Various National League managers this week express their disappointment at the much talked about new playoff final venue announced recently.
The playoff for the second promotion place into League Two will be held at Bristol City’s Ashton Gate due to Euro 2020 matches being played at Wembley.
The National League season is two months behind schedule due to Covid, and the final will take place on the 20th of June with fans in attendance and shown exclusively live on BT Sport.
Torquay United manager Gary Johnson however says he is disappointed that the National League playoff final won’t be held at Wembley.
“I never like it when the goalposts get changed. It’s always a final a Wembley,” Johnson told BBC Radio Devon.
The top tier of the non league pyramid wasn’t able to begin until October after delaying in the hope that fans were able to return back to grounds, otherwise clubs would suffer financially.
Yet the rise in the pandemic meant that, apart from a few games in December, all matches until this week were played behind closed doors, not ideal, causing the likes of Dover Athletic to stop playing altogether, National League North and South also voted to postponed the campaign.
The delay had the knock-on effect of the playoffs being contested during the delayed Euro 2020 tournament, when Wembley will host eight matches – England’s three group games, two last-16 ties, both semi-finals and the final.
Torquay currently sit second in the National League, three points off leaders Sutton United with an inferior goal difference going into the final two games of the season.
“I remember when I was at Yeovil, we had an FA Trophy final and we were all looking forward to going to Wembley and it ended up at Villa Park, which is still a fantastic ground, as is Bristol City, but Wembley is for finals,” added Johnson.
“I’m sure if they had a choice they’d all rather be playing at Wembley.
“But we’ve got to make Bristol City, if we get there, Wembley in our heads. The prize is till the same, whatever the stadium.”
Hartlepool United, who sit in the playoffs, has seen their manager Dave Challinor also react to Bristol City’s Ashton Gate being confirmed as the National League playoff final venue.
Fans from both finalists will be able to attend in limited numbers with a restricted 25-per-cent capacity attendance of 6,750 being reported.
Should Hartlepool get to the final, they would be facing a near 550-mile round trip – one of their longest of the season.
“It’s not ideal is it?” Pools boss Dave Challinor admitted. “From a selfish perspective, I can say I’ve gone to Wembley, I’ve played there twice so it doesn’t really affect me but of course it does.”
“For any player at this level, the opportunity to play at Wembley is a huge one,” he added.
“We know how important the game is and what rides on it for all the clubs. Not just for the supporters but the prestige in doing that.
“And when you look at the teams in the play-off picture, I’m not sure you could get many, if any, bigger teams in the top nine.
“The National League have to make decisions and unfortunately there’s going to be situations where you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
“We have no idea if they’ve spoken to every Premier League club and been told no, or whether this is the only option for us.”
“Being really critical, you look at the makeup of the play-off places and go that potentially five out of the six teams could be northern based clubs and it becomes a difficult one for supporters.
“Ashton Gate holds 27,000 and if the crowd is going to be, for example, 10,000 and 4,000 for each team then I can guarantee those tickets will be snapped up in a heartbeat and those fans won’t be disappointed if they have to travel all the way there and it results in their team ending up in the Football League.”
The Pools boss added: “Let’s look at it in a positive light and fingers crossed we’re there and we’ve got however many thousand Hartlepool fans there to support us.
“I’m sure on another day in normal circumstances at Wembley, I’m sure there would have been 20,000 plus wanting to see that game.
“Unfortunately that’s not the case but hopefully we can give ourselves the best shot of having that occasion to look forward to.”
As the National League managers express disappointment at the new playoff final venue, do you agree? Let us know!
You must be logged in to post a comment Login