GRTourist

I posted on this forum back in the summer that I thought survival would be a good return for Truro this season (that was before Askey was appointed, I hasten to add...) but having been at the game for Hampton today I think you'll be a safe bet for the Play Offs. Harvey looks at his happy best, Kabia looks a great signing, Palfrey was excellent, and with that back four you won't concede many. Really well organised, totally dominant aerially, and what a weapon Oxlade-Chamberlain's long throw is. You're the best side we've played so far this season. As an aside, my first visit to the Truro City Stadium, and it was a great experience. As a Cornish exile working at Hampton, as much as I was gutted by the result, it really is brilliant to see Truro on the up like this.

Just have a look at the charges against Harvey Bradbury - something like £35k bet across a four or five year period. It's grotesque that they allow people to spend like that. If you were addicted to drink or drugs, the people around you would see the impact of you spending £35k on those things, and you'd hopefully at least be encouraged to seek medical help. Someone could easily spend every penny they have (and many they don't) on gambling and their could be no indicators of the problem to the people around them, until it's absolutely too late. Hence why, even when compared with other addiction cohorts, gambling addiction has one of the strongest correlations to suicidal ideation in men under 30.

As someone who's involved at another NLS club, none of the National League clubs had received the league guide by the first match of the season. The expectation is on the club secretary from the away side to communicate with the home side and agree what shirts they'd be wearing.

That fixture list is obviously absurd. I have to say, I think the best thing Parkway (and other clubs in their position fighting relegation) could do, is make a judgement on where they think they can win and target those games hard. Forfeit games against Totton, Walton, Poole, Salisbury, and prepare the squad for more winnable games that will keep them up. That is a totally unrealistic schedule. The league will say it's incumbent on clubs to fulfil their fixtures, and of course it is, but it's incumbent on the league to be realistic, and across numerous leagues South Western teams are paying the price of this wet winter. Taunton, Torquay, Parkway, Mousehole et al all counting the cost both financially and in terms of playing implications. Clubs will miss the play offs or go down who otherwise shouldn't, purely because they have the misfortune to play in a part of the country that gets the worst of the weather. I'm involved with a NLS club, and the reality of this means players cancelling summer holidays with families to complete league fixtures on weekdays. It's absurd. The league bears a lot of responsibility. The NLS club I'm involved with had TWO Tuesday fixtures in August and September. Why? A front loading of fixtures would pre-empt and avoid the inevitable winter pressure. It's a no-brainer and it baffles me that the league won't do this. Simple solution to a regularly recurring issue.

Was it Sims-Burgess? He was a pretty decent player in the National League South this season until it all went pete tong at Taunton.

Yeah, it was really common in the COVID season. When Step Three was cancelled, pretty much all the best Step 3/4 players in the London area ended up on Dual Reg at Step 2 clubs. This season Mauro Vilhete actually went on Dual Reg from Step 3 Hayes & Yeading to Step 1 Southend United. Surely both Tiverton and Parkway will be all over this? Tbh, I think he'd improve Torquay's squad as well.

Saw Jaylan play quite a few times for Fulham at U18 level - originally from Burton, so another relocation - should imagine he'll be effective at Step Four, but at this point in time that's probably about his limit.

The way that Oxford, Ebbsfleet (who obliterated NLS last season), AFC Fylde and Kidderminster are faring in the National League this season shows the absolute gulf in quality and resource required to compete at Step One these days.

Surely there will come a point where they're going to be having to relocate some of the matches to Plainmoor or Ian Moorcroft Stadium? No way that pitch is getting through 26 matches between now and 20th April (last weekend of the NLS/SLPS season) - especially not with more postponements guaranteed in Jan/Feb.

I personally know a lad who is over here from Canada, playing Step Four football trying to get a break who is on expenses only. Some players (and clubs) are just willing to take a chance and look off the beaten track to try and get where they want to in the game. (I have absolutely no idea what the case is at Mousehole, but players don't only move across the country for lots of money.)

What an excellent result for Parkway that is.

Who is 22, and a direct replacement for Josh Staunton who left this week, and is also only a loan with the option to make permanent in the summer.

I'd be surprised if they were. As good as Tyler Harvey is (and I really do think he's a very good National League South striker), Yeovil already have an excellent NLS strike force with Jake Hyde, Rhys Murphy, Jordan Young and Frank Nouble, and they're running away with the league. Any signings they make now will be ones they expect to play for them in the National League next season, and I think that might be a step too far for Harvey.

This is exactly why I have a strict "No Chelmsford" policy. It's the only other ground in the league I refuse to travel to on principle.

Helston and Clevedon must be delighted by proceedings.