General non league chat, match reports, photos etc

[Roger D]

Has the Winchester ground passed grading? I live in Hampshire and have heard several good non league sources suggesting both you and North Leigh were in trouble. I sincerely hope you made it but the whisper around here was it was going to be touch or go.

Edited to say North Leigh went down anyway. Scene of a nice DHFC away game in the FA Youth Cup decades ago ...

 

[editor]

So much the same as Glen Tamplin and Billericay?

I see very few similarities. Tamplin was all about his monstrous ego.

 

[mx wcfc]

Has the Winchester ground passed grading? I live in Hampshire and have heard several good non league sources suggesting both you and North Leigh were in trouble. I sincerely hope you made it but the whisper around here was it was going to be touch or go.

Edited to say North Leigh went down anyway. Scene of a nice DHFC away game in the FA Youth Cup decades ago ...

We have plans, and most of the funding in place, apparently. But I really don't know the detail. The council are onside, which helps with planning permission etc. Local tory MP was at the last home game to get his picture in the local paper supporting the plans.

There are a lot of rumours circulating. Some are clearly scaremongering. One I heard is that we might be playing at Havant & Waterlooville next season, while a plastic pitch is installed, and other improvements made. Another was that we will be playing Wessex League next season, due to the ground grading.

(this are just rumours - not worth spreading onto other boards - it's probably complete bullshit)

The plans I've heard about for the community side of the club are very positive, but if we end up playing next season just outside Portsmouth, it's going to be grim for the fans and revenues.

Eastleigh would be a lot easier to get to. Not sure whether Basingstoke's ground meets the requirements. They've just been promoted to Isthmian Step 3. We helped them out when they were homeless.

There is certainly uncertainty.

It would be a shame if we got the ground sorted and ended up relegated due to having to play "away" every week.

Our pitch is a disgrace, though. It isn't vaguely flat in important parts of the pitch, and there's probably a lot of work to do on the "foundations" - it's not just a case of pulling up the grass and laying the plastic. The ground is on an old municipal dump (which is the only reason, I suspect, why housing hasn't been built on it). There's not a lot of undeveloped flat ground in Winchester, except the flood plain which, well, floods. (and is important habitat for wildlife and flood defence for the actual city).

So we can't go anywhere else.

For now I'm just happy we stayed up.

 

[Pink Panther]

I see very few similarities. Tamplin was all about his monstrous ego.

More like a non-league Manchester City then? It leaves me equally cold. Financial doping on a massive scale.

 

[editor]

More like a non-league Manchester City then? It leaves me equally cold. Financial doping on a massive scale.

I don't think that's comparable either. The owners didn't take over the club for profit, status or vanity,

 

[Stuart Fordyce]

I don't think that's comparable either. The owners didn't take over the club for profit, status or vanity,

Or sportswashing

 

[Bus Honeygun]

National League South as good as guaranteed for us next season at Torquay United, as our impassive property developer owner continues to suck the life out of the club. At least Taunton is an easy away game for me...

 

[Hamlet Pete]

Is there still plans to move the club away from Plainmoor?

 

[Hamlet Pete]

Nyren Clunis and Cray Wanderers have made the Isthmian Premier play offs. Wouldn't it be good to see Nyren in the National South and given a proper go at playing at that level

 

[Taper]

Ryan Reynolds advertises gin, which has caused untold misery in this country since The Glorious Revolution. Mothers dropping babies and the like.

 

[Bus Honeygun]

Is there still plans to move the club away from Plainmoor?

Well, that's what our owner, Clarke Osborne, says he wants to do. Unfortunately, he has a track record going back to when Bristol Rovers lost Eastville of getting his hands on the freeholds of sporting venues, promising a new one, then making a lot of money out of the redevelopment of the orginal site and not building the promised new stadium (see also his company's involvement in Swindon Speedway and Reading greyhounds).

The new stadium proposed for us looked like it had been thought up in an afternoon. The council clearly thought so too and turned down the whole idea. Five years later, having pumped around £3 million into the club, he's no closer to getting his hands on the freehold and his supposed new stadium location has been earmarked for solar panels (it's on a former landfill site - that's how much thought had gone into it). He never turns up to games. Very rarely says anything publically. The people he employs at the club are just as uncommunicative. The big question is, why is he still here? He has previously stated that he's not interested in football.

The theory that I and some others subscribe to is that having tried to win us fans and the council over with promotion back to the Football League that ended so painfully in the play-off final defeat to Hartlepool, he's changed tack now and is slowly winding the club down in a managed decline, so when we're playing Bideford and Tavistock in the Southern League in front of crowds down to the hundreds, he'll manage to convince enough councillors that Plainmoor isn't worth hanging on to.

As I say, just a theory. Apart from some vague words about still being commited to a new stadium at the AGM last year, he and the club say nothing.

 

[Hamlet Pete]

You really hope that a new independent football regulator would stop these kind of actions and not allow unscrupulous owners run football clubs into the ground

 

[Bus Honeygun]

You really hope that a new independent football regulator would stop these kind of actions and not allow unscrupulous owners run football clubs into the ground

Yeah, the 50+1 rule in Germany isn't perfect, but if we had similar it would certainly help guard against these scenarios that have played out at so many British clubs.

 

[editor]

Ryan Reynolds really is the real deal

Dad-of-two Jay Fear has been diagnosed with terminal appendix cancer and high up his wish list was to get to meet the Hollywood actor. And he got to do just that on the day the club sealed promotion to the EFL with a 3-1 victory to win the National League title.

Given months to live, Jay modestly asked to go and watch Wrexham play, and after hearing the wish Ryan privately sent Jay a video saying “I’m in your corner” and pledging to try and find him at Saturday's game.

Jay and his family were taken by stretch limousine from his house in Southampton to the stadium in Wrexham on Saturday morning. When they arrived at the ground he was even recognised by some fans, who told him, "we are so glad you managed to get here, hope you have a great day."

"That was a little bit of a bizarre moment," Jay told Oliver Hides. "I thought they would take us into a room and Ryan would be there but they took us behind the goal at the end that is being rebuilt and they said that Ryan was going to meet us there because if we did it too close to the fans there would be a frenzy. The area we were in was able to be blocked off.


"Then all of a sudden we saw Ryan walking casually with all the Disney+ crew. He walked across the pitch, jumped over the banner and gave us all a hug." The actor also invited Jay and his family to watch the latest Deadpool being filmed in London in six weeks time.

Ryan Reynolds invites Wrexham fan with terminal cancer to watch Deadpool shoot

He was delighted to meet the 'huggy' actor before the game on Saturday

www.walesonline.co.uk

 

[3010]

Mixed response to the new Tonbridge Angels club crest:


Favourite comment so far is this one - “the Board have been tin eared to opinions about the new badge & we are left with a witch resting her head on a large scrotum, holding a ball with arguably the wrong date on it.”

 

[Latahs]

Make that football a skull and the wings into stylised weed leaves and you’ve got yourself an Electric Wizard album cover! \m/ \m/

 

[Taper]

That is a good spot. Perhaps a Witchcult Today treatment, with Baphomet holding a fallen angel.

 

[Pink Panther]

Mixed response to the new Tonbridge Angels club crest:


Favourite comment so far is this one - “the Board have been tin eared to opinions about the new badge & we are left with a witch resting her head on a large scrotum, holding a ball with arguably the wrong date on it.”

Not sure if it's in that Twitter link but someone likened it to the Starbucks logo!

I'm generally a traditionalist but the older badge is quite fiddly and presumably based on the town coat of arms, rather than being specific to TAFC. Badges like that look great on a blazer or retro football shirt but don't adapt well to being used for modern branding and computer graphics.

Our own previous badge was a mash up of no fewer than 6 different coats of arms and I now prefer the new one.

 

[editor]

Fancy watching some football today? Watch non league football today as Peckham Town play Fleetdown FC, Mon 1st May, 2.45pm

 

[EDC]

Pleased to see Bromley (France) beat Woking tonight. In the past I’d have swung the other way but the after the match a few years ago with the the Woking fans bellend behaviour outside ED station they can do one.

 

[Hamlet Pete]

Was keeping an eye on that game too. Also was rooting for Bromley (la France)

 

[Don't Slow Down]

https://www.ebbsfleetunited.co.uk/fleet-announce-squad-retained-list/?s=09

Of this season's squad that won the division, Gravesend have 4 contracted for next season, 17 in negotiation/offer on the table/extension agreed and 4 released.

Be interesting to see how this squad holds up next season, Dorking didn't bring a raft of new players in and survived so we shall see.

 

[Pink Panther]

Of this season's squad that won the division, Gravesend have 4 contracted for next season, 17 in negotiation/offer on the table/extension agreed and 4 released.

Be interesting to see how this squad holds up next season, Dorking didn't bring a raft of new players in and survived so we shall see.

I think that squad is a fair bit stronger than Dorking’s on paper but they may have to give a bit more thought towards negating their opponents tactically. I get the impression they just back themselves to score however many goals it takes to win without really worrying about what the other team might do.

Their second goal at Champion Hill in January was something few, if any, other teams could have scored. They were 1-0 up away from home when Hamlet almost equalised with a shot just wide of the post. Normal practice would be for the keeper to dawdle over fetching the ball to restart. Instead, an outfield player grabbed the ball and took a short goal kick to the right touchline. Our team was caught completely unawares, as a few slick passes relayed the ball down the other end, and seconds later they took a 2-0 lead. We conceded a lot of avoidable goals but I reckon that move would have caught out just about everyone at our level.

 

[NPDHFC]

Their second goal at Champion Hill in January was something few, if any, other teams could have scored. They were 1-0 up away from home when Hamlet almost equalised with a shot just wide of the post. Normal practice would be for the keeper to dawdle over fetching the ball to restart. Instead, an outfield player grabbed the ball and took a short goal kick to the right touchline. Our team was caught completely unawares, as a few slick passes relayed the ball down the other end, and seconds later they took a 2-0 lead. We conceded a lot of avoidable goals but I reckon that move would have caught out just about everyone at our level.

I do recall thinking “that was liquid football” at the time.

 

[Stuart Fordyce]

They also contributed to the high point of Gavin Rose's time at Hamlet, the enthralling 5-3 win the season before that saw us go second in the National League South. The same applied that day - Keegan at Newcastle level of tactics.

 

[Pink Panther]

They also contributed to the high point of Gavin Rose's time at Hamlet, the enthralling 5-3 win the season before that saw us go second in the National League South. The same applied that day - Keegan at Newcastle level of tactics.

5-2 was the final score but yes, that was the most exciting and memorable Hamlet performance in National South for me. Yet we could barely live with them in the first half, 1-2 down at the interval and apparently facing 45 minutes of damage limitation. McGregor, McQueen and Green, plus Harris-Sealy coming off the bench gave us the firepower to exploit them on the counter, which was sadly lacking in this year's Hamlet model.

 

[Al Cunningham]

I think that half season up until the Ebbsfleet game was the only time we looked promotion/playoff candidates in the National South. It will be tough next year but we should be right up there if we keep Hakan and he can get his players in ....plus Joe . I imagine the likely challengers will be our old friends Billericay, Hornchurch, Canvey and Lewes. Also expect Hashtag to be up there as they stormed the league below last year

 

[tonysingh]

I think that half season up until the Ebbsfleet game was the only time we looked promotion/playoff candidates in the National South. It will be tough next year but we should be right up there if we keep Hakan and he can get his players in ....plus Joe . I imagine the likely challengers will be our old friends Billericay, Hornchurch, Canvey and Lewes. Also expect Hashtag to be up there as they stormed the league below last year

Chatham look like they could be a bit decent as well.

 

[EDC]

Chatham look like they could be a bit decent as well.

Well supported. That crowd v. Ramsgate.

 

[tonysingh]

Well supported. That crowd v. Ramsgate.

Large amount of disaffected Gillingham fans in the mix plus they do a fair bit of community outreach work. I'm looking forward to our game there. (Not least because its not even a 10 minute bus ride away!).

I just hope some of our lot don't get too sneery about Chatham is all. It might be a shithole but its my adoptive hometown shithole.