AOB: Points of dis-order

It always gives me great pleasure to highlight what a shambolic league we play in, so I couldn't let this weeks latest round of points deductions pass without comment.

For once I don't think the Conference can take all the blame for these continuing problems surround player registration; you'd have to be a pretty half-arsed administrator to send something important by fax and not check that it had arrived at it's destination.

But moreover it amazes me that in this day and age a so-called professional organisation is relying on people faxing them important stuff in, when much quicker and more reliable electronic methods of communication are available. Why haven't they changed over to something a bit more modern? And why are the points deductions handed out on a seemingly random basis? The silence from the leagues' head honcho, Dennis Strudwick, who declined to speak to the BBC's Non-League show on Monday, spoke volumes.

I've said it before on here and I'll say it again now; if the Conference wants to be regarded as the fifth division of the football league (an erroneous line that is often trotted out by lazy journalists and deluded managers and fans) they need to pull their socks up and be a bit less amateurish.

And while we're on the subject, it's a bit rich hearing the lovely Steve Evans, boss of tonights opponents Crawley, describe the Leagues rules as "archaic". Only in an archaic division would Crawley, a team that have continually breached the rules over the last three years, be allowed to continue competing without any significant action being taken.

Football-wise, you can't accuse Evans of not knowing his stuff though. In the preview of tonights match on the Crawley website he states that "My relations reliably inform me that it is the Abbey Road end of the ground that will be in full voice..." Rumours that the surviving members of the Beatles are to record a new album in the Supporters Club have yet to be confirmed.