Jockeying For Position

South Normanton United  3  Derby Athletic  1

Midlands Regional Alliance – Division Two Cup

I’ve got a lot of time for the Midlands Regional Alliance.

It announced at its AGM in the Summer that it wanted to aim to achieve Step 7 status, the rationale I’m sure being the fact that Step 7 nationally is very much made up of what are effectively County leagues.

If you take this part of the World, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire and Lincolnshire all have their own leagues at the said step, but Derbyshire doesn’t.

Derbyshire clubs are catered for via the Central Midlands League at that level, but therein lies a problem. If you are from the shire, depending on your location that could mean you join the North or the South division, and that will by definition dictate your level of travelling. In the North for example you will face trips into South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. For example, Tideswell United to Lincoln Moorlands Railway or Appleby Frodingham is a long way for this level of football.

Conversely the likes of Appleby and Lincoln, along with many others, from a travelling perspective would be much better off in their own County Step 7 arrangements, but for some reason, clubs generally elect to stay in the CMFL and indeed the league does continue to attract new recruits.

Arguably the standard of football and standard of facilities in general is probably better than your average Step 7 league, which few would disagree with, but I suspect things are coming to a crunch, the footprint is just too big.

The FA over recent seasons has embarked upon a restructuring programme that has seen a much more streamlined pyramid take shape, and one of the focus areas has been a standardisation of the requirements for Step 7 and indeed the distribution of the said leagues.

Being completely pragmatic, if you take the CMFL and strip out all of its non-Derbyshire clubs by moving them into their relevant County Leagues, you would be left with a pool of clubs that could ultimately form a Derbyshire County League.

I think the CMFL perhaps know that, and what was interesting this Summer was their recruitment of a number of clubs, four of whom were Derbyshire based, three of whom came from the Midlands Regional Alliance.

A Typical MRA Scene

So, to bring it round full circle, the MRA wants Step 7 and geographically could fill the Derbyshire gap, whereas the CMFL perhaps fears a carve up and not wanting to be left out, they also want to be in the position to the be designated County league.

Yes, I may be being a little conspiracy theorist, and I may be putting two and two together to make five, but that would be my reading from the outside looking in.

As I said, I have a lot of time for the MRA, as I do the CMFL, but let’s focus on the MRA for the purposes of today’s blog. I’ve been watching games in it for ten years now, and what I have seen is a number of progressive clubs go on to better things. Clubs like Dronfield Town, Selston and Belper United have all progressed to Step 6. Recruitment has been a challenge, especially running three divisions, but despite a lack of applicants and being let down at the eleventh hour, once again they have delivered the three leagues.

The other impressive thing that has come on leaps and bounds over recent seasons is the marketing and public relations side, with much of that down to Dan Bishop, a man I know well who is Secretary of Moira United and a league committee member.

Dan has been instrumental in bringing the league into the 21^st century, a good example being AGM night when he was quick to tweet the league constitutions to the avid followers like myself, but not only that, ask him a question and he gives you a straight answer, no fluff, no politics, just a straight answer.

Broadmeadows And Beyond

The league really do come across as well organised, but speak to its member clubs and they will confirm it, which is testimony to those running it.

I will admit though, to a completist like me, it does have its challenges though. The constitutions are great, but then comes the guessing game of where are the new sides going to play, let alone some of the local authority merry go round movements in Derby that can throw the odd new one up from time to time. Then there are the schools, I’ve lost count of the MRA games I’ve watched at different schools, and as we know, schools have a habit of changing names!

Thankfully Dan puts a handbook online so if you are just a bit patient, you get all the answers anyway!

The handbook does have its moments though, well, not so much the handbook, but the club secretaries. You have to remember that your average MRA secretary would only ever normally get calls about games from the opposition, the officials or the league, so when you send them a text asking if a game is on, it does create a bit of curiosity. Put yourself in their shoes, why would a random stranger want to watch a game on a parks pitch, in the normal world, and then go to the extent of checking it’s on, the kick off time and where it’s being played?

The best one I ever had was with a club in Staffordshire, I sent a text the night before, but before anything was confirmed to me, I got the Spanish inquisition, who was I, why was I going, was I from the league, was I a spy? In the end after revealing my full name, and purpose, I got a ‘yes’ to my question. But, at the game the chap hunted me down and we had a really great chat about the club and the league.

Subs Bench

The way things have worked out this season, I only had one new visit to make which in itself was a bit disappointing, but that new visit was to be to South Normanton United, and today they were playing at home to another newcomer in the form of Derby Athletic.

I sent the text, and got a positive response, but then the communication continued, and this was a new one for me. The Secretaries printer had broken and he needed some signing on forms, thinking I was originally from another club or the league, he asked me if I could bring some along. Anyway, knowing the forms are on the league website, I obliged anyway, printed a handful out and delivered them to the ground pre-match. He was hugely grateful for my help.

The ground at South Normanton is actually in Broadmeadows, located behind a small retail park and the Boundary pub. It’s got a couple of pitches and a large changing room block, while the hosts moved up from the Matlock & District League at the end of last season.

Derby took the lead, but Normanton quickly equalised to leave it 1-1 at half time. Two quick fire goals mid way through the second period, one of which was a penalty saw the hosts take the points in their Divisional Cup game. The only blot on their copybook being two late red cards, one for a stamp (alleged) and one for a second yellow after retaliating.

It was another good, honest and enjoyable day out in the MRA, and another example of the league trying to attract forward thinking and well organised clubs to its set up.

What the future looks like remains to be seen, some of that will be in the hands of the Football Association, but I, like many others hope they achieve what they have set out to do, but somewhere along the way, I suspect someone, one way or another, may end up disappointed. 

The Changing Block