Football

[Xenophon PCDGS]

It was only last season that Leicester City had a poor end to the season, when they looked likely to finish very high in the top three positions.

 

[Cowley]

That assumes that Burnley are bound to lose to Liverpool despite having an ok record against them and the benefit of some real life home support. Given the number of unexpected results we've seen this season I wouldn't be counting any chickens just yet!

Yes I’d agree that that’s definitely not a given. The game against Palace might be interesting too if Palace throw everything at it because it’s Roy’s last game as manager.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Just had a phone call from a supporter of Stalybridge Celtic to say that the FA have confirmed the Northern Premier League Allocations for the 2021/2022 season. That league will now operate the new eighth division at step 4. That means 58 clubs have been split across the three divisions of the league. The Premier Division will still contain the same 22 clubs as per the last two seasons. There will be a total of 20 new clubs joining the league from step 5, who will play in the NPL East, NPL West and the NPL Midlands. He had not heard who these new teams were, unfortunately.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

New (promoted) teams in the NPL East division are Bridlington, Hebburn, Liversedge, Shildon, Stockton and Yorkshire Amateur.

In the NPL West division, it's 1874 Northwich, Bootle and Warrington Rylands who are promoted.

And in the NPL Midlands, it's Shepshed and Sporting Khalsa who are promoted, with a total of nine other teams moving sideways (Bedworth, Cambridge City, Coleshill, Corby, Daventry, Halesowen, Histon, Soham and Yaxley) from the Isthmian/Southern leagues.

 

[adrock1976]

New (promoted) teams in the NPL East division are Bridlington, Hebburn, Liversedge, Shildon, Stockton and Yorkshire Amateur.

In the NPL West division, it's 1874 Northwich, Bootle and Warrington Rylands who are promoted.

And in the NPL Midlands, it's Shepshed and Sporting Khalsa who are promoted, with a total of nine other teams moving sideways (Bedworth, Cambridge City, Coleshill, Corby, Daventry, Halesowen, Histon, Soham and Yaxley) from the Isthmian/Southern leagues.

Regarding Halesowen, is it Town or Harriers?

It's been a long time since I last looked out for their fortunes in the local rag when I was in the West Midlands.

 

[SteveM70]

Regarding Halesowen, is it Town or Harriers?

It's been a long time since I last looked out for their fortunes in the local rag when I was in the West Midlands.

i assume Town, as they had a really good FA Trophy run last season and looked a good team when they beat us at the Shay

 

[Bald Rick]

i assume Town, as they had a really good FA Trophy run last season and looked a good team when they beat us at the Shay

The Yeltz!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Regarding Halesowen, is it Town or Harriers?

It's been a long time since I last looked out for their fortunes in the local rag when I was in the West Midlands.

It's Halesowen Town.

Halesowen Harriers went out of business in c. 2003 due to financial problems.

 

[adrock1976]

It's Halesowen Town.

Halesowen Harriers went out of business in c. 2003 due to financial problems.

Thanks very much.

I did hear of one of those going out of business, but could not remember which one.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Tottenham Hotspur 1 ... Aston Villa 2

That result means that Spurs remain in 6th place, four points behind the team in 5th place, with only one match left to play.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Presumably it will work out that the top four finishing (English) Premier League teams (Manchester City, Manchester United, and two others) will qualify for next season's Champions League competition, with those finishing in fifth and sixth places qualifying for the Europa League.

Doesn't really affect things that either Manchester City or Chelsea will win this season's Champions League, that Leicester have won the FA Cup, or Manchester United might win the Europa League.

P.S. What's the Europa Conference League all about?

 

[Darandio]

P.S. What's the Europa Conference League all about?

Simply to give more teams a chance of European football.

And give UEFA more revenue.

 

[Butts]

Simply to give more teams a chance of European football.

And give UEFA more revenue.

And make more money for UEFA?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

P.S. What's the Europa Conference League all about?

Simply to give more teams a chance of European football.

And give UEFA more revenue.

Undoubtedly. Any English teams going to be in the new tournament?

 

[Darandio]

Undoubtedly. Any English teams going to be in the new tournament?

One place. Carabao Cup winner or sixth/seventh in the league depending on who wins what.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

That assumes that Burnley are bound to lose to Liverpool despite having an ok record against them and the benefit of some real life home support. Given the number of unexpected results we've seen this season I wouldn't be counting any chickens just yet!

Burnley 0 ... Liverpool 3

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Presumably it will work out that the top four finishing (English) Premier League teams (Manchester City, Manchester United, and two others) will qualify for next season's Champions League competition, with those finishing in fifth and sixth places qualifying for the Europa League.

Doesn't really affect things that either Manchester City or Chelsea will win this season's Champions League, that Leicester have won the FA Cup, or Manchester United might win the Europa League.

P.S. What's the Europa Conference League all about?

Undoubtedly. Any English teams going to be in the new tournament?

One place. Carabao Cup winner or sixth/seventh in the league depending on who wins what.

Given who won the cups and where they're already guaranteed to finish sixth place will qualify for the Europa League and seventh place for the Europa Conference. The only rider being that if Chelsea finish fifth but also win the CL they would play in that competition instead with no additional EL place for an English team.

Burnley 0 ... Liverpool 3

Apart from Tottenham's home defeat Wednesday was largely surprise free. And very little was further resolved regarding European qualification. However West Ham's win means the best Arsenal can do is reach the ECL and the true reality of the results needed to allow Leeds to finish seventh means they are effectively out of the running. And Everton have an absolute mountain to climb, away to Man City and needing to do better than Tottenham do at Leicester. If both lose (high probability) then an Arsenal win at home to Brighton would see them leapfrog into seventh. An interesting day in store on Sunday.

Talking of which once again Sky have managed to nab all the interesting games meaning that as a Chelsea fan subscribed to BT Sport I will very likely, once again, ignore the live football completely and "enjoy" the artificial tension of MOTD.

 

[gg1]

Simply to give more teams a chance of European football.

And give UEFA more revenue.

Second point definitely, first point no, there will still be the same number of clubs from each country playing in Europe.

The official line is it gives more clubs the chance of playing in the group stages (which is where the extra money comes in) it will also reduce the number of qualifying rounds.

Of course UEFA being UEFA had to add a degree of farce to the whole system, and they did this with Champions League qualification. In the current system all clubs who get knocked out in a CL qualifier are given a second chance in the Europa league, in the new system, the losers of the 1st qualifying round of the CL drop the the conference, 3rd and 4th qualifying round losers drop to the EL, so same principle as currently for these rounds.

Where it gets ridiculous is with the CL 2nd qualifying round, the losers of which will initially bumped down to the EL, and if they lose then are given a 3rd chance by being moved to the conference. This basically means a club can still be playing in Europe after losing 2 successive knockout ties.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

League One Play-Off

Blackpool 3 ... Oxford United 3

Blackpool win 6-3 on aggregate and a visit to Wembley now beckons where in the Play Off Final, they will meet the aggregate winners of the Sunderland and Lincoln play-off tie on 30th May.

 

[Typhoon]

National League

Stockport County 2 ... Torquay United 2

This was a crunch match played today and with 40 games now played, Sutton United are top, three points clear and a better goal difference than that of Torquay United who have now only drawn their last two matches.

This result moves Stockport County up to third place over Hartlepool United with level points but a better goal difference

23 May - Sutton beat Hartlepool 3-0 to claim a place in the Football League for the first time. This makes 13 clubs based in London!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Kelty Hearts, after beating Brechin City in the Play-Off Final, now say goodbye to the Lowland League and look forward to the dizzy heights of Scottish League Two. Mind you, that prospect did not faze Cove Rangers when they too were promoted to that league.

Brechin City now relegated from Scottish League Two to the Highland League where the terrifying prospect now faces them of matches against Fort William...

 

[gg1]

Kelty Hearts, after beating Brechin City in the Play-Off Final, now say goodbye to the Lowland League and look forward to the dizzy heights of Scottish League Two. Mind you, that prospect did not faze Cove Rangers when they too were promoted to that league.

Brechin City now relegated from Scottish League Two to the Highland League where the terrifying prospect now faces them of matches against Fort William...

Am I right in thinking that would make Brechin the most southerly team to ever play in the Highland league?

 

[swt_passenger]

Simply to give more teams a chance of European football.

And give UEFA more revenue.

I was thinking it was going to be a competition for clubs at Conference level…

But meanwhile everything clicks into place on the last day and Newcastle are suddenly 12th, the sort of mid-table ending the owner will be happy with, allowing the sale of a few good players…

 

[scotrail158713]

Am I right in thinking that would make Brechin the most southerly team to ever play in the Highland league?

Yep. They are far enough south that they were claiming that they should be relegated into the Lowland League, however that claim was refused as the line is set roughly along the River Tay, of which Brechin sits north of.

 

[SteveM70]

Kelty Hearts, after beating Brechin City in the Play-Off Final, now say goodbye to the Lowland League and look forward to the dizzy heights of Scottish League Two. Mind you, that prospect did not faze Cove Rangers when they too were promoted to that league.

Brechin City now relegated from Scottish League Two to the Highland League where the terrifying prospect now faces them of matches against Fort William...

Brechin have asked to go into the lowland league.

 

[gg1]

Yep. They are far enough south that they were claiming that they should be relegated into the Lowland League, however that claim was refused as the line is set roughly along the River Tay, of which Brechin sits north of.

Brechin have asked to go into the lowland league.

They're near enough in the middle of the no-mans land between Lowland and Highland league clubs so I can sympathise with them, under the circumstances I can't see a good reason why the previously agreed dividing line should be stuck to rigidly.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

They're near enough in the middle of the no-mans land between Lowland and Highland league clubs so I can sympathise with them, under the circumstances I can't see a good reason why the previously agreed dividing line should be stuck to rigidly.

The Highland League in recent years has been the league where the majority of new entrants to the Scottish League have come from, so new blood is welcomed there. The Lowland League has been the league where demoted teams from Scottish League Two, such as Berwick and East Stirlingshire have found themselves.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Got to feel a bit sorry for Leicester City winning the FA Cup yet not making a top 4 EPL finish.

 

[HST274]

Got to feel a bit sorry for Leicester City winning the FA Cup yet not making a top 4 EPL finish.

As a man u fan the worst things happened. Chelsea and Liverpool got top 4 plus city look set to win the UCL unless Chelsea toughen up. Except for the b tech ucl final(europa league) not a lot to look forward to

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The Highland League in recent years has been the league where the majority of new entrants to the Scottish League have come from, so new blood is welcomed there.

Not exclusively though, there's been both Annan Athletic and Edinburgh City (from the Central region or south thereof) who have joined the Scottish League / SPFL in recent years, Annan replacing the defunct Gretna in 2008 and Edinburgh City replacing East Stirlingshire in 2016.

And Kelty Hearts (2020-21 SPFL League Two play off winners), of course, are a Fife based team.