The new season is nearly here

Kick off a matter of days away

Not long to wait until the games are for points

Despite the current doom and gloom of the wet weather in the UK over the past week and more to come the new season is inching ever closer to kick off, fine tuning for others is still happening as not everyone gets underway on the same date.

Before we turn into August some Steps 5 and 6 leagues begin the promotion quest this coming weekend although it’s a little bit of a phased start. With the FA Cup Extra Preliminary round firmly ingrained into the first Saturday of August teams are keen to get a league game in before such a big match.

I class it as that because the financial importance of getting a few rounds into the competition makes healthy reading for the balance sheet and the profile of the club. Going cold into this game with only pre-season friendlies behind you has seen leagues helping by arranging the season to start earlier than before for the past few years.