Chris Waters: Give clubs a chance to recapture past glories in promotion stakes

Those are just some of the former Football League clubs now languishing in the Blue Square Bet Premier Division.

It is sad to see so many of them down there, for they are clubs with great traditions and supporter bases.

But the reality is that those clubs, for all their traditions and history, might never again appear in the Football League.

Putting on my red and white hat for a moment, for I have the misfortune to support one of them in Lincoln City, I feel uneasy about the situation in which these clubs find themselves.

With only one automatic promotion place available in the Conference, in addition to one play-off place for those teams who finish second to fifth, we are seeing more and more former League clubs fall by the wayside.

It makes it extremely difficult for the likes of York to recapture the status they once enjoyed in an increasingly competitive non-league pyramid.

In other words, York must win the title to be guaranteed promotion – or else face the lottery of the play-offs.

Of course, it can only be good that the non-league system is highly competitive.

It reflects well on the game that such clubs as Morecambe and Burton Albion can rise from non-league obscurity to become full members of the Football League; it is the very stuff of dreams.

But Crawley Town last season bankrolled their way through the Conference to an extent that the other sides hardly had a sniff.

For the likes of York it was play-offs or bust – and effectively only one promotion place to aim for.

Without wishing to denigrate Crawley’s achievement, for it is one thing to have money and quite another to use it wisely, I believe the promotion and relegation system should be overhauled to reduce the chances of great clubs such as York being cast adrift.

To that effect, I would like to see the Conference mirror League Two, from which the top three clubs are automatically promoted to League One and the fourth to seventh-placed sides consigned to the play-offs.

Otherwise, one bad season for a club with a proven track record in League football could prove extraordinarily costly.

Quite possibly even to that club’s existence.

Although I am, by inference, advocating that four clubs would also have to be relegated from League Two instead of the current two, I believe that would be a price worth paying to ensure the likes of York are not permanently lost to the Football League.

Last time, York could have had a quite brilliant season, gained 104 points and still finished second behind Crawley (105 points).

York could then have missed out in the play-offs, meaning all their hard work would have counted for nothing.

Who knows, their squad might then have broken up, the momentum been lost and the flickering flame of hope extinguished – perhaps never again to be ignited.

In short, the tall order of trying to get back into the Football League is made even taller by the paucity of promotion places on offer.

In the old days, of course, it was a different story.

When Lincoln were the first club to drop out of the League in 1986-87, replaced by Scarborough, there was only one promotion place available but it was much easier to regain one’s Football League status.

Lincoln tempted back their former manager, Colin Murphy – even though it meant enduring more of his incomprehensible programme notes – and promptly recovered at the first attempt.

“Murph’s Mission” was a stunning success as the despair of relegation was immediately replaced by the joy of promotion.

But with the standard of Conference football having risen significantly since then, no side relegated from the Football League can expect to hit back at the first attempt nowadays – not unless they possess significant wads of cash.

Last season, Lincoln were once again relegated from the Football League – and look at them now.

They are a pitiable, pathetic sight, languishing in the lower reaches of the Blue Square Bet Premier and utterly bereft of effective leadership.

Earlier this month, the Imps lost 2-1 at home to Alfreton in the FA Cup (I know, because I was listening to the Internet commentary in my padded cell).

Crowds at Sincil Bank have dwindled to less than 2,000 and there is an air of despondency around the place.

Why, when I went to Sincil Bank the other week for a game against Bath, the turnstile operator said “thanks for coming” as I handed him my cash.

Prior to kick-off, the chairman walked round the ground and shook each supporter by the hand, promising to buy him or her a slap-up meal if they came again.

Okay, so I made those bits up, but you get the point.

Indeed, the only way Lincoln are going to get out of the Blue Square Bet Premier this season is if they happen to be relegated to the Blue Square North, where they would mix it with the likes of Harrogate Town.

My, how times change…

Fifteen years ago (if I might be permitted to bore the pants off you just a little while longer), one of my first sports-writing assignments as a young journalist in Lincoln was to cover a League Cup tie between the Imps and Manchester City.

Lincoln won the first leg 4-1 at Sincil Bank and then went to Maine Road and won 1-0.

The only way such results could happen now – aside from the small detail that Lincoln are no longer eligible to take part in the League Cup, of course – is if every Manchester City player (ie, not simply Tevez) refused to take the field.

However, those are the sort of results that clubs like Lincoln, clubs like York, have dotted about their history and why football should move towards a fairer promotion/relegation system to protect its traditions.

Do we really want to make it so hard for these clubs to get back into the League that they could potentially go out of business and, in some cases, be replaced by clubs for whom League football is but a fleeting dalliance and who will never have the same impact on their communities?

If relegated League clubs cannot climb out of the Conference after raising the number of promotion places, all well and good.

But at least give them more chance to haul their way back up the slippery slope.

Spitting mad over Alcaraz

I AM not normally one of the hang ‘em, flog ‘em brigade, but I would have thrown the book at Antolin Alcaraz.

Not only must there be something seriously wrong with you mentally if you spit at somebody, but you should surely receive the strongest sanction.

For me, that should have meant only one thing – Alcaraz should have been sacked by Wigan for gross misconduct.

Instead, he was given a three-match ban by the FA for spitting at Wolves’ Richard Stearman, while he will doubtless receive what will amount to little more than a slap on the wrist from his own employers.

If football had the slightest shred of moral fibre and was serious about improving its image, clubs would take a decisive stand against this sort of incident. Unfortunately, vested interest is their only concern.

Imagine what would happen if you spat at someone at work because he or she had called you a name.

You would be rightly handed your P45.

Alcaraz should be sacked and advised to look for another club once he has cleaned up his act.

Why should football be exempt from observing the etiquette demanded of any industry?