Friday, March 30, 2007

(No) news round-up

No news round-up this week, simply because there's been no news. So, a couple of thoughts instead. We're currently 9 points clear of 6th with a far superior goal difference. So, make that 10 points.

If, and in this league it is a massive if, Morecambe, Burton, Exeter and Stevenage all win all their games, we will be five points clear with superior goal difference (make it 6).

However, this assumes that everyone wins every game. One of the obvious characteristics of this league is inconsistency; so the true likelihood of York pulling back 4 points and Morecambe and Burton both 6 AND Exeter 9 OR Stevenage 11 therefore pushing us down to 6th is beyond comprehension.

For all the 'massive games' rhetoric, we are in the play-offs. I'm a fan of the play-offs; in the Conference seven, possibly eight, teams are still in contention for them. If it was simply the top two going up, only two teams would really still have something to fight for.

What I'm not a fan of is the high bar that's been set for promotion to the Football League. There's no logical meritocratic reason for restricting automatic promotion to just one club. No club that has been promoted has ever come straight back down again; so it's not a question of whether Conference teams are good enough or not.

It's politics and protectionism, of course, but I see no reason why it shouldn't be 3 up 3 down from Premiership down, with the third team decided by play-off.

1 comment:

ejh said...

If, and in this league it is a massive if, Morecambe, Burton, Exeter and Stevenage all win all their games

More than a massive if, as it happens, given that Stevenage still have to play both Morecambe and Exeter.