Joe could have ruined our season!!

[spiritofeastleigh]

I admire the integrity of our goalie Joe McDonnell in trying to help Boreham Wood to reach the play off final at Wembley but am I the only one who was thinking 'Please don't ruin our season before it starts in August by keeping Notts County in this league'. Had they knocked County out, the title would have been a one horse race next season with the rest fighting for PO places. It is in the interest of the entire league that Notts County succeed at Wembley. I'd go so far as to say the three going up to League One automatically next season would then be Stockport, Wrexham, and Notts County. Last seasons runaway National league winners Stockport made a shocking start this season, yet ended up only 12 points adrift of the Champions, Leyton Orient, so I'd be confident in that early prediction. Chesterfield took a massive gamble with a £1m+ bank loan to get promotion last season, and this is their follow up with most of those players on two year deals which need renewing or releasing players this summer, so again its to our advantage Notts County do it. In my opinion the early favourite next season is probably Barnet but much will depend on the transfer business over the summer. Now SD is back we are likely to have a pretty good budget and if we can attract players despite our geographical location from the best playing for Northern teams we have to be in the mix ourselves. There was logic to my idea ten years ago for EFC to buy houses in the area for players to live in locally whilst under contract to us....the houses would have an extra 30% value today so was a no brainer to my mind to keep players fresh from travelling to train and go back home almost daily. One remembers the former Manager, Ronnie Moore, travelling from Yorkshire almost daily at his age, little wonder it caught up with him in time and he stood down. But anyway, if we can get the best players here we will have a great chance. And now the EFL have the new Sky TV deal I'd be confident that from season 2024-25 when it kicks in, the National League will have two automatic promotion spots and another via the play offs because the National League is far stronger than League Two these days and progressive clubs are being denied the opportunity to take the next step in the pyramid. So Joe was man of the match...but thankfully was on the losing side in the end. Let's hope he gets his promotion next season with the mighty Spitfires when he is truly part of the winning team.

[unknownquantity]

I think that it is very rare for a team to a start a season (Probably also including Wrexham this campaign) to have a better chance of winning the title than finishing in a playoff position and therefore any playoff expereience Joe McDonnell may have gained especially i it included a trip to Wembley could have been beneficial next season.

I do not personally think that taking inti account all relevant factors that the National League is significantly stronger than League 2. Would Wrexham and Notts County have obtained over 100 points in League 2?

Some players who do not live in the area move closer and some even share a house with their team mates, but I think it is harder for players in the North to settle in the area,

[callumefc]

Still genuinely not impressed by County for them (and Chesterfield) to scrape through after Extra time against teams that had played midweek just shows what can happen in 'one - off' games. People need to stop having this mentally of being scared of these 'bif clubs' they play the same level as us, which means they have dropped a fair few leagues historically, they are loser clubs compared to us.

Re Chesterfield 'bank' loan, presume you mean the loan from Government/DCMS at practically 0% interest re payable over 25 years, hardly a big stress for a club like Chesterfield.

[usspitfire]

Spot on Callum. These supposed "Big Teams" don't deserve to be held in any high regard just because they were once in a higher league than us. If anything, they are inferior to us because we've never been relegated, and NONE of the ex EFL clubs can say that!