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Middlesbrough v Norwich City, Saturday 12th September 2026, 3pm

September 14, 2026

The gigs are becoming a bit more frequent as we move into Autumn. Perhaps it’s touring season. On Wednesday, Jen and I went along to the Waiting Room at Eaglescliffe to see Jeffrey Lewis. We saw him in York last year and this one, in front of a one hundred capacity standing crowd is likely to have been one of his smallest venues for a while. He was very good, as were the support band, The Grasping Straws.

I was chatting to the drummer who was helping out the support band and he turned out to also be the drummer for David Cronenberg’s Wife, a band that we have seen a couple of times, most recently at Sheffield this year. He was able to answer my question about the grand piano at that gig, which was whether DCW were lugging it around with them, something that seemed unlikely for a band travelling in something the size of a transit. Not only was he able to confirm that they had just found it on the stage and decided to put it to good use, but also that he had abandoned his drums to be the one to play it.

Next up was The Molotovs at Gemini in Newcastle on the Friday night. I’d seen them with Paul earlier this year in a much smaller venue and came away from that occasion very impressed. In fact, I recall saying to him that I could watch them every night of the week. A few months on, I’ve backtracked a bit. When their debut album came out, I listened with a smile on my face as I was able to identify which bits they had taken from which Jam songs. I can live with a bit of stealing, as long as it’s discreet, lots of bands have done it.

What isn’t discreet though is the on stage stealing. All three of them blatantly mimic the style and movements of their Jam counterparts as if they were a tribute. They played a few new tracks which sounded just like their older songs and as Weller moved The Jam onwards with every album, is probably the least Jam-like thing about them.

The bottom line though, is the quality of the songs. If you are going to write a formulaic Jam by numbers song, then it needs to stand on its merits and none of their songs to date are as good as, say, the top fifty Jam songs. So, why bother? They should either develop a sound of their own or go full tribute. I’d watch them in the latter guise.

We were back in Teesside the next morning in time for me to get along to the game against Norwich. We’ve been doing well so far with a two point average  and just the one defeat in the league. Everyone thought that Kim had made a decent selection with maybe only Philips missing out from most people’s first choice eleven. We’ve still got that Puskas or something American fella too, who might be ideal for the ten role if we play it.

There was a wild start to the game, we could have scored in the first twenty seconds but then went a goal behind in under a minute. We hit back and went in at the break three-one up. The guy on loan from Brighton looked good, very good in fact, I think he might be an upgrade on Morgan Whittaker. Tommy Conway started wide and earned two assists in a busy performance.

We looked good for sixty-five minutes, but when Conway and McGree went off, the momentum seemed to switch. We pushed forward for a fourth and were then twice hit on the counter to bring it back to three each. An added time winner from half-time sub Ashley Phillips nicked the win for us. That’s always a great feeling.

It was an entertaining game for a neutral, as they say, but could easily have been two or more points dropped for us. We need to be tighter at the back. I’d suggest avoiding committing too many players forward in games where we are a couple of goals ahead. I’d also play all three of our main central defenders with wing backs. That would mean one less attacking player but would allow us to have one of Conway or McGree on the field at all times rather than seeing them both replaced by someone less effective like today.

Roll on Tuesday night, as a win at home to Millwall would take us two points clear at the top.

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Salford City v Port Vale, Saturday 5th September 2026, 12.30pm

September 6, 2026

After our stay in Ravenglass for Krankenhaus, Jen and I moved on to Barnoldswick for some more music. This time it was Soho Dukes at the Barnoldswick Music and Arts Centre. It’s a great little venue, with just sixty seats, most of them having been reclaimed from an old cinema.

We’ve been a few times and on one of those occasions we saw a couple of the Soho Dukes moonlighting in a Mott the Hoople tribute band with Zak Starkey. It was enough to encourage me to look up their original material, and I liked what I heard enough to return for a rare headline show.

They were very good and it was easy to see the Hunter/Mott influence on the band. They were joined for one song by Spike and Harry of the Quireboys which went down well.

I was hoping that the gig would coincide with a Barnoldswick Town fixture, but they were away. From the options available I picked a Salford City game due to a combination of it being just a forty-five minute drive and a lunchtime kick-off. Just as importantly, they are a League Two club and I really need to put some effort into ticking off the ninety-two. It’s a little embarrassing that with getting on for seven hundred grounds under my belt, I’ve still twenty-nine of the ninety-two to visit.

I bought a ticket online for twenty-three quid and set off early enough to bag some on-street parking just a few minutes’ walk from the AIG Stadium.

I tried two entrances that weren’t mine, before eventually finding the correct turnstile. I’d chosen a seat at the back of the six rows in the stand that ran the length of the dugout side of the pitch. I could have sat opposite, or behind the goal to my left. The visiting Port Vale fans filled the terrace behind the goal to my right.

I was given a team sheet as I came in and noticed two players with Boro connections. Macauley Langstaff was starting up front for Salford. He’s a bit of a late developer who was released as a kid from the Boro Academy but made his way into the EFL via stints at the likes of Boro Rangers and Stockton Town. He was busy but didn’t really shine.

Port Vale had Onel Hernandez on the bench for them. He had played the first half of the season for us in 2021, the time when Warnock started the campaign but was replaced by Wilder. He came on in the second half but did nothing of note that I can recall.

Port Vale had been relegated last year and were not finding the fourth tier any easier than the third. They began the game at the bottom of the table with Salford just above the relegation spots. Despite their team’s lack of form, the away fans really got behind their team. They were scathing towards the home fans and gave Salford part-owner Gary Neville some stick.

At half-time I got a steak pie and chips, which were ok. I’d earlier watched a fella a few rows in front of me avoid the queues by producing a packet of ham from his coat pocket and snacking on that.

I watched the second half from the standing area at the other end. An old bloke nearby moved next to me and talked my ears off. Sometimes I’m just too polite for my own good.

Neither side had looked capable of scoring until the Port Vale keeper let a daisy cutter free kick slip through his hands and into the net for the only goal of the game. I expect both teams to struggle this season on today’s showing.

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Haverigg United v Vickerstown, Saturday 29th August 2026, 2pm

August 31, 2026

There have been six Krankenhaus festivals to date and Jen and I are fortunate enough to have been to them all. The capacity has risen from four hundred in 2019 to fifteen hundred these days.

There have been changes in the layout too and this year saw more use of the secondary Glade stage as well as additional food trucks. The catering had been moved to create more covered areas near to the barn and this worked well during the frequent downpours.

The highlights were the two Sea Power sets. The first was a general festival set, with Clari from Mary in the Junkyard guesting on Lovely Day Tomorrow. On the Sunday night Sea Power played Decline in full with former member Eamon making an appearance and reliving his forays into the crowd with a drum. The bear was back too.

Whilst I’d be happy enough even if the line up went no deeper than Sea Power, Mary in the Junkyard, Bill Ryder-Jones and BC Camplight were also well worth seeing.

On the Saturday afternoon I nipped out to watch a game in the fourteenth-tier Furness Premier Division. It was taking place at Wilson Park in Haverigg which is around a twenty-five minute drive from Muncaster Castle.  Wilson Park is also the home of Millom Rugby Union Club and has pitches for rugby, football and touring caravans. The park has a great backdrop of some hills. There weren’t any stands, but one corner had a rail that I was able to lean against.

Haverigg have had a mixed start to the season and went into the game in the lower half of the table, whilst visitors Vickerstown sat at the top with three wins and a draw from their opening five fixtures.

As you might expect at this level, there weren’t many spectators. I counted a total of sixteen that watched some part of the game, but most of those paid a fleeting visit, often as part of a dog walk. Only six of us were there to watch the game in full and all apart from me were well-known to the players.

The ref looked well into his sixties, but had a good game. He took no lip from anyone and was quick to highlight that he was more than happy to sin bin anyone questioning his decisions.

Most of the meaningful action took place in the first half. Vickerstown took the lead a quarter of an hour in with a well-placed shot just inside the post. Haverigg levelled five minutes later when a long-range free kick was palmed up in the air by the Vickerstown keeper, only for it to drop behind him into the net.

The biggest talking point, between the players at least, was a Haverigg shot a minute from half-time that hit the underside of the bar and may, or may not, have crossed the line. Like so many of those commenting, I was too far away to have a worthwhile opinion.

With two minutes of the second half remaining a Vickerstown shot was parried by the Haverigg keeper and the rebound was tucked away to clinch the three points. It was hard luck on the home goalie who had kept his side in the game with some top notch saves. That’s how it goes sometimes. I made the short drive back to Muncaster for the teatime sets.

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Cramlington United v AFC Burradon and New Fordley, Saturday 22nd August 2026, 2pm

August 28, 2026

On getting back from Sweden, I’d planned for a busy weekend with a game, a gig and a walk. The travelling had tired me out though and so we only managed the first two activities.

The gig was Martin Stephenson at the Waiting Room in Eaglescliffe on the Sunday night. We’d seen him there last year as part of a three piece. This time they had added a drummer who was the grandson of a Daintees drummer from the eighties. It all went very well. Although I had a stiff neck from looking upwards from my seat just a few inches from the stage.

On the Saturday I’d thought about going across to Blackburn to see the Boro as tickets were available on the gate. It’s a ground that I’ve been to a few times before though, including a game towards the back end of last season.

I decided to stay local instead and so Jen and I headed through the Tyne Tunnel for a game at Northburn Sports and Community Centre in Cramlington. We arrived early and got the final parking space.

It was three quid each to get in and we handed over the change for a couple of blind card entries. There wasn’t any food available other than crisps, so we limited ourselves to a coffee each. The eleventh tier Northern Alliance Premier Division fixture had attracted around eighty spectators, with a lot of them likely friends and family of the players.

There weren’t any seats other than a single memorial chair. Maybe the guy wasn’t popular enough to warrant a bench. Jen settled into the chair and I took up various positions on the perimeter fence. The grass was long and missing from patches in the goalmouths.

It was a niggly contest with both teams giving the ref stick. He wasn’t the best, but if he were, then he wouldn’t have been spending his afternoon overseeing an eleventh-tier fixture. I sometimes wonder whether players at this level genuinely believe that the officials should all be FIFA standard.

Cramlington went a goal up in the first minute when a Burradon defender diverted a cross into his own net. The hosts doubled their lead in the second half when some playing out from the back went tits up leaving the home striker an easy finish.

What had seemed like an easy victory for Cramlington was put at risk six minutes from time when Burradon pulled one back. I missed it hitting the back of the net as I was checking on the Boro score.

Matters got interesting with a minute remaining when the home keeper was sent off for wiping out a Burradon striker on the edge of the box. That spurred the visitors on and with four minutes of added time played, they equalized from a quickly taken corner. It was an unexpected comeback but, on reflection, a fair result overall.

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Wales U19 v Spain U19, Sunday 28th June 2026, 6pm

July 17, 2026

When I return from the World Cup, it usually brings that season to a close. There will be a small gap and then the pre-season friendlies kick in. However, I’d noticed that the UEFA U19 European Championship was taking place in Wales and so Jen and I thought that we’d head to the Principality for a couple of nights.

The evening before we set off, we saw Tom Joshua in the Old Courthouse at Boro Town Hall. He hasn’t played live much in recent years but put on a very good show in an ideal venue for a gig of that size and type.

The first game of the U19 Euros was in Wrexham and on the drive down we stopped off at a National Trust House, Dunham Massey. It has deer, ducks and an ice cream shop. An ‘on-loan’ Rembrandt was given a big build up and it was fine but I preferred someone else’s painting of a fat dog.

I’d booked us into a Premier Inn at Wrexham as it was very close to the Racecourse ground. It was a short walk to the pub outside of the stadium and I popped in pre-match to watch Ben Stokes slogging in his final test innings

This would be my first visit to Wrexham’s ground. I’d hoped to watch the Boro there last season, but the work to the stand behind the goal had reduced capacity and I didn’t have enough priority points to buy one of the thousand or so available tickets.

Tickets for this game were easier to get and I’d ordered one for, I think, a tenner online. Only one stand was open and it was congested in the walkways and around the food huts. There were long queues, which seemed to be caused by card machines needing three or four attempts to process payment.

I’d been hoping for some local options such as Welsh rarebit or laver bread, but the nearest I could get was a lava pie. Or rather, a molten lava pie. By the time my payment went through, I’d already half-finished the coke I’d ordered with it.

The game was Wales v Spain in the UEFA U19 Championships. There were only eight teams in the finals and presumably Wales had qualified by being the hosts. I started off in the centre of the stand but then moved at half-time to the far end where I was able to check on the progress of the new stand to my left. It looked a long way back from the pitch, but maybe they are going to move the pitch towards it.

The crowd was around three and a half thousand, with a lot of kids attending, some possibly for their first ever match. Many of them had more interest in the wordsearch that was part of the fixtures card that had been handed out than the game.

It wasn’t much of a contest on the pitch. Spain were streets ahead of the hosts and went four-nil up early on. They then coasted for the rest of the game and an eventual seven-nil victory. There didn’t seem to be much going on in Wrexham on a Sunday evening, so we settled for a few drinks afterwards in the Premier Inn bar.

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Filey Town Veterans v Madly United, Friday 5th June 2026, 6.30pm

June 24, 2026

On the back of the previous weekend’s triple crown of a gig, a walk and a match, I managed to do it again. It’s hard in June as the FA isn’t keen on football taking place, so, World Cup apart, it tends to be games organized for some charitable purpose, or veteran fixtures. Gigs are easy enough this time of year though and June is ideal for going for a walk.

The hike was another section of the Yorkshire Wolds Way. We picked up the trail at Towthorpe Corner, which is ideal for parking the car. It looks like the sort of place that would be frequented by doggers after dark but is peaceful enough mid-morning.

We had Henry with us and he managed the nine mile out and back route to Newburnholme pretty well. Most of the path was through fields occupied by sheep and cows, so he was on the lead most of the time, but he still managed to roll in some cow shit to earn himself a bath.

The gig was Stanley Brinks and Freschard at The Waiting Room in Eaglescliffe. They are French, lo-fi and anti-folk. It may be a combination that isn’t overly popular as they began their set with only around a dozen people in the room. The attendance grew as the evening went on, peaking, I think, at twenty-three.

I enjoyed it. They are pretty prolific with more than one hundred albums between them. We bought the two latest ones that they had with them and there’s another imminent release.

The football game was the first of the weekend activities. It was at Filey Town’s Clarence Drive ground on the Friday evening. We’d decided to stay over so that we could have an easy start the next morning to our Yorkshire Wold Way walk. It took only twenty minutes or so for me to wander over from our Airbnb to the ground.

It was free to get in and there was a clubhouse selling food and drink. I didn’t bother with either as we were planning on heading out after the game.

I had a chat with the manager of the visiting team. The team had grown out of social meetings for men with mental health or addiction issues. They had started playing five-a-side games and that had led to this fixture, their first ever eleven-a-side game.

There was a real mix of ability and age in the Madly United side. The manager, who was kitted out in case he was needed, was sixty-two. Some of the players on the pitch looked to be close to his age. A couple of his team might well have played at a decent level and had a good touch.

Filey were understandably more organized and were clearly used to playing with each other. Most of their players looked like they had achieved veteran status fairly recently.

Filey quickly went four up but Madly pulled a couple back before half time. The second half was tighter until Filey rattled in three late goals for a seven-two victory. I doubt the result mattered too much to Madly and hopefully meeting up and playing football will continue to make the lives of their players that little bit easier.

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Manchester Corinthians v Tintwhistle Athletic, Saturday 30th May 2026, 3pm

June 15, 2026

Some weekends are better than others. I think that any weekend where I can fit in a gig, a walk and a sporting event has to be one of the better ones. Sort of a triple crown, I suppose. This was one of those weekends with a gig in Sheffield, another stretch of the Yorkshire Wolds Way and then a cup final over near Manchester, albeit not in that order.

The gig was at Mary Street Live in Sheffield. It’s a small venue that holds around fifty people and seems more like a storeroom than a concert venue. In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it might be used for stabling horses when there isn’t a music event on. It had a can bar, which was very welcome, but no air-con, which was less so. Other than Jen and I, the crowd seemed to be mostly friends and family of the bands. Everyone nipped outside to cool down at any lull in proceedings.

We were there to see the headliners, David Cronenberg’s Wife, who were very good and somehow had managed to get a grand piano on stage. The support acts were ok too, despite it being the first ever show for one of them.

The walk was the following day, six miles along the Yorkshire Wolds Way between North Newbald and Arass, then back again to fill in a gap between sections we had already done. There wasn’t much in the way of wildlife other than a decomposing rat and a grounded bird too young to fly.

We’d recently had a young crow in the back garden that couldn’t get more than two feet off the ground. I put a few worms out for it, but its parents were watching and I think it took its food from them instead. Two days later it was gone, either by flying well enough to clear the wall or by being carried away by a fox or hawk. There were no feathers left behind, so hopefully it was under its own steam.

And the other part of the triple crown? That was the Gilgryst Cup Final featuring Manchester Corinthians and Tintwhistle United of the eleventh tier Manchester League Premier Division. It was played at Ewan Fields which is currently the home ground of Hyde United and in the past one hundred and forty years since it opened has hosted the reserve teams on both Man City and United, as well as the American Football team, Manchester Falcons.

It was five quid admission and with few other football options available at this time of year I wasn’t surprised to see that the almost three hundred and fifty strong crowd included a fair representation from the groundhopping community. I started off in the main stand. Others were drinking in the standing terraced area to my right, whilst many stood behind the dugouts on the far side.

Corinthians were the stronger team in the first half and they opened the scoring as we approached the quarter of the hour mark. A ball was threaded through into the box and the striker controlled it well before cutting it back across the keeper into the far corner.

At half-time I queued for some food. Hot dogs were popular, but I went for a cheeseburger. I’ve been asked to give a little more detail about the matchday food so I can reveal that it was ok. It was initially handed over without onions, but when I pointed this out, they added them. Other than that, I remember little about it, so the best I can say is that it was unremarkable and edible. They should put that on their posters.

Corinthians continued to dominate in the second half. I switched to the opposite side of the stadium where I was able to listen to their manager constantly berating his players about their need to “switch on”. Maybe it worked as twenty minutes into the second half they switched on long enough to add a second with an unchallenged header from a cross swung in from deep on the right.

As we entered added time and with the game effectively over, the Tintwhistle keeper flattened an attacker chasing a through ball. After some consultation with the lino, the ref sent him off, maybe it was DOGSO, perhaps serious foul play. Either way, both the challenge and the subsequent decision all seemed a bit unnecessary to me at that stage.

The keeper didn’t join the queue for a medal at the end. I didn’t realise that punishing red carded miscreants by denying them a role in the post-match ceremony was still a thing. Perhaps it isn’t and he just didn’t care with it being a loser’s medal anyway. Regardless, it was a decent final and a good weekend.

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Ipswich Town v Middlesbrough, Sunday 19th April 2026, 12 noon

April 22, 2026

I hadn’t intended to take in the Boro’s game at Portman Road, as it clashed with a weekend in London based around a Saturday night Booker T Jones gig at Koko in Camden. However, and in a rare pleasant surprise, SKY’s tampering with the fixtures worked in my favour and the switch to a Sunday lunchtime kick-off meant that by rearranging my train ticket home, I was able to attend both events.

Booker T was really good. He sat at the organ for most of the gig but had a couple of stints front and central with a guitar. All I really wanted to hear was Green Onions and he didn’t disappoint. It’s a song that can instantly transport me back to Bentley’s night club in 81/82. The rest of the set was excellent too and went down well with a near capacity crowd in what really is a very good venue.

I watched most of the set from the floor, but later on Jen and I listened to a track or two from the rooftop terrace. It was warm enough to enjoy the outdoor air whilst still being within listening distance of the band.

Next morning I took the train to Ipswich and  strolled downhill from the station to Portman Road. It’s forty-five years since I’d been to a game there. On the last occasion, it was half-term in my final year at school. My mate Nico and I went on the official supporter’s bus for a night game. As was normal in those days, we got beat, although with Ipswich chasing the league title that should have been expected. I assume that we won’t have got home until around four the next morning.

There wasn’t a lot of optimism ahead of this game either. It’s a month since I last saw us, in the goalless draw at Ewood Park, and in that time we’ve taken only two points from a possible nine and slipped from second to fifth place in the table. Just about all of those games will have been considered ‘must win’ fixtures by most, but three points really were needed from this match if we were to have any hopes of automatic promotion.

I had a seat in Row A of the lower tier. It meant that I didn’t really have much perspective of the play, but it made a change to see things from close up and, with only stewards in front of me, it was nice to be able to sit down at an away game.

Ipswich might have been the better side in the first half, but we shaded the second. It looked as if we might leave with the three points necessary to keep our hopes of automatic alive as we went into the final two minutes a goal up. It wasn’t to be though, and another soft penalty of the kind that never seems to be awarded in our favour allowed Ipswich to claim a spawny two-all draw.

The result leaves us in fifth, three points behind Ipswich who have a game in hand but also trailing Southampton and Millwall. If we get our injured players back on the pitch, I’d fancy our chances against any of those teams in the play-offs, which is just as well, as that looks like the only route available now.

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Leyton Orient v Rotherham United, Saturday 18th April 2026, 3pm

April 21, 2026

Jen and I were down in London for the weekend, primarily for a Saturday night gig. We were staying in Camden, which made it easy enough to walk down to Soho early morning. We’d signed up for the ‘In the City’ tour, which is run by Paul Weller’s sister, old mate and biographer. That’s three people, rather than one.

It was very good, calling at a few recording studios, including Solid Bond. Some defunct and some still going gig venues, as well as what was the highlight for me, the Apple building where The Beatles did their rooftop concert. It’s smaller than it seems in the footage, so no wonder the noise carried easily down to street level.

After lunch I took the tube out to Leyton, for the League One fixture between Leyton Orient and Rotherham United. Leyton seems ok, with lots of Victorian/Edwardian terraced houses that I imagine probably go for a couple of million quid.

There was a statue of former Orient player Laurie Cunningham, who had previously got a mention on that morning’s music venue tour. Apparently, he was a regular at some daytime disco on Wardour Street in the seventies.

I’d bought my match ticket online in advance for the East Stand, which looks to be the oldest of the four seating options. Even though I’d had my lunch, I couldn’t resist a pre-match snack of that East End staple, pie, mash and liquor. I’m more familiar than most with pie and mash, but liquor was new to me. I don’t see its appeal spreading northwards though, as it is a watery, tasteless green gravy.

I’d looked up the players at each club that morning and was pleased to see that former Boro players AJ Matthews and Aaron Connolly currently play for Orient, whilst Duncan Watmore and Jordan Hugill are on Rotherham’s books.

The fixture meant little to Rotherham, who had already been relegated earlier in the week, but Orient were still in a four-way scrap to avoid the drop. The people around me were nervous and saw the fact that Rotherham had nothing to play for as a bad sign.

They were correct to be pessimistic as an away goal in each half clinched the points that were no longer of any benefit to the visitors and made an Orient relegation more likely.

Of the ex-Boro players, the was no sign of Matthews or Watmore, whilst Hugill didn’t get off the bench. Aaron Connolly came on as a sub in the second half for Orient to the kind of reception reserved for players who have been missing for a while and whose reputation has grown during their absence. He tried to make things happen but was hampered by being just as fucking useless as he was for us. Maybe if Orient do go down, he might find his level.

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Colne FC v MSB Woolton FC, Saturday 7th February 2026, 3pm

March 9, 2026

Jen and I had spent the week in Barnoldswick, primarily so that we could see a couple of shows from a Mott the Hoople tribute band. I know. I rarely bother with tribute acts other than when Sea Power do their Modern Ovens homage to Jonathan Richman, but I’m coming to terms with the fact that if I want to see certain songs played live, then it isn’t going to be by the original artists anymore. Nobody complains that Bach isn’t present in person at Last Night of the Proms, so maybe I’ve been unfairly maligning tribute bands over the years.

This band had Zak Starkey on drums and a guitarist called Bucket who has stood in for and played with Mick Ralphs at Bad Company. Tributes tend to stand or fall on the quality of the frontman though and Johnny Barracuda of the Soho Dukes captured the essence and voice of Ian Hunter well enough for it to work out ok.

The venue only holds sixty, so it’s unlikely that anyone was making much money from the shows, but they looked as if they were enjoying it. Perhaps they will try and tour it in bigger venues.

On a different evening we went back to the same venue to see a couple of folk singers. I’m ok with folk if it’s the kind of folk that Withered Hand or Boo Hewerdine does. This was more traditional with most of the non-original songs being about yonder maidens in the morn and such like. The two singers were undoubtedly talented, but I found it all a bit ‘hey nonny nonny’.

I’d planned to take in a game on the Wednesday night but it was just too cold for me to be outside. That meant Saturday provided my first option with a tenth tier North West Counties League Division One North fixture at nearby Colne.

It was seven quid in at the Holt House Ground. There was covered seating down one side and covered standing behind the goal at the top of the sloped hill. A few picnic tables provided options for days when the weather was nicer. A cabin was selling Haffner’s Pies, which are presumably well-known in these parts. I tried one, but it wasn’t as good as the ones I’d been getting from a shop in Barnoldswick that sells out its entire stock by around midday.

Woolton had the advantage of kicking down the slope in the first half and made the most of it, going in three up at the break. It reminded me of playing for Freddy Natt juniors and our belief that if we were kicking uphill in the first half and could keep the deficit to two goals at half-time, then we were likely to come out on top by the end. I’ve no idea how often those circumstances ever occurred, but it’s the sort of nonsense that ten-year-olds trotted out as gospel in those days.

Maybe the Colne players had a similar belief as they came out fully fired up. They scored twice in the first three minutes and had another effort disallowed soon after. The momentum was certainly with them in a game that Woolton probably thought had been already won.

Colne had to wait until the eighty-seventh minute for the elusive third goal. It came after a visiting player was dismissed for a second yellow. The miscreant had barely reached the dressing room before the resulting free kick was floated into the box and scrambled home.

The hosts pressed for a winner, but the ten men held on for a point that seemed fair to me.

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