COME June 2022, two National League teams will have secured coveted spots in the EFL.
One up as champions, the other through the play-offs. The other certainty is there will be a host of clubs devastated to have been caught in English football’s tightest bottle neck and if you’re thinking of placing a wager on the promotion race check out 22Bet.
Marquee signings this summer have been greeted with messages, private and on social media, with similar responses.
Stockport County signing Scott Quigley, top scorer and a title winner with Barrow in 2019-20: They mean business.
Wrexham and their Hollywood paying power luring Paul Mullin on the back of a 32-goal League Two promotion-winning season with Cambridge United: They’re not messing about now.
Chesterfield’s addition of Kabby Tshimanga this week for an undisclosed fee from Boreham Wood: Blimey, that’s a statement of intent.
And this is before we get to the ambitions of Notts County, Solihull Moors, Bromley and relegated duo Southend United and Grimsby Town. We still haven’t mentioned last season’s defeated promotion finalists Torquay United –a shoot-out away from not being caught up in this brambles of a National League that ties up so many clubs.
Some of the summer business makes the cash-draining pandemic seem like a lifetime ago.
If only that were the case for a handful of other Step 1 clubs, who are just hoping to get through a campaign with full crowds rather than the experience of playing it out in front of near silence.
Non-League‘s top flight has always been a case of the Haves and Have Nots. For the 2021- 22 season those lines feel even starker.
Wrexham’s famous owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have stirred the sleeping giant. The club have already had to suspend season ticket sales at more than 5,000.
Chesterfield were rejuvenated under James Rowe when he arrived last season. Tshimanga gives them another dimension again.
Stockport have already bedded in Paddy Madden and Quigley’s arrival will have their huge support believing this could be their year.
Pressure
But it’s a division that rarely pans out as expected. Wrexham, Stockport County Notts County and Chesterfield have to start out as title favourites. Will they go against recent history and break away from the pack to battle it out themselves?
Last season’s race for top spot was a four-way battle for a while, until Hartlepool – eventually promoted through the playoffs – and Stockport fell away in the final weeks, with Sutton dropping Torquay United to lift the trophy.
And it’s the tales of Sutton, Barrow before them, Macclesfield two seasons previous, that gives the others reason to believe.
Not many tipped Sutton to go all the way last season. But they proved they had the best unit, were the most solid and organised, and could handle the pressure when it was on.
Bromley, Dagenham & Redbridge, Moors, Torquay, Eastleigh have every right to wonder.
How Southend cope with their new surroundings will be interesting. While Grimsby drop down from League Two, their fans – craving a new striker before kick-off – at least know their way around a league it took six attempts to get out of last time.
Paul Hurst delivered that promotion at Wembley and he has returned to the hot-seat with the mission to do it all again. He’s got some of the band back together with defender Shaun Pearson making the switch to Blundell Park again.
Southend have brought in National League experience too – Josh Coulson has won promotion twice with Cambridge and Leyton Orient and Rhys Murphy is a feared striker in the division.
The experienced Phil Brown has managed at every level from the Premier League down and will complete his top five tiers bingo card when the Shrimpers begin their first season.
Like so many before them, the key factor will be coming to terms with the reality of where they are and how players are looking forward to facing them.
For Dover Athletic, a club who themselves have finished in the play-off places, all the promotion talk couldn’t feel further away.
Having stopped playing over financial reasons last season, their first task is to claw back the 12 points that have been deducted.
Do you put it past Andy Hessenthaler’s side?
Come 3pm on Saturday, well over half the division will be fancying their chances of nabbing a finish in the top seven.
The extension of the play-off places by two has undoubtedly added an extra element to the division. But the fact remains, only two can go up.
