Bostin' Links

Okay, I've recycled the title for this post from my other blog - and, perhaps it isn't the most sensitive title for it.

Why not?  Because one of the links is from Kings Lynn Town FC's website, and they are the traditional rivals of Boston.    Nonetheless, it's an excellent link: league tables. for all the non-league divisions from step 1 to step 4 - yes, all 12 divisions - plus the two in the general area of Kings Lynn.  Not just league tables, but league tables where you can click on a team name and see their record against each of the other teams in that league, showing you who has had a strong set of fixtures, or a good record against teams in one part of the table . . . it shows all the information the previous, "step 4 grids" link used to show, and more.  Much recommended.

If you are reading this, you are very probably a member of the soccerlotto.com website, and that's what the second link will take you to.  It'll give you access to more stats than you can shake a stick at - not just in England, but elsewhere in Europe, too.  There's a lively messageboard on it, well worth looking at.  If you click on it and subscribe - you'll earn me a fiver!

******

Kings Lynn Town, as plain 'Kings Lynn' were a step 3 non-league club last season, but folded during the season.  Indeed, of the 266 clubs who planned to start in the top four steps of non-league football in England last season, several didn't make it to the end of the season:
Newcastle Blue Star of the Northern Premier League folded before the start of the season
Kings Lynn, also of the NPL - though only playing at that level because of issues with their ground which was deemed inadequate for Conference North where they had played in 2008-09 - folded in December.
Chester City, of Conference Premier, closed down early in 2010.
Farsley Celtic, folded in February.
Rothwell Town, of the Southern League Midland Division, resigned from their league at the end of the season.
Merthyr Tydfil, of the Southern League Premier Division, made it to the end of the season but closed down in May.
VCD Athletic, of the Isthmian League, South Division, were demoted because of issues with their ground.
Grays Athletic made it to the end of the season, but were relegated from the Conference Premier; they 'resigned' from the Cnference as a whole.
Salisbury City were expelled from the Conference under that league's severe anti-insolvency rules, and ended up in the Soutern League, Premier Division.
The same fate befell Northwich Victoria, who ended up in the Northern Premier League, Premier Division.
A series of appeals, counter-appeals and counter, counter-appeals meant that a couple of weeks before the start of the season it seemed that the top four steps of the non-league system would have 268 teams, rather than 266, with an extra team in the Northern Premier League, Division One North (Chester, the reformed version of Chester City) and another in the Isthmian League, First Division South - Grays Athletic.  Soon afterwards Ashford Town - from Kent, not their namesake from Middlesex - announced that they would be 'inactive' this year; Chatham Town were moved from the Isthmian League Division One North, where they had, to their horror, been placed by the relevant League Allocations Committee back in the South division, and the two divisions of the Isthmian League at this level returned to their customary strength of 22 clubs.
Then Bromsgrove Rovers, of the Southern League, Division One South and West, closed down just after the start of the season, but before any games had been played.
Bromsgrove's demise was a shock of about the same magnitude as the one you experience when you wake up the day after Wednesday to find that it's Thursday.   Evrybody who paid any attention to their situation could see that it was going to happen; their whole sorry saga can be viewed in the fans' independent website .

Now Croydon Athletic seem certain to join them.