We look back on the decade just gone and plot all the major ups and downs
PLOTTING THE UPS AND DOWNS OF NON-LEAGUE CLUBS OVER THE LAST DECADE
THEY SAY a week is long time in football, so a decade seems like an absolutely eternity!
How the game’s landscape has changed over the last ten years. Clubs have climbed the Non-League ladder over – Dorking Wanderers more than anyone – while others have found themselves slipping down, some even off the board altogether.
Here we’ve picked out some of the risers and fallers between 2010 and 2019.
SHORTWOOD UTD
Nestled in the backdrop of Forest Green Rovers, in the Gloucestershire village of Nailsworth, Shortwood United have ensured a decade of huge highs and lows.
Runners-up in the Hellenic League Premier three years running, the Woods finally made the leap into the Southern League in 2012-13.
Three months later, the Meadowbank club recorded the finest result in their 113-year history when a 2-1 replay victory at top-flight Aldershot Town set up an FA Cup first round tie against League One Port Vale.
However, due to “the constant financial demands to improve facilities”, Shortwood were forced to resign from the Southern League and joined the Western League at Step 6.
A switch back to the Hellenic League followed a year later but Shortwood are yet to begin their climb back up the Pyramid.
BASFORD UNITED
Few clubs have had more of an impact this last decade then Basford United.
After finishing runners-up in the Notts Senior League in 2010-11, they switched to the South Division of the Central Midlands League at Step 8, winning that at the first attempt.
Back-to-back titles followed in the East Midlands Counties League and after finishing fifth in the Northern Counties East Premier, were transferred to the Midland League, where they won the inaugural league title under manager Martin Carruthers.
Carruthers took Basford to the Northern Premier
League Division One South play-offs in his first season before winning it in the second, leading the club to Step 3 for the first time in their history, winning FOUR Nottinghamshire Senior Cups on the bounce. YORK CITY
The 2010s have been quite a rollercoaster ride for York City.
They reached the 2010 Conference Play-Off final at Wembley Stadium but were beaten 3-1 by Oxford United. Two years later, they won their first ever national knockout competition when they lifted the FA Trophy.
A week later, they made an emotion return to the Football League after an eight-year absence with a 2-0 victory over Luton Town 2-0 in the Play-Off Final.
Within two years, York were reaching the League Two Play-off final but a semi-final defeat by Fleetwood sparked the slide and after four years, York were back in Non-League.
Despite another FA Trophy success, York were further relegated to National League North in 2016-17, where they remain today.
But under Steve Watson – and a new stadium to move into next season – hopes are high for a prompt return.
DORKING WANDERERS
No one person has achieved more this last decade than Marc White.
Manager White founded Dorking Wanderers with a group of mates in 1999 and hasn’t looked back since with the club now on the cusp of a quite incredible rise to the topflight of Non-League football. No fewer than 11 promotions have been won since Wanderers started life in Sussex County League Division Three, culminating in their Isthmian Premier Division success last season where they won the title by a whopping 22 points.
Off-the-field, Wanderers have turned the old Dorking FC’s Meadowbank facility into a mightily-impressive 3G community hub where the club continues to strive from strength to strength.
Fair to say it’s been quite a decade for the Surrey club.
THURROCK
Thurrock began the decade at Step 2 and less than ten years later the proud club had folded.
Relegation from Conference South came in 2012 with a bottom-placed finish.
Fleet initially ended their Isthmian Premier season in 19th, two places above the drop, but were found to have fielded an ineligible player and issued with a three-point deduction dropping them to the foot.
However, at Step 4, Thurrock enjoyed some long-awaited success, initially missing out on the play-offs before earning three top-five finishes, eventually winning promotion by beating Maldon & Tiptree in the 2017 final.
Later that year, chairman Tommy Smith announced due to health reasons he would be stepping down and selling the club at the end of the campaign. With no buyer taking over, the club folded.
SHAW LANE
The demise of Shaw Lane Aquaforce was
as sudden as their rise through Non-League.
The Shaw Lane Community Sports Association merged their senior team with Worsbrough Common in 2011 to form Aquaforce Barnsley, playing in the Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League Division One and won promotion to the Premier Division in 2012.
The club then merged with Barugh FC to form Shaw Lane Aquaforce and won promotion to the Northern Counties East League Division One before earning two more consecutive promotions to take them into Step 4 in 2015.
They finished second in their first year, losing in the play-off final to Coalville Town, but won the title the following season – their fifth promotion of the decade – under the name Shaw Lane in order to comply with FA regulations which prohibit the use of sponsored names above Step 5.
Their first season at Step 3 in 2017-18 saw them miss out on the play-offs but reach the FA Cup first round where they lost to League Two side Mansfield Town.
However, at the end of the campaign, the club resigned from the Northern Premier League with owner Craig Wood stating he had “taken the club as far as he could” and no outside investment coming in to keep the first team going.
HEREFORD
Hereford United fans were watching their team in League Two at the start of the decade but by 2014 were setting up a phoenix club.
United were expelled from the Conference that year due to financial irregularities and later wound-up in the High Court.
Supporters formed Hereford FC and the Bulls joined the Midland League in 2015. Manager Peter Beadle guided them to three titles in their first three seasons, amassing 328 points and scoring 357 goals on their way to Step 2.
Beadle was controversially axed in their first campaign in Conference North after just eight matches.
Successor Marc Richards was sacked in August last year after ten months in the job.
AFC FYLDE
Dave Challinor led the Coasters to Wembley glory and within touching distance of the Football League in a memorable eight-year spell.
Taking over in 2011, he clinched the Northern Premier League Division One North title and then won promotion through Step 3 at the second attempt in the play-offs.
During this time they also reached the FA Cup first round where they lost to Accrington Stanley. They have since taken on Plymouth Argyle and Millwall at the same stage, Wigan in the second round and, today, Premier League Sheffield United in the third.
Fylde were beaten twice in the Conference North play-offs before clinching the title in 2017.
They qualified for the play-offs the following season in the top tier before reaching the final last term where they lost to Salford City.
The Coasters somewhat made up for that defeat at Wembley by winning the FA Trophy under the arch a week later.
HISTON
The club from a small Cambridgeshire village were on the brink of the League at the end of the previous decade.
It had been a remarkable rise from the Eastern Counties League to a third-place finish in the Conference under the guidance of wily boss Steve Fallon. But the majority of this decade was a tough one. Financial issues saw the Stutes slip back to where they came from, with three years in the Conference North to contend with too.
It ended on a high, however, with former goalkeeper Lance Key now in the dug-out as Histon won the Eastern Counties League Premier title last season to return to Step 4.
SPENNYMOOR TOWN
Moors won the Northern League four times in five years to start the decade. The season they didn’t finish on top, they were runners-up but won the FA Vase at Wembley as Jason Ainsley’s side dominated the north-east.
In 2013-14 they eventually made the leap into Step 4 football and within three seasons had won two more promotions to reach the National League North.
Last season they reached the promotion final only to be beaten by Chorley on penalties but they are in the mix once again this term.