"I like The Midland Football League Premier Division, The East Midlands Counties League, The Central Midlands Football League and The Midlands Regional Alliance - the leagues below the Northern Premier League".
For the uninitiated, my response related to local teams in the lower reaches of the English footballing pyramid. Although I did see a few Midland Football League Premier Division / Northern Counties East League Division 1 (Step 5) and East Midlands Counties League (Step 6) games in the season, I spent a lot of time watching teams of the Central Midlands Football League (Step 7) by doing a 'Road to the League Cup Final' challenge. For completeness, the results of the games I saw are shown below:
R1: Swanwick Pentrich Road 3, Askern FC 1
R2: Holbrook St Michaels 1, Swanwick Pentrich Road 4
QF: Swanwick Pentrich Road 2, FC Bolsover 3 (AET)
SF: FC Bolsover 0, Hucknall Town 4
FR: Selston FC 2, Hucknall Town 0
Technically there is no 'Step 8' but for this review I am classing 'Step 8' (Tier 12) as the recognised feeder league to the Central Midlands Football League (Step 7) - The Midlands Regional Alliance (MRA), a Saturday league serving Derby and the surrounding area.
The sole MRA league game I watched was the Premier Division game between Allenton United and Shirebrook Rangers. Unfortunately, Allenton went on to default their last few games and resign from the league, a shame rather than a Tragedy. On a more cheerful note I did witness Castle Donington Cobras (of MRA Division 1) lift a County Cup by beating Gresley Reserves in Mickleover. In that latter game the Cobras 'keeper put a Gresley forward in hospital; an incident that is Better Best Forgotten. I also watched them beat their local rivals Melbourne Dynamo to lift the MRA Junior Cup.
Teams join the MRA to get the highest standard of Saturday football they can and also to use it as a spring board for loftier ambitions, such as Selston FC, winners of the CMFL cup and Division South this season. Such teams often come from Sunday or junior leagues.
There are three further Derbyshire FA affiliated leagues serving adult footballers in Derby which fall outside the recognised footballing pyramid. These are the Derby Church League, the Derby City League and the Derby Taverners Sunday Football League.
I watched the City League and Taverners League cup finals and felt that Woodlands OB, Golden Pheasant (wearing a kit of a Deeper Shade of Blue), FC Chadd 2013 and Arboretum could all hold their own in the MRA, if they ever wanted to move across. Furthermore I felt that there was enough talented players in those four teams that a very useful team could be compiled from them. This was an approach taken by FC Bolsover (winners of the Central Midlands Football League (CMFL) North Division 2016/17).
Glapwell FC (who became (in essence) FC Bolsover) took some of the more talented players of the Chesterfield and District Sunday League to challenge in the CMFL. They ended up winning the CMFL North Division in 2015/16. At the end of that season they folded and the players and management rebadged themselves as FC Bolsover.
I watched FC Bolsover three times in 2016/17 and I also watched the Derbyshire FA Sunday Senior Cup final played out between, Chesterfield District teams, FC United of Bolsover and Britannia FC. Players featuring for both Sunday league teams I recognised as FC Bolsover regulars.
At the end of the season both the management team and Chairman of FC Bolsover left the club and there was a feeling that FC Bolsover, like Glapwell before, may fold, which would have been One for Sorrow. However, it looks as though the former Chairman's son has taken charge. Could this be a case of Better the Devil You Know? or could there be a footballing Buzz in the town next season? With this news I am sure that there were no Tears on the Dancefloor at the FC Bolsover end of season party.
As I started out watching Derbyshire football a couple of years ago the Last Thing on My Mind was to see a lot of 'parks' football. It's not a standard that would Light Up the World but at the end of the day it is still the beautiful game.
No comments:
Post a Comment