Archive for the ‘Football’ Category

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Askam Utd v Crooklands Casuals, Saturday 23rd August 2025, 11am

September 5, 2025

The August Bank Holiday weekend is rapidly becoming associated, for me at least, with Sea Power’s Krankenhaus Festival. This will be the fifth one that they’ve held at Muncaster Castle and Jen and I have been to them all. The first one, back in 2019, had fewer than four hundred attendees and probably many of them were gatecrashers who had been alerted to the complete lack of security.

This year the capacity had reached fifteen hundred and that’s as high as I’d like it to go. Part of its charm is the lack of crowds and, whilst I appreciate the need for it to at least break even, it was very full inside the barn for the higher profile bands.

Despite the increased capacity, the festival was still a success. Hamish Hawk was very well received, as he had been last time he appeared. I can’t really understand how he isn’t bigger. There was a short performance from Stewart Lee, prior to him introducing The Nightingales. I wondered if he might struggle a bit as most of his humour relies on slow burning build ups and looping back to previous references. I needn’t have worried, as he nailed it.

The highlight though was Sea Power. It always is. For their Friday night performance, I started off a few feet from the stage, but it got too hot and after being clonked on the head by a surprisingly heavy wooden owl that was being dangled from a fishing rod, I moved to the colder air outside the barn and watched the rest of the set from there.

We stayed offsite, in a small place near Santon Bridge. It was ideal for a Sunday morning walk along a Forestry Commission path to Mitterdale. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife other than a few sheep and I’m not sure that they count. As you’d expect, the views were great. When the path became boggy, we called it a day and turned around, but the six-mile stroll with plenty of ascent was worth doing.

Unsurprisingly, I took in a football game. I’d originally planned to head up to Whitehaven, but their 3pm kick-off would have meant missing Hamish Hawk. For an alternative I found a game that was kicking off at 11am as part of a groundhopping weekend. It was at Askham and involved an hour-long drive down some country lanes that were barely wide enough for one car, never mind two.

It was a fiver to get in and that included a programme and a team sheet, something that a lot of groundhoppers regard as essential to their experience.

Inclusion on a groundhopper tour significantly boosted the attendance. There were close to four hundred people there, mostly blokes on their own and of a similar age to me. The club had pulled out all of the stops to provide facilities and hopefully make a few bob from the day.

There was a small stall with Askam merchandise, including shirts that were presumably last season’s match kits. Further along, someone had two full tables of pin badges. He also had replicas of the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup trophies. Selfies could be taken with the trophies at a pound a pop. An outdoor bar sold cans of beer and soft drinks but I resisted all of the spending opportunities until I reached the food stall where I spent my cash on a bacon and egg roll instead.

The Duddon Road ground doesn’t have any stands or seating, although there were a few picnic tables along one side of the pitch. There are houses along two sides of the pitch and some picturesque views of the sea behind one goal and the hills behind the touchline with the picnic tables.

It was a grass pitch and after the summer that we’ve had was mainly yellow and in need of some rain. It would have benefitted from some levelling too, with one section in particular sloping upwards towards the corner flag.

The fixture was in the twelfth-tier Division One of the West Lancashire League. According to the programme, Askam hadn’t been doing too well so far this season, but they had most of the early possession and better chances.

Crocklands took the lead against the run of play a quarter of an hour in, when a third effort was driven home after the keeper had beaten out the previous two attempts at goal.

Askam stepped up the pace in the second half but despite the pressure couldn’t force an equalizer. Most of the crowd moved on to Dalton for their second game of a three match Saturday itinerary, whilst I headed back up the road to Muncaster with sufficient time in hand for Hamish Hawk’s afternoon set.

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Lulea SK v Bodens BK FF 2, Wednesday 20th August 2025, 6.30pm

September 2, 2025

My second game of the trip was in the sixth-tier, Division 4 Norbotten Sodra. It was another Lulea fixture, this time at the Hertso IP ground and featuring Lulea SK against the reserve side of nearby Boden BK.

I had a couple of companions for this one, as two of my colleagues, Frank and Steve, decided that it might be an interesting way of spending a couple of hours outdoors before we adjourned to the pub.

It was the usual 50 Crown admission, but as there were three of us the kids on the gate were happy to accept the 200 Crown note that I’ve been stuck with for a while. There were probably around fifty people there, many of whom I suspected were there as parents of the ball boys.

We initially watched from the open wooden stand on the half-way line and endured ten minutes of light rain before it eased off midway through the first half. The weather, as well as the adjoining forest, seemed to encourage the mosquitos and I soon had bites on my head.

The home side went into the game in second place in the table with the visitors in third. In theory, you’d expect a competitive game, but it didn’t turn out that way. Lulea made most of their attacks down the left and by half-time had taken enough of their chances to go in five-nil up.

Coffee, beer and burgers were available and after buying our snacks we stayed down at that end of the ground for the second half.

The game was not quite so one-sided in the second half. Boden had hooked their right-back at the break and seemed better organized. Despite that improvement, Lulea still managed to add a further three goals for an eight-nil win.

Frank and Steve seemed impressed by the standard of the sixth-tier as I think that they had been expecting jumpers for goalposts. Perhaps they’ll tag along for some future games.

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IFK Lulea Akademi v Infjardens FK, Monday 18th August 2025, 7pm

September 1, 2025

I’m working on a project in Sweden at the moment which requires me to visit once a month or so for some meetings. That gives me the opportunity to take in a game or two each time and my first fixture of this trip was in Lulea, for a match in the fifth-tier.

It’s getting a bit colder in Lulea now and as my luggage arrived two days after I did, I had to add a coat to the list when I popped to the shops for some emergency clothes.

The game was at the Nyabvallen Stadium. I’d probably have walked it from my town-centre hotel if there hadn’t been some drizzle in the air. There was a guy waiting at the entrance collecting money. Presumably he was connected to the club.

Once again, my lack of the Swish App made life difficult and as he had no change for a 200 Crown note, he accepted 20 Crowns instead of the usual 50 Crowns admission fee. He told me that the stadium dates back to the 1970s and it was easy to believe.

There was a large covered main stand with wooden seats. The artificial pitch had a running track around it and there was an electronic scoreboard that fitted perfectly with the seventies vibe. There were woods opposite and to the right and with the weather closing in, the floodlights were on from the start.

There wasn’t a food and drink cabin and the only refreshments available were courtesy of a lady in the stand who had brought a large Tupperware box full of cakes. As I only had a 200 Crown note, I didn’t bother wandering over.

The game was in Division 3, Norra Norrland. Home side IFK Lulea are an academy team, with the visitors, Infjardens, having a more usual spread of age groups within their line-up.

The away team took the lead mid-way through the first half with a cracking volley that revealed the presence of a handful of away fans celebrating to my right. Lulea hit back on the break and levelled a few minutes later before promptly adding a second with a shot driven across the keeper from the left,

Shortly after the restart, Lulea went two up with another goal from a break. It might well have been offside, but the lino was adamant that he’d called it correctly.

There were plenty of chances for both sides, but a combination of good goalkeeping and poor finishing meant that going into the final few minutes, Lulea remained three-one ahead. A late flurry from the hosts added two more goals, the final one direct from a corner for an eventual five-one victory.

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Silsden v Ramsbottom United, Saturday 16th August 2025, 3pm

August 30, 2025

This weekend started off with a drive across to Barnoldswick. It’s a route that I’d taken a few days earlier for a game at Emley and it’s a pleasant enough journey, particularly once you get out into the countryside.

Jen and I were there for a gig at the Music and Art Centre, which sounds quite grand but is actually just the basement of a small bar. Russell Hastings was playing ‘with friends’. He’s the fella who played with Rick Buckler and Bruce Foxton in From The Jam, but these days is keeping the flame alive without them.

It was a good show. He’s clearly a passionate Jam fan and as he pronounces his words much better than Weller ever did, I’ve realized how many of the lyrics I’d got wrong for all those years.

Next morning we moved on to Keighley and spent the morning at East Riddlesden Hall. It’s a manor house dating back to Tudor times. I joined the National Trust recently but hadn’t got around to using the cards before this visit. It was quite interesting, with some well-informed volunteers. There was a decent garden for wandering around in too, and as I get older I find that sort of thing increasingly enjoyable.

After the history lesson we drove on to Silsden for a game in the Preliminary Round of the FA Cup. Silsden, of the eighth-tier East Division of the Northern Premier League were hosting Ramsbottom United of the ninth-tier Premier Division of the North West Counties League.

It was a tenner to get in to the Angel Telecom Stadium, which brought home how much of a bargain the similar prices are at the Boro for a Third-Round tie. I bought a programme and we started off in the covered main stand, near to a fella who was doing a radio commentary. That’s got to be a niche audience.

As well as the covered seats, there was also a standing area behind the goal to our left. That was mainly occupied by some baby ultras with a drum. They looked about twelve and spent the game exchanging chants with a handful of Ramsbottom supporters who had taken up a position alongside the stand.

I watched some of the game from nearby and impressive as the fans were, the best thing was a cross-bred dog with the head and face of a pug and the body of a labrador. Hopefully the combination will catch on.

Silsden took the lead after a quarter of an hour when a well-weighted through ball sent its recipient clear. He rounded the keeper and finished cleanly.

At half-time I initially joined a queue for refreshments in the clubhouse only to discover that it was cold drinks only. We later found the hatch for coffees next to a café style area outside. There were plenty of food choices and if there was nothing that we fancied in the café, we had the option of a separate outdoor burger stall or an ice-cream van.

Silsden never really seemed comfortable with the single goal lead and Ramsbottom pressed for an equalizer throughout the second half. Their reward finally came three minutes into added time when a striker beat the keeper to a floated cross and glanced his header home to the delight of the travelling fans.

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Middlesbrough v Doncaster Rovers, Tuesday 12th August 2025, 7.30pm

August 29, 2025

I’ve been doing well for gigs lately and after seeing Weathership and The Undertones on the previous Thursday and Saturday nights, Jen and I nipped over to a Sunday afternoon show in Manchester. It was John Bramwell at the Night and Day Café.

On the plus side, it was Bramwell. Even better, he had his Harmonic Convergence band with him so we got the full versions of new stuff and a bigger sound on classics that he more often than not plays solo. It was also interesting to hear his stories about his time working in the venue and that it features in the lyrics to Over Your Shoulder.

Less good was the number of people who had turned up primarily for a yapped catch up with their mates. He should only play to ‘quiet’ audiences. The shape of the venue was odd as well, with the stage at one end of a long and narrow room. But I suppose you work with what you have. Anyway, it was a worthwhile trip.

Two days later it was time for the second game of Boro’s season, a first round Carabao Cup game against third-tier Doncaster Rovers. I’d got tickets for Tom, Harry and I in the West Stand Lower, which I’d picked partly for novelty value but also so that I wouldn’t have to stand all evening as is the practice in the South Stand.

After Saturday’s win over Swansea, I was hopeful of a good result. Particularly as Boro fielded a strong side, albeit with Hackney, Morris and Fry held back on the bench. Doncaster made a full eleven changes from their league line-up and included Billy Sharp up front. He must be a similar age to me.

It didn’t start well and we were two goals down early on. The fella to my left was a right pain in the arse with his non-stop instructions to the players followed by criticism when they didn’t do as he suggested. I was hoping that he might storm out if a third goal went in.

Events took a turn for the worse in the second half, despite us emptying the bench. Doncaster added a further two goals for an emphatic 4-0 win. It’s just as well that they didn’t bring their first team.

The silver lining to the walloping was that the ground was virtually empty by full-time and so we could get through the underpass without queueing. There’s always a positive if you look hard enough. I also liked the way that Rob Edwards reacted without throwing any of the players under a bus. He hinted that there would be some changes to the squad before the window closed so I suppose we will just have to hope for some players good enough to go straight into the starting eleven.

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Middlesbrough v Swansea City, Saturday 9th August 2025, 3pm

August 28, 2025

The Boro’s first league game of the season took place on the same day as an Undertones gig at Stockton Arc. Jen and I were joined by a few mates for an enjoyable performance. Afterwards we called into the kebab shop opposite and bumped into the bassist. They didn’t have pizza on the rider and so he had to sort out his own post-gig scran. He seemed a decent bloke and he chatted away to Jen about all kinds of American and Irish stuff.

Earlier in the day I’d made my way to the Riverside with quite low expectations. I’d been to a few of the pre-season games and, whilst some of the performances were ok at times, we hadn’t managed a win or ever looked like a team that would create too many chances.

Harry and I have moved seats to the South Stand, next to Tom. He was working though and so Alistair came along instead. Harry must be pushing six foot now, but Alistair is younger and shorter and so he spent a lot of the game standing on his seat.

New signing Brittain was making his debut at right wing back, but we were still filling in with Silvera on the left. There was no sign of van den Berg with his move to Cologne appearing imminent, but Hackney started in midfield after knocking back an approach from fellow Championship side Ipswich.

It all went better than I’d expected. There wasn’t much between the teams in the first half, but I felt that we took control of the game after the break. A rare Dael Fry goal was enough to take the points and get the campaign off to a solid start.

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Emley v Silsden, Friday 8th August 2025, 7.45pm

August 27, 2025

I’ve been making reasonably progress at ticking off the grounds in the East Division of the Northern Premier League, mainly due to the efforts of Northern League clubs in gaining promotion to it. As I had a Friday night with nothing planned, I thought I’d head down to Emley for their opening game of the season against Silsden.

In an update of other stuff, Jen and I had been to the Old Courtroom at Middlesbrough Town Hall the night before to see local band Weathership. They were ok, but I preferred one of the livelier support bands.

The drive down to Emley was more complicated than it needed to be with multiple road closures. Nevertheless, I made it on time to the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground and handed over my tenner admission just as the teams were walking out. There was a decent programme for a couple of quid.

Emley were favourites for the win having just missed out on promotion last year whilst Silsden were playing their first ever fixture as high as the eighth tier. I watched for a while from behind the goal, then found myself a seat in the main stand where I ended up in conversation with a fellow groundhopper about some of the other grounds in the division.

Next to the main stand was a cabin with a rooftop viewing area. This was where the people who had opted for the thirty pounds hospitality package watched the game from. The stands behind the goal looked as if they had all been erected at different times with little regard to an overall design. I liked the look of it though, it was a sort of shanty town.

The game went as expected, with Emley two up inside twenty-five minutes and then adding a third midway through the second half. A fair few of the near five-hundred crowd were from Silsden and their team showed enough to suggest that, despite the result, they will do ok this season.

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Accrington Stanley v Oldham Athletic, Tuesday 5th August 2025, 7.45pm

August 18, 2025

One of the things that I thought I’d try and do this season is get around a few more of the ninety-two league stadiums. Whilst I’ve been to more than two hundred grounds in England, I’ve not completed any of the top four divisions and among them there are still thirty-five grounds I’ve yet to visit.

I made a start by driving across country to Accrington. It was a pleasant enough journey via Skipton, a route that I rarely seem to take when heading West.

The fixture was a preliminary tie in the Carabao Cup between Accrington Stanley and Oldham Athletic. I’d bought my ticket online in advance and parked up with at least half an hour to spare before kick-off.

I followed the crowd towards the Wham Stadium but found myself in the section of the ground reserved for the away fans. Oldham had been given the open terracing behind one goal and most of the covered seating along one side. My ticket was for the main stand opposite and when I pointed this out to a steward, she very kindly escorted me most of the way to my seat.

Once in position I was able to listen in to a Geordie bloke a couple of seats along from me. He was explaining that a visit to the Wham Stadium had been on his bucket list for years. However, he had been thwarted by fixtures being cancelled for reasons including a waterlogged pitch, snow and international call-ups.

His previous attempt at the weekend just gone had failed when his wife insisted upon them going shopping instead. With luck like that I fully expected a locust plague to rock up as the teams walked out.

It was an action packed first half, with Accrington taking a three-goal lead. The third goal resulted in an injury to the Oldham keeper when he punched the crossbar rather than the ball. The fella to my left thought that he was feigning injury out of embarrassment at being beaten three times in half an hour, but when the lad removed his glove, his pinky finger stuck out to the side at a forty-five-degree angle. Ouch.

At the break I tried to buy a butter pie, for no other reason than I’d never heard of them before, never mind had one, but they were sold out. Next time in Lancashire, perhaps.

In the second half I watched from behind the goal. Oldham pegged a goal back, but it turned out to be no more than a consolation. The cross-country drive was less enjoyable in the dark and it was knocking on for midnight by the time I arrived home, albeit with just thirty-four of the ninety-two remaining.

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Middlesbrough v Deportivo de La Coruna, Saturday 2nd August 2025, 3pm

August 8, 2025

There’s just a week to go until the proper season starts for the Boro. That means it’s time for the traditional ‘big name’ friendly at home. Good as that is though, the fixture against Deportivo de La Coruna wasn’t the highlight of my weekend. Not at all.

Twelve years after logging our first section of the Cleveland Way, Jen and I finally finished it off. We walked a total of eleven miles from Filey Brigg to Cayton Bay and back, which meant that we fully completed the trail in both directions on the same hike.

It’s nice to do these walks with a dog and as Henry is still recovering from his knee surgery, we borrowed Soph’s other dog, Millie. She’s an seven-month-old Labrador and whilst Jen and I covered just the minimum distance necessary, she ran back and forward for at least twice the mileage.

The second-best weekend activity was the match. Tom had mentioned that he and his mate Jones were going in hospitality for forty-eight quid. That seemed like a good deal to me and so Harry and I joined them.

We were in the Host and Stay Lounge, which is usually close to two hundred and fifty pounds a pop, although I think for regular games you get a lot more than the burger and chips that we were given.

It made for an interesting change though. There was table service, and we had one of the booth tables that allowed us to look out towards the fan zone and see other fans arriving.

Having a big table also made it easy to spread out the fold-out poster in the programme and identify ourselves in the photograph of the Boro end at Ibrox a week earlier.

Our padded seats were just to the right of the Director’s Box. The Boro were pretty much full strength from those available, with the exception of Rav van den Berg and Hayden Hackney. The dutchman was nowhere to be seen as he tries for a move back home, but Hackney was on the bench after deciding to gamble on securing a Premier League move by turning down Championship Ipswich.

I think he has made the right call, but if his transfer doesn’t happen until late on deadline day, we might find it too late to replace him in this window.

We did ok with Tommy Conway scoring twice, the second after a good run from wing-back Sammy Silvera. In between those efforts, Deportivo scored twice themselves and the resulting draw meant that we were still awaiting our first win under Rob Edwards. Hopefully we are saving that for Swansea on Saturday.

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Hartlepool United v Middlesbrough, Wednesday 30th July 2025, 7pm

August 2, 2025

It’s not often that I get to Hartlepool, but this was my second visit within a month. The previous time Jen and I had taken a walk along the England Coastal Path. We started at St Hilda’s church, quickly passing a pub with outdoor karaoke next to the Andy Capp statue. We continued northwards as far as Steetly Pier before retracing our steps.

We paused at the cemetery that has the graves of those killed in the World War One naval shelling, with the highlight of the six-mile walk being a seagull flying past us with a mouse firmly clasped in its beak.

This visit was to watch the Boro at the Victoria Ground, or as it is now known, the Suit Direct Stadium. It’s thirty-nine years since I last saw a game there, back in ’86 for the Boro’s first game after coming out of liquidation. Ayresome Park didn’t have the safety certificate and so Hartlepool very kindly lent us their ground.

My memories of that game are sketchy. I remember turning my ankle on the wasteland going in and I’m fairly sure I watched from the terracing along one side of the pitch. Probably the side facing the tunnel. We went two up and could have clinched the win when someone, possibly Archie Stephens, maybe Gary Hamilton, rattled the crossbar from distance. Port Vale hit back though, and we had to settle for a two all draw.

There was no wasteland to negotiate this time as we parked near to the stadium and followed the road around to the entrance for the Victoria Park Lounge. I’d opted for a hospitality ticket mainly so that I could watch the match sitting down. For thirty-eight quid a pop, Jen and I got padded seats behind the dugouts, curry and rice before the game and a welcome drink. Not bad at all.

There were around two thousand Boro fans attending. We had the standing section behind the goal to our left and the seated stand to my right. There was a small group of vocal Hartlepool fans in the corner of the stand opposite, but otherwise the home crowd were fairly quiet.

Boro had picked a young, inexperienced side, so much so that there were players I’d never heard of. Fringe players Forss, Barlaser, Hamilton and Gilbert were given a run out, but none of them made a pressing case for a first team starting spot.

It was goalless at half-time when we returned to the lounge for a coffee. Hartlepool scored first after the restart, but Boro equalized through Sonny Finch running at the Hartlepool defence and finishing well. A draw was a fair reflection of the evening’s action.

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