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Non-League Football Matters is a football history information site about non-league soccer in the North of England.
The site features : The Wearside League (www.wearside-football-league.org.uk), The Northern League (www.northernleague.org/), The Northern Counties (East) League (www.ncel.org.uk), The North West Counties (www.vodkatleague.com), The Unibond/NPL (www.unibondleague.com/), Conference North (www.footballconference.co.uk/) The Manchester League (www.manchester-league.co.uk) - a start at least AND some leagues no longer with us - The Midland League, The North Eastern League, The Yorkshire League, The Cheshire League, The Lancashire Combination.
THE LATEST
Work commitments - mainly the writing of the third in the Football League History series (covering 1966-1992) - have led to a need to limit new information being put on site. There is, however, a huge amount of data on site already for visitors to access.
07/02/20010 - All leagues' 2009-2010 pages have 'regional updates' showing top and bottom fours in all competitions covered (at end of 06/02/10).
Yorkshire Step 7 – latest news @ January 17th, 2010
In the NCEL’s January 11th newsletter, it was stated that:
“The FA are also currently formulating their restructuring of Step 7 football and the new Step 7 leagues, becoming ‘feeder leagues’ to the NCEL, should be in place for season 2010/11.”
The four current applications to join the NCEL have been ‘put on hold’ until the NCEL League Management Board hears from the FA regarding plans for Step 7 football east of the Pennines.
A new competition for 2010-2011 seems to be very much 'on the cards'. Any details filtering through on this during the next couple of months will be mentioned here.
THE REGIONS
From this page you can go to the 'regions' into which the site is divided. These are :
The NORTH-EAST which includes coverage of the Northern League (1889-present) - complete., the NCEL (1982-present) - complete., the Wearside League (1892-present), the Midland League (1889-1982) - complete, the North-Eastern League (1906-1964) - complete, and the Yorkshire League (1920-1982) - complete.
The NORTH-WEST which includes coverage of the North West Counties League (1982-present) - complete the Lancashire Combination (1891-1982) - complete and the Cheshire County League (1919-1982) - complete the Manchester League (intro + 1950s and temporary pages for 1960-1988 + pages for 1988-2005).
The NORTH which includes coverage of Conference North (2004-2009) - complete and the Unibond/Northern Premier League (1968-2009) - complete.
The CONFERENCE which has information on the National section 1979-2009 - complete, Conference South 2004-2009 - complete.
Once into the 'regions' you can access 'League Home Pages' which will tell you briefly about the origins of the leagues included and enable you to see early Final Tables for the competitions. From these you can follow the links provided which lead you onto more Final Tables from the past, together with brief notes on changes in the competition. Details of exactly what's on the site are being put onto the 'region' pages in stages.
THE GAME PLAN – THIS SITE’S FUTURE
More league histories are to be added in due course. Several have been targeted :
The Cheshire League, the Humber Premier, the Liverpool County Senior, the Manchester League, the Northern Alliance, the Staffordshire Senior, the Teesside League, the West Cheshire, the West Lancashire, and the West Yorkshire.
It is proving very difficult to unearth accurate records for all the competitions named above (and, of course, many seasons for the Wearside League).
More club history details are also to be added - in the long run.
THE RETURN OF THE BORO
There is another key link at the top of the page to SCARBOROUGH TOWN, champions of the Teesside League Division 2 last season and now members of the Wearside League at Step 7 in the Pyramid. The club has brought senior soccer back to Scarborough after the town lost its football club on June 20th, 2007, in the High Court at Leeds. For the history of the old club, there is a link 'NOT FORGOTTEN' from the CONFERENCE 'region' page.
This site is not just about Scarborough, however. What it is about is Non-League Soccer in the North of England - because it matters! |
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OTHER POINTS
All possible updating of League Tables (to end of Feb 6th) has been completed by region on League 2009-2010 pages. The Manchester League 1988-2005 is now covered and there are plans to include the Manchester Amateur League in this after contact made to the site. Further Manchester League past tables will be completed this week.
The first 2 volumes of Hopkin’s History of the Football League are now on sale from Desert Island Books. For more information, please follow THE BOOKS link at the top of the page.
All final league tables of all leagues covered are now on the site. More link buttons have now been added to make movement around the site easier.
Please use the Index button if you want to find where and when a particular club appears on the site. Over 100 clubs are listed on this page and so are their web addresses, which will enable visitors to go club websites from here. For latest league results/tables please use the league website addresses to the left of this column.
Future plans for this site have had to be put on hold. The main aim remains to improve the site as a resource for visitors. Viva football!
For details about our latest link, with the North of England’s premier performance project, PERFORMING EARTH, go to the NORTH page
ADDITIONAL SITE INFORMATION
Further history (league tables + notes on changes/ movements) is being added for featured leagues, covering a few seasons at a time. 'Home Pages' of individual leagues all include a 'HISTORY' page button which can be used to access what's here for each competition.
This site is about the history of the Non-League game first and foremost, so for the 2009-2010 season. your best bet is to go to the nonleaguematters.co.uk site. Other useful websites include the FCHD site and the Non-League Tables archive at www.nonleaguetables.co.uk, which covers the period 1946-1980.
Started on July 9th, 2009 - the visitor counter was added on August 17th. | |