Again with the strawman arguments.lo36789 wrote:As I say - belief is that it was but I’m not sure it’s so true anymore - using the ease to which NL clubs have been seen off by teams from other divisions.
Back when no teams took promotion so every non-league player in the north east ended up basically in the northern league. I don’t think that is true anymore given Spennymoor, Darlington, South Shields, Marke and Morpeth have strong contingents of northern based players in their teams. And actually to an extent Hartlepool and York dropping into non-league means they will be a safety net for north east based player before they hit the northern league (although their full time status meansf a players ‘home’ location has less bearing)
Those players 5 years ago would have all been playing in the Northern League - now they are not and to suggest there is some sort of endless supply of talented footballers in the north east who are of a greater standard than the rest of the country doesn’t stack up.
I tell you what. How about we pick this up in 2 years when my bet is that there will be 3 teams in NPLPD recently promoted from NWCPD (Atherton Colls, Runcorn Linnets & City of Liverpool). Because you are trying to base the now on results from 5 years ago - whereas I am trying to use the now as the evidence of now.
I'm not basing anything on five years ago. And you know fine well I'm not. It really shows you up when you try and denigrate an argument with blatantly false rubbish like this. This is worse behaviour than me throwing an insult at you.
I'm basing it on historical results up to and including this season. The bar you've basically set is dominance = Northern League sides winning every game. That is wholly unrealistic.
Actually a lot of Northern League sides end up being drawn against each other. There are only three divisions for the North (NL, NWCFL and NCEL) so inevitably a lot of NL sides end up playing each other.
Ultimately, if one division out of 14 wins a competition eight out 10 years, supplying more than half the finalists in that time, it is demonstrating dominance. I can't seriously believe you're trying to argue otherwise.
You're also arguing that the NL is pitched against all other leagues combined. It's not. No other individual Step Five league has a record on a par with the NL. Both in terms of the Vase or progress of promoted sides. Name me another division which has provided eight of the last 10 winners, or more than half of the last decade's finalists. Or had at least one representative in the quarter finals for a decade.
No other division gets close to that.
The three sides you mentioned could well get promoted. But it won't prove the NWCFL is stronger than the NL. Unless you're expecting us, Spennymoor and South Shields to all be relegated to Step 4 in two year's time.
Lo - in this thread you really have demonstrated stupidity of the worst kind. You deliberately denigrate arguments (discussed earlier). You twist what other people say (see your twisting of Darlo2807's initial comments). You get basic facts wrong and fail to correct them (forgetting we won the NL in 2013). You ignore important counter-points which are inconvenient to you (the point of finalists). Your points illogical (e.g. you watch more football, therefore you're right).
Ultimately I believe I've successfully demonstrated the Northern League is still the strongest step 5 division.
It's performance this season in the Vase is no worse so far than previous years. Historically if HAS dominated the Vase (the best means of comparing the divisions) and up to at least season, has continued that trend. Promoted sides almost always succeed higher up. No other division has a record like it.