The National league... | Page 15 | Vital Football

The National league...

Wonderful couple of semi-finals, and the correct final pair based on the season as a whole. Both have some really talented attacking players and it genuinely could go either way.

Would implore as many as possible to go to Wembley for the final if they're able to - both sides play some really good stuff and I'm sure it's going to be a great game with a good atmosphere. Tickets were only £20 in the neutral section a few weeks ago (Club Wembley level) but I think they've gone up since that.
 
Train strike day I believe with no trains out of medway as far as i am aware.

With the two teams involved playing it somewhere like Villa would have been sensible. Playing finals in half empty wembleys doesnt do the event justice .
 
markinkent said:
Train strike day I believe with no trains out of medway as far as i am aware.

With the two teams involved playing it somewhere like Villa would have been sensible. Playing finals in half empty wembleys doesnt do the event justice .
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That'd be fine, except Villa kick off against Spurs half an hour before the final gets underway! Before today there was also the possibility of the final being Boreham Wood v Bromley which would suit Wembley perfectly location wise, I don't think you can just pick and choose which stadium the final will be held in just a week prior to the game to be honest. I know what you're saying though.
 
JoeScout said:
That'd be fine, except Villa kick off against Spurs half an hour before the final gets underway! Before today there was also the possibility of the final being Boreham Wood v Bromley which would suit Wembley perfectly location wise, I don't think you can just pick and choose which stadium the final will be held in just a week prior to the game to be honest. I know what you're saying though.
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the price of football podcast had someone on from the national league that said venues have to be chosen 1 year in advance; which obviously makes planning tricky
 
JoeScout said:
That'd be fine, except Villa kick off against Spurs half an hour before the final gets underway! Before today there was also the possibility of the final being Boreham Wood v Bromley which would suit Wembley perfectly location wise, I don't think you can just pick and choose which stadium the final will be held in just a week prior to the game to be honest. I know what you're saying though.
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Yep to be fair hadnt looked if villa were at home. My point was that we should move away from wembley for all finals. Villa, Millenium, Old Trafford all viable alternatives to everything being at Wembley.
 
Have to admit I didn’t see both games going the way they did just shows how strong the conference has become
Expected 2 home wins but not that close
 
I never saw either Bradley Dack or Simon King play for Gills. For all it's faults at least iFollow has allowed us exiles see the players you guys at home are raving about.
 
markinkent said:
Yep to be fair hadnt looked if villa were at home. My point was that we should move away from wembley for all finals. Villa, Millenium, Old Trafford all viable alternatives to everything being at Wembley.
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I hear what you're saying, but a few years ago they held it at Bristol City, last year it was at West Ham, so they don't mind where they host it. You ask fans of the clubs involved though and I'm sure they'd rather a trip to Wembley than to Aston, lovely though Villa Park is.

The overuse of Wembley is more to do with all the Internationals played there plus the semi finals - it's THOSE games which need to be spread around the country, not actual finals. Using Wembley for finals is fine as far as I'm concerned, but I don't see why England qualifiers have to be there as well.
 
JoeScout said:
I hear what you're saying, but a few years ago they held it at Bristol City, last year it was at West Ham, so they don't mind where they host it. You ask fans of the clubs involved though and I'm sure they'd rather a trip to Wembley than to Aston, lovely though Villa Park is.

The overuse of Wembley is more to do with all the Internationals played there plus the semi finals - it's THOSE games which need to be spread around the country, not actual finals. Using Wembley for finals is fine as far as I'm concerned, but I don't see why England qualifiers have to be there as well.
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Agree with most of that. It will be interesting to see what the attendance will be with two well supported clubs in the final. I doubt it will hit 40K in a 90K stadium. That's a shame as the importance of the event deserves a full stadium.

I actually dont get the draw of wembley. If gills were in the playoff final next season I'd rather Old Trafford, newcastle, villa or ideally the millenium over wembley.

Will admit that the fun of a beer fuelled weekend is the main reason ;-)
 
JoeScout said:
The overuse of Wembley is more to do with all the Internationals played there plus the semi finals - it's THOSE games which need to be spread around the country, not actual finals. Using Wembley for finals is fine as far as I'm concerned, but I don't see why England qualifiers have to be there as well.
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Fully agree there. Finals and “big” internationals at Wembley. Lesser England games can be elsewhere. Semi Finals should definitely be elsewhere. All in my humble opinion of course.
 
markinkent said:
I actually dont get the draw of wembley. If gills were in the playoff final next season I'd rather Old Trafford, newcastle, villa or ideally the millenium over wembley.
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It was always the mystique around Wembley. Only 2 or 4 clubs could play there every year. In major cup finals that everyone wanted to win. But since they put the semis, and we now have multiple club comp finals there, it’s lost the glamour. Pity.

TBF, if we (and a lot of other clubs) get to play-off finals in Div 2, 1 or Champ, it needs the 80k plus at Wembley to fit the crowd. Pity it’s not still 100k.
 
OneSirKeefy said:
It was always the mystique around Wembley. Only 2 or 4 clubs could play there every year. In major cup finals that everyone wanted to win. But since they put the semis, and we now have multiple club comp finals there, it’s lost the glamour. Pity.

TBF, if we (and a lot of other clubs) get to play-off finals in Div 2, 1 or Champ, it needs the 80k plus at Wembley to fit the crowd. Pity it’s not still 100k.
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Agreed that the mystique is gone.

Championship needs wembley for play off finals but placed like OT (80K) and Millenium (75K) are more than adequate for l1 and l2

We could have hosted the 2021 final - 9K as morecambe beat newport !
 
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But shirley Wembley, for all its bad positioning, is more convenient for our fans, if and when we reach play off finals. Even in my wildest dreams as a nipper I could never have imagined my beloved Gills gracing that hallowed turf but we have managed it three times.

The other point about Wembley is that we sold out our allocation on all the occasions we have been there (NB: not 100% sure about the Shrewsbury game) and also snapped up some that Wigan returned, but would so many of our fair weather type fans have purchased them if it meant trailing off to Manchester or Cardiff?
 
LancsGordoRoad said:
I watch quite a lot of AFC Fylde games - attacking midfielder Nick Haughton may well be the best dead ball artist in the NL. He`s also got a very good eye for a long range shot. Like these (one scored last Saturday and the other last season):

https://twitter.com/x/status/1693961213795868713
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There were a few similar at the weekend weirdly - a centre half for South Shields scored from a ridiculous range as well. Oddly I think I prefer the South Shields one as it goes like an absolute rocket rather than lobbing the keeper.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1693216307343147346
 
JoeScout said:
There were a few similar at the weekend weirdly - a centre half for South Shields scored from a ridiculous range as well. Oddly I think I prefer the South Shields one as it goes like an absolute rocket rather than lobbing the keeper.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1693216307343147346
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Yep, nice goal ! South Shields are a team on the "up", wouldn`t be surprised to see them in a (NLN) play-off berth come the end of the season. Sense a bit of a resurgent climate in so far as N/east non-league is concerned.
 
Browsing the lower league results and found that non-league attendances are definitely on the up.

Couple of nights back in National League South (one step below National League) Yeovil at home to Weymouth drew 6,200. Impressive.

In the step below NLS, saw that Chatham are drawing largish crowds - 1758, in their Isthmian league game v Carshalton a couple of weeks back and in the same div, same day, Dulwich Hamlet drew 3,191 [about average for them].

Bury, in the bottom rungs of the ladder, along with Macclesfield (Northern prem) are also drawing big crowds.

All good stuff - and somewhere relatively inexpensive to take the kids to see a competitive footy game with a good atmosphere thrown in for good measure.
 
LancsGordoRoad said:
Browsing the lower league results and found that non-league attendances are definitely on the up.

Couple of nights back in National League South (one step below National League) Yeovil at home to Weymouth drew 6,200. Impressive.

In the step below NLS, saw that Chatham are drawing largish crowds - 1758, in their Isthmian league game v Carshalton a couple of weeks back and in the same div, same day, Dulwich Hamlet drew 3,191 [about average for them].

Bury, in the bottom rungs of the ladder, along with Macclesfield (Northern prem) are also drawing big crowds.

All good stuff - and somewhere relatively inexpensive to take the kids to see a competitive footy game with a good atmosphere thrown in for good measure.
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I lived near Dulwich for a few years .They have a slight advantage of really being the only fair size club in that region outside the top leagues .They often produce good attacking players.
 
chris who said:
I lived near Dulwich for a few years .They have a slight advantage of really being the only fair size club in that region outside the top leagues .They often produce good attacking players.
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Me too, in fact pretty close D.H`s ground. Some non-top-flight options - Millwall, Charlton but, now you mention it, for the population etc., suppose there were not loads of non league options.
 
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