Welcome back to another TTTONLF meets the Non-League HQ an amazingly insightful website from next fixtures, to a quick look at the top goal scorers or even who the top 6 is across all of the leagues. It really is a thing of beauty and is an absolute beast of a website + one I personally have turned to on a number of times! As we dive into this interview, i am confident that afterwards you too will be using Non League HQ a lot more !

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Q) What is NonLeagueHQ and why did you start it?

NLHQ started during the lockdown period of Covid in 2020, but it wasn’t a website or even a Twitter account then, it was just me and a laptop, recording results and goalscorers from the top 2 tiers of non league football.

I soon expanded to step four, then five, then eventually six, before I was thought about sharing my stats with the non league community and I opened up a Twitter account, to do just that.

Q) How has that initial idea grown to where you are today?

A little later I started up a website, and realised I needed help as my expertise was low on web design, and that’s when Andy came on board. From then on, with the added strength of Andy and my joint appreciation of complicated spreadsheets and anything statistical, everything has gone from strength to strength. We now work on non league within Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as introducing a women’s section at the beginning of this season. Our plans for 25/26 on all of these sections is even bigger still!

At the beginning of 24/25 season, we added to our firepower, with Ian coming on board to primarily look after everything related to the Welsh leagues, including leading scorers for all divisions, and he’s been excellent, a real asset to our small team.

We have also just brought someone on to run the women’s section and will be looking to bring in a few more to help with Scotland and Northern Ireland over the summer.

Q) The level of detail and scope of the areas/leagues you cover is incredible – how much time does it take you all to make work?

More than our other halves would like! We would be lying if we said not that long. As we aren’t official, the checking of figures, entering results, and scorers is all manual, so you can guess with just under 1000 clubs in England alone, hours are sunk into this. However, each season, we look at how to improve efficiencies. This season, we re-vamped the goal scorer entry, which saved hours, meaning we can stay more up to date than before.

Q) What is all of your main passions for running the site?

We are basically Stattos! We love providing information for the Non League Community, which seems to go down well, especially the lower down the steps you go. We love finding quirky bits of stats too to share. It’s also important to us that we try and create added exposure for as many of these clubs as possible.

Q) One if your most popular posts is around the promotion and relegations with a visual table/chart – is this one of the most challenging to create and keep on top of?

To be honest, no. The difficult part is the setting up, which sometimes is the tedious part, but when it goes right, the finished sheets you see and the way they are received do fill us with a great deal of satisfaction.

Q) Have you always found data interesting and wanted to help show it in a easier to digest manner?

(written by Andy)

Short answer is yes. When Matt put out a request for help, I was looking for something to get my teeth into and thought, “Why not?”The best decision I have made. As mentioned before, there seemed to be a hole in the stats and info available for Non League. Other sites are more automated, and stats are there, but we think you need to provide them to the public rather than wait to be found.

Q) How much joy does it personally bring you to have a website that people use and rely on? 

It’s great! We get a lot of positive feedback from clubs and supporters, and it makes all the time and effort worth it. One of the primary reasons for starting this in the first place was to create exposure to clubs and players that deserve it, and we believe that what we do is providing that, but we want to go further still. 

Q) What is your favourite stat you have ever seen/found? 

My favourite stat from this season was when the three ‘Da Rocha’ brothers each scored in the same match for Lakenheath. They beat Sheringham 3-0. I love things like that!  

Q) If you could watch any game throughout history in person, which one would you choose and why? 

I’d go back to my first season supporting Woking when they beat West Bromwich Albion in the FA Cup with the famous Tim Buzaglo hatrick. Sadly I wasn’t there, and would love the chance to witness that match live. 

Q) Who is the best player you have ever watched live? 

Probably Cristiano Ronaldo. His early days at Manchester United, so he was very raw, but you could see he was going to be world class. Btw, Man Utd lost that match 3-2 to Middlesbrough at Old Trafford, and another magician, Juninho, scored! 

Q) Someone who has never come across your site – why should they check it out?

We’ve got something for everyone. We cover non league right across the UK, and we also have the top six tiers of the women’s game in England. In each of these sections, we will be expanding next season, going deeper into the pyramid. We have stats for just about everything, and something that we have found out is that everyone secretly loves a stat!

Q) What are your plans for the website going forward?

To make it more efficient and show more statistical information. We want to provide more information for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Womens game, too.

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Thanks to both of the guys for all of the work that they do!

I for one will be leaning on this amazing website more for next season and in the meantime I will be using it for general research and digging out some of the most interesting facts knocking around on there.

It astonishes me that this kind of website is run by just two guys doing it for the love of the game and the love of the whole scene – massive congrats to them both!

Until next time…!

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