Bulls Season Ticket holder Bill Thomas comments on the National League's decision to extend the promotion play-offs to six teams.
'I can fully understand why the teams have voted for this change, as it will give more teams the chance of promotion. It will also add interest to matches in mid table as more teams will have a chance of reaching the play-offs. Furthermore, the second and third placed teams will not be losing out, as they start in the semi-finals, with home advantage. But on the other hand it will possible for the 7th placed team to be promoted instead of the runners up. In League Two the 7th placed team can be promoted but this instead of the fourth placed team. The 6-team play-off will also make harder for the 4th and 5th placed teams to win promotion, as they will need to beat three teams in the play-offs rather than two. The system has advantages and disadvantages.
'Regardless of which play-off system is used however, the one thing that annoys me more than anything in football is that the National League only has two promotion places. In my opinion it would be much better to increase the number of promotion places from the National League from two to four, and then to continue with the four team play-off system. The top three teams could then all be promoted automatically, and the 4th to 7th placed teams could then play-off for the fourth promotion spot, just as they do in League Two! In my opinion this is what the National League should be campaigning for!'