Tue 26 Jan
Shawbury United v Wellington (2-1 AET) in the West Mids Regional Lge Cup 2nd Round.
What a lovely club. Extremely friendly people who took time out to tell us about the club, and their plans to build a ground on a 4-acre site in Shawbury.
This is a real groundshare with Wem, both club names being given equal prominence in the stand. The clubhouse is excellent, with a vast array of pennants on display and a reasonably priced guest real ale available.
For the second week in a row myself, Over The Top and Martin copped for extra time. In truth Wellington should have won the game, but at times over elaborated. They were also a tad unfortunate to hit the woodwork three times. Their goal game on half time, with a really good lobbed finish. Shawbury equalised with a free header from a corner, and got their headed winner in the second half of extra time. Splendid evening out, but I think I might try and avoid midweek cup games for a while!

Wed 27 Jan
Bardon Hill Sports v Blackwell Miners Welfare (4-1) in the East Midlands Counties League.
This match was actually much closer than the scoreline suggests. In the first half Blackwell were by far the best side and should have scored more than their one goal. They conceeded a soft goal just before half time and then let in 2 early in the second half. The second half was much more comfortable for Bardon. Nice little ground.

Sat 30 Jan
Ramsbottom United v Atherton Laburnum Rovers (3-2) in the North West Counties Lge Premier.
Original plan was to go to Ryton in the Northern League, but the snow put paid to that idea. After much checking of the internet and a couple of phone calls Ramsbottom got the nod. What a lovely town. Cracking fish n chips, steam railway running behind one goal, Spring sunshine, referee brave enough to go ahead with the game even though one side of the pitch was pretty hard. Perfect. And what a cracking game too. Although Atherton lost they twice equalised with really good goals, the first of which I don't think I've seen as deft a touch at this level in a very long time.

Tue 2 Feb
Rainworth Miners Welfare v Teversal (2-1) in the Nottinghamshire Senior Cup.
Didn't expect to be at this one, but the first choice of Holwell Sports was rained off and the back up at Glapwell was snowed off. Rainworth had a similar amount of snow as Glapwell, but had opted to scrape the snow from the lines and play with a yellow ball. Well done.
The ground is clean, smart and the service in the cafe is excellent. Rainworth have applied for Unibond League status, and the ground certainly doesn't let them down.
Teversal scored early on with a header which the keeper should have saved. A shocking back pass let the Wrens in for an equaliser on 75, and I thought I'd be hit with extra time again. Thankfully they scored again five minutes later

Wed 3 Feb
Mangotsfied United v Forest Green Rovers (1-0) in the Gloucestershire Senior Trophy.

Dross. A scrappy game settled by a close range header from a corner on 55 mins. Each side missed one clear cut chance, but overall it was pretty dour. FGR put out a fairly youthful team. On the positive side there was no need for extra time

Catcn up from me as well.
December 19th brought the first of the snow and due to this i headed
to the 3G pitch as Rosedale College,Hayes to see the Middlesex
County League Local derby between Hounslow Wanderers & Indian Gymkhana.
Bit feisty at times but credit to the players for putting on a decent show
on the pitch that had around 2" of snow in the shaded parts.
Bitingly cold but a lovely sunny afternoon, if that makes sense.
Spent the time chatting to a fellow maniac who was a Leatherhead fan from Addlestone !

Dec 26th, Ramsgate v Whitstable, local derby, shit. 0-0

Dec 28th, Lucky to find a game today and headed off to see
Langford v Oxhey Jets in the SSM Prem, fairly basic ground but it
was worth the yomp from Arlesley station to reach it.
4-4 draw and a cracking game.

Jan 1st, Again very lucky to get a game but this time it was down to
Berkshire to see Thatcham Town v Bracknell Town in the Southern League.
Adjacent to the railway and a lovely day but fuck me it was cold.
Thatcham won 5-0 eventually against a Bracknell side that are rooted to the bottom of the table,but they never gave up and got past the hour mark with just conceding one beforer Thatcham found ther shooting boots.

Jan 2nd, Weather again causing problems and i had a choice of either
East Thurrock United or Great Wakering Rovers both in Ryman North.
After numerous phone calls to both, i hopped off at Upmisnter and thanks to a positive thumbs up from GWR i headed off to Shoeburyness.
Got to the station to find no taxis and it's a fair hike to the ground,but after walking for 10mins i managed to spot a taxi and just made it before ko.
Bitterly cold and a fairly routine 3-0 away win for Concord Rangers.

Catcn up from me as well.
December 19th brought the first of the snow and due to this i headed
to the 3G pitch as Rosedale College,Hayes to see the Middlesex
County League Local derby between Hounslow Wanderers & Indian Gymkhana.
Bit feisty at times but credit to the players for putting on a decent show
on the pitch that had around 2" of snow in the shaded parts.
Bitingly cold but a lovely sunny afternoon, if that makes sense.
Spent the time chatting to a fellow maniac who was a Leatherhead fan from Addlestone !

Dec 26th, Ramsgate v Whitstable, local derby, shit. 0-0

Dec 28th, Lucky to find a game today and headed off to see
Langford v Oxhey Jets in the SSM Prem, fairly basic ground but it
was worth the yomp from Arlesley station to reach it.
4-4 draw and a cracking game.

Jan 1st, Again very lucky to get a game but this time it was down to
Berkshire to see Thatcham Town v Bracknell Town in the Southern League.
Adjacent to the railway and a lovely day but fuck me it was cold.
Thatcham won 5-0 eventually against a Bracknell side that are rooted to the bottom of the table,but they never gave up and got past the hour mark with just conceding one beforer Thatcham found ther shooting boots.

Jan 2nd, Weather again causing problems and i had a choice of either
East Thurrock United or Great Wakering Rovers both in Ryman North.
After numerous phone calls to both, i hopped off at Upmisnter and thanks to a positive thumbs up from GWR i headed off to Shoeburyness.
Got to the station to find no taxis and it's a fair hike to the ground,but after walking for 10mins i managed to spot a taxi and just made it before ko.
Bitterly cold and a fairly routine 3-0 away win for Concord Rangers.

saturday january 9th.
Slim pickings today with all the non-league programme decimated, so
it was a toss-up of wither Coventry v Bransley or Derby v Scunny, so
with loyalties to Mr West i decided to go to Coventry.
Ricoh isn't bad for a new stadium and there's a regular bus to the ground
as it's arounf 3/4 mile away from the City centre.
A nice touch outside was a memorial garden to deceased City fans that had their ashes scattered at Highfield Road.
Whilst inside searching for somewhere to buy a black coffee with cash,which was a fruitless exercise due to the fucking idiotic cashless
system here, i bumped into Chris from Eastwood and also Big Martin from Taunton and spent a decent afternoon chatting to them.
To put it into context this was my 72nd game of the season but it
was Martins' 181st !!
Coventry won 3-1 but due to the great efforts of all concerned to clear the ground and areas it was quite disappointing that there were only 15,000 here today when it was just one of around 4 games that took place in England today.

Managed to escape the weather and arrive in Melbourne for some tennis and football.
January 16th was the first of my 3 home games at the Etihad Stadium home of Melbourne Victory as they destroyed Perth Glory 6-2 with some scintillating play on view from Victory as the scored some terrific goals.
Managed to get a freebie in a decent section thanks to my host Bob who accompanied me to this, fair play to Perth who brough around 400 fans with them for the 4,800 mile round trip !

January 23rd was another Victory win as they beat old enemy Adelaide United 2-0 and it was rather interesting to see the Adelaide fans get a police escort to the stadium in baking temperatures.
Fortunately Adelaide got shafted as all Melburnians seem to hate
Adelaide, roof closed again tonight !

January 26th, Another Victory win as they hammered Wellington Phoenix
4-0 with another chance for me to see Eugene Dadi(ex Tranmere) in action for the visitors.
Roof open tonight and it was an effort to sit in the shade to avoid severe sunburn at 6pm !!

January 16th i managed to squeeze in most of South Melbourne v South Hobart at the Bob Janes stadium before heading over to the Etihad, South won 2-1 and wasn't a good game on another re-visit and my last visit here before the ground is renovated.

January 24th went to the home of Yarraville Glory to see South Melbourne v Altona East PAOK in the annual Hellenic Cup competition.
After a 35minute walk in searing temperatures, i had to endure a game of absolute dross to the max as South won 2-0,but at least it was a new ground.

Between this i went to see friends in Perth and i managed to squeeze this in with a visit to see Perth Glory v Wellington Phoenix with said friends.
The Members Equity stadium( i prefer Perth Oval the orig name) has an impressive main stand with two open ends with a covered terrace area.
There was a decent atmosphere here and it was a swift re-visit to Perth for Eugene Dadi as he'd just left them 3 weeks before to sign for Wellington.
Naturally he wasn't given the warmest of receptions and in the second half with Perth 2 up, Wellington got a pen which Eugene wanted to take.
Stepped up and scuffed it straight at the 'keeper for the worst pen i've ever seen, his dismay was complete as it was repeated more than once !
A rather amusing chant from the Perth fans to the visiting Kiwis, "You're just a small town in Fiji" and "You've only come for our livestock", quality.

February 6th,
back to reality as i head to see Bognor Regis Town v Tonbridge Angels which completed the Ryman prem.
Bognor won 3-1 which i was rather pleased about thanks in no part to some disgraceful behavour by a minority of Tonbridge fans who heaped shame on their club imo, but after a serious knee injury to a Tonbridge player, the second haf was rather subdued as there was no further addition to the score.
To add to their afternoon, Angels had another player carried off late on which meant we finally finished just after 5.

Sunday Feb 7th.
Visit to AFC Hayes(at last) to see QPR ladies v Hillingdon LFC in the
Middlesex Senior Cup QF tie.
The ground is somewhat barren and is not a pretty sight, well tucked away and i decided to take the 40min walk from South Ruislip tube to get there.
QPR were by far the superior side and ended up winning 7-0 with the ir gorgeous no.9 scoring 4 and having a 5th deflected in en route to goal,
a great afternoon out and some quality goals from Rangers.

andy tranmere wrote:

it was a swift re-visit to Perth for Eugene Dadi as he'd just left them 3 weeks before to sign for Wellington.

From Aberdeen to Wellington. Is there another player who has turned out for 2 clubs located further away from each other? I think old "Who's yer" should be in the Guinness Book of Records...

andy tranmere wrote:

fair play to Perth who brough around 400 fans with them for the 4,800 mile round trip !

Perth's fans are a good bunch, well 'The Shed' are at least.
Thems ecstatic with any away support at Members Equity.

Yeah the shed made quite a good noise that night, Wellington
muist have brought about 50.

Good luck at the enemy tomorrow btw, give Sydney a good thrashing !

Saturday made the trip to East Thurrock United in the Ryman Div.1N
as they took on Enfield Town.
ETU are based in Corringham,Essex which is just outside Stanford-Le-Hope and this means that i'm down to Heybridge Swifts to complete
all 3 Ryman divisions.
A pretty decent 0-0 here today and this was only my second blank of the
season, both sides played their part in an entertaining draw in front of
207 which is the largest home gate of the season thanks to Enfields'
decent away support.
Was impressed with the groudnw ith everything painted dark green to
blens in with the surroundings.

Sunday.
11am Kent Youth League U18 North Division.
Dulwich Hamlet v Phoenix Sports @ South Bank Uni Sports Grounds.
First half was all Dulwich as they had numerous chances but only scored just before HT for a 1 goal advantage.
Their best chance was a crackign overhead volley that was met with a
stunning save after a corner.
Second half was a lot poorer but Dulwich managed to net another 3
whilst Phoenix pulled a goal back after being 2 down.

3pm FA Cup 5th Round
Fulham v Notts County.

Decided to go to Craven Cottage again as i was certain cash would be available on the day and went in with the Notts County fans who were
a dead sound bunch.

Even managed to meet a couple of St Pauli fans inside who have been to see the boys over in Hamburg and they were good lads who knew of the BBIB(well done Chris)

County filled the away end with around 5/6000 and they were superb all
afternoon with many renditions of the Wheelbarrow song.

Very decent game and County matched Fulham early on and two moments of brilliance saw them go 2 up.

Second half saw County have a few really good chances to try and claw
their way back but Duff and they Fulham no.9(big coloured Italian lad) scored the 4th which was harsh on a County side that had played their part in an entertaining game.

County cult hero Lee Hughes was warming down after being taken off near the end and celebrated by following the fans in "doing a Hughesie" with his trademark celebration.

Really enjoyable afternoon with some sound fans who gave their heroes terrific backing.

While i was waiting to get out, two guys in front of me saw my St Pauli
sweatshirt and pointed me in the direction of a badge they were wearing-
Hansa fucking Rostock !!, i wasn't impressed and met them with a few Hansa schiess and wished them a good relegation..

@Told the County lads about the site and hi to Andy & Rory if you join us !