Cambridge’s play off final win against Gateshead bought the curtain down on another season of Non-League football. I thought I’d take a look back on the season just gone.

Starting with the Skrill Premier, or the Conference as I will always prefer to call it, Luton finally cracked the code and grabbed that number one spot and a place in the Football League. After a slightly shaky start, they hit form at just the right time and in the end cruised to a much deserved title. They’ll most likely be up there or thereabouts in League 2 next season. As mentioned above, Cambridge saw of Halifax over two legs and then Gateshead to get the second promotion spot, putting an edgy second half of the season behind them.

Halifax and Gateshead were somewhat surprising play-off contenders, as I’d expected them to be struggling near the bottom. Halifax’s 5th placed finish was largely due to their excellent home form, winning 16 games at the Shay and losing just one, compared to their away form, which saw them beaten 12 times. Gateshead lost their first four games and replaced Anth Smith with Gary Mills. The appointment was an inspired one as Mills led Gateshead to a 3rd placed finish but he couldn’t take them past Cambridge in the final.

One of the teams I follow, Forest Green, got off to the best possible start, thrashing Hyde 8-0 but things faded and much to the joy of their fans Dave Hockaday finally left his position as manager. Adrian Pennock took over and while results improved somewhat they could only manage a 10th placed finish. With a full summer under his belt, it will be interesting to see whether Pennock can deliver the success that Forest Green fans come to expect due to the impressive financial backing of Dale Vince.

As for relegation, Hyde were bottom by a mile and won just one game all season. Despite an impressive showing in the FA Cup, Tamworth were poor in the league and finished second from bottom. Having finished 7th the previous season, Dartford suffered from a case of second season syndrome and returned to the Conference South. The final relegation place was definitely the most surprising. When Chester walked away with the Conference North title the season before, I thought they’d be comfortable in the Conference and maybe even challenge for the play offs. On the last day of the season, they needed to beat Salisbury at home to guarantee survival. Hereford needed to win at Aldershot and hope Chester slipped up. With five minutes to play, Chester were 2-1 up on Salisbury and Hereford were level at 1-1 with Aldershot. Within moments, Michael Rankine had given Hereford the lead and Salisbury had grabbed an equaliser, meaning Chester found themselves occupying the dreaded 21st spot. If I’m honest, I think that unless Hereford sort themselves out financially, they may end up doing a Hyde next season so this may just be a stay of execution for them.

I can’t say I’ve followed the Conference North and South particularly well, but well done to Telford who bounced back from relegation at the first attempt. They’ll hope the 2014-15 season in the Conference is better than their last, in which they went a record breaking amount of games without a win. Altrincham came up via the play offs, and it’s good to have them back in the top tier of Non-League football. They beat Guiseley 2-1 after extra time in the final having seen off Hednesford in the semis. Going down were Workington and Histon. The days of Histon challenging for promotion in the Conference and upsetting Leeds in the FA Cup seem a long way away now and I think they’ll struggle next season. Vauxhall Motors sadly resigned from the league.

In the South, Eastleigh unsurprisingly won promotion due to their big budget. I’d expect them to do well in the Conference next season with the likes of Stuart Fleetwood and Chris Todd in their ranks. Dover sneaked into the play offs with a late penalty on the last day of the season and subsequently won them. Most impressive was their 3-0 win against Sutton in the second leg of the semi-final to clinch a 4-1 aggregate win, mainly as they’d had captain Craig Stone dismissed early on. They went to Ebbsfleet and clinched promotion despite finishing 12 points behind 2nd placed Sutton and only winning 7 home games all season. That home form will have to improve if they want to survive the Conference next season. Going down were Dorchester and Tonbridge Angels and interestingly (to me at least) Hayes and Yeading, despite being 7th around Christmas time. Hayes currently play at Woking’s Kingfield and as such got the lowest average attendance in the league with 152.

 

FC United again failed to clinch promotion from the Evo-Stik and will remain there for a second season. Ironically, following a couple of last minute wins at the end of the season that kept them in the title hunt with eventual winners Chorley, they conceded in the last minute of extra time against Ashton United. Ashton themselves went on to lose to AFC Fylde in the final. Fylde are one of those clubs that have a bit of money behind them and could well be another Fleetwood.

Down at the bottom, there’s often that one club that is in financial disarray and has to play a team of misfits and loses pretty much every game. That team this year was Droylsden. Still under the ownership and management of Dave Pace, the Bloods have fallen a long way since their Conference days and won just two games all season, both at home against Witton (4-3) and Rushall (1-0). Highlights included losing 10-0 at home to Fylde, 9-0 at home to Ashton and 13-1 away to Chorley. Stafford were another former Conference club that slipped down to the fourth tier. Stocksbridge also went down, while Frickley were reprieved due to the Vauxhall situation.

My knowledge of the Evo-Stik Premier is largely more than my knowledge of the Southern and Isthmian Premier, due to my following of local club Stamford. At the start of the season Stamford were many people’s tip for the wooden spoon and even their most optimistic of fans would have settled for 20th place. As it was they finished in 18th place with an impressive 58 points, a points total that in other seasons would most likely have seen them further up the table. Despite some shaky moments, including a 6-0 defeat at FC United and a 6-1 defeat at Worksop, they acquitted themselves well and were tough to beat at home, gaining a point against Chorley, losing late on against FC United and beating Ashton. In the FA Cup, they reached the final qualifying round before succumbing to Hednesford. They move into a new stadium next season, and have kept hold of important players such as captain Richard Jones and top scorer Ryan Robbins. The Northern Premier is a tough league but Stamford are capable of a top half finish in my eyes.

In the Southern Premier, Corby are local to me and I really should have followed them more closely. They had a turbulent start and sacked manager Chris Plummer, replacing him with Tommy Wright and Andrew Wilson as joint managers. Their season became one of mid table mediocrity. The most memorable thing from their season probably came just before Christmas when the club’s twitter account decided to do live commentary of a fictional game between Corby and a team from the North Pole. Corby have been moved to the Northern Premier for next season so will face off with Stamford. As touched on above, I see the Northern side of Non-League as a lot tougher than the Southern side, and Corby will do well to challenge for promotion.

Also joining the Evo-Stik Premier are Halesowen and Belper from Division 1 South, and Curzon Ashton and Ramsbottom from Division 1 North. I’d fancied Darlington to go up but they were beaten by Ramsbottom in the semi-final so Stamford won’t be welcoming the Quakers to their new stadium.

 

Scarborough, who were somewhat surprisingly placed in Division 1 South, failed to really trouble the play-off spots. They’ve been moved to Division 1 North now so will get to lock horns with Darlington in what is somewhat of a titanic clash for that level at least. Expect fireworks.

Moving on to local matters, I’ll start with Kettering. At the start of the season most thought they wouldn’t even make it through their Calor Gas League Division 1 Central season, and that if they did it would be a season of stopping the rot of consecutive relegations. Following a poor start, they went on a tremendous run which sadly ended as they threw away a 2-0 lead at home to Slough in the play-off final. Should they keep hold of their better players, and add well, they should walk away with the title next season. Of course as one of the bigger clubs in the Non League scene, they have great pulling power when it comes to players.

 

Rushden didn’t make promotion from the United Counties League, due to Spalding winning 32 of their 36 games. At that level, only one team goes up from each league, and there’s no play off places, meaning you often get teams failing to get promoted with 100 points because another team has got 101. Spalding are another of those moneybags teams, attracting players who are at least two levels better, for example striker Mark Jones and winger Peter Bore. They’ll probably be up there in the Evo-Stik South next season.

 

Finally, spare a thought for poor Woodford. Having lost 42 out of 42 in the Calor Gas Division 1 Central, they were placed in the United Counties League Division 1 where, despite ending a run of 65 consecutive defeats by beating Blackstones, they lost every other game, conceding 233 goals in the process. They were beaten 10-1 by Thrapston, 16-0 by Wellingborough Whitworths, 9-0 by Peterborough Sports and 13-0 at home by Burton Park Wanderers. In their 42 games, they conceded over 5 goals 17 times. They are most likely to stay in the UCL 1 next season due to no one being promoted from the relevant county leagues to replace them.

 

In all, it’s been a fascinating season of Non League football and I for one can’t wait for the next one to start.