For Torquay United and Yeovil Town all roads will point to Wembley this weekend as the Gulls and the Glovers both enter the FA Trophy fray.
Torquay host fellow National League outfit Aldershot Town, who they beat 2-0 in front of the BT Sport cameras in August, and Yeovil face National League South side Welling United at Huish Park.
Both sides have pedigree in the competition during this century as current United manager Gary Johnson led Yeovil to Trophy glory in 2002 with a 2-0 win over Stevenage at Villa Park; the Gulls marked their first season following relegation from the Football League by reaching the 2008 final where they lost to Ebbsfleet United.
However, with the National League play-offs now widened to include the division's top seven, has success in the Trophy become a lesser priority for a number of National League clubs?
Last season's competition proved to be an exception to this trend as the 2019 final was contested by the 2018-19 National League beaten play-off finalists AFC Fylde and champions Leyton Orient - which Fylde won 3-0. This was in direct contrast to the previous season as 2017-18 champions Macclesfield Town and play-off winners Tranmere Rovers both went out in the first round.
The prize money that clubs receive for competing in the Trophy isn't as lucrative as the money that they receive for making progress in the FA Cup, and with the competition operating on a national format from the second round onwards the cost can begin to add up.
Also there is the effect that it has on the fixture list - if either United or the Glovers progress beyond the second round and then all the way to the final they would need to re-arrange four league fixtures to accommodate their quarter final and two-legged semi-final.
One way of increasing interest in the Trophy could be to involve National League sides in the earlier rounds. It would give the clubs playing in the lower reaches of the non-league game an extra chance to earn a plum draw against a former league side.
Another idea could be to regionalise the competition all the way through in a similar way that the leasing.com Trophy, in its current guise, was before the introduction of Premier League Under-21 sides. This would reduce the cost of travelling for the teams remaining in the Trophy. It would the eliminate the possibility of the Gulls travelling away to Blyth Spartans in early January, which would have been the prize if they had overcome Boreham Wood in the first round of last season's Trophy.
