The problem is none of these fringe players are getting enough proper game time, if we had a reserve team, which Chris Cook craves for, these lads would be getting regular competitive football.
The return of a proper Reserve team playing mostly at weekends, as opposed to an U-21/U-23 side playing limited fixtures mostly in midweek, has worked in the past. The Lincolnshire League is always looking for more clubs and its committee have worked tirelessly to try and restore its once good reputation and is still able to provide 3 match officials for games. The Peterborough & District League would involve less travelling but can only supply 1 match official for a game so the club would need to find a volunteer linesman for each match. Both are Step 7 leagues and, theoretically, the same standard of opposition - I am sure other contributors have opinions as to which is actually the stronger!
Interesting view this. Problem is you need a lot of players to run two teams on a Saturday. If a Res side went into the Lincs League or PDFL you'd have to have a fair few U23/U21 players playing along with fringe players, you can't use all the fringe players as you'd need some for the bench for the first team.
In terms of which is stronger the last time the league rep sides played Lincs beat Peterborough 2-0 however in Lincs Cup matches the PDFL teams generally come out on top, especially in the latter stages. Moulton Harrox v Hykeham Town this weekend in the third round which will be a good indicator.
The location of league is again a good point but if you're including U23/U21 players I'm guessing a fair few of those are Boston based if they've come through the academy system so would make sense to be in a league local to Boston rather than Yorks.
A final point is how committed will the fringe players be? It's a bit of a come down signing for Boston United but then ending up playing away at Leverington/Tydd St Mary/Wyberton/Nettleham in what is pretty much an amateur league!