Paullow

Current top 6 are: Newcastle 2/5 Chelsea 9/4 Man Utd 8/1 Chelsea definitely look the biggest threat now and probably have the best fixtures on paper, but we do have the points advantage and GD (which shouldn't be overturned). I'd be fine with 7th, but while it would be nice to finally finish above Man Utd, it will make that FA Cup final a lot more important as it would either be Conference or nothing defending on the outcome of the final (this is assuming Man Utd came 8th).

Normally if a side went 3-0 up I'd be tempted to switch over as the game would effectively be over as a contest, but I'm enjoying this.

It will be weird for him if he did go to Man Utd next season. Them potentially not being in the Conference/Europa could mean he only starts like 20 matches instead of 30+ (if he went).

Olise!

Horrific end to the season for them. On Feb 10th they beat Plymouth 3-1 to go 6th, and their next 3 matches all looked very winnable: But since then, P15 W2 D3 L10 F8 A20 GD-12 PTS 9 Wiki have it the wrong way round for the Sheff Wed game, but still the pinky lose colour.

Probably good news for Hebburn, Stockton and Morpeth, but not so much Blyth, as Macclesfield will be spending another year at least in the 7th tier next season after losing their playoff final today. 5,329 there.

There'll be a lot more people who like football than rugby in the region. Tynedale RFC averaged 300 last season, and 450 so far this year, so fairly reasonable relative to the league they are in, but not exactly pulling in the thousands, especially when the old district borders had a population of 60,000 20 years ago, so probably a fair bit more now. They were in the 3rd tier of English rugby for a few years about 10 years ago, so amazingly among the top 40 or so teams in the country, but if there was half as much thought and effort put into a local football team then it might actually get somewhere.

That seemingly took me around 15 mins to write as it's now 3-0 coming up to full time

Still 2-0 with 15 to go. I was fairly neutral, but as long as they don't do a Marske, it will be good to see another Northumberland member team progressing. Just looking at the Northumberland Senior Cup this year and Blyth and Morpeth both had byes to the QF and there were only 14 teams involved, so a crazy lack of teams at Northern league level or above. I know Durham has a lot of pit towns and villages of circa 20,000, but their equivalent Challenge Cup has so many more rounds. Hexham have never had a good team in my life time. There was Hexham Swinton and Border Counties in the Alliance when I was growing up, and now there's a 'Hexham FC', but there's never been a team in the Northern League, whereas Prudhoe, whether Town or Youth Club, have had a team for long spells in the league. Hexham is (or was) the administrative centre and biggest town of Tynedale, and if it had a reasonable team they could draw people from Haltwhistle to the West, towards Prudhoe in the East, Bellingham in the North and down to the Allendale/Allenheads in the South, get a few temporary stands at Wentworth Leisure Centre (like what they used to do for the athletics in the Dean Macey days) and get around 1,000 turning up, but even Haltwhistle Jubilee have a much better team, and Wallington. I see no reason why it couldn't have a decent team at NPL Premier level, like Morpeth, but they're a million miles away from that and currently have 8 points from their 27 games in the Alliance 2nd tier.

Having just watched the video, I guess both would be prime candidates. Unless being kept on for character reasons a bit like Dummett, Gillespie etc. in the men's, if you're a bit part player in a league with the Fylde's and Stourbridge's, it's only natural that opportunities will be even fewer when mixing with former recent WSL sides like Bristol C, Birmingham and Reading. Just looking at the league below (tier 4) and Hull finished first ahead of Middlesbrough and Durham Cestria (who Newcastle just pipped last season) to reach tier 3. It's a bit of a shame that one of those 2 local sides couldn't have come up as although it would be a drop from full time to part time, the local fringe lasses could have had an opportunity to potentially stay in the same league, and get a bit more game time, but there's not many viable options.

2,107 there, and Heaton are 2-0 up after 60 mins.

Heaton-West Auckland 0-0 at half time.

Nearly a year to the day, 30th April last year was when Liverpool were 3-0 up, Spurs brought it back to 3-3, only to lose with the last kick of the game. We'll have been a lot more invested in that one.

You don't get much closer than that from Bromley, off the post and rolled back along the line. Still 2-2, about 5 mins to a shootout.

2-2, cracking equaliser by the Solihull-born captain. Think I'll watch this one to the end over the Liverpool match.

Bromley back in front against Soihull in the National final on TNT Sports. Solihull fannying on at the back, striker nips in, penna. 2-1.

Penna to Brighton.

2-0 Chelsea.

I'd snap your hand off that for that now. It would be our 10th PL top 6 finish, completing a unique set of finishing 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 5th, 5th, 6th, 6th, guaranteed European football, and having a brother who supports Man Utd, finally finishing above them in the PL era (and my time) would be nice. Crazy that we have had 4 top 3 finishes, and runner up twice, but never finished above them. Of course, Europa would be preferable, but I'd say there's just as much chance we finish 7th or 8th than 6th, could easily miss out on Europe altogether, and this would signal a strong end to the season.

'Effectively' only really works when the advantage is like 3 or 6 points and that's when the extra 'point' comes into play as it will take an extra game for a team to pass. If Chelsea finish above Man Utd then 7th might not be enough. We'd be favourites to make the Conference League for sure, but it would be a bit of a nervy watch on the 25th hoping that Man City do what's expected of them, and we have been burned in the past of an underdog winning the FA Cup and denying us a place in Europe. The current top 6 odds look favourable:

So this will be how steps 1-4 look next year, depending on whether you count the 3 North Yorkshire sides as local. National Gateshead (and York) National North South Shields Spennymoor Darlington (and Scarborough) NPL Premier Blyth Morpeth Hebburn Stockton (and Whitby) NPL Div One East Dunston Newton Aycliffe Consett Ashington Bishop Auckland Heaton Stan or West Auckland (play off final on Monday) Possibly missed someone, but good to see more representation, and a few new derbies / local matches. I've been to Spennymoor before and went to South Shields vs Spennymoor this year, so might look to make one or two matches next year, and get to a few new grounds, like maybe Darlington vs Spennymoor, Morpeth vs Blyth, Bishop Auckand vs potentially West Auckland, although not wanting to annoy those on here with that one

It is a shame for Dunston, and I was hoping they would have gone up with them being closer to home, but at least it is another County Durham team going up the leagues, and judging by the size of the town, and the crowds they get, they would likely be able to make more of a fist of it than Dunston in the higher level, and potentially look to push on to the National North. They have made the playoff final 3 years in a row - they lost to Marske in 21/22, and then Long Eaton on pens last year after finishing 2nd, and they obviously just missed out by a point this year after leading for a long time. 23/24 22/23 21/22

Stockton equalised with the last kick of normal time to make it 3-3. Dunston went back in front, but Stockton have just equalised again. 4-4 with 10 mins of extra time to go.

Dunston currently 3-1 up away at Stockton in the NPL second tier playoff final. Looking set to join Blyth, Morpeth and Hebburn in the first tier of that league next year.