National League

[AMF]

No other country in the world has such an intense league programme as we have here in England, with 46 league matches a season. I have wondered (considering the strength of non-league these days) whether restructuring of the football league could allow a "League 3" with 8 teams being promoted from non-league in a 20 team per division set-up. How many teams in non-league were fully professional 30 years ago? A handful at most I'd imagine. I bet there's between 40 and 50 now down the pyramid, including several below National League North and South. The National League is already a de-facto league 3, without some of the benefits.

[Fosse69]

There are already 8 former league clubs in NL North, if both went down that would take it to 10.  The 8 already there are:  Darlington Chester Scarborough Southport Kidderminster Hereford Boston Bradford PA.
I have seen all 8 of those teams at Vale Park,2 for cup games, Scarborough and Kidderminiter.  The other 6 have all been at Vale in league games.  Even lower in the pyramid is a team I have seen at Vale Park a number of times, Workington.

New Brighton as a 3rdNorth team played at Vale Park in the FA Cup in 1950.

[Essex Vale]

2 hours ago, Fosse69 said:

4 hours ago, Essex Vale said:

There are already 8 former league clubs in NL North, if both went down that would take it to 10.  The 8 already there are:  Darlington Chester Scarborough Southport Kidderminster Hereford Boston Bradford PA.
I have seen all 8 of those teams at Vale Park,2 for cup games, Scarborough and Kidderminiter.  The other 6 have all been at Vale in league games.  Even lower in the pyramid is a team I have seen at Vale Park a number of times, Workington.

New Brighton as a 3rdNorth team played at Vale Park in the FA Cup in 1950.

Yes, bit before my time that one though, but well remembered 

[Fosse69]

Yes, bit before my time that one though, but well remembered 

Nelson were the next team Vale played in that cup run, also a 3N team of the 20s the first English team to beat Real Madrid in Spain.

[toyahw]

My understanding is FFP does not apply in the conference? Which also distorts things.  But definitely you do not want to go there.

[LancyTony]

8 hours ago, Essex Vale said:

There are already 8 former league clubs in NL North, if both went down that would take it to 10.  The 8 already there are:  Darlington Chester Scarborough Southport Kidderminster Hereford Boston Bradford PA.

I have seen all 8 of those teams at Vale Park,2 for cup games, Scarborough and Kidderminiter.  The other 6 have all been at Vale in league games.  Even lower in the pyramid is a team I have seen at Vale Park a number of times, Workington.

I remember when Workington needed to score 8 at Va;e Park, to get promotion. They scored 7, and the whole ground was singing "we want 8!"

[bycars rob]

41 minutes ago, LancyTony said:

I remember when Workington needed to score 8 at Va;e Park, to get promotion. They scored 7, and the whole ground was singing "we want 8!"

We have never lost at home to Workington. Is your memory playing tricks? There was a game against Rotherham that went a bot like that. 

[LancyTony]

1 hour ago, bycars rob said:

We have never lost at home to Workington. Is your memory playing tricks? There was a game against Rotherham that went a bot like that. 

Must be the memory! I know the "we want 8..." happened...probably! haha

[Fosse69]

There was a last day game at Bury in the 90s when if we lost by a similar score we would have been relegated

[LancyTony]

1 hour ago, Fosse69 said:

There was a last day game at Bury in the 90s when if we lost by a similar score we would have been relegated

I was convinced it was in the 60s / early 70s...we used to stand on the Hamil Rd end, near the old scoreboard. Oh well - it may have been a particularly realistic bad dream??

[Essex Vale]

20 hours ago, LancyTony said:

I remember when Workington needed to score 8 at Va;e Park, to get promotion. They scored 7, and the whole ground was singing "we want 8!"

Others have replied, bad memory syndrome I am afraid.  It was the 70s, in fact 14 May 1977 to be precise, last game of the season.  Rotherham finished 4th on 59 points the same total as Crystal Palace.  Palace had goal difference of +28 Rotherham were +25.  Palace had scored more goals, so Rotherham, who beat us 4-1 on the day, needed to score another 4 to win 8-1 for them to overtake Palace and go up.

[SFBT]

I saw an article yesterday about the EFL proposing 3 up and 3 down at all the levels. I think including NL.

Only half read it, so can't quote the detail.

Hopefully someone else will know about it...

[SFBT]

https://fanbanter.co.uk/update-emerges-on-the-much-talked-about-national-league-and-efl-proposal/

 

Found it 

[Jacko51]

Just watched Oldham 3 Torquay 2.  A lot of decent football in it and a far more exciting game than many of the World Cup matches!

[Fosse69]

54 minutes ago, Jacko51 said:

Just watched Oldham 3 Torquay 2.  A lot of decent football in it and a far more exciting game than many of the World Cup matches!

Very true, also very sad that Oldham are in a relegation battle with Torquay to stay in the National League.  70 years ago this month 25,000 turned up at Vale Park to watch the Vale play Oldham in the 2nd round of the Cup, they won 3-0 and promotion at the end of that season.