The Vanarama Non-League Football Thread

[Nelson]

In the FA Cup, we beat Penistone Church 2-0 (who happen to be the club where John Stones started which they really do push!) and play Workington of the Northern Premier League this Saturday at Workington in the 1st qualifying round.

In the league, a goalless draw at Charnock Richard, a 2-2 draw at Squires Gate (interesting about their ground is that it basically shares a wall with Blackpool Wren Rovers ground which surely, apart from ground sharers, makes the two grounds the closest proximity to anyone else), a 5-2 home defeat against Wythenshawe FC and a 4-2 win away to Cheadle Town puts us mid table with one more game to go in August (tonight at AFC Liverpool).

We also progressed to the 2nd qualifying round of the FA Vase with a comfortable 4-1 win against Beverley Town of the NE Counties 1st Division (for the first time, I did the Facebook live match updates for that one).

 

[Bobfoc]

Scunthorpe's owner has decided to withdraw all funding and is looking to sell the club. After this Saturday, they will play their home games in Gainsborough. I hope I'm wrong, but I think this is the beginning of the end for them.

[Adam]

Not the beginning of it, because the previous owner plunged them to these depths in the first place, but the whole situation is a sorry mess. Gainsborough released a statement saying they had not agreed to a groundshare, but they seem to have deleted that now.

Scunthorpe are our main rivals. To see them potentially fall off the map would be a travesty. It shouldn't be possible for one businessman to sink an entire club that has been around for so many years, yet here we are again.

[lanky316]

Dropped slightly further than Southend but still a shit. I really hope that someone could save them and keep them going. One of those teams from growing up and discovering football that I had a strange affinity for (their colours being the same as Villa meant they shared a Subbuteo box so they got plenty of play time) so hope they can pull through all this. Having just read another team high up in the rugby pyramid going under and with these teams struggling it's a real shitter for sport. 

[Bobfoc]

I've found over the years that you just have to appreciate stability at your club when it's there. It really doesn't take much for things to all go downhill, and there aren't that many clubs you'd say are "immune" to it, i.e. famous enough to reliably attract new buyers at any given time.

[lanky316]

Potentially positive news

Southend United: National League club agree takeover by Australian-led consortium

After all the grim feeling that it was finally over, it looks like a takeover of Southend is going to happen.

 

Edited October 3, 2023 by lanky316

[Bobfoc]

Scunthorpe have a new owner. Hopefully, things will be better moving forward.

[lanky316]

This is great news, two teams with a long history in the game even if they've not been a big presence at the top of the pyramid so glad they might be finally seeing some positive after a shit few years.

[DFF]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-67450436.amp

Sheffield FC - the world's oldest club - has unveiled plans to move back to Sheffield (they currently play just over the South Yorkshire / Derbyshire border in Dronfield). 

The deal will see them share a ground with our rugby league side Sheffield Eagles. 

It's a nice looking design of the 5,000 cap stadium. Only thing I'll say is that the place they've chosen is literally on a roundabout, and traffic is often poor already there. Still, happy they will be back in the city - they have been trying to work on something for a long time. 

[Lineker]

 

[Nelson]

To be fair to Pascal Chimbonda, even though Skem are still bottom of the league, their deficit has been reduced by quite a lot. I think they were on 5 points when he took over (literally days after we played them) and now are on 20, 3 points behind 2nd bottom.

[Lineker]

No messing about for Chesterfield.

[Bobfoc]

They were very much "best of the rest" last season and only missed out on penalties. I can't begrudge them promotion after three playoff exits in a row.

[Adam]

Winklevoss Twins invest millions in Real Bedford FC

The twins that Armie Hammer played in The Social Network are investing in ninth-tier vanity project Real Bedford FC. They're now crypto bitcoin billionaires, so I'm sure it will all be above board and straight forward from here.

[Bobfoc]

There's very little that's more cringeworthy than taking over an English team and renaming it "Real".

[gunnar hendershow]

The thing is people already liked Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds whereas only the biggest crypto weirdos like the Winklevoss Twins.

[Bobfoc]

Boreham Wood have been relegated to the National League South. They managed to get far more money than they were supposed to from the Covid funding package, with the club's owner suspiciously sitting on the National League board, so I don't feel sorry for them.

[Lineker]

 

[Adam]

The National League have made a complete pig's ear of this.

It has taken them three statements to confirm that in fact, Solihull will not get a bye and will instead face Halifax in an Eliminator, then Altrincham get the bye but have to go to Bromley in the semis instead. Plenty of fans from several clubs involved pissed off, not least because games and days have changed at no notice.