Around the (National) League

  We take a look at the latest happenings in the Vanarama National League as the Managerial culls continue…  

So it’s Official!  The Vanarama National League is now the most cut-throat division out of the top five Leagues in England beating the Premier League, Championship and Leagues One and Two for Managerial departures and changes.  

Sunday night saw the departures of two more Managers in this nightmare of a league as new boys Barrow sacked Darren Edmondson around the same time as Gateshead confirmed that they and Malcolm Crosby, only a replacement for the now Wrexham Manager Gary Mills this summer, were also parting ways.  No replacement for Crosby has yet been announced by the North-East Club.

Those two departures took the total number of Managerial changes this season to nine for this league - although the changes have only come at eight different Clubs.  The reason for the seemingly odd discrepancy in the figures is because struggling Halifax are already on their third Manager this season having already made chances twice!

After beginning the season with Neil Aspin, the Shaymen replaced him at the beginning of October with Darren Kelly but just 47 days later he too was gone and to date no replacement has yet been announced.

Other Managerial changes of course have been at Eastleigh, where former Rovers Assistant Manager Richard Hill resigned after a poor start to the season and was replaced by Chris Todd – a move which has since seen a dramatic upturn in results for the Hampshire side beginning pretty much with their victory over Tranmere at Prenton Park.

Southport who are also struggling in the division, recently replaced Paul Carden with Dino Maamria whilst Boreham Wood Manager Ian Allison was another to resign after a long spell in charge and he was replaced by Luke Garrad.

Troubled Torquay United looked to have given themselves a chance of surviving their turbulent financial times by appointing the highly thought of Paul Cox as Manager in the summer.  However the money troubles proved too much and under the reported risk of not being paid for his work in the near future, Cox resigned in mid-September to eventually be replaced by Kevin Nicholson.  Cox has this week quickly been appointed by Barrow to replace Darren Edmondson.

Another Club struggling near the bottom of the League have also made a change already this season.  Kidderminster Harriers boss Gary Whild was sacked in mid-September and replaced by David Hockaday.  The only question now is who will be next.. and when?

Weekend Review (Eastleigh Defeat Proves Costly)

In the League action this past weekend, it’s still as we were at the very top as 1^st and 2^nd drew 1-1 when Forest Green visited their nearest neighbours Cheltenham Town for a local derby that held high importance even at this early stage of the season.

Behind the top two, the biggest losers of the week were recently rejuvenated Eastleigh who went into their home game with Grimsby on the back of six games unbeaten including five wins and one draw. 

However a 1-0 defeat to the Mariners saw their visitors leapfrog them into third place in the League and to add insult to injury for the Hampshire side, wins for Dover Athletic (3-1 at home to Barrow), Lincoln City (3-1 at Torquay) and Wrexham (1-0 at Aldershot) saw Eastleigh drop four places to seventh and outside the play-off places.

The only other positive movers in the top half were Macclesfield who are now eighth after a 2-0 home win over Bromley and Tranmere who of course left it late to beat Guiseley 2-1 at Prenton Park.

The bottom four relegation places remain the same with the only change being a swap in position for Southport and Torquay.  With Torquay’s previously mentioned defeat at home to Lincoln, Southport took advantage by winning 1-0 at Welling to leapfrog the South West side into 20^th place.

It was a 4-1 home defeat to Halifax on Saturday which saw the end of Malcom Crosby’s tenure as Gateshead Manager as mentioned above whilst in the one other result not yet mentioned,  Altrincham beat Boreham Wood 1-0 at home.  Braintree’s home game against Kidderminster was postponed.

A Look Ahead (Weekend Fixtures)

Coming up this week are two games tonight (Tuesday) in the National League as Tranmere of course travel to Woking to try and climb up to eighth place in the National League, whilst Chester host Dover.  Boreham Wood then host Lincoln on Wednesday night.

Next Saturday’s games see an early kick-off (12:30pm) for Eastleigh v Southport whilst Rovers make the trip to Boreham Wood to try to avenge the 2-0 home defeat to them earlier in the season.  The full fixture list for Saturday 28^th November is:

Eastleigh v Southport (12:30pm)

Aldershot v Cheltenham

Barrow v Woking

Boreham Wood v Tranmere

Braintree v Torquay

Halifax v Dover

Forest Green v Altrincham

Gateshead v Chester

Grimsby v Kidderminster

Guiseley v Bromley

Lincoln v Welling

Wrexham v Macclesfield