In the first of his weekly columns for the Telegraph, non-league blogger of the year 'Too Good To Go Down' asks if it's time for three teams to go up to the Football League...
WITH wins over Northampton and local rivals Scunthorpe fresh under our belt, Grimsby Town fans must be thinking about promotion back into the Football League.
However, getting out of the Conference Premier is no easy task with just two promotion places available.
With four going up from League Two to League One, and a further quartet of sides relegated from the Conference to the North and South divisions, isn't it time the game's lawmakers looked at increasing the number of promoted teams?
Don't write the idea off based on just two games, so consider this: no club has suffered an immediate relegation back to the non-league since automatic promotion was introduced between the two divisions back in 1987.
Fleetwood, promoted in 2012, are currently third in League Two, while last year's play-off winners, Newport County, are fourth.
The statistics clearly show the sides that go up have the momentum to compete at the next level.
And in the case of Crawley and Stevenage (promoted in 2011 and 2010 respectively) the next level again, having since been promoted to League One.
There's another point – all of the recently promoted sides play good football and the likes of Luton, Kidderminster, Cambridge and, of course, the Mariners play the right way too.
As recent results have shown, many of these sides could comfortably live with the teams in the league above them.
But it's not quite as easy as that. Changing the rules to three teams going up to League Two and three coming back down would require agreement by a majority of League Two clubs.
And the chances of turkeys voting for Christmas – to use a festive analogy – is unlikely.
Can you imagine John Fenty and Grimsby Town voting in favour of such an idea back during the 2009/10 season?
Torquay, Accrington, Bristol Rovers and other strugglers like Northampton are also unlikely to sign their own death warrant.
Hopefully, Town can maintain this recent spurt up the league table and gain promotion as champions.
Either way, it's surely time to re-open the debate and put it back on the agenda.
Do you think it should be three-up/three-down from the Conference? Tweet me @toogoodtogodown or visit www.toogoodtogodown.co.uk
