York through

[Swansea Harrier]

On a purely selfish level, I am happy to lose either of Boston or York from the division. Both are likely to be better next season. I only wish they could take Fylde and Chester with them - as I suspect the same will be true of them

As will Telford, Spendymoor and Darlo...

There will always be a bottleneck of clubs vying for just two promotion places. The playoffs are a nightmare for us regardless - we've never won a tie! The only way to be sure is to win the league...

[Sheffield Harrier]

We've enjoyed one promotion in nearly forty years so my confidence on us getting promotion in the next few years is pretty low. Not that I don't have faith in Russ, it was a great season, but it doesn't get any easier.

[Medieval]

I would say it`s getting more difficult for traditional clubs like us, even with a decent fan base. I get the feeling there are more & more bank rolled clubs coming through.

[SCF1985]

I would say it`s getting more difficult for traditional clubs like us, even with a decent fan base. I get the feeling there are more & more bank rolled clubs coming through.

Agree to a point, but I think the number of these sugar daddy clubs are tailing off now. Most of them are out of our way, and I can’t see who the new ones are coming through. Only really Brackley and Filofax left at our level, and King’s Lynn have just come down. Billericay supposedly had lofty ambitions, but having just been relegated from the South, they’ve clearly been a failure. Do Buxton and Banbury have money? It will be interesting to see how they fare in our league next season. And Peterborough Sports have made a meteoric rise, surely one of the most unlikely teams ever to play at our level from what I’ve read, but can’t really see them getting much higher without sufficient infrastructure

[Swansea Harrier]

I would say it`s getting more difficult for traditional clubs like us, even with a decent fan base. I get the feeling there are more & more bank rolled clubs coming through.

Agree to a point, but I think the number of these sugar daddy clubs are tailing off now. Most of them are out of our way, and I can’t see who the new ones are coming through. Only really Brackley and Filofax left at our level, and King’s Lynn have just come down. Billericay supposedly had lofty ambitions, but having just been relegated from the South, they’ve clearly been a failure. Do Buxton and Banbury have money? It will be interesting to see how they fare in our league next season. And Peterborough Sports have made a meteoric rise, surely one of the most unlikely teams ever to play at our level from what I’ve read, but can’t really see them getting much higher without sufficient infrastructure

Buxton do. They also have a certain Ashley Chambers up front...

There are still clubs with money stuck a level below - South Shields and Warrington immediately spring to mind.

[garthrockett]

Agree to a point, but I think the number of these sugar daddy clubs are tailing off now.

Telford under new ownership ( the Poundland guy), Spennymoor still spending, while Darlo, Chester and York(if they dont go up)not short of a bob or two.

It goes in cycles and just as likely to end in tears for some ; Colne Dynamoes in the early 1990s, Whitehawk on the south coast was another one.

[jamestheimpaler]

https://twitter.com/YorkCityFC/status/1528015640287711233

[Phil]

2-0 now. Kouhyar, the one we tried to sign from Hereford, scores the clincher


Who would have thought it before February?

[koro]

This is why the top 7 play-off system works. Promotion goes to the team that has developed over the course of the season and has
peaked at the right time.

[Tamworth Harrier]

They finished 21 points behind Brackley and lost a third of their league games (14). Shows you the lottery of the playoffs.

[Jasper]

This is why the top 7 play-off system works. Promotion goes to the team that has developed over the course of the season and has
peaked at the right time.

So it's not a 42 game season anymore, well 46 next season?

[SCF1985]

They finished 21 points behind Brackley and lost a third of their league games (14). Shows you the lottery of the playoffs.

Exactly. Maybe next season we should just loiter around mid-table till March, and then get promotion because we’ve ‘developed’ at the right time? Might as well just start the season again from January in future and declaring all results before New Year null and void as it clearly isn’t a league anymore.

[Swansea Harrier]

This is why the top 7 play-off system works. Promotion goes to the team that has developed over the course of the season and has
peaked at the right time.

As much as I understand what you mean Koro -and we all know what we signed up for at the start of the season - it does feel like the playoff system rewards sides that hit form at the end of the season rather than being more consistent throughout as others have suggested. With this logic, why penalise teams that started the season better and ended up deservedly higher up the table? Why does finishing well trump a good first half of the season? These are all rhetorical questions, we know it's all on the day in the playoffs.

York appear to have nailed it, as they were firmly midtable before a great winning run in March/April got them into the top seven. Boston likewise, though they were always there or thereabouts.

Brackley, Fylde and Boston must already be up there as favourites for next season, then you're looking at Kings Lynn, Chester, Darlo, Spennymoor and ourselves, maybe even Telford as dark horses.

It's going to be as hard as ever.

[Medieval]

I think this is a better system than previous, we just tailed off alarmingly over a fairly long period, failure in the playoff`s for us was inevitable with our form.

Had we scraped into 7th position with a late run i`m sure many on here would applaud the system for keeping the season alive.

Unfortunately, can`t have it both ways.

[SCF1985]

It’s going to be between us, Brackley, Fylde and Boston next season for the title. Chorley, Spennymoor, Chester, Hereford, Darlington and Kettering will also be up there. That’s almost half the league!

Can’t see King’s Lynn going straight back up amongst that line-up, though they did win the North a couple of seasons ago. Buxton and Banbury won their leagues comfortably and will be interesting to watch, and also Scarborough, a former FL club back at this level after a longer than expected absence. It will be interesting, but I think it will be the usual suspects challenging next season