General non league chat, match reports, photos etc
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Yes we have, admittedly in the days before prize money. Newport County twice in the 1930's springs to mind.
Hamlet got hammered in one of the replays. Half the team couldn't get time off work for a midweek replay in Wales. Both times the gate at Hamlet was substantially larger than the gate at Newport .
Hamlet got hammered in one of the replays. Half the team couldn't get time off work for a midweek replay in Wales. Both times the gate at Hamlet was substantially larger than the gate at Newport .
all to nah
Well-Known Member
No, it's been done until the final. Saarbrücken, for example, were at home this season in every round to the semifinal (and eliminated Karlsruhe, Bayern München, Eintracht Frankfurft and Borussia Mönchengladbach) of the DFB-Pokal. But the rule doesn't occur for 2. Bundesliga teams - they can be drawn to teams from the 1. Bundesliga away.
scousedom
Well-Known Member
Aaaah thank you, that’s cleared it up.
Have a good mate who’s from Saarland so I have been keeping an eye on Saarbrucken the last few years. Was a shame they lost against their easiest (on paper) side in the semis - still a chance they might swap leagues with them next year, but I think they’d have preferred to win the Cup!
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
can see both sides of this - yes, there's something about a 'big club' turning out at a non-league ground, but there's something about a non league team getting a chance to play at a 'big club' ground. (and if i understand right, the small club can do well financially out of an away tie at a ground that can hold more supporters)
which adds to the 'leave well alone' argument.
scousedom
Well-Known Member
Let the lower team (if there is one) have the choice. Could actually be a force for good - have fans vote as to whether they take the cash and have a day out or have a better chance (but lower revenue) shot at a giant killing.
Will never happen of course.
all to nah
Well-Known Member
I think, you're right! In this case a replay would be a great idea, if the first leg ended in a draw.
scousedom
Well-Known Member
“Fat Steven Gerrard, you’re just a….”
And he called himself by his own nickname. Splendid.
Pink Panther
Well-Known Member
Why is he walking towards the camera throughout that 75 seconds interview? I found it really distracting. Why couldn't he just stand still while talking? Also, the person filming must have been walking backwards the whole time and there seemed to be quite a lot of training cones on the pitch. I wonder whether they tripped over one of them and had to film it again?
The National League Committee are opposing the Football Regulator and have supported scrapping FA Cup replays.it is being suggested they didn't bother to ask their member clubs opinion on thie matters.
Same old shambles. Hopefully a few clubs may reflect on this when the usual suspects on the Committee are up for re-election.
Same old shambles. Hopefully a few clubs may reflect on this when the usual suspects on the Committee are up for re-election.
Pink Panther
Well-Known Member
Sounds par for the course. Jack Pearce's word is final, no need to consult anyone else.
However, I'm not convinced a majority of National Division clubs would oppose scrapping FA Cup Replays. They'll be more focused on a top 7 position and promotion to the Football League. A lot of those clubs don't even field their full strength XI for FA Cup matches. In any given season most clubs don't pull a plum FA Cup tie, and if they do it's settled within 90 minutes anyway. For every non-league club taking a Premier League side to a replay, there will be countless other replays between teams from the same level fielding a squad XI in front of below par crowds.
The decline of the FA Cup can be traced back to the advent of play-offs and the expansion of the original European Champions Cup to include clubs who are not actually champions. Even mid-table Premier League clubs, who are not going to qualify for the Champions League but have a realistic outside chance of winning a Wembley Final, don't seem to take it seriously.
editor
hiraethified
Pink Panther
Well-Known Member
A great opportunity was missed to have him trip over the net as he was walking behind the goal while speaking to camera.
Paula_G
Flitting in & out like Tinkerbell on Meth
Sad to see the demise of another Non League Club with the news that New Salamis will cease operations at the end of the season. Remember them playing a Sunday Cup final at Champion Hill with a team that was pretty much a North London All Stars XI. Quite an atmosphere that day with fans drums, flares and god knows what else.
Nivag
Well-Known Member
In better news, good to see a ground get improvements
www.bbc.co.uk
Worthing FC stadium plans approved - BBC News
Worthing FC will now get a new, covered, north grandstand at their stadium.
www.bbc.co.uk
Cat Daisy
Well-Known Member
Sad news, as is the simultaneous demise of St Pantilemon who emerged about the same time. Being a community club and being in the pyramid is a tough balance.
Pink Panther
Well-Known Member
Never having had a suitable home ground of their own looks like a significant disadvantage to me. The county leagues (Steps 5 and 6) are now full of groundsharing clubs playing in front of tiny attendances, often flitting from one temporary home to another every couple of years. Other similar clubs have gone higher, with New Salamis and FC Romania reaching the Isthmian League, although the latter have since been relegated back to the county leagues.
St Panteleimon completed more than three quarters of their league fixtures and were placed 5th in the Spartan South Midlands League with a game in hand on the teams immediately below them, so they were favourites for a play-off place. In portraying themselves as "a community club", presumably they have an infrastructure of junior teams, but the last home game for which I could find any details had an official attendance of just 4. Yes, four. Therefore, whatever their community consists of, those people showed little interest in actively supporting an open age men's team at a relatively high level. Use it or lose it, and now they've lost it.
I feel quite strongly that clubs like this should stay out of the National Leagues System (i.e. Steps 1-6) with specific ground grading requirements for each step, where floodlights are mandatory and finishing 5th can mean an unexpected promotion via the play-offs to a level for which you're not yet ready. This may sound harsh, but St Panteleimon have damaged the integrity of their league in failing to complete their fixtures, while other clubs in the division will have played matches against them that are now void.
It's only a couple of years ago that no club in the Kent County League met the ground grading criteria for promotion to Step 6, with Peckham Town being the closest but lacking floodlights. Since then at least 4 or 5 clubs have hooked up with sharing the grounds of existing NLS clubs in search of promotion, one of whom (Chipstead, who were lodgers at Sevenoaks Town) folded abruptly after only a handful of games this season, but where is the long term future in playing outside your own community at a ground already occupied by a bigger and more local club? You're just not going to build a fanbase or anything that can be sustained without relying upon some sort of external funding, and if that funding dries up for whatever reason, the whole club falls apart.
Alton FC have released a pink and blue second kit. It's the corporate colours of their main sponsor so there's a fair bit of the colours at the ground. Well worth a visit if anyone fancies a hop not too far from London. Really friendly bunch, not far from the station and some good beer options in town.
shop.altonfc.com
Alton FC Away Shirt 24-25 - Alton FC Shop - Keep Attacking
Official Alton Football Club Away Shirt 2023-24. Exclusively designed in partnership with Keep Attacking. Customisation available.
shop.altonfc.com
Pink Panther
Well-Known Member
You might have expected Hamlet to finish as champions with all those games in hand, but unfortunately we lost 4 of those final 8 games to end as runners-up behind Leytonstone, who achieved 6 wins and a draw from their last 8 to overtake us with 40 points in total. Hamlet would be champions for the 4th (and still most recent time) 2 years later, the only break in a sequence of 5 titles in 6 years for Leytonstone.
Pink Panther
Well-Known Member
That's got the National League chairman's fingerprints all over it. Settled with a funny handshake behind closed doors without member clubs having a say in the matter. Who really needs another cup competition? The games will be like playing Brentford in the London Senior Cup, but with a meaningless trophy at stake instead of one with a proud history. I assume all 16 of the National League representatives will be drawn from the top division, so what about the two thirds of member clubs in the North and South divisions?
editor
hiraethified
Ide Hill's relocation to the ludicrously oversized Longmead Stadium is a case in point.
They had barely any fans when they played at the terrible ground at Wrotham School and they appeared to have even less when Peckham visited at the comically empty ground earlier this year.
Even if they did get promoted one day, I can't see any way they're ever going to attract any kind of meaningful, sustainable numbers at this ground - which begs the question - what's the point?
Paula_G
Flitting in & out like Tinkerbell on Meth
Harks back to when Farnborough Town, then under the ownership of Graham Westley, chose to concede home advantage to Arsenal in an FA Cup tie about 20 years ago. There was a lot of talk about “destroying the romance of the Cup” & opting for a half million pound payday especially with Westley involved though I believe it was a lot more complex than many portrayed. Believe the FA changed cup rules in the wake of that to ensure that only in exceptional circumstances could a club concede home advantage?
I was living in Farnborough at the time. Many associated with the club were happy they could have hosted that game. The ground had full segregation etc, and didn't need any work - though they could have chosen to add temporary stands etc. The police didn't object either.
The classless Westley's only reason given for swapping it was he believed the Farnborough Secretary could not cope. (Should add he has since apologised for saying that.)
Westley immediately resigned and jumped to Stevenage. Where the Arsenal money went is the subject to a million and one rumours out this way.
The FA were not amused and did change the rules to prevent a repeat.
The classless Westley's only reason given for swapping it was he believed the Farnborough Secretary could not cope. (Should add he has since apologised for saying that.)
Westley immediately resigned and jumped to Stevenage. Where the Arsenal money went is the subject to a million and one rumours out this way.
The FA were not amused and did change the rules to prevent a repeat.
Nivag
Well-Known Member
London Senior Cup final tomorrow night at Champion Hill, Hendon Vs Charlton U23s
745pm ko
745pm ko
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