only 3 to go down?

[kentishman]

Question posed on the Ryman Forum:
"Due to the unfortunate circumstances surrounding chester, farsley and kings lynn, will that mean only 9 clubs will be relegated from the unibond, southern and ryman premier (3 from each) as 3 teams will have to be reprieved?"

[Sarrie the Camel]

It looks as though there is going to be a real shuffle around this summer as, in addition to the demise of the Clubs mentioned by Kentishman, Gloucester City are to be relocated from BS North to BS South (if they're not relegated anyway) and Windsor & Eton have applied to the Ryman Premier if they gain promotion from Zam South & West (and, as they are 16 points clear, that seems likely depite Totton having 4 games in hand)

[Reg Trapattoni]

You both seem to have overlooked the fact that Unibond Premier started the season with only 21 teams - I think Newcastle Blue star were the team that went bust last summer after the leagues were decided. Anyway that should result in only eight teams being relegated from our level - the bottom two in each division plus another two who have the worst record of points per game, as Unibond will only play 38 games as opposed to 42 in Ryman and Southern Leagues. As Sarrie says this will mean a complete reshuffle and we will probably have new opposition to the west, i.e. Bashley,Didcot and lose teams in the north of our division, which will probably be a good thing. The one good thing is that Tonbridge is very central in the Ryman League and we are here for the long term, until Tommy gets us into BSS that is!

[Sarrie the Camel]

Reg - very well documented.

We could get more from the north of the Thames e.g. Hemel Hempstead from the Southern League, particularly if, as seems likely, the Trawler Boys in Lowestoft are promoted. They surely couldn't be included in either the Zam Southern League or the Unibond Northern League?

but then nothing seems too logical in the organisation of lower league football!

[charlieangel]

weymouth have a CVA...Also sailsbury,might get further points deducted.,or possible demotion.,add those to the above....

so much for chasing the dream of conference football ...didn't these clubs ever think about national travel,having all there players on contract,or full pro wages.

increased security,more stewards and a police presence to pay for.,

[Reg Trapattoni]

Very good points Charlie & Sarrie on this fascinating subject. I personally think that Lowestoft would go into the Southern League and that a few teams in the Midlands would have to switch to Unibond to make up for the defections of Chester,Farsley, Newcastle and Kings Lynn.Windsor and Hemel Hempstead would not bother Angels fans too much. I don't think I've seen Windsor since the old Metropolitan League days when they played against our Reserves and boasted royal patronage because of the occasional visit of King George IV! As a traditionalist whilst I appreciate what the pyramid has done to level up football at our standard I think this season has been a watershed for clubs at all levels financially and Charlie makes a very good point about chasing Conference football at all costs. Lewes are a prime example where the previous board overspent their way into reaching that standard and are probably very lucky to still be in existence. I'm hoping that Weymouth stay in business for the next two months as I was hoping to see Lewes back in the Ryman next August. Losing Dartford will be a financial blow to all clubs in our league and for the same reasons I'm hoping we keep both Hastings and Maidstone - lets face it Maidstone probably bring more fans to Longmead than go to Ashford as its closer for most of them. Margate will probably be replaced by Folkestone or Croydon which would be okay but overall I would like to see regionalisation start even higher up the pyramid. I still remember the old third division North and South when there were more local derbies, higher gates and less travelling and presumably a lower wage level. Below that I would have four regional leagues with Blue Square on a parity with Ryman,Unibond and Southern and eight regional leagues feeding into those four. Level five would remain the same with 14 leagues feeding into the eight with promoted teams not having to fear vastly increased travelling costs. I realise that selfish clubs would never vote for this but the likes of Portsmouth, Palace, Southend and Bournemouth may well support it.

[charlieangel]

i think since the last restructure the leagues below BSS and BSN have suffered in quality ,as most of the better clubs or ambitious clubs have all been promoted

The ryman premier were now in,is poorer than the old southern league eastern division we left a few years ago.

if Hastings get promoted with Dartford and Maidstone get relegated ,not one visiting club would bring more than about 80 fans,

Most of the clubs in trouble now are higher level than us

[Sarrie the Camel]

Agree with CharlieAngel about the overall quality and the adage of "only the fittest survive" is certainly true from the financial perspective. However, we've lost other teams from our division in the past with good support (Dover, Chelmsford, Wombles etc) and we're still going ....... just!

Perhaps next season we'll be the big boys, crowds-wise, and it will be our turn to escape the Ryman / Isthmian to the Conference South.

Reg T :

"I remember the old third division North and South when there were more local derbies, higher gates and less travelling and presumably a lower wage level."

There was also the maximum wage (now long gone thanks to Jimmy Hill and George Eastham) and no such thing as part-time players - professionals or amateurs only (supposedly, as I know of some teams in the old Isthmian League where players signed on at the local factory once a week, collected their money and then went off to training!) I suspect that the abolition of amateur status has had a lot to do with the financial woes of many Clubs but, hey, we can't live in the past .....