Play-Offs Again Ole Ole, indeed.

Well, we did it.  Play-Offs Again Ole Ole, indeed.

Given our previous play-off record I can't say I'm enormously hopeful, but, given how this season was looking to pan out just a couple of months ago, I'm seeing this as a bonus play-off.  A free-hit at promotion.

For months the 4th and 5th spot in the league was being tussled over by the likes of Redditch, Worcester, Needham Market, Quorn and Halesowen.  Even unfancied sides like Stratford and Leiston briefly threw their hats into the ring as the season rushed towards the vinegar stroke.  No one outside of the NN15 postal code area was even considering the run Liam was coaxing out of his charges at Latimer Park.  And yet, here we are.  We overhauled all the clubs in the division except the three cash-soaked minnows who have unashamedly over-spent their way to the summit of the Southern League.

At least 600 of us will be at the game tonight cheering our lads on.  Assuming, of course, we can get into the ground at Real Bedford past their rather lengthy list of checks and other hurdles.  The usual list of banned items was augmented by the curiously vague and utterly open to misuse by their no-doubt barely-trained stewards - "Any item deemed unsafe by Matchday Staff".  And that's if we manage to get past the body search and attention of sniffer dogs (not a joke).

What happens if one of their Matchday Staff takes against non London-overspill accents, singing or the colour red?  NONE of us might get into the game!

The most cursory look at the attendances Real Bedford have managed to "achieve" this season tells you all you need to know about the hobby-nature of this club.  Their two 1000+ attendances were, unsurprisingly against us and Halesowen.  Other than that their next biggest gate was smaller than our smallest gate this season.  At time of writing they are still advertising 200 remaining tickets for tonight - the biggest game in their history.

I appreciate crowds don't really count for much at this level when club owners are prepared to open their chequebooks and that we have no more right to gain promotion just because more people watch us.  But, look at it from the point of view of the National League structure.  They've already had to admit Harborough with their leisure centre facility and 300 fans.  Now they might be letting in another team with the proverbial "rope around the field" and even less fans (they barely scraped 250 half a dozen times during their greatest ever season).  How does it look for a League looking to improve and show how important it is when tiny, cash-bloated non-entities are the new model for success?

Good luck to the team tonight.  Remember, you're not just doing it for yourselves and us, your doing it for all the divisions above us who might have to watch this ridiculous club claw it's way up into the League by dint of bored billionaires playing silly-buggers.

Why can't the Vinklevoss Twins stick to
baseball or basketball or funding nutty-Presidential candidates
like they're supposed to?