Thetownend.com

Hi people what do we all think about about re introducing the old north v south divisions below the championship level.Surely its better to play rovers,scum,chelt,plym,bmuff,pompey,etc 4 times a season than macclesfield,morecombe,rotherhametc on 2 occasions.This would help on team and fans travel costs etc and add massively to gate income and tv interest.????????

no

Well put.

God no, what a bad idea.

What you say makes sense, but for reasons I can't quite put my finger on I am not a fan.

I think its because I quite like playing a variety of teams, and that we can say we are league 1 level nationally.

The 4 times a season bit is as mickey mouse as the SPL split (sorry Jan).

Don't beat about the bush! I agree with you.

I'm no massive fan of the split in the SPL but what's the alternative? I think the problem in Scotland is it's a pretty small country population wise, so what are they meant to do? Let the league die and end up with leagues similar to N.Ire, Wales or Rep of Ireland?  Yes Div 1, 2 & 3 in Scotland are no better than non-league but the SPL is actually not a bad league all things considering. There's little to no money behind it, so in these awfully bad economic times, survival is a result for the SPL.

As for north south divide, nah, leave it as it is, there's nothing wrong with L1 or L2, in fact looking at some of the clubs in L1 these days makes you see what strength there is there, even if it is only a perceived strength built on reputation Sheff Utd, Sheff Wed I mean.

No probs everyone has their own views which i respect but for me the buzz of playing accrington morecambe rotherham home or away  is nowhere near the excitement of the local stuff.I suppose it depends on the individuals but home  and away to scum twice a year beats macclesfield any day

Yeah, but playing people like that every week would take the buzz out of it.

Would get a tad tedious

I'm with Arriba.

Poor old Cheltenham would be chucked into Division Three (North) if Non-League football is anything to go by.

I think you are being very short sighted.

I am with arriba

I do like the idea of amalgamating div1 & 2 into a north and south div 1. Purely on the basis of travel, cost and the environment etc. However, there is a certain quaintness to the current arrangement and besides there would be one auto promotion from each div and one place up for grabs via the playoffs with four coming down from the championship or two auto places and no play offs.

Not for me thank you. I watch Town - don't give too much of a fuck who we're playing be they North or South or points in between. The Scum games are great but thats because we don't do it every season as they are normally shite and below us.
I've also enjoyed some great trips up north. 
After a season or two we'd probably get bored as fuck and pine for Accrington.

What a stupid idea.

I look forward to the fixtures coming out and planning my trips to godforsaken northern shit holes.

I don't think it's the most ridiculous notion ever suggested on TEF. On the surface, looking at a Division 3 (South), it looks quite fun for what it is. However, as a structure within modern football, it faces too many obstacles.

Firstly, you can still play each other twice instead four times (was that mentioned? If so then that would be suicide for the Football League - See Scotland).

There are teams based in places that could easily see them playing in the North despite being close to clubs in the South Division. Gloucester City play in the Conference North so would Cheltenham play in Division 3 (North)? In my quickly made list I've put Northampton Town in the Northern section because, well, I needed to.

How would the Football League make that geographical decision? What happens if four northern based teams get relegated from Division 2? Would teams like Walsall will be sent to Div 3 (South) to accommodate? Is that fair?

Then how would you decide on promotion? Two feeder divisions for the 2nd tier would result in only two clubs getting promoted from North and South.

- The Play-Offs would die as you would need two automatic places or it gets messy (Play-Off option could be 3rd Place North vs. 3rd Place South to face the 5th worst team in Division 2 that decides whether that team stays in Div 2)

- Without a Play-Off format, seasons could be over for most of the league by February if there are runaway leaders. Modern football is accustomed to this now and would not last without it.

There's probably more reasons.

Division 3 (North)

Sheffield United
Sheffield Wednesday
Huddersfield Town
Carlisle United
Tranmere Rovers
Hartlepool United
Preston North End
Bury
Scunthorpe United
Oldham Athletic
Chesterfield
Rochdale
Crewe Alexandra
Rotherham United
Accrington Stanley
Morecambe
Port Vale
Burton Albion
Bradford City
Macclesfield Town
Shrewsbury Town
Notts County
Walsall
Northampton Town

Division 3 (South)

Charlton Athletic
Franchise
Brentford
Stevenage
Colchester
Bournemouth
Yeovil
Leyton Orient
Wycombe Wanderers
Exeter City
Swindon Town
Torquay United
Crawley Town
Southend United
Cheltenham Town
Oxford United
Gillingham
Aldershot Town
Bristol Rovers
Wimbledon
Dag & Red
Plymouth Argyle
Barnet
Hereford United

It's a shit idea.

Nothing wrong with the current way the leagues are. The only thing I think they could do is increase the amount of teams up and down into league 2 from the Conference

Yes. It's not practical but I felt explaining why I didn't agree was better than saying 'it's shit'.

Speaking of the northern conference you end up with sitautions where Bishop Stortford have ended up in that division and have to travel to workington which is a 600 mile round trip.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_conf/conference_north_table/default.stm

Where are Vauxhall Motors based ?

Ellesmere Port ? Or Luton ?

It also doesn't take into account those of us who live further north and who sometime only have the opportunity to go to a match when it is against a Northern team. I'd virtually never get to see Swindon play if that happened.

Ellesmere Port

The gulf in class between teams at the top of those divisions and those at the bottom would be enormous.  As a result, you would have a stack of teams marooned in mid-table for season after season with little to play for.

I also look down the list of teams in the prospective Division Three (South)...and it hardly makes you want to go 'whoopie do!'  Southend, Yeovil, Stevenage, Barnet hardly set the pulse racing.  Admittedly, there aren't too many that do in the Northern section either, but at least you would keep the variety.

As an aside, it is interesting that the divide is drawn between Northampton and Franchise...a lot further south than I would have expected given all the teams in the Midlands and the North.  Most villages (well, almost) in Lancashire, for example, seem to have a League side these days.

I think that for this season only the team finishing 7th should be relegated to the Conference - the club would then be relocated to Outer Hebrides and be forced to only employ amputees.

I remember watching Chippenham Town beating Vauxhall Motors in the Semi-Final of the FA Vase back in 2000. I seem to recall one of their board members doing a :moon: at fans during the post-match celebrations.

The books were better than the TV series, although it made a star of Patrick Swayze.

Apart from Charlton, we'd be the biggest club in the Southern league.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8zKgSVdAxQ

There used to be a proper Southern League before the Great War, we won the last version in 1913/14

1    SWINDON TOWN    
2    Crystal Palace    
3    Northampton Town    
4    Reading    
5    Plymouth Argyle    
6    West Ham United    
7    Brighton and Hove Albion
8    Queens Park Rangers    
9    Portsmouth    
10    Cardiff City    
11    Southampton    
12    Exeter City    
13    Gillingham    
14    Norwich City    
15    Millwall Athletic    
16    Southend United    
17    Bristol Rovers    
18    Watford    
19    Merthyr Town    
20    Coventry City

These were the teams...there was also a SL 2 which contained the likes of Wycombe Wanderers, Pompey, Swansea, Luton, Brentford, Newport County, Walsall and even for a while Stoke City.

Problem was there was nowhere to go promotion wise as the FL was a norvern closed shop who cherry picked some southern wealthy clubs like Arsenal, Spurs, Fulham and Chelsea.

Our friends from Headington who like to big up their history, were nowhere to be seen in southern football, football in O*ford meant City a resolutely amateur outfit, and therefore not interested in professional football.

Of the teams in SL1 13/14, you have to feel a bit for Merthyr.....finished by the 1926 General Strike and its aftermath of economic depression.

Almost worked, but that was North and South. Remember watching that years ago, primarily because one of the female actresses was quality.

I'm just pleased it got a response! My sense of humour seems to be on a different (lower) level to the rest of the planet  :D

North & South with Swayze was better than the 90's kids show 'No Sweat' featuring the sensational Alex Harvey 'North and South'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWG4M67arKA