Never understood why such as the Central League etc for reserve teams..

were discontinued. They provided much better and regular competitive matches for players outside the first team. The present occasional midweek "under 23" games seem insufficient. .

 

Agree with that. We have a squad of players that includes at least two players for every position and I'm sure every other clubin the league is similar. Surely it would be better for them to play reserve games against other mature players than drop into u23 games ooccasionally. It would also provide a bridge for the best u23 players to the first team rather than being caught in limbo and never really given a crack in the first team.

 

What surprised me about today was why Millwall? Why would they travel all the way up here to play in a meaningless U23 game?

 

But it wasn't what a lot of people seem to remember at the end. You had Rotherham, York Grimsby Hartlepool ? and the likes sending u18's teams. They are good enough to play our u18 teams never mind the u23's. We are cat 2 of a 4 cat system. All the mentioned are cat 3 or 4.

 

Rotherham, York, Grimsby, Hartepool etc were never in the Central League...mainly 1st division (now premier) and 2nd Division (championship) teams.

 

I'm not sure. The prem/Tier 1 teams which include some second tier teams wouldn't play in it.They have there own games and that includes a u16/18 cup and u23 games against cat 2 teams. Barnsley have Leicester and Everton in that.

I wonder how far the club are away from Cat 1.

 

That was the North Midlands League when either bfc were thrown out of the Central League for being so poor or the whole thing was reorganised .

 

We left the North Midlands league for the Central League for more competitive games if memory serves. We certainly didn't get thrown out of the Central League and go back to North Midlands league. I used to like the old set up. As a local referee I used to get a number of games and quite enjoyable as well. Then there was the old Northern Intermediate League which our youth team used to play in before it became an Academy. Saturday morning on the old Queens Ground then onto the terraces at Oakwell for 3 o'clock, used to love them.

 

Hi Tarntyke. I refereed on both Central League and North Regional league. Good days!!

 

I hadn't quite hit them heights alas my roles were that of a linesman/ reserve official but highly enjoyable games they were.

 

You may be confusing N MIDLANDS league with the old Midlands League .
I will continue to investigate .

 

I really don't think I am, We left the North Midlands league to play in the Central League

 

Other way round surely. I used to watch us struggle in the Central League in the 1960s, a third of fourth division team up against the first division elite (Man U, Everton, Liverpool etc). They would put big names in their reserve sides and invariably beat us. It was marvellous when we took the odd big scalp. My memory tells me that we dropped into the North Midlands league during the 70s and found ourselves playing the likes of Bradford Park Avenue and Halifax reserves.

 

Our move from the North Midlands league to the Central League happened much later than that, perhaps during Danny Wilson's first tenure

 

Fairly sure we played in the Central League when I watched the reserves. That was the 88/89 season including the infamous 9-1 against Wigan with Nigel Adkins in goal

 

No it didn't. We played reserve matches on Saturdays when the first team were away and they were Central League. I'm going to have to dig out some 1960s programmes now to check the fixtures. I'll scan an image later

 

I used to go to the Central League games in the 50s and 60s. We always seemed to get hammered, but it was one way of seeing star players in First Division reserve teams coming back from injury. It was also another way in an information-poor past that you could get news of what was happening to the first team playing away. The bloke working in the old scoreboard box used to put the half time score up in section A (if you were lucky) and if you were even luckier, you could wait at the end and he'd stick the final score up. That was in the days before transistor radios, and if you didn't get the score you had to wait until you got home and the Green 'Un lad came round selling them. By 'eck, things was primitive in them days.

 

They certainly were. Or there was the Stop Press column on The Star front or back page where a few results were posted. I had paper rounds in the 60s and used to deliver Green Uns, always carrying a few spares for casual buyers. I can't believe it now but I used to go round the back streets off Cemetery and Doncaster Roads shouting GREEN UN as loud as I could!

 

Ha ha! Yes, I'd forgotten about sitting near the back door with a cup of tea listening for the shout, then rushing out before he got past. There were a lot of unsung heroes in the past, and the Green 'Un lad was one of them. Belated thanks, and much respect!

 

We were definitely in the central league in the 80s I used to go fairly often and my train spotting tells me so. Didn't we then go into the Northern intermediates?