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Southern League Division 1 (South) 2022/23


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And here’s the league Exmouth and Tavistock will be playing in next season:

AFC Totton; Bashley; Bideford; Bishops Cleeve; Bristol Manor Farm; Evesham United; Exmouth Town; Frome Town; Hamworthy United; Larkhall Athletic; Lymington Town; Melksham Town; Merthyr Town; Paulton Rovers; Sholing; Slimbridge; Tavistock; Westbury United; Willand Rovers; Wimborne Town.

Taking another map from Non League Matters this translates to:

bDDKHLxRGlVhoBv4azxrnkeoXQehQWf1n8IOhUzce8bfpQzZo1O8UtmUmaO8WPTKZSxYt6TBO4RZhZPQ2ReR0NgIdH87dXj6vlZ7v7-IBt5NHPnHQlwb7eqSj4TTtAmzrjWXQ2rLVVfj3jpRQw

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/2/edit?mid=1vJxP3moH9TLHAEEuOECZ4CLuypHAewT5&usp=sharing  

The clubs near Swindon have gone but there’s still a cluster around Southampton. Evesham apparently wanted to stay rather than join the Midlands; there was no other place for Merthyr.

In fact, until I saw the map, I'd not realised that over half of the clubs could be considered to be close to one (or two) of Bath, Bristol, Bournemouth or Southampton. 

This always looks a challenging league for clubs from our neck of the woods. Four Devon clubs last season and four again next time - Exmouth and Tavistock replace Barnstaple and Parkway who have left in opposite directions. Willand are there for a fourth season having finished 15th; Bideford have been in the Southern (at one level or the other) since 2010.

Keep four Cornwall and Devon clubs in this league and it will always look pretty much the same save for tinkering around the edges. Increase that number and the division moves slightly towards us; lose that representation and it can drift away from us. How attractive might it ever be to some of our clubs?

I'd imagine in Devon that, depending on how well flushed they are, Barnstaple would be keen on giving it another go. Buckland have spoken of the Southern League before and would, more often than not, look better-placed and better-equipped than others. Beyond these, there's only Ilfracombe currently playing at step 5 and recently accustomed to playing further up the M5. 

Which is, of course, a consequence of two Devon clubs doing so well last season. If they'd not, we would probably be saying "ah, but there's Exmourh and Tavistock".

But, like Falmouth and Torpoint, they've been and done it immediately. Back to what's been said before about restructuring already having sucked up the majority of the "most likely"

 

 

 

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  • 3 months later...

Have seen Willand Rovers v Westbury United (0-0) and Exmouth Town v Wimborne Town (1-0) this week. After an earlier 0-0 at Taunton Town in the National League, there’s not been a great deal to excite. But, fortunately, I managed to see a rather good game between Exeter City and Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday night.

 Willand and Westbury, in Saturday’s heat, was pretty much what the score indicates. Not many chances; both teams sufficiently organised to cancel each other out. The sort of game you’re probably more likely to see at this level than a rung or two below. Willand have done well in recent years, they’ve a decent squad who travel far-and-wide to play their football and the ground has been developed with a couple of new stands. To finish, say, 15th at this level would be a job well done. The crowd was 130 which is pretty much par for the course in a small place where many people live for its convenience. It’s a pleasant outing for me. I’m sure l’ll be back this season. 

Best part of four hundred at Exmouth which, by contrast, is one of the bigger towns in the league. A contrast of styles with Exmouth solid and tenacious - but dangerous at times - and Wimborne proverbially “more comfortable on the ball”. Wimborne had much of the play but, as the game wore on, you wondered if Exmouth were doing their job better than Wimborne were doing their’s. And, whatever may have gone before, if it’s level with ten minutes to play it can go either way. So it proved with a late Exmouth winner scored by a player who'd only been on the pitch for three minutes. Exmouth will  be very happy with that. Two out of two. Achieved too without Levi Landricombe.               

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39 minutes ago, Tavi Fan said:

Assuming they still play their very direct style of football I can see Exmouth being right up there this season. Not many teams will like to play against it and Exmouth played it very well for last few seasons that I’ve seen them.

Exmouth, under Kevin Hill, have always embraced the "under the radar" tag. They have a very capable manager, a large and hard working committee, an experienced group of players, a decent size and very vocal supporter base and are very nicely located just off the M5 in a town of nearly 35,000. A club that will probably be near the top of that division this year. 

Sometimes feels like that the runaway train that is the Plymouth Parkway story overshadows how Exmouth and Tavistock have progressed.

Looking at the scene around Devon, hard to come to anything but the conclusion that Buckland really need to get promoted into step 4 sooner rather than later.. In recent years, Parkway, Willand, Tavi and Exmouth have all gone past them. Mind you, already feels like everybody is playing for the runners up and second promotion place with Bridgwater flying out of the traps.

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I don’t think Parkway have overshadowed Tavistock and Exmouth at all IMO. Tavistock and Exmouth operate on a smaller playing budget than Parkway and have kept the majority of their squads from the SWPL days. Progress from all 3 clubs has been exceptional though.

Exmouth are a club massively on the up, good support (ties in with the population of the town and lack of non league clubs within Exeter) and their work off the pitch is second to none.

Id love Buckland to join us in the Southern League but as mentioned Bridgwater are looking good but can’t write off Mousehole just yet.

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Exmouth's approach last night was very much the tried and tested.

It's a funny league. There's a relatively marked overlap with step 5.  A number of clubs fall under the "just about managing" heading and there's often a club or two which suddenly loses the "sponsor" who helped get them there in the first place.

In terms of progression, the arithmetic of pyramid expansion - 48 clubs at step 2; 88 at step 3; eight leagues at step 4 - means a top 5 place at step 4 equates to being amongst the top 176 clubs below the National League's national section. Would that be such an outlandish goal for Exmouth?

I would have seen a good proportion of Kevin Hill's 470-odd games for Torquay; all of which were in the Football League save for his final season. But his time in local non-league - before and after - far surpasses the eleven seasons he spent at Plainmoor. Somehow this always seemed to be his destiny.

Exmouth do appear to be well-placed to pick up interest from people around Exeter and, when fixtures fall right, people in Exmouth who are in the habit of watching football at Exeter City (who are good at promoting Exmouth's convenient fixtures). It's a potentially good fit - better than Tiverton - because most of Exeter's population live on the Exmouth side and they're in the habit of visiting the town of Exmouth anyway. Not great numbers perhaps. But they all count.

As for Exmouth iiself, it's a younger and more down-to-earth place than may be first imagined. It produces footballers too.

But two rugby clubs and, of course, the Chiefs who are slap bang on the Exmouth side of Exeter.

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