Matt

All-time horrible VAR decision ruling out a perfectly good goal in the Charlotte-Toronto MLS game there.

The players can have a whip round to fund the shortfall or maybe cancel some NFA youth programs so they can play there. Maybe if 1500 people turn up at Croft Park they can hold it at SJP next time. Also the men’s final is not always at SJP.

Massive congrats to Hebburn on their promotion. The step up is probably the biggest between any two levels of the pyramid, it’s nuts. But some awesome day trips lie ahead! Well done Spartans on getting over the line, huge rebuild job in the summer for Nashy.

Having watched a lot of non-league through 1995-2005 at a time when most NE clubs were permanently on their arse, no-one back them could have imagined the number of clubs regularly attracting 500-1000 folks on average. A 600 at Blyth would have been a very decent attendance, midweeks were usually around 300-350. I remember some very low attendances for games at Hillheads too. The feeling at the time was that many clubs would fold and the better-supported sides would have to shrink back to a more local level. Clubs have successfully tapped into their role as part of the community and most now have properly integrated junior schemes with pathways to senior football. They have successfully capitalised on creeping dissatisfaction with the PL matchday experience and started to build long-term fan bases. Incredible to think that at one point there was only Blyth and Gateshead (maybe Spennymoor too) between the Northern League and the FL (when original Darlo were still around). For those who've been around a while you'll remember the chap who talked about promotion out of the Northern League being 'financial suicide'. So glad he had been proven so wrong over time.

Absolutely- whatever squad is there come August will be better than the horrorshow group that started this season.

Other results mean Spartans just need to not lose by 10 next week and they will be safe. It will be two of Bishops, Blyth T, Ossett and Silsden (just about) who will drop.

Spartans win 3-1 at Brighouse to go 7 pts clear of the drop zone with 6 to go- 4 of those against teams currently below them. Three wins from six should guarantee it.

Ref in the Seattle-Colorado game is on the way to surpassing the performances in the Villa game.

Looks like they withdrew from the leagues a few years back and were re-admitted at the lowest senior tier. Bigmouth owner/manager whose line of business is well known in the region.

Sounds like Spartans were a little unfortunate today against a well-funded side. They aren't getting humped too often, but need to find some more wins and quickly.

Not much change since Nash came in and changed 90% of the squad. I just had a look and only two players from the season opener were in the squad yesterday. A little hope is a dangerous thing....

My one and only trip to the old Wembley was to the Vase final to watch Terriers-Tiverton. Even managed to exit via one of the towers on the way out- had to cane it back home for a GCSE exam the next day. A real shame for NE non-league. I hope Bedlington can find a new club and a new ground.

I am sure we are all shocked by this revelation, fortunately this is surely a one-off and there isn’t another PL club owned by a guy who moved in the same circles.

Gary Neville nose for sure.

Or even that often their parents will have to move to work and the kids will go through the same thing regardless. Just remember when they opened the Siemens plant at Silverlink and closed down 18 months later.

The NL rejected the chance to feed into the Alliance when it was set up, it would have been the same level as the NPL became. It’s taken best part of 40 years to get proper representation from the NE into the expanded pyramid.

I believe that as of the end of last season, the club had cleared the books in terms of money owed to third parties thanks to the sponsorship money from QTS. It seems to be the same story each season of starting out with untested lower level players then being surprised when it doesn't work out. Change in the dugout is inevitable.

Worth bearing in mind that when Spartans went up from the NL in 94-95, the route up was NL1 > NPL 1 > NPL P > Conference, so the NL1 was 4 steps from the Football League and across the 'Northern' region there were only two divisions between the NL1 and Conference. With the expansion of the league they are still 4 steps away from the FL and there are four divisions in that same gap. They are to some extent, already below where they were back then. There is no excuse for a club with the gates and infrastructure at Croft Park to be struggling in this way.

The commentator on the world feed has referred to Brentford's striker as Igor Tudor three times now. Half expecting James Richardson to appear enjoying an espresso in a Roman piazza.

LAFC scored some lovely goals this evening including an absolute peach from Son.

Paully making an appearance on the world feed there.

Further west, a city and province just decided to fuck the whole thing off despite having a 60k stadium available.

If he can score decent goals for 3 seasons then disappears- it will still be fine. Not every deal is PSR.

Let's see.

Pretty obvious this was the key to us progressing the Isak deal.