WESTBURY United fans are being urged to turn up in force and cheer their club to promotion in the final two games of the season.
United have clinched second place – their highest-ever finish – and hope two more wins will be enough to secure a place in the Southern League for the first time in their 102-year history.
Greg Coulson, club chairman said, “The boys have had such an amazing season and it would be a fantastic achievement if we can secure one of the promotion spots.
“Both our last two games are at home and we’d love to get bumper crowds to get behind the lads in their final push to confirm automatic promotion. The first game is this Friday against Bradford Town, and our last game is against Westfields on Monday 18th; please do come down and show your support and let the boys know how proud you are of them.
“There is a complicated formula to see which teams are promoted from step 5, where we are, to step 4 in the football pyramid, but the ten second-placed teams with the best points per game average will get automatic promotion – and we are currently ninth. Two wins would be massive for us, so please get down to Meadow Lane and roar the lads on!
“We’ve got some of the best and youngest ever Westbury United players with us this season and hopefully this is the start of an exciting project!”
United clinched second place in the league with a 1-0 win at Fairford Town on 2nd April. The result means that even if they miss out on one of the automatic promotion slots, they can still win promotion by winning a play-off game at the end of the season.
As Westbury United march towards the end of their league season it looks evermore likely that they will finish in a potential promotion position. It is not as simple as finishing in the top 2 places in the league to guarantee promotion.
The National League System (NLS) is a pyramid with the Vanarama National League (Step 1) at its tip, it flows down with two Step 2 Leagues (Vanarama North and South), four Step 3 Leagues, eight Step 4 Leagues and 16 Step 5 Leagues. Step 5 is where Westbury currently ply their trade, in the Uhlsport Hellenic League Premier Division.
Every team who finishes top of their Step 5 league will gain automatic promotion. The bottom two teams from each Step 4 league will be relegated. Due to vacancies higher up the NLS ten of the 2nd placed teams from Step 5 will also be promoted automatically, this will be the ten with the best points per game (PPG) average over the season. The remaining six 2nd placed teams will playoff against a team that finishes 3rd bottom of Step 4. The two 3rd bottom teams at Step 4 with the best PPG gain a reprieve from relegation.
In summary the 1st placed team and the ten 2nd placed teams with the best PPG get automatic promotion. The remaining six 2nd place teams will enter a playoff with the six 3rd bottom teams at Step 4 with the worst PPG. The playoff would take place at the Step 4 teams ground on Saturday 30th April.
As you can see Westbury have still got a lot of work to do, they currently sit 11th in the PPG listings at Step 5 so every single game still counts as the more points they achieve the more likely they are to get automatic promotion.
Westbury United would love you to come down the ground and support them for these remaining games, as they try to make history in becoming the first Westbury United team to be promoted to Step 4.
