Using the time old maxim that any-where north of an imaginary line between Bristol and the Wash, is " The North ", it's been a pretty good season for Northern teams ...

The disappointing aspect in that both Clubs demoted to the National League are northern, in Morecambe and Carlisle United. Apart from that, the only other Clubs to suffer relegation are Leicester ( EPL to Championship ) and Shrewsbury ( L1 to L2 ) .. the other Clubs, Ipswich, Southampton, Luton, Ipswich, Crawley, Cambridge United and Bristol Rovers are south of that line. Cardiff City are in Wales, but no sane person would regard them as " Northern " ...

We know that Liverpool have won the Premier League, and the seven Clubs who've been promoted automatically are all Northern namely Leeds, Burnley, Birmingham, Wrexham, Doncaster, Port Vale and Bradford City. Even the play-offs are weighted heavily with Northern Clubs, with both the Championship and League 2 play-offs featuring 3/4 Northern teams. The outlier is the League 1 affair, with Charlton, Wycombe & Orient from the South against Stockport County ...

Hopefully, this trend will continue, excepting a certain Club in the BB2 postcode area ....

You mention Carlisle & Morecambe and in my years watching football we’ve lost a lot of northern clubs in the league.

Bradford, Workington, Southport and Barrow all lost their places in the re-election days although Barrow are back.

Then all of Hartlepool, Darlington, Scunthorpe, Halifax, Chester, Bury, Oldham and Rochdale have gone, all but Bury suffering relegation.

The North East and North West Counties Premier and First Divisions were all won by Northern clubs.

Alas, all the teams relegated were also Northern.

Add to those New Brighton replaced by Workington, Acc Stanley, now back, Gateshead Scarborough, Macclesfield
Not sure where you place Boston
Not many Southern clubs
Torquay, Hereford, Aldershot, Maidstone and Yeovil

mdd2 wrote: ↑

Sun May 04, 2025 6:03 pm

Not sure where you place Boston

Hell of a drive, it was almost as bad as going to Norwich.

Not having Leicester, Birmingham and Shrewsbury as Northern at all. Port Vale and Wrexham are contentious too.

Brum, Port Vale , Wrexham ,Leicester , Shrews ??? A quite bizzare interpretation of “ northern “ . I’d say losing Morcambe and Carlisle coupled with the loss of Roch/Oldham/Bury has been a pretty grim time for certainly the North West .

I’m learning a lot. Now let me get this right, you people don’t like Blackburn, is that right?

And why?

I don't mind people from Blackburn. But I do feel sorry for people who spend their weekends on other clubs' forums trying to seek attention

AlargeClaret wrote: ↑

Sun May 04, 2025 6:36 pm

Brum, Port Vale , Wrexham ,Leicester , Shrews ??? A quite bizzare interpretation of “ northern “ . I’d say losing Morcambe and Carlisle coupled with the loss of Roch/Oldham/Bury has been a pretty grim time for certainly the North West .

I refer the honourable Gentleman to the first line of the O/P, to which I based my observations !

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Sun May 04, 2025 5:13 pm

You mention Carlisle & Morecambe and in my years watching football we’ve lost a lot of northern clubs in the league.

Bradford, Workington, Southport and Barrow all lost their places in the re-election days although Barrow are back.

Then all of Hartlepool, Darlington, Scunthorpe, Halifax, Chester, Bury, Oldham and Rochdale have gone, all but Bury suffering relegation.

I think it is fair to say that the trend throughout the last 50+ years is towards professional football migrating southwards, at all levels.

claretspice wrote: ↑

Sun May 04, 2025 7:56 pm

I think it is fair to say that the trend throughout the last 50+ years is towards professional football migrating southwards, at all levels.

Very much so

claretspice wrote: ↑

Sun May 04, 2025 7:56 pm

I think it is fair to say that the trend throughout the last 50+ years is towards professional football migrating southwards, at all levels.

Absolutely true, a positive sign though is that York City, Halifax, Oldham, Rochdale are set to occupy 4/6 of the National League play-off places, Scunthorpe or Chester will rejoin the National League depending who wins their National League North final on 18th May .. Macclesfield will rejoin National League North after winning the Northern Premier League, Bury walked to the N/W Counties Premier Division title with 109 points in a 46 game season, scoring 131 goals ( small steps, but they're back to level 8 in the Pyramid ) ..

Of the others, Southport, Scarborough, Darlington and Hereford all finished well clear of relegation in National League North ( Tier 6 ), Workington were mid table in the Northern Premier League, Premier Division, and Bradford Park Avenue, now play in the Northern Premier League East Division, a tier below Workington ...

2020visionofleeds wrote: ↑

Sun May 04, 2025 6:56 pm

I’m learning a lot. Now let me get this right, you people don’t like Blackburn, is that right?

And why?

Local rivals (11 miles apart) Usual bad blood from bygone games and actions that have built up over the years. Plus they are by and large a bunch of stunted dullards.

Who are your main rivals. Huddersfield, Bradford or Harrogate?

AlargeClaret wrote: ↑

Sun May 04, 2025 6:36 pm

Brum, Port Vale , Wrexham ,Leicester , Shrews ??? A quite bizzare interpretation of “ northern “ . I’d say losing Morcambe and Carlisle coupled with the loss of Roch/Oldham/Bury has been a pretty grim time for certainly the North West .

If you make the north/south divide the equivalent of where the line is in the national league n/s, then Birmingham is deepnorth.
Short of something very radical and "unfair", there is no way of fixing that either. It went wrong when isthmian teams got one in three promotion places for decades, and now, even though that has stopped, you just can't flush them away.
If gloucester go up, they will end up in the North. If St Albans had stayed up, they would probably have been in the North.

timshorts wrote: ↑

Mon May 05, 2025 7:37 am

If you make the north/south divide the equivalent of where the line is in the national league n/s, then Birmingham is deepnorth.
Short of something very radical and "unfair", there is no way of fixing that either. It went wrong when isthmian teams got one in three promotion places for decades, and now, even though that has stopped, you just can't flush them away.
If gloucester go up, they will end up in the North. If St Albans had stayed up, they would probably have been in the North.

Give it a couple of years and the BBC will have the north/south dividing line somewhere near the top end of Tottenham Court Rd.

When I first started watching seriously our local village team Burscough played in a league containing Rossendale United,Nettherfield ,Darwen,Nelson,South Liverpool, Marine,Chorley,Morecambe,Lancaster City, Hyde United,Fleetwood Town, Accrington Stanley and Wigan Athletic. Our team tumbled down the pyramid as costs and wealthy owners adopted a team to back .The costs now are forcing teams out of being competitive with many going under.
The regionalosation into 3rd Div North and South was an attempt to make travel easier.Wether splitting Div 3 again would work is debatable but it wasn't too long ago when now sadly relegated Carlise played a midweek game at Torquay.
That is clearly a non sustainable problem.
Grass roots football is vital to the games survival but how you develop it with Premier league clubs trousering the bulk of tv money is a serious issue.Imo the worst thing to hit football over the last 50yrs as Sky TV and the wrecking of our national game by Uefa and Fifa with the obsession of making larger and larger tournaments. Next season again we will have the nonsense of international breaks inflicted on our domestic league .

Clarets4me wrote: ↑

Mon May 05, 2025 12:39 am

Absolutely true, a positive sign though is that York City, Halifax, Oldham, Rochdale are set to occupy 4/6 of the National League play-off places,

You forgot to mention Gateshead who go into a shoot out at the International Stadium this afternoon with Southern Jessie's Southend United. The Heed need to win to pip Southend who are one point above them in the last play off spot.

Gateshead lost their place in the league to Peterborough United in 1960 when they failed re-election by one vote despite not finishing bottom of the Division 4 table. Denied a play off place last season due to ground regs technicalities enforced by EFL.

Time for justice. Anyone else going this afty?

ClaretLoup wrote: ↑

Mon May 05, 2025 8:21 am

You forgot to mention Gateshead who go into a shoot out at the International Stadium this afternoon with Southern Jessie's Southend United. The Heed need to win to pip Southend who are one point above them in the last play off spot.

Gateshead lost their place in the league to Peterborough United in 1960 when they failed re-election by one vote despite not finishing bottom of the Division 4 table. Denied a play off place last season due to ground regs technicalities enforced by EFL. Time for justice. Anyone else going this afty?

Do you know if Gateshead have sorted their lease issue with the local authority now ?

Gateshead now have a 10 year lease on the ground even though management of the stadium has now transferred from the Council to a private company.

Pity they didn't have it last season when they had a much stronger team and management.

ClaretLoup wrote: ↑

Mon May 05, 2025 8:21 am

Anyone else going this afty?

All the matches are advertised as being shown live on DAZN, so hopefully there will be a stream somewhere.


it is a travesty that the Women's game can boast the likes of Sky & BBC for a source of income & to try & gain popularity when the National League has to rely on obscure platforms.

Guller Bull wrote: ↑

Mon May 05, 2025 5:56 am

Local rivals (11 miles apart) Usual bad blood from bygone games and actions that have built up over the years. Plus they are by and large a bunch of stunted dullards.

Who are your main rivals. Huddersfield, Bradford or Harrogate?

On a bad day, Farsley Celtic

I guess in yorks/humber area we’d say Huddersfield and Hull, maybe Middlesboro. Never think about Bradford. The Sheffield teams ought to be I don’t see much acrimony there.

Those of us in fantasy land think it’s Man U - and, to my surprise, their fans do still seem to have a particular dislike of Leeds. So if by some miracle we got established in the Prem, that rivalry might return to the top of the pile.

ClaretLoup wrote: ↑

Mon May 05, 2025 8:21 am

You forgot to mention Gateshead who go into a shoot out at the International Stadium this afternoon with Southern Jessie's Southend United. The Heed need to win to pip Southend who are one point above them in the last play off spot.

Gateshead lost their place in the league to Peterborough United in 1960 when they failed re-election by one vote despite not finishing bottom of the Division 4 table. Denied a play off place last season due to ground regs technicalities enforced by EFL.

Time for justice. Anyone else going this afty?

My neices fiance is a Southend fan, he and his Pompey supporting dad have gone. He said Southend have sold about 1,500 tickets for the game.

The Gateshead match is not coming through as yet, so I've decided to put on the Wealdstone v Halifax game, Wealdstone need to win to have a chance of staying up.
Winning 2-0 after 20 mins.

Gateshead 0-0. Southend last side into play offs.

I watched Wealdstone v Halifax. The Raider will be giving it some.

Gateshead v Southend finished 0-0, so Southend get the last play-off spot .... I hadn't realised that Gateshead's form had fallen off a cliff, losing 9 of their last 11 league games ! Wealdstone beat Halifax 3-1, and Dagenham & Redbridge could only draw at Solihull Moors, so it's the " Daggers " that go down to National League North/South, together with AFC Fylde, Maidenhead and Ebbsfleet.

York look the form team going into the play-offs with 16 points from the last 18 available, for whatever that's worth ....