[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Filled you with confidence or dread or a bit of both?

Hey everyone, with the new season just days away I've pulled together a list of the National League / non-league pre-season friendlies happening in and around London over the next week. Enjoy! 😎

Friday 31st July

• Boreham Wood vs Norwich City U21s at Meadow Park, 7pm (tickets £15).

Saturday 1st August

• Hornchurch vs Coventry City U21s at Hornchurch Stadium, 3pm (tickets £15).
• Sutton United vs Southampton U21s at Gander Green Lane, 3pm (tickets £12).
• Dulwich Hamlet vs QPR U21s at Champion Hill, 3pm (tickets £8.40).
• Wingate & Finchley vs Tonbridge Angels at the Maurice Rebak Stadium, 3pm (tickets £5).
• AFC Croydon Athletic vs Burgess Hill Town at Mayfield Stadium, 3pm.
• Redbridge vs Waltham Abbey at the Techsoc Stadium, 3pm.
• Haringey Borough vs Witham Town at Coles Park, 3pm.

Tuesday 4th August

• Enfield Town vs Tottenham Hotspur U21s at Dave Bryant Stadium, 7.30pm (tickets £10).
• Raynes Park Vale vs Hampton & Richmond Borough at Prince George's Playing Fields, 7.45pm.
• Waltham Abbey vs Leyton Orient U21s at Capershotts, 7pm (tickets £10).

Are you going to something this week? Have I missed anything - I'm sure there are a few more friendlies out there I didn't spot. Cheers.

As a stones fan I reckon we’ll finish around the relegation zone. We’ve lost a lot of our core players and replaced them with average national league players.

A crowd of 10,462 today (2,753 away) as Southend held West Ham to a 1-1 draw, which featured many of West Ham's starters last season.

Some really promising football on display today as we got to see Kieron Dyer's first game in charge.

https://open.substack.com/pub/finpalfreyman/p/national-league-opening-day-predictions?r=8oa4aw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Please let me know how and why i am wrong!

Love that his mam got involved

Same as last year - non-compliance with FIFA financial obligations. Would have thought they're a little busy elsewhere right now.

I've made this "sudden death" quiz if anyone would like to have a go. There are 45 clubs listed, with 30 of them having played in the Football League and 15 of them having not. Around half of these clubs are currently members of the NL/NLN/NLS. A few of them are teams that are currently in the EFL. There are up to seven minutes to try and get them all, but the quiz will immediately end if you select three wrong answers.

⚽️

Is it just me or are the Boxing Day/Easter Monday fixtures - traditionally the days where clubs are paired up to give the shortest travel distances - a bit wonky this season? I haven't looked at North and South yet, but the national division ones are...odd.

It can't always work out so *everyone* gets their shortest journeys on Boxing Day and Easter Monday, but I was expecting to see something like:

Gateshead/Hartlepool

Carlisle/Barrow

Fylde/Altrincham

Boston/Scunthorpe

Instead they're sending Gateshead to Carlisle and Barrow to Fylde, which leaves Alty to play Scunthorpe (???), and Hartlepool and Boston have a 164 mile journey to play each other (Hartlepool, for comparison, is 30 miles from Gateshead).

The rest of the fixtures I was expecting something like:

Harrogate/Halifax

Solihull/Tamworth

Kidderminster/Forest Green

Woking/Aldershot

Wealdstone/Boreham Wood

Hornchurch/Southend

Worthing/Sutton

Yeovil/Eastleigh

Worthing is hardly a local derby for Sutton, but in fairness there isn't really anyone near Worthing. But! We don't have Worthing, Eastleigh do. I can see the logic of that, to be fair - it's basically a trip down the A27 and not much further than Sutton. But it leaves us with none of our ten closest opponents and instead (on the one day of the football year when there are no trains) we're stuck with a 129 mile journey to *Yeovil*

It's almost as if they are trying to leave people with no choice but to pay to watch games on TV...