The promotion and relegation issues in the Vanarama National League intensified as a result of another round of fixtures full of drama.
Although the suspense is likely to last until the season's final day, some issues have already been resolved; some of them positively, some of them negatively. Whichever it is, the clubs involved can now at least start work on their plan for 2023/24, no doubt hoping to make the most of the additional time.
Admirable of the Fleet
Ebbsfleet United has been a National League side in waiting since the early weeks of the season. Apart from a brief spell around Christmastime, it's been plain sailing for the Fleet; they didn't drop a point until the end of September, and have been defeated just 6 times.
Two of those were inflicted by second-placed Dartford, home and away on Boxing Day and New Year's Day, by an aggregate score of 8-1; however, Dennis Kutrieb's side then rattled off six wins on the spin to trigger an unbeaten run of 19 matches that only ended when they were already promoted and the pressure was off.
They've powered to the 100-point plateau, and have scored over 100 goals, over half of which have been contributed by the deadly Dominic Poleon, and the rapier Rakish Bingham.
The Fleet are full-time, so perhaps their dominance is to be expected in a largely semi-professional league. Making the jump to the National League shouldn't be giving the Kent side's management and board too many headaches, and they should go well at Step 1.
Ebbsfleet will take the place of another Kent side, Maidstone United, whose relegation was rubber-stamped a couple of weeks ago.
Shields Up, Irons Down
South Shields will be joining National League North and will be joined there by Scunthorpe United, whose stay at Step 1 was short and fraught with existential drama.
The Iron may be tarnished and fatigued, but they remain standing, as the podcast's Rob Worrall found out when he spoke with Ollie Turner of BBC Radio Humberside:
“I think there was an air of resignation around Glanford Park, to be honest. I think fans had accepted that the team were down quite a few weeks before, but I think the run of results leading up to the Oldham game really were the final nails in the coffin.”
“There wasn't really any frustration or booing or anger. It was just the end of another very sad chapter in the last few years of this club's history.”
Ollie's conversation with Rob lays bare some of the turmoil the club has found itself in, and can be heard in full in this week's podcast.
The NL Full Time podcast is available weekly throughout the season, sometimes we even throw in a midweek special edition too, and all podcast episodes are available should you fancy a delve into our archive.
Find us on your preferred podcast platform; a selection of popular ones is below:
Spotify: spoti.fi/3KMfDsz
Apple: apple.co/3GuyRj5
Google: bit.ly/4005vAX
Subscribe to us on iTunes or Spotify and follow and interact with us on social media: @NLFullTime on Twitter.
