What are the realistic ambitions for those outside the top half of the Premiership? Mark Hodkinson sums up his club's situation

The death knell, the clock striking midnight, the end of the world as we know it – this kind of rhetoric has shadowed my support of Rochdale FC since I first dunked a plastic fork in a tray of pie and peas at Spot­land back in the 1970s. But for all the talk and creeping fog of pundit fatalism, we’re still here. And being here is OK, especially with a completely rebuilt ground and a team that mounts a routine but flawed promotion challenge on an annual basis. We might even, lordy lordy, escape the bottom division one day soon. We’ve been here 27 seasons now, a long time in hell.

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What are the realistic ambitions for those outside the top half of the Premiership? Rob Fitzgerald sums up Tranmere's situation

The growing gap between the Premiership and Nat­ionwide League makes Tranmere fans acutely aware of the limitations of what their club can achieve. We are unlikely see a return of the optimism experienced at Prenton Park during John King’s second spell in charge, when we went from the bottom of the Fourth Division to the top of the (new) First in five years.

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What are the realistic ambitions for those outside the top half of the Premiership? Gary Parkinson discusses Bolton's future following promotion

Given the financial constraints which led to previous manager Colin Todd resigning after being forced to sell one player too many, it’s still a source of amazement to many that Sam Allardyce managed to get Bol­ton promoted. Since he took over two years ago the fire sale has stopped but he has continued to barter, flog­ging £10 million worth of players (notably Eidur Gud­johnsen and Claus Jensen) while spending less than £4 million.

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He was a brilliant winger in a team on the rise under a manager who loved a bit of flair. But, as Adam Powley reports, that's when it all started going wrong

You know that story about the brilliantly talented kid at school who was so good, he seemed born to be a footballer? Invariably, there’s no happy ending: the precociously gifted youngster fails to make the grade for a variety of frustrating reasons – poor coaching, a lack of application, or simply bad luck – and it all ends up as a case of what might have been.

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This month marks the 40th anniversary of Accrington Stanley's controversial ejection from the Football League. Mike Gent explains what went wrong

“Probably the most famous football team in the land” is how a Lancashire County Council web­site describes Accrington Stanley. A contentious claim, but there is no doubt that the Stanley’s continued no­toriety stems not from the club’s modest playing record but from a series of off-pitch calamities which culminated in their departure from the Football League in March 1962. Since then, the spectre of Ac­crington Stanley has been regularly invoked whenever football clubs sink towards bankruptcy.

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