THE UNUSUAL SUSPECTS SIT PRETTY BUT U’S KEEPING CALM
FORGET weaker, the National League is tougher this season reckons Sutton United manager Paul Doswell. Macclesfield Town, pictured, are the division’s surprise leaders, pursued by part-timers Dover Athletic and Woking. Doswell’s Surrey-based side follow in fourth, while pre-season title favourites Tranmere Rovers and Leyton Orient languish in the bottom half. “It’s a snakes and ladders league at the moment,” Doswell told The NLP. “If you win one, you’re up, and if you lose one, you’re down.” Just nine points separate Macclesfield and Tranmere, the former are the only side who have managed to win four consecutive games and sit top with a positive goal difference of just two. The consensus is that with the table so tight and teams taking points off each other at will, the division is weaker but Doswell isn’t so sure. “I’d disagree and go the other way,” he said. “The part-time teams are more competitive this season because we understand the level. They’re more organised too. The good and obvious sides aren’t having it their own way – the Tranmeres, the Hartlepools, the Leyton Orients. “The football order will probably be restored by the end of the season. It won’t surprise me to see those clubs there or thereabouts. It would be nice to think that a Dover or a Sutton could also be challenging for the top seven places as well. “There’s a rizla between our players and any other club at this level, and the same with League Two. Most National League clubs could go into that league and compete every week.” Bromley and Maidstone United find themselves in seventh and ninth respectively as newly promoted FC Halifax Town round off a top ten largely made up of surprises. Only Wrexham and last year’s play-off semifinal losers Dagenham and Redbridge and Aldershot Town are somewhat meeting their expectations . For Sutton, buoyed by last season’s FA Cup run, it’s a case of seeing what happens. “I’m delighted with our start. Your first port of call is to get 50 points,” added Doswell, “and 27 from 15 games is incredible and if we can maintain that then we’ve got a chance of being in the top seven. We’ve had eight of our first team squad injured for almost all that time. If we get to the 50-point mark then we can start looking at where we can go.”