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Non-League Football Matters opened in 2009 as an independent football history information site about non-league soccer in England. The main reason why the site was started was because of my long-term interest in non-league football, which began when I watched Scarborough F.C. in the Midland and Yorkshire Leagues.
The loss of ‘Boro’ in 2007 was a devastating experience, which left a major gap. Carrying out this work has helped to fill that and the birth and re-birth of Scarborough Town F.C. has been a bonus. SCARBOROUGH TOWN F.C. were accepted into the HUMBER PREMIER LEAGUE 1ST DIVISION on June 21st and will return to league action on August 20th when the season begins. Last season, after winning the Wearside League, the club was unable to play due to ground grading problems, but a ‘new’ home, at the McCain Sports Ground, Osgodby Lane, has been found and a new chapter in Town’s history is about to unfold. Town's manager is former Scarborough FC player Shaun Rennison. The Scarborough Town website can be accessed by clicking on the STFC button above.
During its first year, the site concentrated on providing past final tables for leagues in the North. In the second year the aim was to provide the same sort of information about leagues in the Midlands and South – from when these started to the present. In the site's third year, the work is continuing with more leagues being covered and an attempt to include more current information also. Leagues included are listed below, with notes on how to access the information. Details of ‘current’ items are shown below, after the ‘history contents’ of the site.
On January 31st, we decided to move to another part of the country. As a result, there is now a doubt over the longer-term future of this website. It will run until at least the end of the 2011-2012 season so that commitments to the nine featured leagues can be honoured. There is every chance that the website will be in place until late May/early June when the current ‘contract’ ends, but it is what happens after that which is doubt – and will depend on how the ‘moving home’ goes.
Over the next two months a lot of time will have to be devoted to preparing the house for sale and then trying to sell it + buy another. While there will be further work done on the website and its redevelopment will continue, the pace at which things change will slow down. There are still things to do regarding nonleaguefootballmatters.net and what has been promised to those individuals who have been kind enough to provide information will be honoured.
While I am not 100% certain that I will not continue, there is an opportunity for someone who is interested enough to take things over and to further develop an already valuable resource. If either I can’t continue or nobody takes things over, then my advice to site visitors is to take ‘what you can, while you can’. Thank you for visiting the site.
As a consequence of the planned relocation to Scarborough, I am offering various books on football for sale at knockdown prices. Please see the ‘For sale’ section for details. The initial list will probably be added to in due course.
NON-LEAGUE HISTORY CONTENTS
REGIONS 1 includes sections on:
the CONFERENCE 1979-present (National, North and South); DEFUNCT leagues = Athenian League, Cheshire County League, Lancashire Combination, Midland League, North Eastern League and Yorkshire League; current 'NORTH-based' leagues = Midland Alliance, Northern Premier League, Northern Counties (East) League, North West Counties League and Northern League; current 'SOUTH-based' leagues = (Southern A) Southern League, Hellenic League, Spartan South Midlands League, United Counties League, Wessex League, Western League, (Southern B) Isthmian League, Combined Counties League, Eastern Counties League, Essex Senior League, Kent League and Sussex County League. Details of years covered of leagues in the South can be found within Regions 1.
REGIONS 2 includes:
The regions will be:
Metropolitan Midlands North North East North West South South East South West
The leagues it is planned to provide some coverage of are:
Aetolian League Birmingham & District League Central Midlands League Chiltonian League Cornwall Combination Devon County League Dorset Premier League Durham Alliance Early Southern League Gloucestershire County League Greater London League Humber Premier League kent County Amateur League Kent County League Lancashire Alliance Leicestershire Senior League Lincolnshire League Liverpool County Combination London League London Spartan League Manchester League Metropolitan & District League Metropolitan-London League Middlesex County League Midland Combination North Devon League Northern Alliance Northern Amateur League Northern Combination Northamptonshire League 1895-1934 Notts Alliance/Senior League Original Kent League Parthenon League Seanglian League Somerset County League South Midlands League South West Peninsula League South Western League Spartan South Midlands League Staffordshire County Senior League Surrey Senior League Teesside League Wearside League West Cheshire League West Lancashire League West Midlands (Regional) League West Riding County Amateur League West Yorkshire League York League Worcestershire Combination
Hopefully there will be others. For the dates covered for the various leagues, please see the Regions 2 Main Page.
All this will take time to organise and implement.
The ARCHIVE section has pages for 1888-1893, 1893-1894, 1989-1990, 1990-1991, 1991-1992, 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. For each of these seasons there are a number of non-league tables, with enough leagues included in the most recent seasons to warrant 3 pages being necessary.
The BITS AND BATS section now has 4 parts remaining, with contents as follows: Bits and Bats Central - early Football League and non-league final tables, and past tables for the Parthenon, Spartan and Surrey Senior Leagues and access buttons for = Bits and Bats 3 contains pages showing past league tables for the Aetolian and Seanglian, early Athenian, Greater London, London, London Spartan, Metropolitan & District, Metropolitan-London and 'original' Kent Leagues; Bits and Bats 4 has pages with past tables for the Birmingham & District (West Midlands Regional), Leicestershire and South Midlands Leagues); Bits and Bats 5 has started with Northern Alliance, snapshots of past Scottish League seasons, together with Clubs' notes on Northern non-league clubs up to 2009 and Yorkshire Combination tables 1910-1914 seasons.
The latest section on site is AND, a completely unoriginal title for extra information which comes to light, which now includes pages on: the Birmingham & District League 1939-1942, the Eastern Counties League 1976-1977, the Midland League 1924-1925/1929-1930/1955-1960, the Conference 1979-1981/1983-1986/1986-1987, the Leicestershire Senior League's early days, the Northern Amateur League and the Northern Combination 1979-1980, Durham Alliance notes, including a list of champions, the Spartan South Midlands League 1997-2011 and the Southern League 1900-1911. There will be more added to the AND section.
The FOOTBALL LEAGUE HISTORY section of the site has been taken off while the full cycle of change is carried out. It had a selection of seasons covered in full + some snapshots included of league tables at particular points during the campaign for selected years. These pages are based on books I have had published about the History of the Football League 1888-2011. These are on sale from Desert Island books under titles beginning ‘Hopkin’s History ...’.
CURRENT
The FEATURES section includes F.A. Knock-Out competitions 2011-2012; information on Step 7 status; fixtures, results, tables of a number of ‘featured’ leagues at or seeking to achieve Step 7 status (including the Devon & Exeter League, the Haart of Kent County League (new at 18th December 2011), the Humber Premier League {with Scarborough Town}, the Lincolnshire League, the Manchester League, the Teesside League, the Wearside League, the West Riding County Amateur League and the York League) + links to the websites of most of these and other information.
The 2011-2012 section has been suspended while an overhaul of the site is carried out, with the focus on history and featured leagues.
DISCLAIMER
The materials contained on this web site are provided for general information only and do not constitute any form of advice. www.nonleaguematters.net and the site administrator assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement and accept no liability for any loss or damage which may arise from reliance on the information contained on this site. Links to other web sites from these pages are for information only and the site administrator accepts no responsibility or liability for access to or the material on any web site which is linked from or to this web site. By providing links to other sites, the site administrator does not guarantee, approve or endorse the information or products available at these sites, nor does a link indicate any association with or endorsement by the linked site to www.nonleaguematters.net. |
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LATEST INFORMATION
May 18th - Final tables 2011-2012 are now on site for featured leagues Humber Premier, Wearside and West Riding County Amateur + an update on the 2011-2012 Step 7+ North page has been attempted.
ALSO ... Final Tables for the top five divisions of the Devon & Exeter League 2011-2012 have now been added in the Features section + an update on the 2011-2012 Step 6+ South page has been tried
May 17th - New today - Regions 2 North West - North Lancashire League 2002-2012
May 16th - 2001-2012 Step 5+ page updated AND Step 7+ North tables put on site, even though some leagues are still playing PLUS Step 6+ Midlands also AS WELL AS the latest we have for Step 6+ South
May 15th - A subtle combination of house-moving issues and leagues still not finishing the 2011-2012 season has slowed things down a little - but there should be some new stuff on site soon.
May 9th - Fifteen 'missing' Wearside League tables from the years 1955-1976 have been added to the site this morning - on the first page for that league in the Regions 2 North East section
May 5th - MAJOR CONGRATULATIONS to SCARBOROUGH TOWN on lifting the Humber Premier League League Cup last night
CONGRATULATIONS to Scarborough Town on securing the Humber premier League Division 1 title yesterday with a 13-0 victory in their final league game.
April 1st - The latest results and updated league tables from the nine featured leagues are now on site in the Features section. It has been a very important weekend indeed.
February 24th - Work on this site was suspended as a result of a bereavement within the family.
December 2011 - published by DESERT ISLAND BOOKS - HOPKIN'S HISTORY OF THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE and PREMIER LEAGUE (VOLUME 4 1992-2011) - PRICE £12-99. I think this is a great book - but then I'm biased because I wrote it.
June 28th - the Football League section contains information on seasons 1888-1892, 1961-1962 and 1986-1987.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Other useful websites include the FCHD and RSSF sites, but the Non-League Tables archive at www.nonleaguetables.co.uk, has now disappeared. The late Tony Kempster's website is excellent for more recent seasons and at Mike Avery (.co.uk) and www.nonmatters.co.uk have covered more recent times.
Started on July 9th, 2009 - the visitor counter was added on August 17th.
The site had its 10,000th visitor since mid-February, 2010 on June 2nd, 2011. With a further 20,000 visitors by April 26th, 2012, the count has been re-started once again.
The original hit counter had disappeared at 4224, so the count was re-started on February 13th, 2010.
Hopefully around for a while.
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