Do The Owners Ambitions Match The Supporters'?

[Elite_Pie]

If the National League were to join the EFL, would that be good enough for you? I ask, because the definition of “non-league” has changed three times (a slight simplification) already.

I don't get what you're saying about the definition of non-league changing. To me it's always been if you're in the top 4 divisions you're a Football League club, if you're any lower then you're a non-league club. If the NL were to join the EFL, I suppose we'd be a league club again by default, but I'd rather earn it than be given it. The problem with the NL becoming EFL 3 is that it is so unbalanced. I honestly believe the top 6 NL clubs would finish above the bottom 6 League 2 clubs, but the problem is that there is some real dross at the bottom end of our division. The ideal solution would be to grant an extra promotion place, but I can't see that happening any time soon.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

I don't get what you're saying about the definition of non-league changing. To me it's always been if you're in the top 4 divisions you're a Football League club, if you're any lower then you're a non-league club. If the NL were to join the EFL, I suppose we'd be a league club again by default, but I'd rather earn it than be given it. The problem with the NL becoming EFL 3 is that it is so unbalanced. I honestly believe the top 6 NL clubs would finish above the bottom 6 League 2 clubs, but the problem is that there is some real dross at the bottom end of our division. The ideal solution would be to grant an extra promotion place, but I can't see that happening any time soon.

This. This league overall is not a good enough standard or quality to be an EFL League 3. You can't have semi-pro teams in it either. The problem is that there is a bottleneck down here of long and well established ex league teams like ourselves, Wrexham and Chesterfield scrambling to get out who would be able to hold their own in the league above and some. That's why some teams after getting promoted go up straight through to League One or do so within a season or two. Sutton are a good example they've finished 8th. I fully expect Stockport to be challenging at the top end of League Two next season. Hartlepool stalled because they lost Dave Challinor. Harrogate and Barrow have not come straight back down. The list goes on and on.

In league two there is a pool of dross as well that hangs around the bottom like a bad smell and if clubs don't sort themselves out or heed the warnings they end up falling through the trapdoor eventually. The quality at the bottom end of league two is not good and you have to be really really bad to get relegated. That's what made it more astonishing that after finishing in the play-offs we collapsed, yet in the trust years we bounced around the bottom end of that league but survived.