Elastic strapping effect....

[Bobos]

SUSTAINABILITY ladies and gentlemen, SUSTAINABILITY.

THIS

we will not put the club in any danger, we have learnt a lesson from the previous club.
This will not be a s**t or bust venture, long term planning is the key here 8-)

[sussexdiamond]

We can reach Blue Square North or South (or whatever it will be called from next season) within 5/6 seasons. We must take one step at a time ensuring that we consolidate at each stage before moving on. Certainly it has to be on the strength of our support and not dependent on a sugar daddy as stated earlier. (Although if I win on the Premium Bond I would love to make a donation, I don't do the lottery).

Some phoenix clubs eg Chester have a much bigger fan base and history so I don't expect BS Premier for us for quite a while

Lets get this season over first and enjoy the next couple of weeks.

[Pigman]

We'll go as far as is sustainable - its written into our constitution. Where that will ultimately be, who knows, but it'll be affordable and we'll be profitable when we get there. Anything else isn't worth thinking about frankly, chasing a dream we can't afford.............never again !

[Olly]

If we as fans continue to make the right decisions and everybody is pulling in the same direction it's definitely doable.

LOW PRICES! Alienate no-one. Community mantra.

If all goes well, perhaps Step 2. However, it may take a lot longer than other Phoenix teams. Hopefully we all stick around whatever...

I hope so, I think if we have a few seasons in the UCL prem then crowds might drop off a bit, but we should at least keep that 400ish hardcore.

And I can't help but feel a little bit envious of Chester, to get back to the level they were at before in 3 years is incredible and if we do manage to ever get back to the BSP, I can't see us doing it in under 7 or 8 years really. Though I'm not worrying that's for sure, all fans want their club to be as high as possible and it would be a dream come true to be back in the FL one day, but we've definitely got the right model in focussing on sustainability, sure we might not get anything like the crowds we got in the glory days if we don't get several successive promotions (I find it quite hard to believe now that just under 10 years ago we were regularly playing in front of 3000/4000 crowds), but at least unlike the old club we should have a sustainable long term future, rather having the prospect of it all going tits up when the sugar daddy pisses off. I don't know where our natural level will be, though I don't believe we'll go straight through either the UCL or Southern Prem easily at all, teams like Holbeach, Spalding, Newport Pagnell etc at the top of the prem for a start will be tough competition for sure.

And I notice Oxford City of all clubs are now owned by some Wall St businessman who wants to take them to the FL and while it must be nice for the few fans they have to have the prospect of having a bit of success with some money behind them, my first thoughts were 'how long will that last before the guy gets bored and they go bust', surely they're going to struggle to attract a decent fanbase to sustain it seeing as though they're not the only club in Oxford. And I notice already on their forum, there's some suspicions about him being a bit dodgy, all seems rather worrying.

[Bob's Bitch]

And I can't help but feel a little bit envious of Chester, to get back to the level they were at before in 3 years is incredible and if we do manage to ever get back to the BSP, I can't see us doing it in under 7 or 8 years really.

Chester were allowed to start at Step 5 (Northern Premier 1) though, which gave them at least a one division head-start. If they'd been made to start at the bottom then it would've been a minimum of 5 years and another two promotions needed!

I don't know where our natural level will be, though I don't believe we'll go straight through either the UCL or Southern Prem easily at all, teams like Holbeach, Spalding, Newport Pagnell etc at the top of the Prem for a start will be tough competition for sure.

It wouldn't surprise me IF we do get promotion this year, that we went straight through the UCL Premier. Spalding are going up and I can't help but think that squads like Holbeach at the top will disintegrate when most of the players leave to try and prove themselves at Step 5, the one they should've been promoted to.

We've been saying all year that the top 4 in this league would be easily top-half in the Premier and I didn't think Yaxley were that good when we played them so I don't think it's that big a step up. I think the only thing we're lacking is a big, mean striker and we're good to go for the Premier.

[Formic]

And I can't help but feel a little bit envious of Chester, to get back to the level they were at before in 3 years is incredible and if we do manage to ever get back to the BSP, I can't see us doing it in under 7 or 8 years really.

Chester were allowed to start at Step 5 (Northern Premier 1) though, which gave them at least a one division head-start. If they'd been made to start at the bottom then it would've been a minimum of 5 years and another two promotions needed!

I don't know where our natural level will be, though I don't believe we'll go straight through either the UCL or Southern Prem easily at all, teams like Holbeach, Spalding, Newport Pagnell etc at the top of the Prem for a start will be tough competition for sure.

It wouldn't surprise me IF we do get promotion this year, that we went straight through the UCL Premier. Spalding are going up and I can't help but think that squads like Holbeach at the top will disintegrate when most of the players leave to try and prove themselves at Step 5, the one they should've been promoted to.

We've been saying all year that the top 4 in this league would be easily top-half in the Premier and I didn't think Yaxley were that good when we played them so I don't think it's that big a step up. I think the only thing we're lacking is a big, mean striker and we're good to go for the Premier.

Rob - apologies for a few corrections / clarifications to your late night post.

Chester FC actually started at Step 4. They were originally placed in Step 5 by the FA, but appealed and were upgraded to Step 4 - http://www.thefa.com/Leagues/NewsAndFea ... ter-180610 . The aftermath of that embarrassment for the FA was that they indicated they would be more strict about making clubs start at the bottom (only to then give in to pressure to put Darlington at Step 5 rather than Step 6 two years later).

Regarding the UCL Premier, its between St Ives and Spalding to get second place in that league, but it might be that no team gets promoted from that league, given Holbeach haven't applied. Kings Lynn only won promotion by virtue of finishing second last season with the best record of a non-champion team in all of the Step 5 Leagues - so I don't know if St Ives or Spalding would qualify via that criterion - their record is nowhere near as good as Kings Lynn's was. Obviously that could also impact whether the UCL invite further teams into the UCL Premier as they did last season.

Regarding the Holbeach players leaving (I think you meant to Step 4), it was surprising that many of the successful Long Buckby players from last season went in the opposite direction - to Sileby Rangers. I'm sure it's either a question of money or a chance to win titles for a lot of those players. Those that moved directly from Long Buckby to Sileby were Rob Foster, Darren Watts, Mark Hewitt, David Glass, Stuart Smeathers, Greg Ling and Tom O’Brien with Michael Byrne also having played for Long Buckby last season too.

I guess it depends if another rich benefactor fancies trying to boost a small club to challenge a newcomer such as the Diamonds or Kings Lynn and makes the Holbeach players part of that.

[Red Dragon]

For me the interesting thing is not so much where we end up, but how our attitudes and crowds might change when it starts getting harder - and, indeed, where it starts to become really noticeably harder.

I say this because I remember when we first went into the League how fast, and unforgiving, the play seemed to be compared to the Conference. I suspect that the difference I/we noticed then between Division Three (as it then was) and the Conference is not so great now.

[Turveyman]

I think maybe Conference North/South could be attainable in time. We certainly have a hard core support which is at that level at least. Ground issues could become a problem if we move up the Leagues though. Either a serious upgrade to the Dog 'n Duck, or a new ground, would be required to go to that level I would think.

Do we know how high we could go before we would be obliged to make ground improvements/move elsewhere? I would have thought that the Dog and Duck would be more or less ok as is up to and including Conference North/South level.

[Bob's Bitch]

Formic, the last news I read was that St Ives had failed a ground grading inspection and were being re-inspected on March 25th. So if they fail again I'm guessing there will be no promotion?

[Formic]

Formic, the last news I read was that St Ives had failed a ground grading inspection and were being re-inspected on March 25th. So if they fail again I'm guessing there will be no promotion?

That's interesting news in a lot of ways. I wonder if there might be other clubs that have had to ask for a re-inspection. Certainly the local St Ives press was still bullish about being in the frame for promotion a few days ago, but perhaps they were unaware of this issue - http://www.huntspost.co.uk/sport/footba ... _1_2021601

Edit: They also reported they had passed the ground grading http://www.huntspost.co.uk/sport/footba ... _1_1998465 - where did you hear they hadn''t?