Tuesday, 14th October 2008

News Archive

28th April 2007
With the top three places in the First Division already decided Bradford Park Avenue's 1-0 win at Brigg Town on Tuesday where they finished with nine men and the home team with ten enabled them to fill one of the remaining two play-off places leaving Colwyn Bay and Stocksbridge PS scrambling over the one remaining slot on the last day of the campaign for the right to travel to Cammell Laird in the play-off semi-finals with the Welsh club proving successful when both lost.

Their trip on Tuesday, however, will be a daunting undertaking as Lairds have only failed to score once in the league in their debut season and Tuesday's 4-1 defeat of Chorley took their league goal tally past the century mark for the third successive season.

Stockbridge's participation was stopped in its tracks at Rossendale United by a devastating stoppage time goal without which Stocksbridge would have overhauled Colwyn Bay on goal difference!

Eastwood Town will entertain Bradford Park Avenue in the other semi-final with the two winners meeting next Saturday to determine who will be playing Premier Division football next season along with Champions Buxton.

Mention must also be made of Michael Lennon's hat-trick for Kidsgrove Athletic in a 4-2 win over Ossett Albion as it took him past the fifty mark for the season.

Restructuring

The UniBond League is hopeful it has taken the sting out of the controversy on restructuring following the recent decision of the FA's League Committee that the League would operate with two regional First Divisions each of 18 clubs for season 2007/8.

At a meeting held on Sunday the League Management Committee reached agreement on a way forward and this was supported later that day by the member clubs at a Special Meeting.

The good news is that the UniBond League endorses its support for a 1,2,3,6 structure with the League having two regional First Divisions of 22 clubs each to give it parity with the Isthmian and Southern Leagues.

In the spirit of co-operation and to demonstrate its will towards achieving this final objective the League has, as an initial measure, agreed to accept the decision of the FA League's Committee that the UniBond League shall have two regional First Divisions of 18 clubs each for season 2007/8 as it sees this as the right way forward in the development of the structure.

However, the League recognises that the future constitution of the UniBond League is still of paramount importance and therefore, as a condition of acceptance, it is seeking from the FA by 14th May a written assurance that the constitution of the UniBond League will increase to two First Divisions of 20 clubs for season 2008/9 with a further increase to two Divisions of 22 clubs each by 2009/10 or no later than 2010/11.

The UniBond League is also asking the FA for agreement in principle to (1) supplement what would normally be a 34 match fixture programme with an additional 8 games to be compiled in a format yet to be agreed by member clubs and (2) for the League to be in a position to allocate, both numerically and geographically, the total of at least 36 clubs who will comprise the two UniBond League regional First Divisions taking in to account the views of member clubs.

Whilst disappointed that, at this stage, it has only been allocated Divisions of 18 clubs the UniBond League remains hopeful the League's Committee can still see its way forward to increasing these numbers to 2x20 for season 2007/8 as the League does not consider it is yet too late.

The UniBond League is pleased that the expectations of the extra clubs promoted from the North West Counties League, Northern Counties East League, Midland Football Alliance and the Northern League have been met and are of the view that there still remains an ideal opportunity for similar benefits to be applied to clubs in the higher promotion positions in Southern based Step 5 competitions.

The UniBond League will not be making any further comments until a response is received from the Football Association.

UniBond League President's Cup

A healthy crowd well in excess of 700 saw First Division Buxton add the President's Cup to their Championship title on Monday evening in the pouring rain when they beat Wakefield FC 3-1.

The game, however, was not without drama as with the score 2-1 underdogs Wakefield appeared to have netted an equaliser with a rasping 30 yard drive only for the effort to be ruled out in a controversy surrounding whether or not the ball had gone in the net and come back out off the supporting stanchion.

Buxton were winning the competition for the second time having previously landed the trophy in its inaugural season in 1981/82.

New Showcase Feature

A new feature at this year's Annual General Meeting of the UniBond League to be held in Blackpool on June 16th will be a "Showcase" of suppliers to semi-professional clubs.

Chairmen, Directors and personnel of member clubs will be able to view products and services from up to forty suppliers in a special "Showcase" which will be staged before and after the actual AGM.

The "Showcase" will include stands from official partners of the League such as kit suppliers Macron, The Football Association and Onside TV - the production company behind UniBond TV.

Running alongside the "Showcase" will be a two hour seminar on "20 ways to make money for your UniBond club" delivered by the League's Head of Marketing Mark Harris and Svend Elkjaer of Sports Marketing Network.

This item will be ideal for all the new clubs joining the League or as a refresher for existing member clubs. Attendance at both the "Showcase" and seminar is free of charge.

Spaces in the Showcase cost just £250 plus vat for a 3m x 2m space or £400 for the same size space plus promotional material to be included in a club pack plus a full page advertisement in the 2007/8 official UniBond League handbook. Anyone interested in booking a space should contact showcase2007@unibondleague.com

Steward Training

Another new initiative from the UniBond League is almost in place with the League running a course plus assessment for match day stewards that will see the successful applicants obtain a NVQ Level 2 in Spectator Safety.

This qualification is compulsory for anyone working at Football League level and it thought is likely to also become compulsory further down football's ladder over the next few years.

As part of the qualification each steward will be assessed on two occasions in match day conditions in addition to classroom training with the course being run over two weekends in June. The course will be free of charge.

Gates On The Up

Fifteen of the twenty Premier Division clubs who were members of the UniBond League last season have shown increases in their average attendances with AFC Telford United, Burscough, Fleetwood Town, Guiseley, Witton Albion and, somewhat more surprisingly, Prescot Cables all achieving very impressive increases.

The only major losers were Frickley Atheltic whose fall reflected their failure to maintain last season's promotion challenge. First Division attendances were little changed overall with ups and downs split around 50/50.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the increase shown by Chorley despite the "Magpies" being in the bottom two throughout the campaign. The final figures can be found on the respective Results pages elsewhere in this Press Release.

Obituary

Frickley Athletic announced this week that long standing Committee Member Ken Day passed away on Thursday afternoon aged 86. He had been a Frickley official for almost thirty years joining the club initially as a Vice-President prior to joining the club's Management Committee in 1988. He was also a keen cricket enthusiast playing for Hooton Pagnell before captaining South Kirkby Colliery 2nd eleven until he retired from playing at the age of 56 to become and umpire. In his latter role he went on to become the Umpire's Secretary for the Doncaster & District Cricket League.

Alan Ball

The tragic early death this week of World Cup winner Alan Ball was particularly poignant to UniBond League club Ashton United who had been planning to ask him to take an honorary position with the club where he started out in the game under his father Alan's managership in 1959. As a fourteen-year-old Ball junior played eight games in that campaign including a Manchester Intermediate Cup Final against Mossley. Although turned down by both Wolves and Bolton whilst with Ashton, Blackpool took the plunge to sign the youngster and the rest is history.

Buxton Cheer On Lairds

Followers of First Division champions Buxton have arranged a coach to take them to cheer on Cammell Lairds when the Wirral side compete in the play-offs next week. The support is even stranger when one considers the two clubs had never previously met prior to this season but early season banter between the two sets of fans on their respective websites turned gradually in to mutual respect as the two chased one another for top spot for much of the campaign.

Buxton fan Ian Gill said: "There is no historical link between the two clubs at all as this season is the first time we have played one another. But, because of the friendly rivalry and fun we have had with each other on our forums and at the two meetings we have had with them, we decided to take some fans to cheer Lairds on in the play-offs.

Laird's Paul McLoughlin responded "It is great that Buxton are making this gesture towards us as we found them to be a super bunch of people and despite our disappointment in not catching them we have had a good time chasing them with 'phone calls being made after games for results. At the end of the day this is why semi-pro football is so enjoyable and we look forward to hopefully joining them in the UniBond Premier Division next season".

Fixtures

Tuesday, 1st May 2007

First Division Play-Off Semi Finals
Cammell Lairds v Colwyn Bay
Eastwood Town v Bradford Park Ave

Saturday, 5th May 2007

FIRST DIVISION Play-Off Final
Highest placed s/f winner v Lowest placed

Peter Swales Memorial Shield
Burscough v Buxton

Click here for a printer friendly version

Discuss this story on the Fans Forum.

Rovers Make A Point On The Road

New Signing

At home to:
Willenhall Town (UniBond President's Cup 2nd Round)

This evening, 7.45pm

View previous encounters with Willenhall Town