As somebody involved in footie in Bishop's Stortford some 30+ years ago and my eldest daughter was born there, it is about time the National League woke up and had 3 regionalised leagues, North, South & Midlands. This caters for the different promotion and relegation issues that happen on a yearly basis.

PS Don't know how the reporter makes the journey from Stortford to Stansted Airport 17 mins, I could walk that at my grand old age in less time than that!

Ihave every sympathy for the fans of Bishop's Stortford, but these regular multi trips have been the norm for teams in the extreme North of England for years without the FA taking any interest. What is not mentioned they are saved the trips to Truro and Torquay which can't be much easier.

It is an inevitable consequence of the FA Non League pyramid as the sections below the National League North/South are very Southern monopolised.

For instance there are 4 leagues feeding into the National League, the Northeren Premier the most Northerly, has Morpeth, Marske & Whitby representing the North East But this year drifts as far south as Ilkeston & Basford in the Nottingham area. At least 6 of the 8 promoted teams will be South of these places.

The level below this sees Northern Premier East go as far south as Grantham, Belper & Carlton all well on the way to Nottingham for part time teams a massive cost for those from this area. At least there are 6 team from this area in the 20 and most other teams in Yorkshire, better than the old system of weekly trips to Manchester & Liverpool.

They can never resolve the travelling for these amateur teams without a drastic change to the Pyramid system which would be very difficult to implement.

It’s the price of being a team at this level.
Some things just throw up unsolvable conundrums that can’t be easily resolved, this is one of them.

everyone bring up this north to south travelling, but looking at the shape of england surely a west to east journey down south is as bad or worse. then there will always be a team out on the limb through no fault of them and i doubt there is any solution even if the pyramid structure is changed.