The following is a letter I will tonight send to the Manchester Evening News. If you support any of the clubs I mention and agree with my views please make you points via the following email address. I will also post this on other relevant message boards.

postbag@men-news.co.uk

Once again the Manchester Evening News has seen fit to give more coverage to one non-league football club than all the other non-league clubs in the region. That club is FC United of Manchester, a club that plays in North West Counties League Division One, the fifth tier of the non-league pyramid - effectively Division Nine in the national league structure.

Traditionally the Evening News aligns the volume of coverage it gives with a clubs league status, yet in the Friday 11th August edition approximately 41 column centimetres were devoted to FC United yet Altrincham, Northwich, Droylsden, Stalybridge, Hyde and Leigh - all teams that play in higher leagues than FC shares 26 colum centimetres between them. FC also received more coverage than Stockport, Oldham, Bury and Macclesfield who all play in the Football League.

No doubt the Manchester Evening News will claim that the FC story is of interest to more people on the basis of their having borrowed Manchester United's history to form their club, but this is a kick in the teeth to the fans that have supported the other clubs I have mentioned for many years, amongst them many who buy the Evening News each week for news of their club only to find the nightly bulletins from FC instead - including transfer news and pre-season game coverage that these other clubs do not receive. These are clubs that have fought and struggled to maintain their level, if not their very survival, not just cruised through an amateur league with a semi-professional team.

Until FC United have earned their place in the football pyramid I'd like to suggest the Manchester Evening News give them the same level of coverage as they give to other NWCL teams - merely their match scores on the results page.

The amount of coverage MEN give to FCUM, they will probably justify by the amount of fans that support the club. Nobody can deny they do have the following of 2nd Division side rather than typical NWCL attendences.

BTW when do Alty first visit London this season? As an exiled Alty fan these are the games closest to me, enjoyed the Dagenham & Redbridge game last year, despite the singing of "we're stayin up" at the end which nearly proved to be horribly premature.

Maybe I should check the fixture list

Great letter. I've emailed them too :)

Dead right, also and I admit I didn't buy the paper but there was no mention of their fans DISGRACEFUL behaviour at Moss Lane on the web site. What's that phrase the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.