By Mark Harris, Chairman Pitching In Northern Premier League

ALLOCATIONS (AKA The AGM Cup) are a perennial feature of the Non-League calendar. It’s that time when everyone becomes an expert on the road network (“if you take the B374 after Nether Whopping it’ll save 20 minutes”) and conspiracy theories abound.
Here, I’ll try to explain why such allocations exist, how the process works, and why pleasing everyone is virtually impossible.
Let’s start at the beginning. The National League System is a pyramid that enables a football club to progress from parks to Premiership – well, in theory an...