With Crawley gone the big spenders of the Blue square Bet Premier, the pinnacle of the non League structure, will be Fleetwood and Mansfield this year with Grimsby and Luton starting to struggle under the weight of expectation and a big wage bill. The Hatters needed that playoff win yesterday far more than Wimbledon and John Fenty’s olive branch to Mike Parker suggests his latest half a million cash input will be to steady the ship as opposed to lashing out on luxuries like goal machines.
The money in this league, like all others, goes on the strikers with the Midas touch, for they make the peoples game the spectacular spectator sport that it is. That said Cods crown jewel Connell, a sublime modern striker, does not appear to be going anywhere even if long term admirer Alan Knill would wish otherwise from just up the road. With 41 goal golden boot winner Tubbs of Crawley now in the League, Connell with 26 last term will be the lad to fear and rightly so. Third placed Kedwell (24 goals) and sixth placed Mohamed (18 goals) are also out of the picture after Wimbledon completed the fairy tale yesterday.
Others to watch are Jean-Paul Marna of Kettering (20 goals), Craig Reid of Newport (18 goals), Chris McPhee of Kidderminster (17 goals), Kyle Perry of Tamworth (17 goals) who the Pontoon can vouch for and the awkward Mangan of Wrexham (16 goals). If that wasn’t enough we have the Luton trio of Matt Barnes-Homer, Robbie Willmott and Jason Walker as well as a league containing 10 more marksmen well into their teens.