2019/20 National League North

[Andy Harrier]

Former Chesterfield academy manager John Pemberton has been announced as the new Kidderminster Harriers manager. Strikes me as a bit underwhelming

He's got a lot of experience as a coach. We've got to be a bit realistic as to who we'd be able to get in at this level, so think we need to wait and see. For the last couple of years we've had talented players who have underperformed. If we can keep Ironside (who Pemberton brought through at Sheffield United) I'll remain optimistic.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Hereford have signed Martin Riley from us. Seems Boston and Hereford are our B Teams at the moment. Glad to see the back of Riley. Very injury/error prone for us

 

[AnthraxDaveHUFC]

Where’s the money suddenly come from for Hereford?

Made some very very good signings.

To be honest, we haven't been making full use of our potential budget in any of the 4 seasons since reforming. Our overall budget is set to be around £650k for the year, which is quite sustainable if we average 2600+ at home games like we did in this awful season. If we are in or around the playoffs, we could easily be getting crowds of 4000.

In short, we are spending, now, what is realistic rather than very overly-cautious as was the case season just gone.

 

[Quakerz]

To be honest, we haven't been making full use of our potential budget in any of the 4 seasons since reforming. Our overall budget is set to be around £650k for the year, which is quite sustainable if we average 2600+ at home games like we did in this awful season. If we are in or around the playoffs, we could easily be getting crowds of 4000.

In short, we are spending, now, what is realistic rather than very overly-cautious as was the case season just gone.

If your budget is 650k are you full time?

To be honest it would equate to silly money for part timers, and how much more would you have to pay them to go full time?

 

[Bluandwite]

We’ve signed right back Jamie Morgan from Nantwich.

Haven’t seen him myself but highly rated apparently and there was interest from the league above.

 

[Steve_Wafc]

Hereford have signed Martin Riley from us. Seems Boston and Hereford are our B Teams at the moment. Glad to see the back of Riley. Very injury/error prone for us

Wow he’s still dragging himself along on the one leg, fair play.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Here is my guess at the Festive Fixtures for 2019/20

Oxford City v Gloucester City
Brackley Town v Kettering Town
Leamington v AFC Telford United
Kidderminster Harriers v Hereford
Boston United v Kings Lynn Town
Chester v Southport
Altrincham v Curzon Ashton
Guiseley v Farsley Celtic
Alfreton Town v Bradford (Park Avenue)
York v Darlington
Blyth Spartans v Spennymoor Town

 

[Quakerz]

Darlington's 4th signing of the summer is confirmed and it's 21 year old forward Jamie Holmes. No prizes for guessing where from.

 

[DarkSithLord]

AFC Telford leading scorer Dan Udoh has signed for Shrewsbury on a 2 year deal for a undisclosed fee

 

[Railway Blue]

AFC Telford leading scorer Dan Udoh has signed for Shrewsbury on a 2 year deal for a undisclosed fee

I'd be very surprised if he was successful in L1.

 

[Chief Rocka]

Darlington's 4th signing of the summer is confirmed and it's 21 year old forward Jamie Holmes. No prizes for guessing where from.

Haway Darlo man your taking the piss now like

 

[Crewelad87]

We’ve signed right back Jamie Morgan from Nantwich.

Haven’t seen him myself but highly rated apparently and there was interest from the league above.

I've seen him a few times, and he stood out in a decent Nantwich team. Looks to me to have the potential to play league football, good signing. I think he won player of the season at the dabbers last season.

 

[Quakerz]

Haway Darlo man your taking the piss now like

There is definitely another one coming from Blyth, Louis Laing. So that makes 5 for certain, and there are two more possibles - Dan Maguire and Peter Jameson - although we're up against it financially on those two because they both have full time offers as well as silly money part time offers.

We had a fans forum last night where it was revealed that Jarrett Rivers joined us for much less money than he was offered by Spendymore.

 

[Lucky Bobble]

I'd be very surprised if he was successful in L1.

He's been in the league before and got nowhere.

Are Blyth looking good candidates for relegation? We were when the chairmen cut our budget 4 - 5 years ago

 

[Quakerz]

He's been in the league before and got nowhere.

Are Blyth looking good candidates for relegation? We were when the chairmen cut our budget 4 - 5 years ago

Hard to say with Blyth, they still have a few good players, for example Robbie Dale who is part of the furniture. They have a big rebuild job though because when the dust settles they will have lost 9 or 10 players, so that's far from ideal.

They have literally just minutes ago announced Lee Clark as their new manager, interesting to see how that goes.

 

[Quakerz]

There is definitely another one coming from Blyth, Louis Laing. So that makes 5 for certain, and there are two more possibles - Dan Maguire and Peter Jameson - although we're up against it financially on those two because they both have full time offers as well as silly money part time offers.

We had a fans forum last night where it was revealed that Jarrett Rivers joined us for much less money than he was offered by Spendymore.

Oh yes, forgot to add - our fan ran "Boost The Budget" scheme closed last night with a whopping £103,200 pledged from 538 fans, an incredible amount. This compares to £86,000 raised last season, and £43,000 the season before.

Of course there are a few knockers on social media saying stuff like "but what happens when the fans can give no more and the money dries up?" well the answer to that question is we would cut our cloth accordingly, but if anything the BTB is going from strength to strength every year, rather than being in decline.

What this shows is that a large proportion of the fan base sees the club as more than just a team to watch on a Saturday - they are interested in maintaining the solvency and sustainability of the club going forwards.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Quite a coup for Blyth to get Lee Clark as their new manager. I had them down as strugglers but can see Clarks contacts at Newcastle and Sunderland coming in handy

 

[Chief Rocka]

It wouldn't surprise me if he begged Blyth for that job, been applying everywhere since Bury sacked him off.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

To be honest, we haven't been making full use of our potential budget in any of the 4 seasons since reforming. Our overall budget is set to be around £650k for the year, which is quite sustainable if we average 2600+ at home games like we did in this awful season. If we are in or around the playoffs, we could easily be getting crowds of 4000.

In short, we are spending, now, what is realistic rather than very overly-cautious as was the case season just gone.

You should be walking the league with that. Ours was around the 500k mark last season if rumours are to be believed.

 

[Quakerz]

You should be walking the league with that. Ours was around the 500k mark last season if rumours are to be believed.

Not really. York are full time and surely will have an equal or greater budget. Brackley and Spendy are both bankrolled to the hilt, and whilst I don't know what their budgets are, it would not surprise me if Spendy's budget is up there with Hereford, given some of the figures I have heard that they are offering players.

What Hereford (and possibly others) - regardless of whether it's affordable or not - are spending is just too much for a regional part time league.

For example, signings are more localised at this level, it's not as if Hereford are competing with Spendymore for the same players.

Hereford will be signing more or less the same players that they would have done anyway, except they will be paying them double what they would have done otherwise, had they had for example a 300k budget - which is easily enough to compete at this level

 

[Minstermen central]

Hopefully Darlo can sign some terracing from Blyth instead of a mud hill, they seem to of signed everything else from Blyth.

 

[JE93]

Hopefully Darlo can sign some terracing from Blyth instead of a mud hill, they seem to of signed everything else from Blyth.

Wouldn't count on it. Discussions still on going regarding the long term future location of the club. Blackwell Meadows licence up for renewal and theres no secret we're not happy with the current deal with the rugby club, which restricts our access to the club to match days and restricts our commercial and F&B income. Not going to be any more money spent on BM in the mean time.

 

[chipmunx]

Darlo could always sign Jacab Blyth next....

 

[Railway Blue]

Wouldn't count on it. Discussions still on going regarding the long term future location of the club. Blackwell Meadows licence up for renewal and theres no secret we're not happy with the current deal with the rugby club, which restricts our access to the club to match days and restricts our commercial and F&B income. Not going to be any more money spent on BM in the mean time.

Could you move in with the other rugby club?

 

[MWS]

Could you move in with the other rugby club?

Or, ground share with Blyth?

 

[JE93]

Could you move in with the other rugby club?

It's a possibility. They are currently in talks with the council to build a 'sporting village' at the arena site which would have a hotel, retail, sporting facilities etc. If reports are to be believed they did previously reject a ground share when we were looking to move back to the town so who knows if they'd actually want us. Basically we have 3 options all of which are pretty flawed:

1). Stay at Blackwell Meadows:
We need to renegotiate the licence with the Rugby club to make sure we see more of the revenue that we bring in. Currently we only see 10% of bar takings on match days, similar % of match day hospitality, pay £40kish in rent, pay them a % of sponsorship boards we sell. Have no access on non-match days, etc.

Add to that there is a high pressure water main with a 10m exclusion zone which runs under the pitch which prevents us from building into the corners of the ground. Without wholesale changes to the clubhouse side which would cost millions, or diverting the water pipe which would cost £1m to allow us to develop the other sides of the ground. It's difficult to see how BM could ever be a football league standard ground. Obviously fans aren't willing to spend money upgrading a ground where we have no security/ownership.

2). Move back to the arena:
Currently owned by the town's other rugby club. They have rejected us before so there is a questions of whether they would agree to sharing facilities with us. As part of the lease the FA require assurances of primacy of fixtures which may well be a sticking point as I think the rugby club have more than one team playing on the pitch. The rugby club are currently looking to develop a sporting village at the site in conjunction with the council. As part of these plans they want to put a 4G pitch down as the main pitch which again wouldn't be popular.

Problem is the Arena is fairly universally disliked within the fan base. I'm not sure many, if any would welcome going back, although it is a football league ready facility sitting in the town which makes it the cheapest option. Add to that the plans of the rugby club to add a 4G pitch and it then wouldn't support our future ambitions. (Although this is subject to change should the FL vote to allow 4G).

3). Look to get a piece of land on the sporting village development site which we can develop ourselves:
Hope that as part of the sporting village development the club will be granted some land on the sporting village site on a long lease or even for the club to purchase. Atleast this would give us primacy of tenure. Problem being this would mean starting from scratch. If you take a guide price of £1m per 1000 capacity would cost us roughly £5/6m for a football league standard ground. Add to that our costings seem to suggest taking down what we have already funded at BM and moving it to a new site would cost as much as buying it new. The costs of doing this option seem completely prohibitive.



Tough decisions to be made in the future of the club., but we have finally got ourselves to being in a great position off the pitch and we have a really committed core fan base who are looking to protect the best interests of the club long term.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Bet Victor have released odds for National North

NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH 19/20 TITLE ODDS

YORK CITY 5/1
CHESTER 6/1
ALTRINCHAM 10/1
BRACKLEY TOWN 10/1
SOUTHPORT 10/1
SPENNYMOOR TOWN 10/1
KIDDERMINSTER HARRIERS 12/1
AFC TELFORD UNITED 16/1
BOSTON UNITED 16/1
HEREFORD 16/1
BRADFORD (PARK AVENUE) 16/1
ALFRETON TOWN 20/1
BLYTH SPARTANS 25/1
DARLINGTON 25/1
KETTERING TOWN 25/1
KING'S LYNN TOWN 25/1
CURZON ASHTON 33/1
GUISELEY 33/1
LEAMINGTON 33/1
OXFORD CITY 33/1
FARSLEY CELTIC 50/1
GLOUCESTER CITY 50/1

 

[Harrier94]

We've signed Cliff Moyo. Thoughts DarkSithLord GuiseleySteve ?

 

[DarkSithLord]

We've signed Cliff Moyo. Thoughts DarkSithLord GuiseleySteve ?

I Liked Cliff. Really nice guy who always gave 100% Decent player at this level but can get caught positionally. Not sure he is good enough to get you promoted out of this league.

 

[Alty Pieman]

We just signed,.. the whole squad many on long deals.
Just need a couple more to strengthen key areas.