The case for 3Up in the National League

Robbie Savage won the Northern Premier League with Macclesfield last season before joining Forest Green Rovers

Over the last week, the National League has been busy outlining the merits of having a third promotion spot into the English Football League.

The 3UP campaign has widespread and significant support but it hasn't confined itself to a catchy slogan - action on the pitch is offering an even more persuasive case.

As the season hurtles towards the halfway mark, only five points separate the top six teams in the hunt for that sole automatic promotion spot, with all of them averaging two points per game or better.

There was an epic title race in 2023 when both Wrexham and Notts County racked up well over 100 points as the Welsh club emerged victorious - and it is shaping up to be another season full of drama and intrigue.

Throw in a Premier League winner and a media personality in the dugout, as well as the redemption stories of clubs once synonymous with the EFL, and one can see this division is far from a poor relation of the football pyramid.

With Mark Hughes at the helm, Carlisle United have a football legend in charge, someone who is thoroughly enjoying his first experience of life outside the top four divisions.

After successive relegations, the Blues are trying to right the ship and, by and large, they are doing that despite slipping from first to third after a draw at home to mid-table Eastleigh.

On Saturday, they welcomed the National League's largest regular season crowd since April 2023. A total of 10,860 packed in to Brunton Park and their average crowds this season of 7,275 are higher than last.

Commercial revenues are also up, further proof that falling out of the top 92 does not mean falling off a cliff.

Carlisle's crowds are not the best in the division though, as Southend United, who sit seventh, are drawing in an average of 8,234 fans per game, a figure only bettered by one club in League Two.

Southend United's Roots Hall has the highest average attendance in the National League this season

But after 19 games, it is Forest Green Rovers who are leading the way, one point clear of both Rochdale and Carlisle.

York City, who collected 96 points last season only to finish second, are now two points adrift in fourth, and have enjoyed the two most eye-catching results with a 5-0 home win over Carlisle and a 4-0 thumping of Rochdale.

Boreham Wood are fifth, aiming to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Bromley and Harrogate Town by winning promotion to the EFL for the first time. Scunthorpe United complete the top six, aiming for back-to-back promotions and an EFL return after four seasons away.

Predicting how this season is going to play out over the next five months is almost impossible but, led by former Wales international and regular TV and radio pundit Robbie Savage, Forest Green - the village club from Gloucestershire - will provide stern competition against some of those teams more readily associated with the EFL.

"This title race is going to be so big," Savage told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"For us to be top of the league, little old Forest Green, ahead of some massive clubs who shouldn't be in the division really, but they are, we're excited."

Bigger crowds are attracting better players

Robbie Savage played for Mark Hughes for both Wales and Blackburn

Simon Grayson has been a manager for 20 years with spells in all three EFL divisions.

He has clubs like Leeds United and Sunderland on his CV, with promotions at four different clubs and time spent managing abroad in India and Nepal.

But he stepped into the National League dugouts for the first time this season when he took over at Hartlepool United. His spell at the Pools was ended in October, but it was long enough to leave him with a positive impression of life in the fifth tier.

And he is able to offer strong reasons why the league should no longer have any kind of inferiority complex.

"It's only by title that this is not another league in the EFL," he said.

"Most of the clubs are now full-time with one or two exceptions, the budgets of one or two clubs, and the fanbases, are miles in front of a lot of clubs in League Two.

"Players want to stay in the EFL, but when you're getting big crowds at the likes of York, Carlisle, Southend and you're earning good money, it's another league to be playing in and it's only going to get stronger as it keeps progressing.

"That is attracting a certain level of player. They are maybe thinking they won't get the buzz of playing in front of 2,000 or 3,000 in League Two when they can drop into the National League and play in front of 6,000 or 7,000."

'I got to India quicker' - away days in National League

Simon Grayson managed Hartlepool for 14 league games, while his son Joe plays in the National League for Gateshead

However, one of the unique features of English football's fifth tier is the sheer amount of travel involved.

With teams in Cornwall, Cumbria, Essex and Tyneside, it is impossible to avoid long hours on the team bus heading to away fixtures.

Across the division, each team will make an average of eight road-trips this season of over 400 miles.

Not surprisingly, Truro will make the most with all bar two of their opponents requiring a round trip of at least 400 miles, and the longest of all being the journey they made up to Gateshead last month.

At the other end of the scale, Tamworth, in Staffordshire, can count themselves lucky, having just that one trip to Cornwall as their only monster journey this season.

There is not the finance for flights or rail travel for these away days, so players and managers cross their fingers hoping to avoid a Friday of lengthy delays stuck on England's motorway network.

"The wake-up call I had was when we played at home on the Saturday and then on the Sunday morning we were driving down to Southend to play on Bank Holiday Monday," said Grayson.

"One Friday, we went to Aldershot from Hartlepool and it took us over 11 hours because of accidents on the motorway. I got to India quicker when I used to travel there!

"The long travel can be detrimental but you don't use it as an excuse. So many times in all the leagues, you travel the right way and then go and get beaten whereas sometimes you have the most brutal journey and poor preparation and end up having one of the best games of the season.

"Of course, you'd like to do it like the Premier League clubs and fly or get the train, but these lads get on with it.

"It gives you a special bond and camaraderie with the players as you're sat on the bus for so long, you'll have more time to get to know people in a different way by playing cards, talking, gaming, whatever."

As we are about to hit the long slog of winter, cup runs and poor weather will force postponements and fixture backlogs, of the type rarely seen now in the top divisions.

That could have a huge bearing on the destination of the title, and even more so at the bottom, but it is what makes fifth tier football unique.

A National League? Absolutely. Non-league? Far from it.