and promote it especially for places that suffer from poor drainage like Biggleswade, St Ives etc.

[Hoop Blah]

3G is the future, the FA need to grasp this, and promote it especially for places that suffer from poor drainage like Biggleswade, St Ives etc.

What do you want or expect from the FA?

[Royalist]

Ah right. I was more than half cut when being informed last night

As for 3g Windsor don't have it and have a great pitch. 3g has a shelf life doesn't it? Doesn't make economic sense. Windsor used the Slough money it didn't spunk on old Wycombe players on drainage.

[Sutekh]

Ah right. I was more than half cut when being informed last night

As for 3g Windsor don't have it and have a great pitch. 3g has a shelf life doesn't it? Doesn't make economic sense. Windsor used the Slough money it didn't spunk on old Wycombe players on drainage.

Don't understand why everyone raves about them. Bracknell must have spent a tidy sum laying one but I don't know anyone who can get a signal from it.

[peterroyal76]

Thatcham also have to play Burnham twice although Burnham did manage a point at Highworth a couple of weeks ago.

[peterroyal76]

As previously mentioned Bracknell have a 3G pitch. I’m not sure how much they cost but they have football on there most of the time now. I think Slough to make big revenue on theirs although I believe they are expensive to hire.

[Christof]

3G is the future, the FA need to grasp this, and promote it especially for places that suffer from poor drainage like Biggleswade, St Ives etc.

What do you want or expect from the FA?

I expect the authorities to see the benefits of football clubs having decent all-weather pitches that can be used frequently, promote them (maybe by incentivising with grants and such like) and finally to ensure that any football club that has an accredited standard 3G pitch can be assured that they wouldn’t have to replace it with grass should they get promoted to the Football League.
Windsor evidently have a great grass pitch and have no need to replace it. Other clubs have the same problems year in year out - they are the ones that need help.

[Royal Rother]

As previously mentioned Bracknell have a 3G pitch. I’m not sure how much they cost but they have football on there most of the time now. I think Slough to make big revenue on theirs although I believe they are expensive to hire.

Christof would know better than me but I don’t think Slough FC make a bean out of the pitch as it is a Council facility.

[Royal Rother]

Windsor 2-3 Brimscombe & Thrupp

How to throw a game away in several easy lessons. Should have been out of sight at HT and at various times during the 2nd half but our defence was at 6s and 7s whenever we were attacked.

Missing a couple of key defenders but that was not good yesterday.

Barry Hayles has a broken hand and is out for a month. We have brought in Matty Woods who played with captain Kieran Knight at Uxbridge a few years back. Prolific scorer at that (higher) level and looked very useful. He scored a brace but unfortunately also managed the miss of the season.

As I have previously mentioned, we have a lot of games to play and if we go further in the 4 Cups will have a problem looming. The depth of squad isn’t great as yesterday showed and injuries and suspensions are going to mean a tough 3 months ahead in my opinion.

I know the League is always the priority but whether we finish 6th or 12th doesn’t really mean much - maybe we should focus on the Cups....

[Christof]

As previously mentioned Bracknell have a 3G pitch. I’m not sure how much they cost but they have football on there most of the time now. I think Slough to make big revenue on theirs although I believe they are expensive to hire.

Christof would know better than me but I don’t think Slough FC make a bean out of the pitch as it is a Council facility.

Correct - Slough Council own the facility and Slough Town pay rent for its use as indeed anyone else would (although I am not sure whether both adjacent schools have to pay). The football club will now be running the matchday bars and catering after some false starts on that front (useless caterers, huge queues for the bar etc) in a profit-sharing basis, so some good positive stuff all round.

[Hoop Blah]

3G is the future, the FA need to grasp this, and promote it especially for places that suffer from poor drainage like Biggleswade, St Ives etc.

What do you want or expect from the FA?

I expect the authorities to see the benefits of football clubs having decent all-weather pitches that can be used frequently, promote them (maybe by incentivising with grants and such like) and finally to ensure that any football club that has an accredited standard 3G pitch can be assured that they wouldn’t have to replace it with grass should they get promoted to the Football League.
Windsor evidently have a great grass pitch and have no need to replace it. Other clubs have the same problems year in year out - they are the ones that need help.

The FA do support the use of all-weather pitches and provide some pretty significant funding through the Football Foundation to support them too.

I'm not sure if they can dictate the rules about pitches for the football league but, in my opinion, once you get to that level you should be able to look after a proper pitch sufficiently well to avoid any significant issues with water logging on a consistent basis. The FA themselves allow 3G pitches through the FA Cup, a competition they obviously control, so it's not like they're against them despite some of the negative opinion on them.

3G pitches are a big capital outlay and personally I think it's down to the clubs to help themselves and search out the funding if they think they can build a facility that will be make them money, be an asset to the community and avoid a few pitch issues along the way.

[Hoop Blah]

Ah right. I was more than half cut when being informed last night

As for 3g Windsor don't have it and have a great pitch. 3g has a shelf life doesn't it? Doesn't make economic sense. Windsor used the Slough money it didn't spunk on old Wycombe players on drainage.

I seem to remember Bracknell's Chairman saying their pitch would last longer than most but would still need relaying within 10 years. I can't remember the cost, and might have the timeframe wrong, but yes they absolutely have a self life.

There's also been health concerns over the rubber used, but that's probably a bit of scaremongering.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

I have gone off the 3G idea myself having been all for it a few years back.

A lot of them have a dead bounce, sloping pitches make it a complete non starter for some clubs and as for goals with wheels on them...no no no.
Football is a game played on grass. Would much rather see the money invested on decent drainage and maintenance

[Old Man Andrews]

Ah right. I was more than half cut when being informed last night

As for 3g Windsor don't have it and have a great pitch. 3g has a shelf life doesn't it? Doesn't make economic sense. Windsor used the Slough money it didn't spunk on old Wycombe players on drainage.

I seem to remember Bracknell's Chairman saying their pitch would last longer than most but would still need relaying within 10 years. I can't remember the cost, and might have the timeframe wrong, but yes they absolutely have a self life.

There's also been health concerns over the rubber used, but that's probably a bit of scaremongering.

I enquired about the installation of a 3G for the youth club I run. Just for a kids 9 v 9 it was over £100,000. Bracknell you'd be looking at well over 200k.

[Hoop Blah]

I enquired about the installation of a 3G for the youth club I run. Just for a kids 9 v 9 it was over £100,000. Bracknell you'd be looking at well over 200k.

Having Googled it the reported refurb at Bracknell was anything between £500k-£1m with one article on GetReading suggesting they were spending £600k on sorting out the pitch itself.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Highworth v Thatcham on Wednesday night in the Hellenic Prem.

Not sure what has happened to Highworth lately. Drawing with Burnham and then shipping 4 at home to Abingdon suggests they are missing players for whatever reason.

[Old Man Andrews]

I enquired about the installation of a 3G for the youth club I run. Just for a kids 9 v 9 it was over £100,000. Bracknell you'd be looking at well over 200k.

Having Googled it the reported refurb at Bracknell was anything between £500k-£1m with one article on GetReading suggesting they were spending £600k on sorting out the pitch itself.

It's quite incredible sums of money. Credit to the FA and the Premier League they do have funding schemes in place but you need a fair bit of self raised funds to even be considered.

Bracknell had to do something with that pitch, it was arguably the worst grass pitch in the south east. Every other game used to get called off in the winter back when it was grass.

[Sutekh]

I enquired about the installation of a 3G for the youth club I run. Just for a kids 9 v 9 it was over £100,000. Bracknell you'd be looking at well over 200k.

Having Googled it the reported refurb at Bracknell was anything between £500k-£1m with one article on GetReading suggesting they were spending £600k on sorting out the pitch itself.

It's quite incredible sums of money. Credit to the FA and the Premier League they do have funding schemes in place but you need a fair bit of self raised funds to even be considered.

Bracknell had to do something with that pitch, it was arguably the worst grass pitch in the south east. Every other game used to get called off in the winter back when it was grass.

It was bad. They used to have to bar overly emotional people from attending games at Bracknell in case any tears put the next home fixture at risk.

[Royal Rother]

And the players were banned from spitting etc. etc.

[Four Of Clubs]

... weather prevented most of the action in local NL this MW - two games that did go ahead were on 'plastic':

B&B Senior Cup Q-F
Bracknell Town 2-3 Slough Town att 436 - other three ties to be played from mid-Feb

CCLP
Bedfont Sports 0-5 Westfield - league leaders put their closest rivals firmly behind them.

... a few Southern League fixtures survived too:

SLP
Gosport Borough 1-5 Chesham

... and a real shock on recent form:

Dunstable Town 2-1 Weymouth

SL1E
Egham 0-1 Chalfont St P.
Fleet Town 0-1 Bedford Town
Hartley W. 0-1 Beaconsfield Town

... and a Hants Q-F
Winchester City 4-3 Alresford Town - City join Blackfield & Langley in the last 4

- other Q-F ties scheduled for next MW feature;
Eastleigh v Bournemouth (that's the 'Cherries' (AFC) not the 'Poppies')
Havant & Waterlooville v Hamble Club

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
... and here's tomorrow's Fixtures - with plenty of inspections & call offs probable - will update if I find the time.....
- Scours Lane has already been postponed (Hellenic Supplementary - Woodley v Brackley Saints)

Saturday 27th Jan

NAT
Leyton Orient v Aldershot Town
Maidenhead United v Chester
Woking v AFC Fylde
NATN
Brackley Town v Salford City
NATS
Chelmsford City v Hampton & Richmond Borough
Concord Rangers v Eastbourne Borough
Dartford v Whitehawk
Gloucester City v Chippenham Town
Hemel Hempstead Town v Poole Town
Hungerford Town v Bognor Regis Town
Oxford City v Bath City
St Albans City v East Thurrock United
Truro City v Havant & Waterlooville
Wealdstone v Weston-super-Mare
Welling United v Braintree Town

ILP
Brightlingsea Regent v Dorking Wanderers
Lowestoft Town v Staines Town

SLP
Basingstoke Town v Tiverton Town
Chesham United v Bishop's Stortford
Slough Town v Merthyr Town
Weymouth v Farnborough
SL1E
Barton Rovers v Hartley Wintney
Bedford Town v Ashford Town (Middx)
Chalfont St Peter v Arlesey Town
Fleet Town v Cambridge City
Hanwell Town v Beaconsfield Town
Hayes & Yeading United v AFC Dunstable
Marlow v Egham Town
Thame United v Aylesbury
Uxbridge v Aylesbury United
SL1W
AFC Totton v Kidlington
Bideford v North Leigh
Taunton Town v Didcot Town
Winchester City v Cinderford Town

CCLP
Abbey Rangers v Farnham Town
Banstead Athletic v Bedfont Sports
Camberley Town v Balham
Colliers Wood United v Westfield - lights functioning KO back to 15:00 again.
Godalming Town v CB Hounslow United
Guildford City v Hanworth Villa
Knaphill v Redhill
Horley Town v AFC Hayes
Spelthorne Sports v Epsom & Ewell
Walton & Hersham v North Greenford United
CCL1
AC London v Eversley & California
Ash United v Farleigh Rovers
Bagshot v Worcester Park
Bedfont & Feltham v Raynes Park Vale
Cobham v Fleet Spurs
Cove v Chessington & Hook United
FC Deportivo Galicia v Frimley Green
14:00 Sheerwater v Staines Lammas
South Park Reserves v Kensington Borough

HELLP
Binfield v Abingdon United
Burnham v Brimscombe & Thrupp
Fairford Town v Thatcham Town
Highworth Town v Flackwell Heath
Longlevens v Windsor
Lydney Town v Bracknell Town
Wantage Town v Highmoor Ibis
HELL1E
14:15 Wokingham & Emmbrook v Chinnor
AFC Aldermaston v Holyport
Didcot Town Reserves v Chalfont Wasps
HELL1W
14:15 Woodstock Town v Letcombe
WESSP
Alresford Town v Baffins Milton Rovers
Andover Town v Petersfield Town
WESS1
Christchurch v Alton
Tadley Calleva v Andover New Street