Tadcaster Albion chief Paul Marshall believes there should be a second promotion slot out of the NCEL Premier Division
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Tadcaster Albion chief Paul Marshall is calling on the FA to open up a second promotion spot in the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division.
The Division is preparing for one of its most exciting campaigns in recent memory because of the amount of teams with genuine title aspirations.
However, only one will be promoted to the Evo Stik Division One North – a fact that greatly annoys Marshall, who won the NCEL Premier title with Goole in 2005.
A move to open up a second promotion slot would be a logistical nightmare due to the number of clubs from step five leagues filtering into step four of the Football Pyramid, but Marshall believes there can be ways and means to achieve his hopes.
Whilst looking ahead to the season, he told Non League Yorkshire: “You have to start well.
“It favoured Brighouse at the end because they had so many games to play, but a lot of teams they had to play against didn’t. At the start of the season everyone was fighting for the points.
“In one respect you want to get your games in, but by the end of the season, teams aren’t bothered.
“That’s the problem with our league with there being no play-offs. I think it should be looked into it because you have got Ossett Albion, Kidsgrove who stayed up and between them they played 82 games and got 59 points.
“They both got reprieves and it is a disgrace. Why should they give teams who have struggled reprieves?
“They should give the opportunities to teams out of step five to get promoted or even a play-off game against the struggling sides.
“I feel very strongly about it. I have been in this league a long time and it is one of the toughest leagues to get out of like the North West Counties.”
Tadcaster finished third last season after originally ending the campaign as runners-up – a four point deduction last month took the second place trophy away from them.
Taddy are hoping to win the Division this time around in Marshall’s seventh season in charge at Ings Lane.
He has signed Andy Milne and Liam Ormsby, son of Leeds United legend Brendan, and Marshall said: “We have a team that got 97 points so we don’t need to make too many changes.
“We are trying to bring in quality in Andy Milne, Liam Ormsby and if we get Josh Greening, we have a forward thinking player, a centre-midfielder and a defender.
“I didn’t want to make many changes. I wanted a player in each area and if we get Greening, we have one in each area.”
Pickering Town player Greening scored for Taddy in last Saturday’s friendly at Selby and is now considering his options.
He was unavailable for the FC Halifax Town clash and he will appear again for Tadcaster on Saturday against Oldham Athletic under 21s.
Marshall says the ball is firmly in Greening’s court over his future.
“I think he wants to come to a progressive club,” he added.
“He’s making a decision on whether he thinks we’re the right club for him.
“We’ve had conversations and said we need to know sooner or later about whether he wants to sign. If he wants to sign, we’ll sign him.”