SUDDENLY, the FA Trophy is important once more. With non-league action suspended, FA Trophy games have been allowed to continue, although goodness knows if the competition will be allowed to continue to its conclusion. With last season’s final between Harrogate and Concord Rangers still outstanding, this year’s FA Trophy is in full flow. Hitchin Town […]
FROM the evidence of the first month or so of the non-league season, fans are clamouring for live football, regardless of the quality of the product on offer. Non-league football is seeing an increase in demand, even though clubs are operating with restricted ground capacities. This has meant some clubs have missed out on the […]
THE late Alan Hull of Lindisfarne once wrote a tune called “The Money Game” and sang that he could “smile when it’s a rainy day”, implying that he didn’t have to worry about cash when things were bad. Sadly, modern lifestyles and mass consumerism have left many people without a proverbial pot to pee in, […]
WHAT A ridiculous situation this season’s FA Cup is. The second qualifying round brought us many ties involving step two teams from the non-league world. But in this confusing world of the pandemic, step two clubs cannot admit supporters to their grounds. Somebody needs to tell the authorities that most non-league clubs play in front […]
THE late Alan Hull of Lindisfarne once wrote a tune called “The Money Game” and sang that he could “smile when it’s a rainy day”, implying that he didn’t have to worry about cash when things were bad. Sadly, modern lifestyles and mass consumerism have left many people without a proverbial pot to pee in, […]
WITH nobody allowed near a Premier League turnstile and everyone being advised to adopt a simpler, more fulfilling life while they refrain from breathing the same air as their neighbour, non-league football may have a golden opportunity to win more friends and influence for folk. When a magazine like Monocle, a pretentious coffee table monthly […]
TO THE outside world, Leatherhead’s FA Cup run of 1974/75 might have looked like an ‘overnight success’. Indeed, the club had never previously reached the first round proper of the competition, much less the heights of the fourth round and the “Leicester game”. In our latest Guest Slot, Kevin Parrott recalls one of the mid-1970s […]
FOOTBALL clubs at all levels are feeling the squeeze at the moment. When you hear that a huge organisation like Barcelona is having financial pressure and their players have taken a pay cut, then you know the game is in a precarious state. Just six weeks without football and some clubs are already staring into […]
ONE OF the most talked-about aspects of non-league football is the wage bill. Some clubs talk their budget up while others play it down. But mostly, the playing budget is shrouded in mystery. In some countries, declaring your budget for the year is a requirement. In France, for example, it is well known what each […]
