Which of our non league teams could you see making the football league?

Redlips

Redlips

Well-known member
Whitby Town in 1997 had cup success, reached reached the 2nd round of the fa cup.

At the time though in 20-30 years time Whitby would be in the football league.

It is not going to happen by 2027!

Do you think any of the local teams have any prospects of going through the leagues or do think this is now impossible?
 
A bit surprised York haven’t made it back to football league by now - they are well capable of supporting a league one side with the facilities they have and a large population in the city to draw from. Can’t see clubs the size of Whitby ever making it unless they got a sizeable cash investment in them.
 
Scarborough Athletic, the only ones with a big enough regular crowd to sustain going up the leagues.

York and Hartlepool might make it back one day.
 
I don't think the support is enough outside of the big three to do it apart from Hartlepool. Perhaps South Shields but it would need a big change to their ground capacity. Darlington as a town aren't supporting their team.
 
SCG said:
Scarborough Athletic, the only ones with a big enough regular crowd to sustain going up the leagues.

York and Hartlepool might make it back one day.
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I remember we played Scarborough in the league cup in 1993.

The theatre of chips.

Do you think stockton or even Marske could ever have the potential to reach the Conference North?

Darlington has dropped off the face of the earth. In the late 90s Darlo lost a play off final to go to league one.
 
SCG said:
Scarborough Athletic, the only ones with a big enough regular crowd to sustain going up the leagues.

York and Hartlepool might make it back one day.
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Scarborough are on the up but their gate is only slightly bigger than Darlington's, and as with Shields, they're going to have to spend big on the ground. This cup run will have filled their coffers.
 
Redlips said:
I remember we played Scarborough in the league cup in 1993.

The theatre of chips.

Do you think stockton or even Marske could ever have the potential to reach the Conference North?

Darlington has dropped off the face of the earth. In the late 90s Darlo lost a play off final to go to league one.
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Depends on support.
In Spring/Summer Stockton, Marske or Redcar (Athletic) could try playing on Friday nights maybe to build up the crowd?

Depends on cost and player commitments obviously.
 
Salford City in 2008 played the in the Northern League, massive investment from the Man U lads and lim so it is possible.
 
Redlips said:
Whitby Town in 1997 had cup success, reached reached the 2nd round of the fa cup.

At the time though in 20-30 years time Whitby would be in the football league.

It is not going to happen by 2027!

Do you think any of the local teams have any prospects of going through the leagues or do think this is now impossible?
Click to expand...
Whitby doesn't have the fan base, actual or potential, to support a club much above where it is, which is about where its been for as long as I can remember. Scarborough, in its pre implosion and phoenix day, was always a bigger club and obviously had a 12 season of league football, with Warnock getting them up there and the infamous Jimmy Glass goal sending them down. They will need a lot of investment to get back to that level again.
 
I used to go to Whitby Town in the late 1970s and early 1980s - its core crowd was about 350, rising to 600 when they played Blyth. The Town had a population of 13k. They did manage 2,200 against Chesterfield in thr FAC. I don't think they could support a National League side never mind League 2.

Hartlepool, Darlington, York, Gateshead and Scarborough are all ex League teams. I think York has a bigger population than Middlesbrough, but its a middle class City without a significant football tradition.

Southern teams have benefitted from more money and investment, growing populations in the last 40 years, more attractive to overseas players, with Crawley, Stevenage, MK Dons, AFC Wimbledon, Sutton, Forest Green - newish league teams. Its also hard to believe Oxford United, Cambridge United and Peterborough were non league in the early 1960s and Luton Town has risen from the National Leagie to the Premier League
 
I think Gateshead or South Shields have the best chance. Gateshead are doing well in the National League & could even go up this year -sustaining their position, given their poor crowds, is an issue.
Gateshead are, of course, a former football league team, having taken the league place in 1930 of South Shields. The Sanddancers get better crowds and definitely are a team on the “up”.
Hartlepool I can see returning some time, but not until they have effective ownership.
 
It's sad that Darlo have dropped out for so long, they were very much an established football league side, as were Pools.

Both were at one point or another close to Championship football and had some good football league players.

Pawel Abbott at Darlington was an excellent player, capable of playing in the Championship for sure.

Frustratingly for Darlo, they sold Dan Burn to Fulham for a tuppence because they were so broke and had a great sell on clause worked in. Fulham released him on a free and he's since gone on to be excellent for Brighton and now Newcastle.

The sell on from that kind of deal can be huge for a club at that level.
 
The Disciple said:
A bit surprised York haven’t made it back to football league by now - they are well capable of supporting a league one side with the facilities they have and a large population in the city to draw from. Can’t see clubs the size of Whitby ever making it unless they got a sizeable cash investment in them.
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The problem for york is that the new ground is next to sofa store and a cinema miles out of the city.

Not the same as being in the city centre next loads of pubs and close to the train station.

York were fa cup semi finalists in the late 50s and a league one team for years.
 
Harrogate are a classic example but have a stadium just good enough for FL level are very limited to what they can do with ground improvements due to their location. I think the father of the manager owns the club

But despite working their way up the pyramid crowds still only just reached over 2k unless a big team has come to town (and the away end only holds 700)

Their rise has coincided with York's (geographic rivals) demise.
 
Can only ever see the ex football league teams making it back, none of them will ever be capable of sustaining anything above lower third division as history has shown. Bournemouth and Brentford have only been able to break out of this cycle because of location and foreign investment. More likely we'll see clubs like Bromley and Boraham Wood in the league.
 
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