Anyone on here follows non league football?

[minky monkey]

Just returned from Macclesfield.

Now, I know it was mostly youth players with 5 loan players as the Macc team had gone on strike due to non payment of wages.

But.

4-0 to the Ks!!!!


Epic day. Approximately 250 Ks travelled which is bloody good going considering our average attendances are around the 350 mark.

Really feel for the Macclesfield supporters as there are alot of similarity with us with owner issues.

https://twitter.com/Minky_monkey

[Magpie1862]

VXRuss said:

Ebbsfleet United here

It can be very painful!

Notts fan here, yeah, it's painful as hell.

Most teams bring a lot more to Meadow Lane than their usual away following as it's probably the first visit to Nottingham, and we are supposedly the biggest team in the league.

Notable turnouts (some possibly expected), Wrexham around 1500 on a Sunday, Stockport 1100 on a Tuesday night, Torquay over 700, very decent from Hartlepool and Barrow, and of course our near neighbours Chesterfield.

Best team seen so far - Barrow were excellent, Stockport, Hartlepool, Torquay, Bromley all very good at how they play and made life difficult for us.

Anybody who thinks having a nice stadium, good fanbase (at this level), decent player budget, etc means an instant return to the football league are usually in for a very rude awakening.

Some good clubs and surprisingly good players.

Had good days out at Halifax and Solihull, and a couple of not so good ones where the natives seemed intent on winding the clock back to the 70s and 80s by shouting abuse and making threats outside the ground.
I won't give them the attention they love by naming them.

In the main met some good lads and lasses happy to talk about football without wanting to punch your face in.

Hartlepool away tomorrow. Always a tough place to get anything.

[p4cks]

Magpie1862 said:

Hartlepool away tomorrow. Always a tough place to get anything.

Like a cold beer or a decent pie!

Thankfully there's a Morrisons next door

[RammyMP]

Magpie1862 said:

VXRuss said:

Ebbsfleet United here

It can be very painful!

Notts fan here, yeah, it's painful as hell.

Most teams bring a lot more to Meadow Lane than their usual away following as it's probably the first visit to Nottingham, and we are supposedly the biggest team in the league.

Notable turnouts (some possibly expected), Wrexham around 1500 on a Sunday, Stockport 1100 on a Tuesday night, Torquay over 700, very decent from Hartlepool and Barrow, and of course our near neighbours Chesterfield.

Best team seen so far - Barrow were excellent, Stockport, Hartlepool, Torquay, Bromley all very good at how they play and made life difficult for us.

Anybody who thinks having a nice stadium, good fanbase (at this level), decent player budget, etc means an instant return to the football league are usually in for a very rude awakening.

Some good clubs and surprisingly good players.

Had good days out at Halifax and Solihull, and a couple of not so good ones where the natives seemed intent on winding the clock back to the 70s and 80s by shouting abuse and making threats outside the ground.
I won't give them the attention they love by naming them.

In the main met some good lads and lasses happy to talk about football without wanting to punch your face in.

Hartlepool away tomorrow. Always a tough place to get anything.

Whahey, I’m a Notts supporter too! Not been to many games this season but seem to have been to the better ones. I was at Halifax too, it was bad putting the away fans too close to the home fans, it was getting a bit feisty at times but a great win.

Last game I went to was the Chesterfield game a few weeks ago, good performance!

[GloverMart]

Been to Hartlepool twice with Yeovil. Always bloody cold up there and last time, think they beat us with a very late goal.

Long, long drive too.

[p4cks]

Hartlepool season ticket here. It’s a long way for me too and seldom worth the trip

[Magpie1862]

RammyMP said:

Whahey, I’m a Notts supporter too! Not been to many games this season but seem to have been to the better ones. I was at Halifax too, it was bad putting the away fans too close to the home fans, it was getting a bit feisty at times but a great win.

Last game I went to was the Chesterfield game a few weeks ago, good performance!

I had to miss that game due to wife being ill.

Need to watch my money at the moment so not doing today's match up in the North East.

Not that convinced we will stay in the playoffs, depends on the injury situation, and which Notts team turns up.

[RammyMP]

Magpie1862 said:

I had to miss that game due to wife being ill.

Need to watch my money at the moment so not doing today's match up in the North East.

Not that convinced we will stay in the playoffs, depends on the injury situation, and which Notts team turns up.

Yes, we’ve got too many injured at the moment and they’re so inconsistent. The Halifax game summed it up, first half was appalling then second was brilliant!

[RammyMP]

I made the 40 mile journey to AFC Fylde tonight only to get the news once I got parked up that the game was off. A big st really less than an hour before kick off! That’s non league football I suppose.

At least I wasn’t as pissed off as this chap: https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/foot...

[p4cks]

Hartlepool looking good for a playoff spot. Decent odds on Bet365 so I'm all over that

[yellowjack]

I used to be a season ticket holder at Farnborough FC, but my enthusiasm drained away a few seasons ago (personal circumstances more than disillusionment with the club/game). Then we moved to Bournemouth last May, so not had cause to travel for a "home" game this season. But off the back of finding this thread, I've put three away games onto the kitchen calendar in the hope that I can make at least one of...

Wimborne Town away on Tuesday 17th March
Salisbury away on Saturday 21st March
Dorchester Town away on Saturday 18th April

Sadly I've missed the Poole Town away game, and these are the only three remaining fixtures within sensible travelling distance to catch up with the team and hopefully some of the regular away travelling fans. Currently sat in 15th place (/22) with 36 points from the 28 games played. Postponements must be rife in non league football this year, because several teams have played 32 fixtures, and poor old Poole Town have only managed to get 25 played. Fixture congestion a-go-go toward the end of the season!

[dmulally]

RammyMP said:

I made the 40 mile journey to AFC Fylde tonight only to get the news once I got parked up that the game was off. A big st really less than an hour before kick off! That’s non league football I suppose.

At least I wasn’t as pissed off as this chap: https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/foot...

Gutted for you. That would have made me cranky.

[RammyMP]

dmulally said:

RammyMP said:

I made the 40 mile journey to AFC Fylde tonight only to get the news once I got parked up that the game was off. A big st really less than an hour before kick off! That’s non league football I suppose.

At least I wasn’t as pissed off as this chap: https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/foot...

Gutted for you. That would have made me cranky.

After Fylde blaming our manager for calling the match off they’ve insisted the replay is this Tuesday? They were relaying the pitch today, it’s not going to be fit for Tuesday!

[ribiero]

yellowjack said:

I used to be a season ticket holder at Farnborough FC, but my enthusiasm drained away a few seasons ago (personal circumstances more than disillusionment with the club/game). Then we moved to Bournemouth last May, so not had cause to travel for a "home" game this season. But off the back of finding this thread, I've put three away games onto the kitchen calendar in the hope that I can make at least one of...

Wimborne Town away on Tuesday 17th March
Salisbury away on Saturday 21st March
Dorchester Town away on Saturday 18th April

Sadly I've missed the Poole Town away game, and these are the only three remaining fixtures within sensible travelling distance to catch up with the team and hopefully some of the regular away travelling fans. Currently sat in 15th place (/22) with 36 points from the 28 games played. Postponements must be rife in non league football this year, because several teams have played 32 fixtures, and poor old Poole Town have only managed to get 25 played. Fixture congestion a-go-go toward the end of the season!

Theres loads of good clubs down your way.

Dorchester, Yeovil, Wimborne, Poole, Salisbury, Weymouth. A few smaller clubs near Salisbury too. Downton a favourite of mine despite only seen them twice.

Portland United's meant to be a fun game to go see too, nice and windy.

[yellowjack]

ribiero said:

Theres loads of good clubs down your way.

Dorchester, Yeovil, Wimborne, Poole, Salisbury, Weymouth. A few smaller clubs near Salisbury too. Downton a favourite of mine despite only seen them twice.

Portland United's meant to be a fun game to go see too, nice and windy.

Windy you say? That brings back memories of playing Hockey against the Navy mob on Portland. We had to have an enforced break in play because the Lynx flight were playing near the pitch. They'd lit a big fire (black smoke, probably waste fuel/oil in a tank) and were flying in and out, possibly simulating rescuing casualties off a ship? Anyhow, between the wind, and the smoke, we were choking, and forced to retreat until they'd finished what they were doing. I also got a hockey ball square in the gonads during that match - lifted there off the end of a hockey stick wielded by a WREN - and I swear she did it deliberately!

As for footy clubs this way? Thanks for the pointers. There's also Bashley that I remember from travels supporting Farnborough. But I'm not overly keen to switch allegiance to another non-league club to be fair. Bizarre, really, as my only connection to Farnborough FC was living in the town, so becoming a Poole or Wimborne fan ought to be no great wrench. I'm so close to Bournemouth's King's Park ground that I can hear the crowd on matchdays, but again I can't switch allegiance to them because I'm a born & bred Swansea City fan. Football fan culture is a weird thing, really. Anyway, for now I've earmarked Wimborne v Farnborough on a Tuesday night as my best chance of getting to see a live game before the season is over. Or maybe I'll see if i can get a ticket for a Bournemouth home game? Shouldn't be too hard now that they're not doing so well...

[ribiero]

I went up Farnborough way in the week to watch Cove FC vs Walton & Hersham. Cove's a lovely ground, looks like they're mainly a junior club with an adult team attached. Weirdly there was parking inside the ground behind the dugouts and the fans, a well aimed Gary Ablett clearance would have probably gone through a couple of badly parked suv's.

Walton & Hersham won 2-0, Cove were hopeless going forward and the London team were really good technically, no cars were harmed during the game.

[yellowjack]

ribiero said:

I went up Farnborough way in the week to watch Cove FC vs Walton & Hersham. Cove's a lovely ground, looks like they're mainly a junior club with an adult team attached. Weirdly there was parking inside the ground behind the dugouts and the fans, a well aimed Gary Ablett clearance would have probably gone through a couple of badly parked suv's.

Walton & Hersham won 2-0, Cove were hopeless going forward and the London team were really good technically, no cars were harmed during the game.

Squirrel Lane? Was there much of a crowd? I've never been to a match at Cove, the only time I saw Cove play was in, I think, an Aldershot Senior Cup match v. Farnborough at Cherrywood Road.

[RammyMP]

Well, the National League and both the North and South leagues seem to be in a right mess. Unfortunately I can see this season ending up worse than last year and the leagues cancelled.

The National League is a fking joke.

[itcaptainslow]

Magpie1862 said:

Anybody who thinks having a nice stadium, good fanbase (at this level), decent player budget, etc means an instant return to the football league are usually in for a very rude awakening.

Some good clubs and surprisingly good players.

Absolutely this 100%-as a Luton fan I can say we vastly under-estimated the Conference in the first year we were there. I think quite a few of us thought we’d breeze back up; it was far from the case. There’s not a lot, if anything, between the top of the Conference and mid table/perhaps even towards the top of League Two.

There was a lot of pent up frustration and negativity around our club at the time of the Conference (I think it partially stemmed from the unjust way we ended up there-not an excuse, mind) which definitely affected the players-we do have some rather stupid fans who will react adversely to going behind and get on the players’ backs, especially at that level where they expected us to steamroller teams 8-0 every week.

It took John Still coming in to unify the club with his calm, charming demeanour and positivity-a complete contrast to Richard Money, who seemed to delight in being waspish and winding the fans up

There’s definitely an unfair bottleneck with the two up/two down from the Conference/L2 which means there’s a fair few decent ex-league clubs such as Notts County & Wrexham stuck in non-league, as well as some very good clubs who should have a shot at league football.

The York fan sounding off at the beginning of the thread raised a smile (and some painful memories!). Our sparring in the playoffs, Jason “Panenka wker” Walker, the embarrassing scenes at Kenilworth Road where a (small, despite the generalisation from this chap) group of our fans decided to gather in front of the away stand on the pitch to “vent their frustrations”, the miles offside goal at Wembley which condemned us to another year out of the FL.

I could be smug and go on about the huge gulf between our respective clubs now but I’m quite aware just how quickly things can change in football, and would like to think I can display a bit of class others can’t...

The best NL memory apart from promotion as champions was becoming the first NL side to knock a Premiership club out of the FA Cup (Norwich).

The non-league days for us were a definite reality check, palate cleanser, a lesson and perhaps a blessing as we’ve returned leaner, stronger, much better run and are now punching arguably above our weight. Hopefully the likes of Notts County can do the same. Best wishes for the future and the season.

[Magpie1862]

Luton eh ?

I remember Ricky Hill, Brian Stein, Steve Foster, Tony Grealish, Paul Walsh, etc

Great day when you came to our place after you had already been promoted. Think it was 2-2.

We applauded you and Sheehan off the pitch. Didn't see any aggro either.

Who would have thought, Torquay top, big spending Stockport sack Gannon, Wrexham owned by Hollywood film stars.

It's the hope that kills you !