Dover soul Mark Winter believes that the dramatic changes to the non-League game outlined below will give Athletic a lot more matches he can actually go to

Imagine you spend your season in a league with just one promotion place on offer. From here, take the quantum leap to assume that there are now 13 promotion slots on offer. That is the prospect facing supporters of the three feeder leagues below the Conference, which is to get two second divisions, a north and a south, from next season. For clubs at this level, restructuring of non-League football is long overdue and some­thing to be celebrated.

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Ron Hamilton tells the story of the player that never was

A summer without football is a long, drawn-out affair for everyone. For Leeds, true to form, it’s been more than a little depressing. With the legacy of Publicity Pete’s gross financial mis­management still hanging over the club, fans have had to come to terms with a new era of parsimony at Elland Road. Thus denied the usual pre-season fun of transfer speculation (discounting the “who’s Harry’s boyhood club this week?” affair) there has precious little to do, save for the ceremonial burning of Bernie Mandic wickermen on the Headrow every sec­ond Wednesday.

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Dianne Millen explores the most suitable means of preventing  incursions on to the pitch by fans

When is a pitch invasion not a pitch invasion? When there’s only one person involved, of course, as happened twice in the second week­­­­end of the new Scottish Premier League cam­paign. Amid the debate among the condemn­atory, per­ma­tanned pundits about whether a single fan constituted an “invasion”, however, were serious safety questions.

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Phil Town explains why Bolton should be wary of the arrival of a talented Brazilian

Bolton fans will be hoping that new signing Mário Jardel can repeat the goalscoring feats that made him a star in the Port­uguese league but with­out the attendant problems off the pitch.

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Steve Westby examines the financial difficulties that have surrounded Notts County in recent years

Notts County have had a record 14 relegations in their history and have now set another bench­­mark. On August 12 the club had been in administration for an unprecedented 421 days, surpassing the record previously held by QPR. Meanwhile they are still under threat of expulsion from the League.

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