[SaltergateBorn]

That`s what`s always happened in the past certainly, so I suspect it will again. It`s how we end up with anomalies like Gloucester City being in National League North

Long ago, in the days of the old Division 3 North and South, it was often Mansfield that switched from one to the other to balance out the numbers.

[Dancingwilldoit]

If the 3 mentioned do go down then it's a lot less travelling for us next season. The 3 furthest away days down.
Before anybody says anything, yes I am resigned to another season for us in N.L. Next season won't be a cake walk either even if we do get 3 up.

[Devongone]

Promotion looks like Kings Lynn, Fylde, Ebbsfleet and maybe Dartford. So two more almost metropolitan clubs, one fairly plastic club, and Kings Lynn who seem quite boing boing. And all the clubs going down from the National are potential EFL clubs. Is that a good thing? Only if we get out this season, or next. If the National League is meant to feed the EFL none of those new clubs would be a popular EFL addition if they achieved a second promotion.

The clubs overbalance the North / South divide simply because that reflects the wealth of the country. All the investment is in the South, so Gloucester and Hereford play in the North at the moment. Given the 3-1 split of relegated National League clubs South over North that should mean either Hereford or Gloucester go back South - VAR will obviously be drawing the dividing line.

The nearest National League club to the South West is Eastleigh for next season isn't it? Hampshire?

If Notts County don't make it through the play-offs and it isn't because we chose the final to play our best game of the season, do you think any of the other clubs in the running will be good for the EFL? There are three who will struggle to pay the wages necessary and will lack the crowds too, one is usually either being lectured by the Bank Manager or the Revenue and the other has had several goes without ever sustaining EFL status ......... The three up theory sounds good, but what about the extra one down, which maybe a club on its only bad season for which relegation is a real disaster?

[Dancingwilldoit]

Harrogate and Sutton didn't come bouncing back down again with a handful of supporters. I don't think there's much difference between the national league and lge 1. Anyone could go up and stay there.

Halifax did us a real favour last night. Just the one point this weekend should see us through but this is Chesterfield we are talking about.

Surely Notts County will go up and deservedly so. How many teams amass over 100 points in a season and don't go up? We are very inconsistent and they aren't. They could finish over 40 points clear of us with a goal difference of +75 compared to our circa +25. We don't deserve to be on the same pitch.

[SaltergateBorn]

I agree 100%, Dancing. Consistency deserves its rewards. If anybody other than County were to get that second promotion spot, it would be a complete travesty. (Having said that, if we do happen to make the final, I`ll have no hesitation whatsoever in trotting off down there desperate for us to win it. Is that hypocrisy or loyalty?)

[themaclad]

Going back about 15 years ago Halifax won the NPL with 100 points Lancaster finished 2nd with 97 points and lost the play off final

[Devongone]

I wasn't talking about having a team currently good enough to stay up in the EFL. I'm talking about them being good for the EFL ..... or not. Harrogate's good for buying tea and cakes, but watching football? Sutton's a bit too Reginald Perrin. Crawley's a housing estate near an airport. Morecambe have held on for years, but not done much for the standard of the League, Salford's a city with no fans, no atmosphere and a few once famous footballers, at least Forest Green has an entirely different philosophy to any other club. Accrington's got history and John Coleman, but even Bumble Lloyd has washed up in North Yorkshire. Barrow is monochrome, however much you adjust your colour ........

The trope that more clubs going up would be better gets peddled every year by fans and non-league clubs likely to challenge for promotion but not achieve it. You don't hear many potentially third-worst EFL clubs voting, like turkeys, for the stuffing and the oven.

The truth is there is very little difference between even the best teams in League Two and ANY of the clubs avoiding the relegation zone in the National League and the reason is that the National League is forever growing stronger at the expense of the EFL. Clubs with long histories and excellent support come down and are sometimes replaced by formerly perennial non-leaguers who've won a couple of FA Cup games and attract 1500 fans to a little stadium built for 3,500 at most.

I don't want Boreham Wood or Bromley to go up much as I respect their performances on the field when it means Hartlepool and Rochdale are down alongside Oldham, Chesterfield, Southend, York and still Notts County. I fear any one of the three challengers to Notts County could beat them in a one-off game. County are very good and have a few very good players, but there are one or two glaring weaknesses, too. Off the field County and their fans should be in the EFL. The question about them is their massive debt.

I still say the EFL should be working on becoming 4 divisions of 20 each like the Premier League - 100 clubs instead of 92 - and then this eternal demand for an extra promotion place from the National League would be irrelevant. And Salts is right, I'll be wanting us to beat Bromley on Sunday and go on to win the Final. Of course I do. I'm a Spireite. But justice, fairness and their excellent season all cry out for County to do it. And common sense dictates that 24 teams in leagues when the season might more sensibly be only 36 weeks long is idiocy and not good for the standard of play. Unfortunately none of the EFL clubs likely to be re-arranged to what is going to seem like a relegation is going to be in favour of it, because they can't see past the ends of their Pinocchio noses.