Three hopes, one fear for Non League in 2019

As we leave 2018 and venture into the unknown of 2019, we turn to the future and hope for all things prosperous; but what will 2019 hold for us in Non-League football?

Alex Morritt, a British author, once described the transition into the unknown as “a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours.”

Will the events of last year act as a precedent for the end of the season with further twists and turns in the race to become champions and avoiding relegation, or will it be the same story as it stands with a future runaway leader?

Hope one: An entertaining race for the title

The one thing that football fans can agree on is that a runaway champion makes the League campaign less entertaining. While one team storms towards their inevitable crowning as champions, other teams begin to experiment by playing academy graduates as they begin to prepare for the next campaign due to the lack of incentive to gain results.

While Leyton Orient currently sit top of the National League tree by four points, just six points separate second from sixth. Welsh side Wrexham have the possibility to reduce the deficit to just one point due to their game in hand on Justin Edinburgh’s Orient, and the Os are still to take on five of the current top six at their Brisbane Road base – beginning with third placed Salford City this Saturday.

So, while Leyton Orient fans may be hoping for a smooth ride to their declaration as Champions, it’ll certainly be no easy feat as they target a return to the English Football League for the first time since their relegation in April 2017.

Hope two: Billericay Town manage to keep afloat

Billericay Town are in financial trouble. The Essex side, owned by steel magnate Glenn Tamplin, are known to have made large cuts to their playing budget in recent weeks, resulting in a dramatic drop in-form leading to four consecutive defeats – including particularly embarrassing losses to promotion rivals Woking and local rivals Chelmsford City.

Blues boss Dean Brennan revealed in a recent interview that the Essex side were close to going under a few weeks ago; however, the ship appears to have steadied upon rocky waters, but their previous ambitions of consecutive promotions have been scrapped in place of League consolidation.

Hope three: An outsider to win promotion

As the season heads towards its final few months, it’s an exciting time for all clubs involved in an ongoing race for promotion. This is especially so for seven of the top nine teams in the National League, whom have never featured in the Football League before.

For teams such as the Lancashire pair Salford City and Fylde, a promotion to the Football League would be the culmination of many years of hard work and a dream come true for many supporters. With Forest Green Rovers’ previous story of promotion through a play-off final win at Wembley close in the memory for a number of football fans, it’s certainly not an impossible scenario that one of the teams who gets promoted this season will be a Football League newbie.

Concern: An awkward relegation scenario

Relegation – it’s a worry for all football fans, but this year could be an even larger one for many teams in the Vanarama National League and National League South. The pitfalls of having a regionalised league system means that every now and then they must be assessed, and sides potentially allocated a new division. For years Bishop’s Stortford competed in the National League North despite being based in Hertfordshire, Oxford City and Gloucester City are also clubs to have previously graced the Northern division.

However, with four of the current bottom five being known as ‘Southern’ sides, it’ll mean that some teams could be forced to compete in the North. Chesterfield appear to be the only non-Southern side but the Spireites have game in hand over fellow relegation threatened side Havant & Waterloovile, a team only promoted from the South division last term.

A quick survey of a map shows the difficulty in choosing a sole team to transfer to the North – let alone possibly two teams – but clubs such as Braintree Town or Chelmsford City could seriously face the possibility of long trips north next season despite being based in Essex.

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