Lower League Football, It's growing...

In his debut article for The Football Front, Daniel Speller explains how the attendance of League one and Two matches is steadily increasing along with the quality on the pitch.

In a footballing world where more and more fans are jumping on the bandwagon and supporting top clubs such as Barca, Real, United and Man City, it’s intriguing to see the growing levels of support for the lower English leagues.

Take Hartlepool United for example. A League One club. A club currently 12th and filling on average 75% of its ground every week, impressive huh? A club that is Geographically close to Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Doncaster and only twenty or so miles south from high-flying Newcastle United. Why is it that they are attracting big crowds every week? Now I say big, and I mean big for Hartlepool’s standards. Hartlepool’s stadium capacity is 7229 and with an average attendance 5491 turning up every week. It’s safe to say it’s not that far off a full house. Hartlepool offer affordable prices and without a doubt this is one of the sole reasons as to why lower league teams are attracting large numbers week in week out and with kids willing to sing their hearts out to support their team, the clubs benefits from it in more ways than one. Rousing support without a doubt boosts atmosphere and with people singing for the players rather than clapping them on and off the pitch at the beginning and end of the game it's bound to have a positive effect on player morale too. I experienced this first hand in January when Newcastle came to Stevenage for a 3rd round FA Cup tie and to this day I am convinced the atmosphere unsettled the Newcastle side. Barton as you can imagine took a lot of stick and when Newcastle showed signs of "uncomfortableness" it showed and the crowd picked up on it. What I'm trying to say is when the crowd get's going at any club let alone the Premier League's elite it really is a moment to behold and savour.

However, as I briefly touched upon earlier, money and affordability does play a large part. A season ticket for an adult at Hartlepool is on average £376.50 compare this to Middlesbrough who are a Championship club and that figure rises to £420-595. Therein lays one of the sole reasons lower league football in England has seen a rise in support. Premier League and Championship football is just too expensive to watch. The Championship, full to the brim of Premier League talent and have their prices high simply for “financial reasons”. David Gold, chairman of West Ham stated in the summer that he “can't justify paying huge wages to players and passing on the cost to fans however a financial reality”. This is an idea that Adrian Durham of Talksport was totally against and in turn, many other football fans. It’s not just Premier League football that’s excluding a large percentage of it’s fans, but the Championship is also resorting to high-ticket prices to help fund their astronomical wage bills in the hope that the players they have signed will guarantee them promotion. Gold's quote without a doubt highlights the increasing problem in Championship football. Clubs are willing to take a risk on ex-Premier League players in the hope that it will fire them back up this (and I know it's still early days) has not been the case at Leicester City where as I'm sure you are all aware, spent big in the summer in the hope they'd run away with the Championship. This hasn’t turned out to be the case. The side are currently 9th in the Championship and 13 points of the leaders Southampton. A change in manger surely doesn't help but when you've spent big and the fans are paying for it in more ways than one, it doesn't bode well.

But let’s step away from finance and get serious; lower league football is becoming much more attractive. Let’s take League One again for example; Charlton and Sheffield United (ex Premier League), Sheffield Wednesday (ex Premier League ), Huddersfield and even the once mighty MK Dons are all playing their trade there. With these big names, comes ex big name players; Clinton Morrison, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Lee Hughes and Richard Cresswell to name. But slowly but surely ex Premier League players will reignite themselves down the footballing ladder. These players, albeit not single-handedly, do still however attract fans to watch their team play. For example I can remember earlier on in the season at Stevenage when Notts County came to town a lot of the home fans were talking about Lee Hughes perhaps a bit negatively but it highlights the point that big time players playing in the lower leagues are getting fans talking and more importantly, getting them paying. Not to mention the League's are breaking the typical stereo-type. Traditionally when you think of lower League football you think of the dreaded away trip to Carlisle/Plymouth in the pouring rain where you'll witness 90mins of hoofing the ball forward to the well-built striker in the attempt he'll get a lucky header that floats in. Well I can tell you that is no longer the case. Having been to four Stevenage home games this season and seen them beat Charlton, the Sheffield’s Clubs and lose to Notts Country it's evident that this is no longer the case. In every game, both sides kept the ball on the ground and looked to play it and with the way the English game is evolving it's nice to see this is spreading down the Leagues. I say the word evolve because I personally believe that that is what's happening to the modern game. You’ve got to look at this with open eyes and you cannot categorically deny that there are times where the football becomes ugly and it turns into a game of who can head the ball the furthest. However as the game evolves and the footballing ethos is further developed eventually I can see the "Footballing Divide" between the Leagues to the Premier League gradually becoming smaller and smaller.


League’s 1 and 2 are also providing a platform for some very interesting managers to show off their capabilities. Take Chris Powell for example, he took over at Charlton last season, pulled them through to a below-par 13th place finish in League one and in his second season he’s got them currently 5 points clear and only losing once (1-0 away to Stevenage). The fans adore Powell from his tenure at the club as a player and this was undoubtedly what saved his job, without his previous reputation his shot at the big time could of been over before it'd even begun. Graham Westley currently in charge of my local team Stevenage FC has not seen his success go un-noticed in recent years. Having led them to back to back promotions it was inevitable he would be linked with a job in the big time. The Media speculated that it'd be Westley who would take over as Watford manager in the summer. It was however not to be and Sean Dyche got the job but it's certainly interesting to see these accomplishments being noticed. Westley's style has undoubtedly changed over his 2nd spell at the club. However the mentality "witness the fitness" remains and it's easy to see why they are so successful. Stevenage without a doubt are one of the smallest clubs in the Football League and with roughly the same squad that saw them promoted from the Conference it's evident to see that Westley has something about him - I mean, you don't beat Newcastle 3-1 at home if you're not up to scratch do you?

A further example would be Paolo Di Canio at Swindon. Lets face it, all of us including Hammers fans were sceptical if Paolo would be able to cut it as a manager however 18 games in Swindon are sitting in 7th in League 2 on 30points eleven off the pace, not bad for a rookie eh? If the League position doesn't impress you then maybe the fact that he led Swindon to a 4-1 win over League 1 high-flyers Huddersfield who at the time of writing are 44 league games unbeaten. If that's not enough to get chins wagging then I don't know what is.

If you want to have a moan at me on Twitter you can find me @Daniel_Speller

This article was written by Daniel Speller, you can follow him on Twitter:@Daniel_Spellerr .

Lincoln City: Victims of Progress

The Football Front's Lower League expert, Matt Bruce, writes an article on the life and times of Lincoln City.

On the final day of last season, scenes of ecstatic celebration were beamed across the nation from Barnet's Underhill Stadium as the Bees remarkably escaped relegation from the Football League, with an unlikely victory over Port Vale. The jubilant celebrations in Barnet were accompanied by desolate scenes 120 miles north in Lincoln. Lincoln City were the victims of Barnet's great escape. Despite spending most of the season above the relegation zone, Lincoln slipped through the trap door on the final day.

The pain of relegation was particularly intense for Lincoln fans because they've suffered this fate before, in similar circumstances. The Imps were the first club to suffer the ignominy of automatic relegation from the Football League back in 1987. A catastrophic collapse in the latter part of the season saw Lincoln slide to the bottom of the table on...you guessed it, the last day of the season.

Prior to the introduction of automatic promotion and relegation between the Conference and the bottom tier of the Football League, the Fourth Division was stagnant. The league was populated by unambitious clubs content to tread water, safe in the knowledge that they were always likely to be re-elected if they suffered another poor season. Only six new clubs were elected into the Football League between 1961 and 1986. Automatic promotion and relegation was introduced to shake up the stale Fourth Division, to clear the 'dead wood' from the league and motivate clubs who had been treading water at the bottom to up their game. Lincoln City were not a club that had spent years struggling at the bottom of the Football League, but were suffering from the shock of the events at Valley Parade in 1985, when fire killed 56 people, two of whom were Lincoln supporters. They were relegated from the Third Division the following season and despite being among the favourites to win promotion straight back the club had failed to recover and suffered a second successive relegation, this time out of the Football League entirely.

Lincoln entered the Conference with all the trappings of a Football League club. They were a full-time professional club in a division of part-timers. As a result, it was perhaps unsurprising that they won promotion back to the Football League at the first attempt. The season was not, however, without its ups and downs and Lincoln were chased hard by an expensively-assembled Barnet side, who beat the Imps 4-2 on the opening day of the season. The events of last season could be seen as Barnet's revenge for what happened in 1987-88, as that year Lincoln snatched the title (and, with it, promotion) from Barnet right at the death, replacing them at the top of the table in the penultimate match of the season.

Fast-forward 24 years and Lincoln can only dream of making such a quick return to the Football League. They currently lie 22nd in the Conference and have won just once so far this season, amongst growing unrest from the club's supporters. Targets of their fury include manager Steve Tilson, chairman Bob Dorrian and captain Josh Gowling. Rumblings of discontent turned into paroxysms of anger from Lincoln's fans following defeat at Braintree, but a gutless 2-0 home defeat to fellow strugglers Kettering proved too much for the Sincil Bank faithful to stomach. Calls for Tilson's head have grown louder and more forceful, with fans venting their anger at the board after the final whistle. Meanwhile, crowds are down by almost a thousand on last season and relegation to the Conference deprives the club of approximately £500,000 for every season they spend outside the Football League. A summer clearout of the players who had failed them last season appeared to be a positive move, but the new players have not yet found form.

Lincoln’s struggles so far this season demonstrate just how much the Conference has changed since their last stint in the division. During Lincoln's temporary stay during the 1987-88 season, being full-time gave them a genuine competitive advantage over their part-time opponents, who were unable to compete with a club of Lincoln's size. In 2011 the Conference is a rather different beast and part-time clubs are now in the minority. Lincoln are far from being the league's big name club, as around half the clubs in this year's Conference are former League clubs. 24 years ago, clubs that were relegated from the Football League rarely struggled to win promotion back, and both Lincoln City and Darlington (another club who have now found themselves sucked back into the Conference) were promoted at the first attempt. Things are not so simple for relegated teams now, and the Conference currently resembles a graveyard for former Football League clubs. One bad season in the Football League is far more costly now, and relegated clubs can no longer expect to win promotion back at the first attempt, as supporters of Luton (now in their third season), Wrexham (fourth season), Cambridge (seventh season) and York (eighth season) can testify.

These clubs, many of which find themselves in the Conference as a result of financial mismanagement during their Football League years, have now been leapfrogged by a new breed of forward-thinking, professional and well-run club, such as Morecambe, Burton Albion and Stevenage. In the years since automatic promotion and relegation was introduced, the Conference has been transformed from a sleepy footballing backwater to a bottleneck of competitive teams fighting for that elusive place in the Football League. Traditionally, non-league clubs with ambition have caught up with (and surpassed) many poorly-run clubs who have lost their place in the Football League. Contrary to what their history and fanbase would suggest, clubs like Lincoln are in danger of being left behind by 'the likes of' Gateshead and Braintree. As clubs at the top of the non-league game get stronger, Lincoln may find themselves the victims of progress, as the line between the bottom of the Football League and the top of the non-league pyramid becomes more blurred each season.

This piece was written by Matt Bruce, you can follow him on his Twitter - @tbfuth, You can find Matt’s blog here too: theboysfromupthehill

All of Matt's work can be found here.

Matt Bruce’s npower League Two 2011/12 Preview - Part Two

In his debut article for The Football Front, Matt Bruce in a two part feature assesses the npower League Two teams ahead of the big kick off this Saturday.

This is part two. Part one can be found here

For two of the league's smallest clubs, Accrington and Dagenham, the off-season has presented a familiar scenario of having to replace last season's better performers, who have moved to bigger clubs. Accrington, who defied the odds last season to reach the playoffs, have a complete rebuilding job on their hands. They lost the services of Jimmy Ryan, Phil Edwards, Terry Gornell, Alex Cisek and Sean McConville. While relegated last season from League One, Dagenham also find themselves looking for cheap replacements once again after losing Romain Vincelot and Danny Green, both of whom have stayed in the league above, while veteran goalkeeper Tony Roberts has retired. Losing so many important players may seem like a body blow to these two clubs, but in John Coleman and John Still these clubs have shrewd managers who have repeatedly managed to find previously unheard-of players out of non-league or from Academy scraps and turn them into quality, consistent performers. The fortunes of both clubs depend on the ability of their managers to again work miracles and haul up some rough diamonds.

Like Accrington and Dagenham, Macclesfield are often hotly tipped for relegation. Yet every year they exceed expectations and usually survive comfortably and I expect the same this season. They have also lost a couple of important players in Barnett and Bencherif, so their fortunes this season will be defined by how well they can cope without them and whether anyone can step up to replace two important figures, otherwise they may flirt with relegation.

Having mentioned Crawley in part one of this feature, we now come to the Football League's other new boys, AFC Wimbledon. The Dons have lost Danny Kedwell and technically gifted midfielder Steven Gregory. This will leave a huge hole in the squad, and with limited resources they will be relying on making some shrewd signings to replace them. They have targeted young, hungry players with raw talent and if this tactic works as well for them as it has for Dagenham and Accrington they could be quite successful at this level, but as ever it represents a gamble which could cost them their place in the Football League. They have so far known only success, next season will be tough but a well-run club such as this should be absolutely fine.

After a dramatic season that saw Barnet escape relegation to the Conference by the narrowest of margins, it may be reasonable to expect that new manager Lawrie Sanchez would seek to make drastic changes. However, he has clearly seen potential in a squad that underachieved massively last season and this season he will set about nurturing that potential, while the permanent signings of Sam Deering and Mark Byrne (both of whom were on loan late in the season and were instrumental in Barnet's great escape) will no doubt add some flair to their midfield. Like Barnet, Hereford started last season disastrously, but new manager Jamie Pitman was able to steer the Bulls from relegation certainties, to safety. Their squad is not much stronger this season than last time out, but they performed much better under Pitman in the second half of the season and if that continues they should avoid the drop. Cheltenham have good cause to be disappointed with their 17th place finish last season, especially considering the presence of the talented Wes Thomas in their team. This season they will be without him, and manager Mark Yates faces the unenviable task of improving on last year's disappointment with limited resources and apparently no funds for transfers. Despite this, they have pulled off some decent signings, such as Marlon Pack and Darryl Duffy, but it is doubtful that they will be enough to significantly improve the team.

Burton could be in trouble this season. For much of the second half of last season they seemed to be in a death spiral, going on a horrendous run of form that saw them finish worryingly close to the relegation zone. The club still also haven't found adequate replacements for Shaun Harrad or Adam Legzdins. The return of Cleveland Taylor from St Johnstone was one piece of good news for Burton fans. But this summer has proven to be a frustrating one and they will have real fears of relegation. Morecambe also look set to struggle, after a disappointing campaign last season they have replaced the long-serving Sammy McIlroy with rookie manager Jim Bentley and they have failed to attract any real quality to the Globe Arena. Morecambe could find themselves filling one of the relegation spots come the end of the season.

This should set out the obvious candidates for promotion and relegation, but League Two seems to throw up surprise packages every year and undoubtedly this season will be the same. There is every chance that one of the sides I have written off may make a surprising challenge, while there is always at least one of the league's big hitters who fail to live up to the hype. The truth is, until the season gets underway it's very difficult to judge who this season's surprise packages will be, but I have little doubt that some of the clubs in this league will have some very big surprises in store for us this season.

Part One is available here

This piece was written by Matt Bruce, you can follow him on his Twitter - @tbfuth, You can find Matt’s blog here too: theboysfromupthehill

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Matt Bruce’s npower League Two 2011/12 Review – Part One

Christian Brown’s nPower Championship Review 2011/2012 – Part One

Christian Brown’s nPower Championship Review 2011/2012 – Part Two