SO SEVENTH-place could end up getting promoted through the National League play-offs – I can see it being ditched before long.
We know that it will happen next season, though, after the clubs voted the changes through at the AGM.
Instead of the usual four team play-offs, they will now be increased to six. It means clubs finishing in sixth and seventh will also have a chance of going up.
Second and third get a bye to the semi-final, while fourth plays seventh and fifth plays six in one-leg matches. The league have titled them ‘Match 1′ and ‘Match 2′, respectively.
But there seems to be a flaw when it comes to who plays who in the semi-final. Second-place will play the winners of ‘Match 1′ and the team who finished third will take on the victors of ‘Match 2′.
So if you finish runners-up you’re odds on to play the team who finished fourth. It would be better to wait and make sure second place plays the lowest team in the semis – otherwise there’s no advantage to finishing second!
It could come down to the final day, the title is over, and clubs might not want to win to make sure they finish third.
If three-up came into fruition with the top two promoted automatically, then I could possibly understand a shake-up. But League Two’s play-off spots only go down to seventh because three are automatically promoted.
No team has been promoted from the National League having finished fifth. But when you bring one-leg ties into the equation, it starts treading a very fine line. It becomes a lottery.
In my opinion, some of the refereeing in the National League has been poor recently. It only takes one decision to go against you and your season could be over. Finals are different and generally people accept they are one-off games. There aren’t many in world football played over two legs.
The likelihood of someone finishing seventh and going up is small, admittedly. They’d have to win two games away before even reaching the final. But it could reward teams who are bit mediocre.
Hammered
There’s always an argument the play-offs are unfair. Personally I believe if you finish second you should get an automatic bye to the final. That’s a reward. Now they’re offering a lottery ticket to a club finishing miles behind them.
Let’s use last season as an example. Barrow finished seventh, 20 points behind runners-up Tranmere Rovers. They were only 25 points above the relegation zone. So there’s only five points between potentially getting promoted and maybe getting relegated.
All in all I’m struggling to see the logic. I understand money can be a big boost and reason behind it and of course the clubs are going to vote in favour of it – it’s a chance of promotion.
But I can see this idea getting found out after a while. I’ve not seen many fans come out in support of it at all.
Are teams who finish in sixth or seventh going to be strong enough and sustainable enough to survive in the Football League?
We see teams like Accrington Stanley go up and compete on a shoestring budget. But some teams who may sneak into seventh in the National League could get pulverised in the League.
Dover finished sixth last year. I think they’d be alright in the League. But when you go down further it might weaken the argument for an extra promotion place. It might not do the National League any favours in their three-up quest.
Say a team finishes seventh, goes up and gets hammered every week, it’s an easy response to the three-up question: Actually, we’re not going to give a third promotion spot. The cons outweigh the pros.
