Two up, two down

Rushden are chasing promotion again this season

Non-league clubs have long pressed their claims for extra promotion places to the Football League and as BBC Sport Online's football editor Howard Nurse reports, that dream is set to become reality.

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It took decades for the Football League to agree to open the trap door at the bottom and allow a non-league side into the professional ranks.

For years, clubs like Hartlepool, Rochdale and Halifax to name but three got away scot free with finishing bottom of the old Fourth Division.

But all that changed in 1987 when Scarborough became the first non-league club to automatically gain promotion to the Football League as champions of the old Vauxhall Conference.

Since then, Wycombe, Barnet, Macclesfield, Cheltenham, Kidderminster have all stepped up while Lincoln, Darlington, Colchester, Halifax have bounced back after being relegated.

Former League clubs, Hereford, Doncaster, Scarborough and most recently, Chester, have all slipped into the Nationwide Conference.

Diamonds' bid

Current Conference leaders Rushden & Diamonds are leading the charge to gain promotion this season. They are top of the table after spending more than £300,000 on strikers Justin Jackson and Duane Darby during the summer.

Rushden's key man: Justin Jackson

Things are about to change for the better though. High level negotiations between the Football League and the Conference have been taking place for three years and they are about to come to fruition.

The plan is for at least two clubs to be relegated from Division Three with two clubs being promoted from the Conference. It could be three up, three down, but that is probably expecting too much.

John Moules, chief executive of the Nationwide Conference, confirmed to BBC Sport Online that a significant change is in the pipeline.

Negotiations

"There have been long on-going negotiations between the Foootball League and the Football Conference about an increase in the number of clubs who are promoted," said Moules.

"No decisions will be voted upon until next June because this would involve rule changes. The plan is for the change to be in place for the 2001/2002 season.

"We have called for an increase in promotion and relegation between the two divisions and the discussions about how many clubs will move have gone on for some time, but we have not specified two or three promotion places."

Eight Conference clubs will take part in the Auto Windscreens Shield this season, something which Moules fully supports.

"I would say this is a significant step forward and will lead to closer ties between ourselves and the Football League.

"We are now further forward now than at any time in the last 10 years."