So Totton,Dover,Dagenham and Maidenhead. 
Thoughts on that? Shaping up to be another competitive NLS. Quite fancy a trip down to Totton. I’ve been to Dover before a long time ago 

Seen both Dover and Maidenhead this season (against Horsham and Crawley respectively) and will provide good opposition. Also saw Totton last year. Dagenham could be one of favourites I would expect.

Shaping up for some great away days again. Always like Maidenhead - proper old school and decent pitch. Daggers has a great view and a decent pub within minutes. Dover a bit of a journey but well worth going I think. And Totton - never been. What's it like down there - any segregation?

Very hard to predict favourites tbh - big names doesn't mean that much, Dagenham been in turmoil, Maidenhead still part time (I think). 

Plus whoever loses the play offs will be at a disadvantage with their season dragging on so long, so I'd imagine they might struggle at the start.

But who knows? Enjoy the ride and roll on the fixture list!

As always, it will depend on recruitment and keeping players. If Dagenham lose some of their better players then I can see them struggling as they are a shambles off the pitch.

Ade - never been to Totton, but would be amazed if they segregate having just come up from step 3

Would rather go to Borehamwood again for a 5th time watching Dorking, than Maidstone where the away experience is pretty rubbish. Especially with that new fanzone B'Wood are building for away fans (in the corner by the burger van)

I wonder if our away numbers grow much more, if more club will segregate us next season? To be honest Hampton kind of need to and it's very constrained when 250 of us all try to get up the opposite end when we win the toss!

@dorking-eagle Not sure Hampton can easily segregate but I think they were surprised at the numbers we brought. 

It's an interesting one - and I think only us, Torquay, Maidstone/B Wood, Salisbury and sometimes Worthing will segregate.

Most of this is down to practicalities - if you have a home 'end' like we do, it's not ideal to have away fans milling around and will likely lead to trouble imo.

That said, after the season we've just had, I'm a big fan of being behind whichever goal we're attacking. Much better than being stuck in one corner or one end only. 

What do others think?

Looking at those being relegated. 

I cannot see Dagenham and Redbridge tearing it up next season, looks like the club is in a proper mess. They remind me of Dover when they came down. I think they will be pretty much midtable next season and maybe sneak into the play offs.

Maidenhead will also probably struggle due to the fact they have been in the NLP for a long time and it will take some adjustments. 

However, Ebbsfleet will be strong. They have a very good manager and have mentally adjusted to relegation for sometime. Its not been a fight for them to stay up as they knew they were down in January.

I think Worthing will drop off from the level they were at this season. The absolutely monumental way the choked the league title and promotion has got to cause a hangover. Being clear at the top with games in hand, and chucking it is criminal.

No idea what to expect from Totton or Dover.

Horsham will clearly be strong and I would expect them to be top 7 next season. 

Posted by: @adeb

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@dorking-eagle Not sure Hampton can easily segregate but I think they were surprised at the numbers we brought. 

It's an interesting one - and I think only us, Torquay, Maidstone/B Wood, Salisbury and sometimes Worthing will segregate.

Most of this is down to practicalities - if you have a home 'end' like we do, it's not ideal to have away fans milling around and will likely lead to trouble imo.

That said, after the season we've just had, I'm a big fan of being behind whichever goal we're attacking. Much better than being stuck in one corner or one end only. 

What do others think?

Re - segregation. 

Ebbsfleet did last time we went there, I think they will again when we visit next season - the previous time (end of season game when they didn't segregate) we stood on the small bit of side terrace for the second half, but it really isn't big enough for the numbers we bring now (and their seated end stand was full of family fans of the home team).

Maidenhead have never segregated when we have visited but in my opinion should do after the scuffles last time showed they have quite a 'teen' element keen on being a PITA to away fans

Dagenham do segregate, mainly I think so they can charge away fans for the most expensive part of the ground! But it's 'soft segregation' in the sense that away fans share the same entrance as home fans in the same stand lol

Hampton will have to have the facilities to be able to segregate, we'd be at the end we were for the first half this season, it has it's own food hut and bar down that end, and they'd just add portaloos. My comment was simply that the ground is quite small and tight in some places, and the inevitable changing ends leads to bottlenecks and endless processions.

My NLS bottom 4 candidates for next season would be Enfield, Slough, Salisbury, Chippenham, Chesham. I think all 3 newly promoted sides comfortably survive with Totton pushing for playoffs.

Hard to predict too much though until we see retained lists and summer signings.

Dorking Eagle. Definitely agree about segregation at Maidenhead. Visited there with Crawley this season, and they had a lot of youngsters taunting away fans. Was segregated for us as we took over 500.

Ground is getting very old and tired, mainly because they wanted to move grounds. Club received millions from Max Kilman transfer, so would expect to invest in team to get back to NL quickly.

Their town centre location (not to mention the history of it being one of the oldest grounds) is gold dust, but they have been trying to move away for years. I guess it is a valuable site for development. 

Will be a sad day if they move away to a modern ground on the edge of nowhere, with cheap metal prefabricated stands and a plastic pitch.

Would be much better if they just stay put and built a stand on the mostly empty (dugouts) side of the ground. Been about 40 years since the original stand burned down there.

I know the segregated away bit in the corner is very basic, but it's better than having to play cat and mouse all afternoon.

In general I prefer grounds not to be segregated. Part of the fun of this level is that it is much more relaxed and you can mingle with the opposition fans and swap ends if you want.  But with the bigger numbers we take now away, it is more risky, at least for the bigger games. Maidenhead for one would need it. Hard to make a call on which clubs / games are going to attract a few idiots looking for trouble. I just hope they don't attach themselves to DW - Worthing was embarrassing for example. 

I see Marc was playing down expectations for next season, saying it would be a strong league. And flagging only one or two new signings. Maybe the two are connected. 

Posted by: @baggy

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I see Marc was playing down expectations for next season, saying it would be a strong league. And flagging only one or two new signings. Maybe the two are connected. 

I think Marc's calling it right imho. We don't need more than a couple - injury (and other unfortunate circumstances) robbed us of what would probably have been a comfortable championship winning season. But he's also quite right not to make any boasts about walking the league.

Different story if we'd gone up however...

@dorking-eagle Yeah I love Maidenheads ground. Proper crumbling old school but I accept I'm probably in a minority.

Re segregation - yes they have some idiot kids, but last season when the stewards and police finally created some sort of barrier and no mans land, I walked straight through them (as I couldn't be bothered going all the other way round) and it was like the parting of the waves. Basically harmless imo.