If I was a Curzon Ashton fan ....

... I'd be one of a select few !!

That's the joke out of the way - now to serious stuff - Newcastle Blue Star have officially "gone bump". Now ... Newcastle Blue Star beat Curzon Ashton in the Unibond 1 North Play-Off Final to claim a place in the Unibond Premier for 2009/10. Well done Newcastle Blue Star !!!

The debt that "takes them down" relates to £61,000 which the club received towards development of the Wheatsheaf Sports Ground. Yes - money received between 1999 and 2004 (a while ago !!) - to develop a ground that they moved out of in 2007 !!

I'm guessing therefore that they knew damn well they were in deep do-do before they had the cheek to enter into the play-off situation - not only denying Curzon Ashton a place in the Premier Division, but even taking the p*ss by allowing Colwyn Bay to travel up to Kingston Park on a Wednesday night (not cheap for Bay I'm sure) for the Play-Off Semi-Final .

Naturally this sort of situation usually reprieves a club in the higher division (Witton Albion ?) - rather than allowing the "defeated" finalists to go up. Unfortunately - with Curzon Ashton having a similar sized fan base to Newcastle Blue Star - I'm guessing the anger will be confined to the "two Harrys" - they've basically been cheated out of promotion - there's certainly "bog all" on the Curzon message board.

For many many years the Northern League teams - and Mike Amos - tried their damndest to keep out of the non-league pyramid claiming all sorts of excuses - which have been proved cr*p by teams such as Whitby Town and Durham City (plus we await the Whitley Bay revival following their FA Vase success - although I notice Paul "baldie" Brayson has moved to Durham City !) ...

Me - still reckon the non-league world would be a better place with a Northern Premier League, a Southern Premier League and a Midland Premier League (get rid of that Isthmian League anomaly probably the real reason that a North/Midland/South has never got off the ground) - and what with the "Gloucester City" fiasco, a Blue Square North, a Blue Square South and a Blue Square Middle Bit wouldn't be a bad option either ...

But now the Blue Square have lost Setanta ... cus you can guarantee the Sky/ESPN are only after the Premiership stuff - Paul Parker on the dole as well then (just like our Michelle !) ....
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