Bob Dylan’s anthem of change, ‘The Times They Are a-Changin’, is

undoubtedly as relevant today as it was to the 1960’s, when it was written. Whilst journalists and politicians will debate the impact of Covid-19 policy and our impeding departure from the European Union, it is non-league football’s shifting landscape that continues to hold my attention.

In February, before the Coronavirus had the chance to change our lives forever, I had researched and written about the Football Association’s plan to restructure the National League System.

As a Wiltshire-based Western League watcher, who’d found a love for the game through covering football in the heart of the Somerset coalfields, the impending invasion of Devon and Cornish Clubs did not sit well with me.

For some time, clubs around Bristol, not to mention those on the Western League’s eastern border in Wiltshire, had expressed a growing concern about the increased travel distances caused by the influx of Devon sides. Add to this the prospect of two sides from the South West Peninsular League’s Western Division joining a restructured Western League Premier Division and the average travel distance clubs were likely to experience at the start of this season, would have seen an increase of 28%.

Reflecting on my Journal article of February 27th, the rhetoric is somewhat adversarial, as the title “Is the Western League going to Helston in a Handcart?” would suggest.

If 2020 has taught me anything, it is that football clubs, players and fans are all in this together. The FA has failed to provide a lead on how a Covid-interrupted 2020/21 season will conclude, save only that the restructuring of the NLS will take place at the end of this season and clubs need to be mindful that promotion and relegation may be undertaken on a points per game basis.

But this isn’t about Wiltshire and Bristol against Devon and Cornwall. I fell in love with the Western League because it was the family League and families stick together, even if they don’t always get on. Travel distances aside, Devon Clubs have greatly enhanced the standard of the Western League, both on and off the pitch.

There can be little doubting the ambition of Plymouth Parkway, and ambitious clubs engender their own kind of envy, regardless of where they are located. Yet Parkway have made little secret of their recipe for success. An aspiring partnership with Plymouth Argyle undoubtedly reaps dividends in terms of their recruitment, but the storytelling of their marketing team is unparalleled at a non-league level.

2020 has become the year of the non-league YouTube account, with a proliferation of clubs producing match footage, Manager interviews and highlights packages, not to mention the seminal ‘Round Our Way’ documentary produced by Mike Parrish. On the pitch, Exmouth, Buckland and Tavistock have raised the standard of competition, as well as average attendances. Yet the impact of these advances hasn’t only been felt in Devon, with Cribbs reborn under Richard Luffman, Clevedon Town, Street and Bridgwater returning to former glories, and Bitton, semi-finalists in last season’s FA Vase competition, out-performing all other sides in the region, let alone Western League.

The times they are a changin’ – the Coronavirus and the FA have seen to that, but we must look to the positive. The football family needs to pull together. What the future holds for the Western League, only time will tell. I wouldn’t say the Coronavirus pandemic has been my road to Damascus, but its certainly been my road to Devon, no matter how long that journey may take.

Once again, I’m reminded of the timeless words of Bob Dylan and their ability to make me reflect on what a year this has been.

‘Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won’t come again

And don’t speak too soon

For the wheel’s still in spin

And there’s no tellin’ who

That it’s namin’

For the loser now

Will be later to win

For the times they are

a-changin’

Ian Nockolds