On this day: 19 August

In the first of a new feature, we will look back at matches from a particular date in history. The 19th August has been a particularly fruitful date in Leamington FC’s recent past……

Saturday 19th August 2000 – Midland Combination Division 2
Brakes 3 Enville Athletic 1 – (Blake 2, Mort)

This may look like a grainy old video of some random non league game to most people, but Saturday 19th August 2000 was a very, very important date in the history of our great football club, for it was the day that Leamington FC began their climb back up the Non League pyramid. Enville Athletic were the visitors. Those who were lucky enough to be there say that there were far more than the 730 recorded spectators inside the ground, and they saw an 18 year old Josh Blake score the first goal of the new era (above). Read a match report of that historic day here.

Matchday programme from Brakes’ first season at the New Windmill Ground.

 

Tuesday 19th August 2003 – Midland Combination Premier Division
Pershore Town 0 Brakes 1 – (Burgess)

Trips to Pershore were always enjoyed, as it was one of the few grounds we played at in the early days that had a decent stand for us to make a racket in. Oh, and many Brakes fans enjoyed the quiche that the food bar ladies put on. They even bought some across when they visited the NWG. Can’t stand the stuff myself. Read the match report from this game here. Super Jonny Burgess snatched a first half winner for us in this match.

Saturday 19th August 2006 – Midland Football Alliance
Causeway United 0 Brakes 2 (J Adams, Gregory)

Jon Adams strikes a spectacular opener from distance

This match came three games into what turned out to be a fabulous season which ended with a league and cup double and an emotional return to the Southern League after 20 years, something which many of our older fans probably doubted they would ever see when the club dropped out of the league back in 1987.

This match was played at the home of Tividale FC, Causeway being one of many clubs who moved into Saturday non league football by ground sharing, something which probably contributed to their eventual demise in 2015.

Jon Adams opened the scoring with a screamer, popular defender Andy Gregory adding another in the second half. I seem to remember that this game saw the birth of the Jamie Towers song……..

The match report from this game can be found here

Leamington Spa FC. Schoolboy error……

Tuesday 19th August 2008 – British Gas Business Southern League Midland Division#
Brakes 2 Nuneaton Town 1 (Bellingham, pen, Corbett)

Facing Nuneaton again was a big deal for us back in 2008…..

Match Report

Having last faced Nuneaton in a league game towards the end of of season 1980/81 in the Alliance Premier League (Now the National League, for the uninitiated), their visit early in the 2008/2009 season was a big thing for us. The Boro’ had been liquidated at the end of the previous season, forced to change their name to Town and were pushed down two divisions. Their status as the premier non league club in Warwickshire hadn’t been threatened at all in the intervening years, but not only did Brakes come from behind to win this game thanks to goals from the prolific partnership of Mark Bellingham and Luke Corbett, they went on to complete the league double with a 2-0 win at Liberty Way later in the season, and marched to the Midland Division title. It’s fair to say Nuneaton fans didn’t like it very much. Both sets of supporters exchanged friendly banter under the Harbury Lane End roof during this game, something which was sadly lacking in future meetings. Levi Ramsey had fired Boro’ ahead, only Bello to level with a penalty before half time:

….before Corbett introduced himself to the home support in style with an absolute rocket 8 minutes from time:

 

Hopefully our run of wins on August 19 will be extended to 5 when we face Stockport County today……..

New beginnings…..

New season, new start. This fanzine blog has been neglected a bit over the last few months, but the aim is to change that as we kick off this campaign in the National League North.

There are a few bits and pieces in the pipeline, and the plan is to try and get articles out in tandem with away days, to give Brakes fans something to ponder on those long bus or train journeys. As always, input and articles from anybody would be much appreciated. Alternative match reports will probably make a reappearance, and the archive articles will continue.

You cannot be serious!

 

It seems that every season the FA Cup makes headlines not for the quality or excitement of the football played, but the strength of the teams that some clubs choose to put out, prioritising their league aspirations over success in the world’s oldest knock-out competition.

Some claim that the “romance” or “magic” of the FA Cup passes some of the big boys by and they are criticised for not taking the competition seriously.

If there is one top-flight manager who should be guaranteed give the competition due respect, that surely has to be Arsene Wegner. Under his stewardship, Arsenal have won the trophy six times and been runners-up twice, an impressive record.

But, he made several changes for their tie at Sutton United from the side that played the week before at Bayern Munich and, even allowing for the fact that the Vanarama National League side were not likely to match the German champions in winning 5-1, he clearly felt that using what is termed “squad players” would get the job done.

Arguably, a 2-0 victory proved him right, but Sutton put up a real fight and, had the result gone the other way, he would have had more than a spot of egg on his face to give those critics who want to see him out of the club even more ammunition.

Not that non-league sides in general will be complaining as, in addition to Sutton, both Lincoln City and Evo-Stik Premier side Stourbridge featured prominently this season.

Stourbridge have shown just what is possible for a step 3 club, the equivalent to Brakes, and banked £72,500 in prize money alone before going down narrowly to Wycombe Wanderers in the third round.

The Wycombe match was their eighth in all in the competition, a run that started with a 3-1 win away to Peterborough Sports in the first qualifying round (prize money £3,000), and included a first round proper win over Whitehawk after a replay (£18,000) and claiming the scalp of League One side Northampton ( £27,000).

Take in the gate and other receipts and this represent serious money, but Sutton United and Lincoln City benefited by even more, having progressed to the fifth round, with televised matches that netted them £247,500 apiece.

Lincoln’s last-gasp win at Premiership side Burnley swelled their kitty further with the £180,000 winner’s prize money, as well claiming the honour of being the first non-league club to reach the quarter final since the current structure was adopted in 1925, with QPR, in 1914, having been the last to get to that stage of the competition.

Now, Arsenal await them, but will Wenger take them “seriously” and play his preferred Premiership starting line-up? Answers on a postcard to the usual address, please.

One club that could have done with that sort of money is National League promotion hopefuls Forest Green Rovers, who were reported in the Non-League  Paper as having made losses of more than £5million over the past two financial years.

Rovers, in which green energy entrepreneur Dale Vince owns a majority share through his Ecotricity company, have been pushing for promotion in recent years and came closest last season when they were beaten by Grimsby Town in the National League promotion final at Wembley.

But, this all seems to have come at a big cost, as accounts filed to Companies House reveal that the Nailsworth-based club made a loss of £2,469,374 in the financial year to April 2016. Although that was down from £2,928,709 the previous year, it means Rovers made losses of almost £5.4million in the 2015 and 2016 financial years.

Significantly, the club’s wage bill alone stood at £2,146,999, almost double the turnover £1,097,821 which, surely, can’t be sustained into the future, no matter how much money Mr Vince pumps in?

Moving off the FA Cup theme, a piece of news caught my eye concerning another club familiar to Brakes’ fans. Gloucester City, which has led a nomadic existence since its Meadow Park ground was destroyed by floods in the summer of 2007, are on the move again.

They have since played at Forest Green Rovers, Cirencester Town and, for the past six years, at Whaddon Road, the home of Cheltenham Town, but will be on the move again to Evesham United’s Jubilee Stadium next season, with the option of an extra year if needed.

The latest move, which sees the club leave the county for the first time, means that Tigers supporters face a 50-mile round trip to watch their team compared to the 24 miles to and from Whaddon Road. Although the National League North side have been given permission to build a new ground at Meadow Park, work may not start until next year and there appears to be little prospect of football returning to Gloucester before the 2019/20 season, so the extra year at Evesham will come in handy.

In a statement, the club said “We fully appreciate that this is a longer distance for fans to travel, but must stress that there are no options closer to home with the required grading.  Even taking voluntary relegation (which we do not believe is in the best interests of the club) would not open other suitably graded options within the city.

“We believe that this club, which has represented the city for over 130 years, is worth fighting for and we will fight tooth and nail to keep it playing at as high a level as possible.”

Back to the (sort of) theme to this piece and it occurred to me that, whilst most fans would, given the choice, probably prefer their team to be challenging for promotion rather than go on an FA Cup run, is the chance of emulating Sutton United or Lincoln City one that they should so easily dismiss?

Sutton went into the match lying 17th in the National League, just three points above the relegation zone. How many of their fans in the crowd of 5,013 at Gander Green Lane had that in the back of their minds when Arsenal ran onto the pitch? Not many, I suspect, because these occasions come along once, or if you are lucky, twice in a lifetime. They are the “I was there” moments that we watch sport for.

Wigan Athletic have the dubious honour of winning the FA Cup and being relegated from the Premiership in the same season but, for a club that worked its way up from non-league football, that win will stay with their fans for ever and they will settle for a few more seasons in the Championship if that’s the price to pay for that day out at Wembley.

According to the BBC commentator, the Sutton crowd, whilst at capacity, was the lowest that the visitors first team had played in front of since club records were started. The 500, or so, away fans will have returned home pleased with the result, but don’t try telling me that, for the other 4,600 in the ground that evening, the FA Cup doesn’t matter as much as the league.

Wherever Sutton finish at the end of the season, they took the competition seriously and the fans enjoyed every minute.

David Hucker 

Where have all the fans gone?

 

 

Fans of third and fourth tier clubs were pretty miffed this season when their own cup competition, with the lure of a final at Wembley, was revamped, allowing under-21 sides from Premiership and Championship clubs to join in.

After many years under the sponsorship of Johnstone’s Paints, having previously been called, if my memory is correct, the Sherpa Van Trophy, the new competition, has been played out in front of some pretty small crowds.  

I was at Oxford United on the last evening of January for the quarter-final of what is now known as the Checkatrade Trophy to watch them beat Bradford City 2-1 in front of a crowd of just 2,274. Contrast that with the near-capacity of 11,810 who had turned out four days earlier for an FA Cup tie against Newcastle United and you get an idea of what I mean.

Admittedly, there were likely to be a few more Geordies amongst the crowd the previous Saturday than the clutch of hardy souls from Bradford who sat in one of the otherwise deserted stands, but that alone can’t account for the vast difference.

Back in April, Oxford had met Barnsley at Wembley in the 33rd trophy final, having been given an initial allocation of 40,000 tickets. From what I saw, pretty much all of them were sold, so where were the missing thousands on quarter-final night this year?

Although the weather was damp, it certainly wasn’t bad enough to keep real fans away and, with my oldies ticket costing just £5, nobody could complain about the cost.

With Coventry City having beaten Swansea City U-21s in their quarter final tie, all the big clubs have now been knocked out so, at least, the final will be contested by two teams for whom the competition has always been intended.

On the same night, Brakes took on neighbours Stratford Town in another quarter-final tie, this time for the Birmingham Senior Cup. Having lost away to them in the League Cup and been held to a draw at home on Boxing Day, Brakes were looking to make it third tie lucky and, despite falling behind, finished strongly to win 2-1 to take a step nearer the final of this historic competition.

Ha – That’ll teach Stratford for over celebrating an equaliser like they’ve won the bloody World Cup!! (Photo: Tim Nunan) 

Whilst the Boxing Day crowd of 805 wasn’t likely to be matched, with reduced admission prices, the club must have been hoping for more than the 181 people who actually turned up. The previous weekend there were 665 at the Phillips 66 Community Stadium for the match against Slough Town and, whilst a 6-0 defeat was not likely to get the fans excited about making a quick return visit, the drop off was pretty startling nevertheless.

I am pretty sure that, should Oxford make it to Wembley again, there will be a fleet of coaches taking tens of thousands down the M40, filled with supporters who were nowhere to be seen on that damp January evening. The same can be said for the Wembley play-off finals, where lower level league clubs take huge followings way above their normal Saturday crowds.

For Brakes, there have been no such opportunities with early exits in the two premier cup competitions sadly becoming all too familiar. Whilst some will say that the club’s priority must always be the league and winning promotion, you can’t argue that a good cup run in the right completion raises the profile of any club, as shown by the exploits of Lincoln City, Stourbridge and Sutton United this season,

Whilst many of the new-found supporters will fade away after the cup run is over, some will want to come again to see the league programme. Also, the publicity the club gains is priceless, as Brakes found with that journey to Colchester which, despite the result, did as much as anything to put the relaunched club back on the map.

David Hucker

 

To be, or not to be……..

“Numerous questionable decisions on and off the pitch seemed instrumental in a disappointing 3-1 defeat at a no more than functioning and efficient top-of-the-table Leamington today.”

So said a Basingstoke Town supporter on the BTFC Fans Forum after Brakes, playing in front of their best crowd of the season, had won to by a clear-cut two-goal margin. Surely, just a case of sour grapes after seeing their side lose, or was there some truth in there?

With Brakes in action just three days later at the DCS Stadium in Stratford, I had chance to see for myself although, given it was the kind of wet, cold night that makes even watching Holby City an attractive proposition, there was a strong temptation to pour another glass of wine and stay at home.

In the end, along with a few others, I wondered whether I had made the right decision, as Brakes bowed out of the League Challenge Cup with a pretty comprehensive 4-0 defeat. If either team was to be described as “functioning” and “efficient” it was Stratford, as Brakes fell well short of the form you would expect from a side sitting at the top of the table.

Going into the match, there was speculation, aided by a poll conducted by the Leamington Courier, that manager Paul Holleran would be leaving to return to one of his former clubs, Solihull Moors, to take over from Marcus Bignot, who had left to join League Two Grimsby Town the day before.

Holleran joined Brakes in 2009 and took them into the Conference North, where they stayed for two seasons before being relegated back to the Evo-Stik Southern Premier. We may never know whether a move was ever really on the cards, but the speculation ended the day after the match when the Non-League Paper quoted him as saying “Too many great people on and off the pitch for me to even think about it. As happy today as I was seven years ago.”

Another sub-plot to the match was the appearance on the Stratford bench of former Brakes striker Paul “Sniffer” Eden, now assistant manager to Carl Adams, and Liam O’Neill as coach. They couldn’t have wished for a better result against their old club.

Brakes were denied a penalty that could have changed the course of the game although, on the balance of play, you would be hard pushed to say it made any difference. The referee and assistant (who came up with that title given how limited their role seems to be?) only had to look at the position of the two players lying on the ground after colliding to see that the incident happened inside the area, but all Brakes got was a free kick.

To rub salt into the wound, Stratford scored with their first shot on goal when, somehow, Mike Taylor squeezed the ball past Tony Breeden into the corner. With this impetus, Stratford were quicker to the ball, adding two more to take a commanding half-time lead. Any hope of a Brakes revival went with the concession of what managers usually call a “soft” penalty not long after the break.

Breeden livened up proceedings with some forays from his goal down the left-hand touchline but, in the end, there was no doubting the home side’s superiority, with central defender Liam Francis a tower of strength and Kieren Westwood (didn’t he play for Brakes for a while?) snuffing out what little danger there was down the right.

A couple of posts on Twitter suggested that the result was of no consequence and already forgotten, but successful clubs develop a winning habit in all competitions and this was Brakes’ third cup exit of the season. The priority may be securing promotion but, unlike the water tap, you can’t turn winning off and on.

Stratford’s average league crowd of 255 is well below that for Brakes and illustrates the gulf in financial resources between the two clubs, something recognised by the home supporter next to me. His view was that Stratford would do well to consolidate at this level and Leamington’s history and achievements leaves him in awe when going to the Phillips 66 Community Stadium.

In the end, the referee’s whistle was a relief for everyone and a signal to return to the car park, which was rapidly turning into the quagmire it that has been on previous visits.

Will Brakes win that promotion that the board and fans crave? That, as Stratford’s most famous son said, is the question.

David Hucker

Bubble gum and cards

by Craig Hochkins

When I was a kid back in the seventies the world of football seemed so much more innocent, the blokes playing it looked, well like ordinary blokes with funny hairstyles and moustaches. During the summer heat wave of 1976 my love of the game starting growing and with it began an interest in the sticker albums and Bubble gum cards.

We used to go to a local small club and play five a side whilst my dad helped do maintenance jobs for the self funded club. On the way home one day he said we could have a treat from Mrs Self’s shop as we had been well behaved that day.

So with my 10p in hand I went into the shop expecting to buy some sweets but noticed on the counter that there were some football bubble gum cards. Excitedly I asked how much the were, I think they were 10p for 6 cards and a piece on bubble gum.

Much to the dismay of my dad I purchased my first packet of many as I started on my quest to collect them over the next 6 years.

These cards, small in size were just great for a young lad to learn all about his heroes as on the front of the card was a picture of the player and the back a multitude of information about them and sometimes random facts about other clubs.

Each player had his own number and there was usually 3 separate checklists listing the players and numbers as a guide to who you needed. Also on the back of the card key information such as height, weight, birthplace , and season by season listing appearances and goals scored and for which club the did this for.

One interesting quirk was that goalies where listed in the same way but showing goals conceded which sometimes made for interesting reading.

Once you had accumulated swops into the playground you would go and strike up some deals for the ones you needed, me I always did 1 for 1 swops but as with every school we had one lad who would always try and make it 2-1 in his favour!

Storage was always a problem trying to ensure the condition of them remained in good nick, and for me the challenge was to get rid of the swops before the next set were out.

My favourite set would be the orange backs of 1978/9 season especially the Villa players who I idolised and would become harder to get hold of as most of the kids wanted them.

Every year your mates would confirm our theory that certain players cards had been restricted in numbers to keep you buying that elusive player, I can’t remember who it was but Stuart Pearson and Liam Brady are known to be scarce even 40 years on.

The manufacturer TOPPS made some great sets between 1976 and 1980 , but imagine the horror in 1981 when they produced a 3 in 1 mini version. A real own goal and the cards were awful. My love for the cards ended as I focused on the sticker books which by now had taken over popularity at school as it was easier to carry the book than 300 cards!

Turn the clock forward to 2016 and one day I see on eBay a bundle of cards for sale at a decent price, around 30p each and in good condition so I think why not.

It was great when the arrived all those memories came flooding back, the only thing missing was the smell of the bubble gum and the wrappers they came in.

Feverishly I sorted them out and still found I had the quick hand movement that was essential in the playground to get to the cards quickly before you lost out on a deal.

I purchased some plastic sleeves which hold 9 cards per sheet and started to assemble them in to order and then came across a fantastic site full of information and more importantly listing all the players numbers and their card number.

http://cards.littleoak.com.au/season_197879.html

Nigel’s website is a true labour of love and has been an absolute godsend for me as I have decided to collect cards from 1975 to 1980 as these are the players I knew and loved back in the day.

I have managed to accumulate a number of swops, some of which I have donated to Leamington FC Programme Shop, and we sold our first batch at a recent game.

So the quest continues for me to complete the sets, trawling the Internet for possible leads and weighing up a variety of costs requested.

If anyone has any they want to dispose of come and see me in the shop on a match day!

The European Bob Column

I’m not writing for this fanzine anymore. It’s not as good as it was in the old days. The editor is an idiot. He keeps using Arial instead of Times New Roman. I’m off to write for The Racers Review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll come back if the sales figures go up though.

The End

European Bob

VILLA TILL I DIE

For reasons that I will explain, I guess that this applies to me now, but do you choose your football club, or does it choose you?

As someone who is reluctant to throw anything away, I still have scrapbooks from my schooldays of 50 years ago. They are adorned with scribbles, including my support for Liverpool and Wolves, albeit from afar as I was living in Somerset at the time.

My interest in Wolves stemmed from watching their 3-0 win over Blackburn Rovers in the 1960 FA Cup Final played, incidentally, in front of a crowd of 98,954. At that time, the FA and European Cup Finals were the only two matches I could watch on television and I would rush to W H Smith the day before to buy the glossy programme and lap up all the pre-match build-up on our black and white set.

My live football came through following my home town team of Taunton Town and Exeter City, where I saw some of the “big boys” like Manchester United and, if my memory is correct, Arsenal, play in the FA Cup, a competition that meant more to clubs and fans at that time than it has more recently.

Wolves continued to be my top league team of choice and, when I moved to work in Coventry in 1972, I watched midweek matches under the Molineux floodlights, delighting in the goalscoring of John Richards and Derek Dougan. I also started to watch Coventry City, being at Wembley for that unforgettable day in 1987 and, like many, turning out to see the cup paraded around the streets.

I was at the last cup final at the old Wembley in 2000 when Chelsea, with a goal by Roberto Di Matteo, beat Aston Villa. I was asked by my hosts to choose a side to support so, living in the Midlands, opted for Villa, which seemed of little consequence at the time, but has become of more importance over the last eight years.

Watching league football took a back seat following the re-launching of Brakes in August 2000 and I saw very little of the professional game until stepping down from my involvement at the New Windmill (as it was called then) when I joined my elder son, who has been an Aston Villa fan through thick and thin from childhood, with a seat in the Doug Ellis Stand.

The Villa years have, by and large, been a test of endurance, as the side assembled by Martin O’Neill gradually broke up and, with one or two exceptions, the new players have not been anywhere near as good. Villa stayed in the Premier League not by their own efforts, but by there being three even worse teams than them, until their luck ran out last season.

A reduction of just £20 in my season ticket price was hardly great encouragement to stick by the team in the Skybet Championship, as it is rather grandly called, but you can’t give up just when the club needs your support most. The last two home crowds have topped 32,000 and the away support is better than any Premier League side, so the fans are doing their bit to get the club back up.

Like a number of fans, I look in the Sunday paper for the results of clubs that I have had a connection with, always checking how the West Country teams have fared and, of course, Coventry City which continues in the news more for what is happening off the pitch than on it, with reports suggesting that they might not be playing at the Ricoh Arena next season.

Importantly, I get out and support my team unlike those who claim allegiance, but wouldn’t know their way to the ground without a sat nav. How many people do we all know who say they are fans, but never set foot anywhere near the club? Everyone makes the claim, including celebrities and politicians, but few know much about the club they supposedly support.

On that score, I am still waiting to see Tom Hanks at Villa Park, but your never know.

So, it is all my son’s fault that I am now a Villan (or Villain as the fanzine calls us). I asked him why, given my football allegiances, he had chosen Villa and he reminded me that, when they were children, I had taken him and his younger brother to see a pre-season charity match between Coventry City and Aston Villa at the Bedworth Oval.

He decided that he would support whichever team won from then on, so it was Villa for him. In turn, his two sons are now supporters and from time to time we have three generations of the family watching.

As for my younger son, he decided to follow Manchester United and now his son is following in his footsteps. Perhaps, the club choose us after all.

David Hucker

Remembering Matt Blunt

Today’s match against Weymouth has been planned to mark the 10th anniversary of the untimely and tragic passing of our fellow Brakes supporter and friend Matt Blunt.

It seems to crazy to think that it has been that long since he left us, and how much he has missed during that time, forced to watch from the big football stadium in the sky. He would have absolutely been in his element when you recall some of the great days we have experienced since then, and it is so so sad that he wasn’t there to share them with us.

Matt was one of a group of supporters from the then VS Rugby who started coming to Leamington games after the scandalous club re-naming and other shenanigans that went on at Butlin Road. They didn’t stand with us on the North Bank at first, we exchanged banter during games, with them calling us a ‘small part of Warwick’,  but after a while they joined and enriched our group of fans, and boosted the vocal support at the New Windmill Ground enormously.

I can still vividly remember receiving the news of Matt’s death, the following day, in a phone call from Pete. We were due to travel to Rocester for an FA Cup tie, and I struggled to take in what I was hearing. It was gut wrenching to think that one of our friends had been taken from us so young, and his absence left a big hole that has only really started to be filled in the last few years with the group being swelled by the ‘Baby Brakes’ vocal support.

There will be some of our number who never had the pleasure of meeting Matt, but I can say with the utmost certainty that you would all have got on with him. His sense of humour and passion for the Brakes was infectious.

The last away game we all went to with Matt among our number is fondly remembered by us all – a trip to Tipton, and the local pub the Pie Factory of course. It is also less fondly remembered for Simesy getting his Don Johnson out on the train platform to show everyone his, ahem, jewellery. But I digress – we had a cracking day out as Brakes went to top of the table Tipton Town and won 4-2 thanks to goals from Martin Thompson, Josh Blake, Morton Titterton and Dave Pearson.

My last memory of Matt is watching him, arm in arm with young Robbie Bladon as we went our separate ways at Birmingham New Street, singing Leamington songs at the tops of their voices.

Matt was the instigator of the daft ‘hooby dooby’ chant that still gets an airing sometimes, and certainly will be heard today. Nick Rogers kindly burned me a DVD of our match at Barwell back in the 2005/06 season, which we won 3-0 a couple of weeks before that hugely disappointing League Cup final against the same team at the Bescot Stadium. It was there that the chant really started, and it bought a big smile to my face listening to everyone in stitches as Matt started adding even more ridiculous lyrics to the song.

While watching the DVD it struck me that maybe we have lost a bit of the sense of fun we used to have when going to games, not just because we lost Matt but because of others walking away from the club too. What went on to happen in later years would have saddened Matt, I’m sure, as like many of us he was all about going to games, having a laugh, a drink and getting right behind the team. Let’s do just that today, because regardless of what’s gone before, you know that is what he would have wanted.

Rest in Peace Matt, you will never be forgotten.

Groundhopping! Craig Hockins’ latest non league travels…

Ware FC play in the Southern League Central having been moved over from the Ryman North League last season. Finally after many years I get to tick this one off! With the lure of a big programme shop it was all systems go. The ground has a main stand which seats around 300 and on the opposite side there is a covered terrace for 500 people. Outside there are no toilets , parking is on the gym car park next door, and the pitch lacks love and attention. To their credit the club survive on attendances of less than 100 , although the football on offer is truly awful, which may hint as to the reason why.

Highgate United played Hereford FC in the Midland League cup on a cold March night , having already completing the double over them in the league. We turn up and are asked £8 entrance money , which is truly fleecing the 183 people in attendance ….normally £6 ! The game itself is a full throttle one , tackles fly in and the referee struggles to control the game. Also in attendance tonight are Dennis Mulholland who once played for the Brakes u21’s and Richard Evans the Romulus manager, who no doubt is scouting for players. Gates’ ground is now fenced off and the pay kiosk is on the edge of the ground next to the newly erected fences leading to the changing rooms. Probably the most significant change is the club house, complete with brand new refurbishment, it is the best it has looked in 35 years! Due to the admission hike I won’t be visiting again this season, along with a few other local fans.

Highgate United, home of an old sofa in the stand on a previous visit with Leamington, and also the scene of ‘YOU’RE NOT GOING TO LET THE GOALKEEPER TAKE THE PENALTY? SURELY NOT? THAT’S OUTRAGEOUS!!!’ (Richard Morris scored, if you’re wondering!) 

Next up will be hopefully be three new grounds in France for the Euro’s and finally completing the Midland League by visiting Coventrians at the fourth attempt!

Happy Hopping!