2019/20 Southern League

Atavistic

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Barring any appeals and/or the AGM Cup, these are the provisional constitutions across the Southern League:

Premier Division Central
AFC Rushden & Diamonds
Alvechurch
Banbury United
Barwell
Biggleswade Town
Bromsgrove Sporting
Coalville Town
Hednesford Town
Hitchin Town
Kings Langley
Leiston
Lowestoft Town
Needham Market
Nuneaton Borough
Peterborough Sports
Redditch United
Royston Town
Rushall Olympic
St. Ives Town
Stourbridge
Stratford Town
Tamworth

Premier Division South
Beaconsfield Town
Blackfield & Langley
Chesham United
Dorchester Town
Farnborough
Gosport Borough
Harrow Borough
Hartley Wintney
Hayes & Yeading United
Hendon
Merthyr Town
Metropolitan Police
Poole Town
Salisbury
Swindon Supermarine
Taunton Town
Tiverton Town
Truro City
Walton Casuals
Weston-super-Mare
Wimborne Town
Yate Town

Division 1 Central
AFC Dunstable (groundshare at Dunstable Town)
Aylesbury United (groundshare at Chesham United)
Barton Rovers
Bedford Town
Bedworth United
Berkhamsted
Biggleswade (groundshare at Biggleswade Town)
Coleshill Town
Corby Town
Daventry Town
Didcot Town
Halesowen Town
Kempston Rovers
Kidlington
North Leigh
St. Neots Town
Thame United
Wantage Town
Welwyn Garden City
Yaxley

Division 1 South
AFC Totton
Barnstaple Town
Basingstoke Town
Bideford
Bristol Manor Farm
Cinderford Town
Cirencester Town
Evesham United
Frome Town
Highworth Town
Larkhall Athletic
Mangotsfield United
Melksham Town
Moneyfields
Paulton Rovers
Sholing
Slimbridge
Thatcham Town
Willand Rovers
Winchester City

Promotion/Relegation Rules
No "Super Play-Offs" at either Step 3 or Step 4 next season - all Champions and Play-Off winners will be promoted
The bottom 2 at Step 3 will be relegated to Step 4, and the teams who finish 3rd-from-bottom could also go down depending on PPG (2 of the 4 sides finishing 3rd-from-bottom at Step 3 will be relegated this way)
No automatic relegation at Step 4 next season. Instead, the teams who finish bottom will go into play-offs against some Step 5 runners-up, with the winner either staying up or going up. This is to aid the creation of an 8th Step 4 division for the 2020/21 season
 

Atavistic

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From our perspective, there's little change in terms of travelling and only a few new opponents for us to face (and I'm hoping our meeting with Daventry goes better than last season's in the FA Cup did).

I don't really feel qualified to talk about how the other leagues could pan out, but I have a few predictions about Division 1 Central:

At the top end, the favourites are likely to be Corby Town, Bedford Town and Halesowen Town (if they get their act together after their relegation), while the likes of Didcot Town will probably find themselves in or around the play-offs again. Other than that, no one particularly stands out on paper, so it could be a much more open league than last season.

At the bottom, I would expect Kidlington and North Leigh to struggle again as neither are well-supported and they both apparently have some of the lowest budgets in the division (even lower than ours, and ours is certainly one of the lowest). Other than that, Welwyn Garden City will probably struggle again unless they stabilise over pre-season.

Of the teams coming up from Step 5, I'm not sure how Biggleswade or Daventry will fare, but my gut feeling is that both should do fine at this level. I could see Wantage Town struggling though, based simply on the fact that their manager left almost immediately after promotion (which is never a good sign). They aren't especially well-supported either, so it could be tough for them.

As for those coming down from Step 3, Halesowen seem like a very large side at this level so should be competing for an immediate promotion if they get things right. I don't know much about Bedworth, but this seems to be their natural level so they'll probably fit in with the rest. As for St. Neots, they struggled with financial difficulties last season, so how they fare this time around will depend on how well they've been able to recover from that (I'd bet that they still have a larger budget than us, even with their budget cuts).

As for us, we finished last season with 6 wins out of our final 7 games (a loss away at Corby being the only blemish in that run) and finished 11th, so I'm hoping we can hit the ground running and push on both on and off the pitch. Hopefully we can break into the top half (and not have to worry about relegation for most of the season again), but I'd still be happy with a similar finish to last season. With our budget being one of the lowest, we will have to be shrewd with our recruitment, but if we can manage that (particularly in the defensive department) then we should be fine.
 

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So, the knock-on effects from the Gateshead situation will apparently see Truro reprieved and Heybridge promoted from Step 4, so someone will have to be transferred over from the Isthmian to fill in the gap in Premier Division South, which should end the chances of appeals by Met Police and Kings Langley being successful.
 

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So, the knock-on effects from the Gateshead situation will apparently see Truro reprieved and Heybridge promoted from Step 4, so someone will have to be transferred over from the Isthmian to fill in the gap in Premier Division South, which should end the chances of appeals by Met Police and Kings Langley being successful.
Most likely outcome would appear to be Bognor Regis moving directly across, or Bishop's Stortford switching to the Southern Premier Central with someone else shuffling from there to the South.
 

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Well, the Gateshead situation hasn't had any impact here, so barring the appeals from Met Police and Kings Langley (which are highly unlikely to be successful), these should now be the final constitutions for the new season.

On our end, we've been steadily announcing players who are staying on again for the new season, and we've already announced numerous key players and been able to maintain the spine of the team. There should be more announcements still to come, though I imagine we'll maintain the vast majority of last season's squad again (other than one or two who didn't have the desired impact and are probably surplus to requirements as a result).
 

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The league will no longer be sponsored by Evo-Stik next season, with a new sponsor set to be announced on the 1st of July.

It doesn't seem likely, but I'm hoping they use this as a chance to restructure and split off the Step 3 and 4 Central Divisions into their own structure separate from the Southern League, as that makes much more sense than the current system.
 

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The league will no longer be sponsored by Evo-Stik next season, with a new sponsor set to be announced on the 1st of July.

It doesn't seem likely, but I'm hoping they use this as a chance to restructure and split off the Step 3 and 4 Central Divisions into their own structure separate from the Southern League, as that makes much more sense than the current system.

 

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We've still been able to maintain most of last season's key players, but star winger Matt Sparrow has announced that he'll be leaving. On the one hand, this is massively disappointing as that's 18 goals (in all competitions) that now needs to be replaced, not to mention all the assists he provided thanks to his pace (which few sides were able to really handle last season).
However, he does have a tendency to disappear from games very easily and we looked so much more solid defensively without him, so it's hard to truly assess the impact of his departure (not least because we've still retained our other three key attacking players, who scored 50 goals between them in all competitions even with one of them at the back half the season).

The other known departure so far is centre back Sam Spencer, who had been with the club for several years but has struggled with injuries since late in our UCL title-winning season. Even when he was fit near the end of last season, he was often on the bench, so it's understandable that he'd want to go elsewhere to play now. This is perhaps more problematic for us as it leaves us light in numbers at the back (even more so with two of our key defenders from late last season only on loan), so we'll need to prioritise recruitment there to avoid conceding as much as we did last season.

EDIT: Goalkeeper Ollie Sutton has also departed, though this has been expected for a while now with the return of Aaron Butcher and the emergence of James Blake as second choice, along with some high-profile mistakes Sutton made last season (and some injury troubles that kept him out for a chunk of the season).
 
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Atavistic

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As with the Isthmian League and Northern Premier League, the Southern League will be sponsored by BetVictor next season.

Now, putting aside the obvious moral issues of gambling sponsorship, this seems a highly hypocritical move given that players and club officials at this level aren't allowed to bet on football at all. Alas, money talks, so this is what we end up with.
 

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Another issue will be the clarification of which league a table or set of results is for. With all 3/ 4 regional divs being BetVictor it will be far less clear which div is which. Dr Martens, Unibond, Beazer homes, etc were clear & separate leagues. 'Champions of the unibond' is a song, 'champions of one of the betvictors' isn't...

betvictor north
betvictor middle-ish
betvictor south
betvictor round london
???
 

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Think people will just forego the BetVictor part of the league name entirely, and just refer to the leagues as "Southern League", "Northern Premier League" and "Isthmian League". Certainly seems the easiest option, especially for people who object to the BetVictor sponsorship.
 

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Fixtures released today across the divisions.

We open by hosting recently-relegated Halesowen Town, before hosting newly-promoted Biggleswade FC on August Bank Holiday Monday. It's then at home against Corby Town on Boxing Day, away at Biggleswade on New Year's Day, away at Corby on Easter Monday and then away at Berkhamsted to finish the season.

One thing that's definitely a good change from last season is no fixture after Boxing Day and before New Year's Day; last season, that gave clubs three games in less than a week and it seems that many were understandably unimpressed with that over the festive period.
 

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Our league season finally gets underway tomorrow, as we welome recently-relegated Halesowen Town to start the season. They seem to be fancying themselves to make a promotion push, so it won't be an easy start. They also have former Notts County striker Lee Hughes (yes, that Lee Hughes) playing for them.
 

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Truro have had a good start with our former “legend” and assistant manager Paul Wotton as their manager. Couple Argyle lads on loan there as well
 

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Truro have had a good start with our former “legend” and assistant manager Paul Wotton as their manager. Couple Argyle lads on loan there as well
What's the situation with their ground? Are they at Treyew Road until the end of the season? There was speculation in the summer that they might have to vacate again mid-season.
 

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A reasonable start for us so far, losing 2-1 in the last minute to title favourites Halesowen Town after playing with ten men for an hour before winning 5-2 at St. Neots Town tonight.

Not at all easy to judge our prospects from those two games - if what I hear about Halesowen's budget is true, they should run away with the league, while St. Neots look like they're really going to struggle this season with their young side - but I think we can do enough to break into the top half this season.
 

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Went to the Hitchin Vs Rushall game yesterday in lieu of being able to travel up to Barnsley. Finished 2-1 to Rushall.

Fairly even game for the most part I felt with both sides creating some decent openings, the Rushall keeper in particular made a really good save from an inventive shot by Draper that looked destined to loop in. Hitchin looked a lot more physically capable outfit than last season where quite a few players looked they would be blown away in a brisk wind! They only really had two of those playing today, unfortunately one of those was playing centre half for them who really got abused for both goals.

Hitchin took the lead I thought deservedly. Given a blatant penalty which Draper smashed in well. Strangely the ref, who pretty much ignored and over ruled his assistants all game even on throw ins and offside decisions, which was amusing to see, gave the penalty for a blatant bundle over in the box. It never should have got to that as the ball had got there from a blatant foul which the lino was already flagging as a penalty which he was again ignoring!

Rushall hit back, basic ball up the line where the wing back had been pulled out of position which the centre half got out muscled for pulled back from the byline and easy 1-1. Second one he just got out muscled by the centre forward who finished well into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. After that Hitchin never really looked like getting back into it for.

Hitchin, like last year, have had a tough start to the season and are yet to pick up a win as yet, but thought they looked a better side than the last time I saw them which admittedly was early on last season. Draper up front, who I think they have had at the back end of last season too, was very decent and looks a player who can progress, good physically, got a couple of good shots off and in general looked a little above everyone else technically. Got a touch of the shithouses about him as well as he picked up a booking for some ref back chat which to be honest i quite like in a striker.
 

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Our start hasn't been great in all honesty, as we've had issues with injuries, suspensions and players being on holiday. Since the opening two games, we threw away a two-goal lead against Biggleswade, then lost 1-0 at Didcot to a last minute penalty, then lost 2-1 to Daventry after a cross went in. However, we finally got almost everyone back today (just one first team player missed out through suspension) and deservedly beat Kempston 3-1.

Our full-strength side is easily top-half material, but we have no real strength in depth which is undoubtedly going to hinder us as the season progresses. Still, 10th after six games is a reasonable place to be, all things considered.
 

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A humbling exit from the League Cup as AFC Rushden & Diamonds thrash us 4-0. A disappointing result in terms of the manner of defeat (just the second time we've lost by more than a single goal in all competitions this season), but not entirely unexpected. And, with a couple of league games to fit into midweeks soon, as well as two County Cup matches, going out of the League Cup now is ideal before we build up a fixtures backlog.

As for the league, only Halesowen Town have played fewer than our 10 matches so far and we find ourselves in 15th with 13 points to our name. Compared to this stage last season, we're only a point better off, but I feel like we're in a much better position than at this stage last season (though it does help that there's no threat of relegation for us this season, thanks to only one potential place and said place being taken up by a pointless Wantage Town).

Compared to after ten games last season, we haven't been quite as prolific as we were (19 goals so far compared to 24 this stage last season), but our defence is much, much better than it was last season (17 conceded so far compared to 31 this time last year). We've also not truly been thrashed by anyone either (as none of our five league defeats have been by more than a single goal), so we feel much more competitive this season. We've also arguably dropped at least 4 or 5 points we should have picked up due to bad luck, so things could be even better.

It's only baby steps really, but all improvement is very much welcome as we continue to consolidate at this level. My only complaint is that we've had four players sent off in our ten league games, which has definitely contributed to some of the dropped points. If we can improve our discipline and our luck, we should be able to press on and into the top half (we're only five points off with a couple of games in hand over most of the league).

EDIT: Meanwhile, in the division above, our local rivals Peterborough Sports have gone and signed former Premier League striker Lomana LuaLua. A hell of a coup for our financially-doped rivals.
 
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Taunton and Truro equalled a record last night.

A 34 kick penalty shootout in the League Cup
 

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Taunton and Truro equalled a record last night.

A 34 kick penalty shootout in the League Cup

11 of which were missed/saved.

ELEVEN. One in three. Good Grief.
 

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Paulton Rovers 12-1 Weston-Super-Mare. In the league cup mind, but where did that come from?
 

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Paulton Rovers 12-1 Weston-Super-Mare. In the league cup mind, but where did that come from?
From the sounds of it, Weston-super-Mare just put the kids out while Paulton went with the first team. Seemingly little to read into it beyond WSM not caring about the League Cup (which isn't exactly an unreasonable view).
 

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I was finally able to get to another Yaxley game this season for the first time in months as we visited Aylesbury United again in their groundshare at Chesham (I used the match to come home from University for Christmas).

We earned a credible point against our play-off chasing opposition with a 1-1 draw; the match was the proverbial game of two halves, with us dominating the first and them the second. Overall, it wasn't perfect - as we weren't able to respond when Aylesbury upped the intensity in the second half - but I was mostly impressed with what I saw.

Before we tired in the second half, we looked far more solid at the back than I have ever seen us be, and the motivation and desire was plain to see as we worked hard to win every second ball and press Aylesbury when they had it.

Only thing I would say is that we need to be able to maintain the levels we showed in the first half today, as we can clearly compete with the best sides in this league if we do. Finishing also let us down a lot today, but then the same can be said for Aylesbury in the second half and, by extension, most teams at this level. And I'm less bothered by it when considering the fact that key attacking player Dan Cotton was absent.

Beyond this match, our inconsistency has continued, beating promotion-chasing Berkhamsted last week but then losing to mid-table Bedworth United the week before. If we can find consistency going into the second half of the season, we could well be a dark horse for those play-off places, however unlikely that may be.

Up next is a visit to whipping boys Wantage Town, so hopefully we can take advantage and boost the goal difference before hosting (and likely being beaten by) Corby Town on Boxing Day.
 

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Tight at the top of the South Premier.

Three points separating the top four after last night. Chesham, having beaten Truro on Sat, missed the chance to go 4 clear, by getting stuffed 4-1 at Yate.
 

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We're currently on a good run of form with 3 wins in a row, putting us 9 points adrift of the play-offs with two games in hand. Until we play Halesowen on the 18th of Feb, we have a relatively favourable run of fixtures over those five games, including visits to the bottom two.

It's one hell of a long shot, but if we can continue our good run in these next five fixtures (Kempston away, North Leigh home, AFC Dunstable away, Wantage away and Kidlington home), we could find ourselves right up there.

I'm sure something will go awry at some point though, especially given that we have to play seven matches in February (including two of our furthest away journeys as midweek fixtures).
 

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Six wins in a row now, and the play-off dream is seeming more and more possible. If we win our two games in hand, we'll just be one point adrift of the play-offs. I still don't think we'll actually make the play-offs (and I feel like we'd get demolished even if we somehow did), but it's certainly possible. After all, we have a tendency under our current manager to go on these ridiculously good runs of form at times (that's what got us from mid-table mediocrity to Step 5 champions two seasons ago, almost winning every match from November onwards).

And if we were to reach the play-offs and win them, we would presumably be one of the smallest sides to have ever played at Step 3. We'll keep dreaming and see what happens.
 

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