So is that a "it's not worth reporting" or a "it should have been reported last year too."

It's a "You lot didn't complain about the lack of coverage when my team were relegated. You bastards."

Janik wrote:

QUOTE:
It's a "You lot didn't complain about the lack of coverage when my team were relegated. You bastards."

Aha, so it's a "you lot like his club more than my club" snipe, then ...

Did you complain about the lack of coverage?
I can't remember a thread about the lack of coverage about any relegation, but OTF being OTF I'm sure there would have been a similar reaction, after all the ratio of small club to BRC/BBC on OTF is pretty good.

If demotion has long seemed inevitable, and it is sealed with a whimper with a couple of games left, then you don't get reported on.

Alas, that's true. It's the way of league things: the process of failure - that of relegation - is taken as read and there's a 'nothing to see here, move on' attitude to it all. You're relegated. That's it. Live with it.

But I was thinking recently about this state of affairs concerning the media and the lower leagues. I was spurred into giving it some pondering when I learned that a hack representing the West Midlands sports press was present in the press box at Wembley at the West Brom-Pompey FA semi-final. When Pompey won, there were high-fives a-plenty indulged by the national hacks, agog with joy that their favourite geezer, Harry had won. We couldn't win in every sense.

And that led me to other thoughts. If you read the websites of national papers - and the papers themselves - they offer thoughts and suggestions on the Premiership itself. If and when Manchester United face continental opposition in the CL, for example, there's a bunch of hacks proffering how best Ronaldo and Co. can overwhelm and win the day. What system? What style of play?

And the same for the rest. Every day and every week, Paul Wilson, Henry Winter and their ilk use their columns to provide the answers to the problems that beset the great and good of the top flight, full focus is placed upon finding out how the mighty can be even mightier. Troubles besetting Fergie? Let's discuss them. Arsene not won anything this year? Let's find out why. Rafa Benitez still hasn't found his best team? Let's do it for him. All minutiae discussed and considered by our nation's hacks.

Right.

Now, when a team comes up from the Championship to play in the Premiership, where's the authoritative voice to consider options or suggestions that might help them survive beyond the hackneyed, shitty response, "they'll have to spend big"? If the subject of the Championship's 'mediocrity' arises once again, where's the hack to come up with a plan to make it less 'mediocre' and fill it with quality other than just murmur 'be more consistent' in a small paragraph? If a sleazy cunt wants to buy up a club in order to gain maximum dosh from the land upon which it rests, where's the journo to come up with the solution to ensure the bleeder never has the benefit of being considered as a buyer for even a millionth of a second? When a club goes into liquidation and has the most uncertain of futures, where's the hack to posit his reasons why it happens and offer his opinions on how it can be possible for clubs to avoid such a scenario?

Where's Paul? Where's Henry? Nick Townsend?

They'll probably be at Old Trafford, finding descriptive metaphors for Ronaldo's stepovers, or chuckling warmly at the latest hue that crosses Fergie's kebab-shaped jowls.

Right: all done.

Here

What's the problem with Dagenham and Redbridge, E10? I can remember Cheltenham playing Redbridge Forest and clearly they merged with Dagenham at some point. Was there something particularly bad about the merger? Beyond being a merger, of course.

I like them because they've got a Tower Hamlets Bangladeshi as their captain.

You'll get the full rundown off E10, but basically Dagenham And Redbridge are the club that ate East London. Including Walthamstow Avenue.

Tubby: First, there were Leytonstone FC and Ilford FC. They merged in about 1979, to form Leytonstone-Ilford, and sold Ilford's ground. A couple of years later, they sold Leytonstone's ground and moved to play at Walthamstow Avenue. In about 1987, they merged with Walthamstow Avenue, but carried on playing as Leytonstone-Ilford, before changing their name to Redbridge Forest, selling Walthamstow's ground and moving to groundshare at Dagenham FC. They got into the Conference and, when the money ran out (presuming that most of it had already been creamed off) merged with Dagenham to form Dagenham & Redbridge.

Walthamstow's Green Pond Road was the only won of the original three clubs' grounds that I went to, to see St Albans play Leytonstone-Ilford in about 1986. It was clearly once a great ground, but was falling apart at the seams. At the time, Leytonstone were top of the Isthmian League Premier Division (in real terms, the Conference South), but I still remember that the crowd that day was 210. There were about 80 or so travelled down from St Albans, and I remember looking at their fixtures in the programme and seeing that it was their biggest crowd of the season.

They're more an Essex borders side, aren't they?

Ah sorry, just seen your post. I can't imagine all those teams existing in East London now but it does seem excessive. And I expect you're right about money being creamed off.

Wrexham have released 14 players today - or at least told them not to come back next season.

One of them is Mark Jones (now 23) who at one point looked like turning into a good player. What happened?

mnb098mnb wrote:

QUOTE:
One of them is Mark Jones (now 23) who at one point looked like turning into a good player. What happened?

He became Jonathan Cross