Done The 92

Saturday saw me complete a five-year journey to see every single Premier League/Football League ground – I visited the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, bringing to a close a run that started (97 games ago, actually) at Preston North End’s Deepdale.

Chronicled in my doing the 92 book series ‘Playing Offside’ (available on Amazon Kindle for a very reasonable price – the final part with the Tottenham game released in the next few months!), along the way I’ve tried to delve into the history and current standing of each club, their hopes and aspirations and what effect they have on their local communities. I’ve met many interesting people, heard some very interesting things and almost been assaulted by a mascot.

With Bury sadly being expelled from the EFL and Coventry playing their games at Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s, it’s been more of a ‘doing the 90’ this season – but my point all along was to visit all of the current grounds in the top four leagues, so I’ve achieved that at least!

As there are two relegation places that feed into the National League, teams and their grounds were always going to be passing each other during the last five years – but I think I’ve done okay on that account. Throughout the series, the grounds that have disappeared from the 92 (that I already went to) include four clubs who have gone down into the National League (Barnet, Chesterfield, Notts County and Yeovil Town), one club who have gone down to the National League and since returned (Leyton Orient), Coventry’s Ricoh Arena that they no longer use and Bury’s Gigg Lane, of course.

This journey should have ended at the end of last season but as the months grew on-and-on and ground-after-ground was ticked off, Tottenham still hadn’t completed their stadium – considering it was supposed to be opened in September 2018, the constant delays caused a sense of frustration amongst their supporters, let alone myself! In my own selfishness, I was sort-of hoping that they would delay the opening until the start of the 2019/20 season – that way, I could complete the 92 in 2018/19 by visiting their ‘temporary home’ at Wembley Stadium. But no, they opened the new ground in April and I was left to contemplate another month-or-two’s worth of Groundhopping at the start of this season!

In the end, I didn’t mind that the end of this 92 was slightly delayed – along with a visit to the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, I would need to go to National League play-off winners, Salford City (which is a local club to me anyway) – I had already seen National League champions, Leyton Orient, in 2015 meaning that I would only have to do two grounds to complete the 92. Except during the summer, Coventry ended up moving to Birmingham and Bury dropped out – but as a raging completist, I went to see Coventry play at St Andrew’s last month so I completed the ‘91’ for this season!

I won’t be going into my experiences of the new Tottenham Stadium here (you’ll have to get the book for that!) but needless to say it was a great experience. I’m not just talking about the aesthetics and the numerous amenities the stadium has, nor the way in which crowds are marshalled after the game to allow easy and timely access to public transport links, but just the way journeying to this new stadium would have felt the same as it would a hundred years ago when people made their way to the old White Hart Lane.

Okay, the stadium being built in the same place as the old one is probably a big help with that (!), but with the sheer size of the new stadium, you might have expected it to have a major impact on streets for miles around. But no, without the football shirts on display, anyone new to Tottenham High Road would assume that walking down it with these throngs of people would be your average Saturday. When you do arrive at the stadium, it seems to be part of rows of buildings you’ve been passing for the last half-an-hour, even despite it's look and sheer size – it’s part of the community, is what I’m trying to say. Like EVERY football club should be; which is a very rare thing to say about a football club’s new stadium, especially one of our top clubs!

You will be able to read more about this in Volume Five of Playing Offside, which will be in early 2020 – stay tuned to the blog's Twitter account (and this blog itself!) for updates.

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Manchester City Women vs. Manchester United Women

Like many people it seems, I was enamoured by this summer’s Women’s World Cup. I watched every England game, gripped by the quick and exciting forward play of The Lionesses  – the strong-running of Lucy Bronze, the midfield-controlling of Jill Scott, the shithousery (and goals) of Ellen White. It was great to watch – so I need to go and see this ‘women playing football spectacle' for myself.

To be honest, I said the same thing four years ago when I stayed up late to watch England’s heartbreaking injury time defeat in the Semi-Final against Japan. But I’m going to do something about it this time – I’m actually going to put some effort in and watch a women’s game in person. Coincidentally, Manchester City are opening their Women’s Super League season against ‘new’ rivals Manchester United – with the match moved to the Etihad Stadium to take advantage of a big crowd. I snapped up a ticket straight away – they were only £7 a pop, after all. 

I’ve long been puzzled as to why it’s taken women’s football so long to establish itself because it’s not like they can’t play. I can only convey my feelings through personal experience; when I was about 8, I played in a team on Saturday mornings on a windswept Wigan school field where even dogs daren’t roam. One week, a girl turned up to play for us – and she was brilliant. Quick and skillful, she caused the opposition lads some real problems down the wing. Being a deep-lying midfielder (before such things were popular – okay I was lazy and didn’t want to run), I just kicked the ball out wide to her and she ran with it, creating several goals. Sadly, she never played for us again (I seem to remember her saying that she wasn’t *usually* allowed? At 8 years old???). 

Anyway, since that brief experience of playing football with a girl, I’ve not been a subscriber to the ‘girls can’t play football’ adage, as they clearly can. Since then, growing up (well, that's debatable – ageing up) and learning more about the game, I was always intrigued by the lack of girls who played football – my child's mind just assumed they didn't want to get dirty.

The reason why women’s football hasn’t established itself (until recent times, at least) was due no in small part to the FA ban on its members clubs from hosting women’s games on their pitches. Despite attracting huge crowds during the First World War, the game was deemed ‘unsuitable’ for females in 1921 by the governing body and a ban was swiftly put out. It took 50 years for it to be lifted and during that time, the men’s game had established itself as England’s leading professional sport. Women had a lot to catch up on.

One of the major criticisms aimed at the women’s game recently (that I’ve seen, anyway) is that it's being promoted ‘beyond its quality as a product’. Whether you think the ‘product’ is any good is a subjective opinion – expecting it to contain the same skill, speed and physicality as the men’s game is ridiculous, in my opinion. It's the same game, yet different. To many, though, women's football simply isn’t ‘as good’ as the men’s game, so isn’t worthy of their attention – but do most people just watch football for the high levels of skill on display? If that was the case, nobody would watch (men's) lower-league games – football does not need to be 'good' to be exciting; being excited is the feeling that we all want to experience when watching games, surely?

I think that the supposed 'over-promotion' of the women’s game can be put down to three points:

• (The obvious one) women’s football needs to catch up after spending half-a-century in the wilderness, so the apparent over-promotion is designed to give an 'artificial boost' to the game.
• The ongoing push for women to achieve equality in society has led to women’s football being marketable. Rightly or wrongly, companies see women's equality as an opportunity to gain brand credibility for a relatively small outlay.
• In competition with the internet and on-demand services, television and media companies are struggling to attain rights to show the world’s most popular sports. The BBC, especially, do not have many major sports to televise beyond football World Cup’s, European Championships, Wimbledon Tennis and Olympics Games. Certainly not enough sport to bring back Grandstand, anyway.

With any popular subject in society these days, it’s the 'not taking the time to understand each other’s points-of-view' that’s the centre of the problem, I feel. I followed social media extremely closely during the World Cup and the number of cheap shots on both sides was something to behold. Comments on every post regarding the tournament were generally ‘don’t care’, ‘it’s shit’, ‘get in the kitchen’, etc.  Understandably (but mistakenly), those on the women's football side nibbled at the bait, sent abuse back and swiftly closed down the avenues for any meaningful conversation.

The BBC then didn’t help matters with clickbaity posts and articles with headlines such as ‘Five Ways Women’s Football Beats Men’s’ – whilst the article itself makes some good points and backs itself up with facts, do they really think click-driven headlines like that will help to educate and change the mind of the football fan who’s already suspecting that the women's game is getting some 'undue coverage'?. No – they’re going to think there’s ‘an agenda’ to over-promote women’s football and ‘do down men because it’s fashionable’. Regardless of whether there’s a trickle of truth in that, I’m with Timmy Thomas on this one – why can’t we live together? Why can’t we enjoy football mutually without resorting to these cheap shots? Why can't we have a reasonable discussion without abuse and blocking? This way, common ground can be sought and when you've got that common ground cleared, you can create a path to walk down together, hand-in-hand to watch the game we all love.

(By the way, fellow Alpha's; this is not me ‘white knighting’ – going out of the way to be all ‘progressive’ to impress women so they’ll like/take pity on me – as I said, I’m perfectly fine with just laying the ball off and letting a woman do all the work).

Speaking of living together, today’s ‘first professional women's Manchester derby’ is being held at the Etihad Stadium – one of a few WSL games to be held at men’s first team grounds on this opening weekend. Clubs are attempting to allow as many people as possible an opportunity to see women’s football for the first time in order to capitalise on the World Cup. Usually, City’s women play at The Academy Stadium – the 7,000-seater stadium across the road from the Etihad that was built for the club’s various youth sides. I’ll be honest here, although I fully understand (and support) the decision to host a big game such as this in a big stadium, I’m slightly disappointed that it’s not being held in The Academy Stadium so I can tick it off the groundhopping list!

It isn't just hosting the bigger games at men's stadiums that's new this season in the WSL; matches will be shown live on BT Sport and at least one a week on the BBC Sport website. This summer also saw the league sign its first overseas television deals – covering Mexico, Central America, the Dominican Republic, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Highlights will also be made available on the new 'FA Player' – so they're at least getting all the building blocks in place to expand the reach of the league.

The Etihad (or ‘The City of Manchester Stadium’, as it used to be known) is located roughly a mile-and-a-half from the centre of Manchester, so is easy to get to by all forms of transport. On the way into Piccadilly train station, my own train from Wigan is delayed on route by about 40 minutes, so on arrival I’ve got half-an-hour to kick-off. ‘No problem’, thinks I, ‘I’ll get the tram’. On reaching the Metrolink station under Piccadilly, I’m met with a massive queue that snakes around the back of the station – nearly all of them going to the game, from what I can tell.

Despite it being 7 minutes until kick-off by the time I get to board the tram, I somehow manage to still get into the ground and into my seat just before the game starts – I’ve never sat in the Colin Bell Stand before, but if you are and you’re going via the tram, get off at Etihad Campus as it drops you right outside the stand. What immediately hits me about the crowd around the stadium (who are not making a move to actually get in for kick-off!) is that it’s mostly families – not just Mum’s with daughters, as you might automatically expect, but Dad’s with daughters, Dad’s with sons, Mum’s with sons, Mum’s and Dad’s with sons and daughters – the whole Brady Bunch.

The top tiers of the stadium are closed but the rest of the ground looks fairly packed – there’s a mix of City and United supporters dotted around, with the main bulk of United supporters behind one of the goals in the usual away end. As the match starts, it’s immediately noticeable how different the atmosphere is – there’s no thunderous roar on kick-off, it’s mostly children doing the shouting and singing. Yes singing – for some reason, I expected the game to have an atmosphere of the average men’s friendly; bits of shouting, attempts at starting songs, but nothing prolonged and tuneful. Thought I was in the audience for The Voice Kids, at one point.

Both sides start in a cagey fashion; having periods of possession, getting a feel of the ball without creating much. What I do notice is how tactically good the players are; they stick to their positions and individual roles without straying too far and leaving gaps. As I’m surveying my surroundings, I see that there are ads, placed around the stadium, denoting the club as being ‘One City’ – it’s all the same club, rather than two separate entities. With all kinds of families sat around the ground, you’d imagine that this is the sort of ‘crowd’ that women’s football needs to appeal to and attract – this 'One City' promotion clearly aimed to allow them support 'Manchester City', despite the cost of watching top-level men's football becoming increasingly unaffordable for the average family. I just hope that, if it does grow to anywhere near the level of popularity as the men’s game, women’s football continues along these lines and not go down the path of grabbing as much money as it can. The memories that football can give you, when you’re experiencing it with friends and family, is worth more than money – and everyone should have the opportunity experience it.

United were the better side in the first half – their best chance falling to Jane Ross; stood on the penalty spot, she receives the ball from the left, shoots first-time and somehow, Ellie Roebuck (in for the injured England No1 Karen Bardsley), sticks a hand out and deflects it wide. The 19-year-old is called into action again just before half-time; another ball in from the left sees it bobble around in the 6-yard area, United’s Jessica Sigworth is unable to get a decent connection which allows Roebuck to pounce upon it.

What has struck me about the atmosphere so far is that it’s friendly – no venom spat from the stands at the players, no abuse for the referee, no swearing whatsoever. I’m not sure how to feel – on one hand, hearing all of that at a football game makes me embarrassed (and often angry at the utter rubbish some people say), on the other, I can’t deny that it all adds to an intimidating atmosphere that may help to give your side an edge.

Half-time allows me an opportunity to leaf through the programme; a very interesting landscaped-A5 effort for £3. There’s an intriguing read about the first ‘competitive’ meeting of Manchester City Women and the previous incarnation of Manchester United Women in September 1990. With both sides being amateurs, they played on a field in the grounds of Manchester University in front of a crowd of around 150, City edging a thrilling game, 4-3 (is there any other way to describe a 4-3?!). Whilst the City side would go on to morph into the leading side they are today, Manchester United disbanded their women’s side in 2005 – only bringing the team back last season when they easily won The FA Women’s Championship. The re-establishment of this fixture has undoubtedly created much interest going forwards; it just needs time to grow as its own ‘rivalry’, and not as simply a mirror of the men’s fixture. (I just hope it’ll be a 'friendly rivalry' – I don’t want to see H&M-wearing teenage girls throwing shade at each other, like the Stone Island-wearing teenage boys do near men’s football grounds). 

City start the second half more urgently – ensuring they’re quicker to the ball and moving it at a faster pace. It becomes apparent that they’re technically the better side – and they’re immediately rewarded for their approach. Two minutes of the second half have been played as City probe around their opponents penalty area, United clearing away a loose ball – but it’s cut out on the left by Caroline Weir who proceeds to take another touch to bring herself inside, before firing the ball from almost 30 yards – and into the corner of the net. It was a strike worthy of any seen at this stadium in recent times and it’s quite rightly met with exuberant, youthful cheers from the H&M Ultras.

The attendance is announced as being over 31,000 – a record crowd for a regular women's league fixture, producing the biggest cheer of the day (bar the goal, of course!). In the week (as well as in the programme), the club said that they were expecting 20-25,000 to turn up (perhaps this explains the queues for the tram earlier?!), so it’s great to see those expectations exceeded.

As the game grows older and City frustrated at United’s well-organised defence, the threat of them being hit by a sucker punch, whilst searching for that clinching goal, is always hanging over them – and it nearly happened. United midfielder, Jackie Groenen does well to nip a long ball away from City’s centre-back, Gemma Bonner, and as the Dutch international reaches the penalty area, bearing down on Roebuck, she loses control of the ball – it falls to City right-back Aoife Mannion to clear, which she does – right onto Groenen’s foot! Fortunately for Mannion, Groenen couldn’t control the ball, it hit her foot and rolled back off the post and into Roebuck’s grateful mitts.

It was United’s best chance of the second-half – and their last. City did enough in the end, but United
did themselves credit, considering this was the first match at this level for many of their players. With some big players to come back for City – including new signing Ellen White, I’d expect them to start converting their quick, attacking play into goals before long. The crowd are appreciative, many staying to applaud them off.

I enjoyed the occasion, even if the game wasn’t high on chances – I’ve seen much worse in the last year alone. I’ll definitely be back at a women’s game soon, if only to tick off some more grounds! In the end, from my vantage point (and poor eyesight, to be fair) it just seemed like light-blue shirts were playing red shirts. And that's all that matters – men, women, boys, girls, it's still football we're watching, it’s still the game we all love – so let's work together to make it better for us all.

Manchester City Women 1

Manchester United Women 0

Attendance: 31,213

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Southport vs. Altrincham

Seven days after Bury FC were expelled from The Football League, the criticism of the governing body has been growing – their refusal to listen to a new proposal to allow the club to rejoin as a League Two side next season (subject to a takeover going through), isn’t making them seem like they’re acting in the best interests of the clubs they profess to protect. It feels like a momentous stance they’re taking in the event of anything like this happening again.

This got me thinking about other watershed moments in the history of The Football League – and (somewhat conveniently)  I’m off groundhopping to Southport FC tonight, who in 1978 became the last club to drop out of The Football League after failing to gain re-election.  And guess who would replace them? My team, Wigan Athletic (I just don’t throw these blogs together, you know).

Currently playing in the National League North, Southport are rebuilding after a couple of seasons of struggle that has seen them relegated from the top tier of non-league football, down towards the bottom end of this division. Their Football League existence began in 1921, as a founder member of the Third Division North – coming to an end when their third consecutive 23^rd –placed finish saw them (eventually) voted out in favour of Wigan.

I should probably feel a bit sheepish at this, but as one of the biggest and most successful non-league clubs at the time; having over twenty applications to join the league turned down, it was nothing short of a scandal that Wigan didn’t already have a Football League place by ‘78 – it was just a shame a near neighbour had to pay the price. 

The election system effectively created a ‘closed shop’ with members, who would generally vote with each other to ensure that they all remained Football League clubs. Southport would end up finishing 7 points ahead of bottom side Rochdale, but it was them who ended up being replaced (also, Wigan had actually finished second to Boston United in the Northern Premier League, but they were unable to apply because of their ground didn’t come up to scratch). 

It just shines a light on how difficult it was to bring a team up from non-league during this era – although Southport were the last Football League team to lose an election, it wouldn’t be until 1986 that the system was scrapped and replaced by one automatic promotion sport (dependent on ground grading, of course). 

Today, many people are calling for three automatic promotion spots from the National League (up from two at the moment) – I honestly believe it would be a good thing because it would make relegation from the Football League less of a disastrous proposition for clubs; it would make them cut their cloths accordingly and be ran with sensible budgets. Being mostly a professional league these days (if it isn’t already), with clubs such as Stockport County, Notts County and Chesterfield in there this season, the National League is pretty much a ‘League Three’ anyway. With three promotion spots, perhaps there could be an opportunity for The Sandgrounders to return, sooner rather than later?

The town of Southport was founded in 1792, when William Sutton, an innkeeper from the nearby village of Churchtown built a bathing house at what is now the southern end of Lord Street – arguably the busiest shopping and leisure area in Southport today (there’s plenty of pubs on there, believe me!) The area was known as ‘South Hawes’, which was sparsely populated and dominated by sand dunes. The area’s access to the Leeds-Liverpool canal saw ‘Southport’ grow from that humble bathhouse into a town that subsumed the villages around it, even creating a tourist industry in the Victorian era. Its main attractions include its world-class golf courses (which have hosted The British Open), its funfair and its pier (which at 3,633ft, is the second-longest in the British Isles after Southend – which is the longest pleasure pier in the world at a whopping 7,080ft!) I also once found a tenner on Southport’s beach and took some sand home in a bag and got it in my eyes. Great days.

If you’re coming here on the train via the Manchester-Southport line, the nearest stop to the ground is Meols Cop – the walk from here is straight down Norwood Road and once you reach The Thatch and Thistle pub, cross the road down Haig Avenue and follow the winding street to the ground. I (naturally) stop off for a pint in The Thatch (I don’t know if it’s nicknamed that by locals, but I’m going with it regardless); a pint of Robinson's ‘Unicorn Golden Ale’ is my poison of choice (and it’s a good choice). I did feel a bit weird on approach to the pub (more weird than usual, anyway) – I thought it was closed at first, such was the lack of activity around the place. No, as I approach the entry I can hear the clatter of plates and the chatter of voices.

With a nice, quiet country-style pub five minutes away, the approach to the ground is made complete thanks to the presence of a chippy and convenience store. In my opinion, every football ground should have a pub (to have a drink and a laugh in), a chippy (for healthy sustenance) and a shop (to get some pop and crisps to sneak under your clothing and into the ground so you don't have to pay their exorbitant prices). I didn't indulge in either chippy nor shop – this is ‘Pies, Pints and Goalmouth Scrambles’ not 'Pints, Chippys and Sneaking Four Packets of Monster Munch Under Your Jumper'.

Haig Avenue (known as ‘The Pure Stadium’ for sponsorship reasons) is surrounded by the residential area – and they aren’t short of a few bob around here too (this hit home when I saw a young lady treat her gran with wine and a meal in The Thatch earlier. Where I live, you’ll be lucky to have a gran who’s still alive). Southport is well-known for its affluence; you’re likely to find that successful people from across Merseyside move to the Borough of Sefton that Southport is now a part of. According to online estate agents, Zoopla, the average house price around here is £189,873 – making it the most expensive in Merseyside. 

All this makes you wonder why the club can’t get the finances in place to have a good go at promotion to The Football League – then I see several people wearing Everton jackets as I walk down to the ground. Being the affluent area that has seen people move here from across Merseyside, it must be difficult for the club to grow a dedicated supporter base large enough to garner the funds to challenge at the top of non-league. To underline their link with Liverpool’s oldest professional football club, Everton Ladies currently play their Women’s Super League games at Haig Avenue (until they move to their new ground at Walton Hall Park at the end of this month, anyway).

It’s a decent ground though; I’m sat in The Main Stand, which as the only seated area, dominates the terracing that snakes around the rest of the ground. I'm not 100% up on ground grading but I'm pretty sure this is EFL quality. What is also EFL quality, is this National League North side offering online tickets – I’m a big fan of these; you simply pay online and print off your tickets to be scanned at the turnstile. No having to take the time out of your day to travel to the ticket office, no hanging on the telephone and no having to hunt around for a good seat – you can book a seat for yourself (although not in Southport’s unreserved stand). Sadly, my printer was out of ink, so instead of paying the discounted online price of £13.50, I paid £15 on the gate.

Whilst I was taking my seat (after getting a cup of tea for £1.50, which was a bit of rip-off, to be honest – the one I got for a quid at Atherton Colls was twice the size), I notice Southport’s mascot walking around. I think it’s a lion, but it seems to have gone through some extreme weight loss in a short space of time – there are folds of fur, flapping about all over the place. I give it a wave, anyway. It doesn't wave back.

Southport were the better team in the opening half-hour; manager Liam Watson (in what I think is his 58^th spell as manager) barking at his yellow-shirted side to press their opponents up the pitch. It was no surprise to see them go ahead – a long throw into the penalty area was nodded on to the back post and headed in. "Goal for Southport, scored by number 9, Raul Correia…Raul is sponsored by Pinetree Garden Maintenance" says the PA lady to 'woos' from people around me. One bloke (more about him later) shouts “well done Pinetree Garden Maintenance” to the guffaws of everyone. They've had their advertising money's worth tonight – I’ve even mentioned them on here.

The Southport ‘Ultras’ are grouped in the Jack Carr Stand to my right and are in great voice; their chanting and banging echoing throughout the ground. You’d usually expect the away supporters to be the more boisterous, but with this being a Tuesday night, you can forgive them for not being so. With a lull in play around the 40 minute mark, I nip to the food van again to see if they have any pies left. They do – a cheese one. Whilst I was being served, Southport only went and got their second goal! Fortunately, the club were swift on publishing their match report, even including video highlights, so I/they can describe it:

The ball’s on the right, just outside the Alty penalty area, it’s lifted towards the edge of ‘the D’ where, first time on the volley, Kieran Glynn smashes it into the top corner. The cheers told me that it was a great goal, the video evidence just confirmed it. I’m honestly gutted I missed it (for more reasons than the aesthetic quality of the goal, as you’re about to find out). 2-0 up, it’s all looking great for Port.

What isn't looking great, is the pie. Although I'm fond of cheese – and a girlfriend once told me 'I'm cheesy' (whatever that means) – I just don't think it’s suitable to be the main ingredient in a pie. Cheese is an additional flavouring, it's on the undercard, the support warm-up act – it isn’t the main event. To top it off, the pie is as tough as old boots; once I've penetrated the top of the pastry, the rest of it crumbles away like a mummified corpse. I’m very disappointed, Willow Catering (who also sponsor the open terrace to my left that houses the away support) – for 3 quid, you should be doing better. Maybe have a word with Galloway's Pies – the world-leading purveyor of Wigan-made pies and gingerbread men with creepy eyes (I wonder if I’ll get some free stuff if mention them enough on this blog? Let’s hope Galloways follow their backlinks like a trail of breadcrumbs).

Just after the half-time whistle sounds, the PA announcer tells us that an Altrincham supporter has left his coat – and wallet – in Wetherspoons, leading to hilarity around the ground. Even she couldn't contain her laughter as she finished her annoucement with the perfect call-to-action:  '...so you better get it'. I would imagine the Wetherspoons she’s talking about is the one on Lord Street itself, which is a good 40-minute walk away – so I hope someone can give him a lift, as it’s just started to piss it down.

One aspect that connects football crowds at all levels, is the presence of a 'Banter Man' – you know the types; those who take it upon themselves to make loud, humorous comments on the game we’re all watching. They're perhaps more prevalent at non-league games due to the smaller crowds. Southport’s Banter Man was the chap who commented upon the goalscorer’s sponsor earlier, and his latest shout was to advise an injured Alty player to 'keep rolling [that way] and you’ll get to the hospital'.

Banter Man isn't best pleased when an Alty player 'goes down like a skittle'. Sadly for him, the ref doesn't agree, gives the free-kick which is whipped in and headed back across goal and into the net. A group of young girls sat in front of me on the first row (well, younger than me – they look about 25ish) cheer heartily, as their kids run about. Alty WAGS?

The rain has been sheeting down for most of the second half, making me feel glad that I’m sat in here and not on the open terraces. Fortunately for the Ultras, their stand has a roof as they continue to try and sing a third goal into the back of the Alty net. In the end, they didn’t need to; although they tried to rally towards the end, Alty didn’t get behind their hosts’ defence as they did enough to hold them at bay.

Thankfully, the break in the rain holds up as I make the 10-minute walk back to the station. I hope Southport can have a decent season, maybe even sneak into those play-offs for a chance to regain their fifth tier status. As I'm sat in the shelter on the platform of Meols Cop station, the rain starts to come down again, I feel quite hungry, but the only ‘cheesy pie’ I want contact with again is, erm, myself.

Southport 2

Altrincham 1

Attendance: 904

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Bury FC Expelled From The EFL: Why Our Football Clubs Need Protecting

If you were to explain to someone why you supported a football club, how would you do it? How can you covey the feelings that connect you to your club? Why you spend copious amounts of time and money following a football team around the country for (often) very little reward?

As of the 27^th August 2019, Bury FC have been expelled from The Football League after 125 years of membership – and I defy anyone watching, listening or reading the outpouring of emotions from their supporters to not understand why they supported their football club. Because, as I find myself repeating progressively as time goes on, watching football is about more than just watching football.

It’s difficult to comprehend why this has happened – we know how it’s happened; the club couldn’tprove to the EFL that they had sufficient funds to see them through the season, and proposed takeover deals collapsed or didn’t have enough time to go through – but it’s hard for me to understand why a succession of club custodians (and the EFL) has allowed Bury to get into this state.

Ever since the club was served notice of their possible expulsion, one word has been a constant in the national and local news coverage – community. It can be easy to forget in the times we live in (where the cost of transfer fees and the wages of players are thrown in our faces through television and the internet), that football clubs are supposed to represent a town, the people sat in the seats, a collective ideal, even. Football clubs should not represent the avarice of businesses and amateurish penny pinchers. Sadly, many have forgotten that.

Bury FC: Where Did It All Go Wrong?

Money has always been difficult to come by for Bury – living on the doorstep of two of English football’s biggest clubs tends to cut into the number of supporters and sponsorships you can get. So already, money is scarce; investments need to be thought out intelligently and preferably, backed up with a safety net. Over the years, they haven’t had this – getting into financial struggles that have threatened but not, seen them go out of existence as a Football League club. Until now.

The problem for clubs further down the pyramid is that there is a lack of interest from investors who a) know what they’re doing, b) have genuine intentions and c), have the money to put their plans into place. This is where the league needs to step in to protect these clubs – one of the more alarming facts to stem from this sorry mess was Bury owner, Steve Dale’s, business record. Out of the 51 businesses he had involvement with 43 have beenliquidated. Now I appreciate that the EFL were under pressure at the time to sort a deal for Bury out (Dale purchased the debt-ridden club from Stewart Day for £1), but based on that evidence alone, he should have never passed ‘the owner and directors test’ – you can get a good picture of his record by simply looking online.

So what can the EFL do? It needs to realise the true value of clubs. It needs to put in place new legislation to prevent things like high-interest loans from beingtaken out on football grounds. It needs a new way of deciding whether the guardians (because that’s what they are) have it within them to look after the club. It needs to find a way to have more supporter or local council involvement at board level to protect these community assets.

The Effect Football Has On The Local Community

Community assets are precisely what our football clubs are. Visualise what’s around the ground of your local club – there’s likely a plethora of shops, chippys, pubs, restaurants, hotels, etc. Even if your local ground is in the middle of nowhere, people will visit your town just to see a football match, perhaps even for the weekend – it may be the only reason that most visitors have in coming to your locality. So the local economy, people’s jobs and livelihoods are majorly impacted by the standing of the local football club.

Community is about families too. The busy lives we live may mean that we don’t see each other that often – football gives us that opportunity to get together and be a family. Family isn’t just about blood ties, either – football provides the means for mates, who have known each other for years, to get together to enjoy a common hobby and have a laugh. People can make new friends with those who they sit near – some people even fall in love after meeting at the football. Our clubs are the home for the family it has created and without them, our towns and lives would be poorer without them. This is why the EFL needs to put those changes in place to protect them.

My last visit to Gigg Lane was in 2015, as part of my ‘doingthe 92’ book project. Back then, things were looking positive for the club – I even commented on how previous owner, Stewart Day, was spending money, bringing in signings that would get them to League One and beyond. Oh dear.

As I was reading back at what I had experienced that day, this particular section seems somewhat poignant in the circumstances: 

As I take my seat in the main stand, the PA tells us that a man at the game today is celebrating his 100^th birthday (even he wasn’t born when they won the FA Cup) - in comparison, the (supporter) mascot is 5 years old. For me this is what some people who criticise the game don’t get about football - clubs like Bury are very-much rooted into their local communities, catering for all people, some of whom are 95 years apart. All we’ve heard in the last few weeks is about new television deals and high ticket prices, clubs like Bury show that football is for families, for everyone. 

Whatever happens to the club from here (the likelihood is that, without any re-admittance into the EFL, they will be wound up), I hope (I know) the supporters will group together and give the town a football club again. In the meantime, English football has got a lot to do to ensure that nothing like this happens again – the work starts now.

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Atherton Collieries vs. Warrington Town

After missing out on Atherton Collieries’ historic friendly against Saudi Arabian giants, Al-Ittihad the other week, the next best thing would be for me to attend their next historic match – Colls’ first (home) game at the 7^th level of English football. So I did.
 

With the Northern Premier League starting the weekend just gone, Colls’ reportedly put in a spirited performance to draw their opening Premier Division match 2-2 at Ashton United (Ashton-under-Lyne, by the way – not Ashton-in-Makerfield near me, where I saw the annual Joseph’s Goal Charity game at Ashton Town FC in May).

I’m catching the train from work; I’m lucky (?) enough to make a living in Wigan’s town centre, so the train stations are just a short hop away. The closest train to kick-off is due to set off for the 12-minute journey at 6:57pm, so after leaving work at 5:30, I nip to The Moon Under Water to treat myself to some jackbit – a ‘tuna and cheese Panini’ – the crème de la crème of the Wetherspoons menu.

Located barely a 10-minute walk away from Atherton station, Alder House (currently known as ‘The Skuna Stadium’ for sponsorship reasons) is neatly located behind the tightly-packed streets. On approach to the ground, I can hear the speaker booming out pre-match music; I wouldn’t like to live here – especially if I didn’t like football. Then again, I wouldn’t like to live right next to any football stadium – I enjoy the journey to the ground because, for me, the match starts as soon as you leave the front door of your house. That trip to the ground could be a 15 minute walk or a 5-hour cross-country drive or train trip; your destination is the stadium but so many thoughts and feelings, laughs and pints can be experienced along the way. Football is more than just what happens in the 90-odd minutes.

Atherton Collieries sum up the true spirit of a community football club.  Formed by local miners in 1916 as a means of providing those involved with the war effort some activity outside of work, the nationalisation of the mines in 1947 saw the club gifted to the town of Atherton.  To reflect their history, the club has kept the ‘Collieries’ suffix – being a fan of history and tradition myself (especially if it places a unquie spin on a club and its supporter base), I think that’s brilliant. Since then, they have continued to progress in local leagues, coming into prominence in recent years as they've won promotions from the 10^th tier to the 7^th in just 5 years.  Notably, current Wigan Athletic winger Anthony Pilkington spent some time here before leaving for Stockport, then Norwich City (playing in the Premier League for them) and Cardiff City.

Today’s opponents, Warrington Town, are highly-fancied this season; missing out on promotion last term, due to the restructuring of non-league which saw a confusing ‘Super Play-Offs’ introduced. Despite winning the Northern Premier League play-offs (normally meaning winning a place in the National League North), they had to face Southern League play-off winners, Kings Lynn. Sadly, they lost the final (played at their home ground) 2-3 after extra-time.

They’re an ambitious club, with designs on eventually reaching The Football League. When you consider that Warrington is one of the largest towns in the country without a Football League side (the Borough has a population of >200,000), the potential is there to grow a substantially-sized Football League club. Another great thing about football though, is that it can be a great leveller, making a mockery of such ‘advantages’ and having these two teams playing in the same league (Atherton has a population of just over 20,000, by the way).

With Bolton Wanderers’ midweek game against Doncaster being called off (the club were concerned about the welfare of their youth players, who have had to step up to play for the first-team due to their ongoing financial issues), Colls’ were offering Bolton supporters free entry to tonight’s match. There’s a few of them knocking about as I walk in – their Bolton club gear no doubt being worn in pride and defiance, despite the situation their club is in. I nearly got my Wigan season ticket out as a joke/to potentially gain free entry – then again, with many of the Colls’ committee members apparently being Bolton fans, they may have charged me more.

As I've not attended a non-league game for a while (only the tightly-governed professional matches), I forget about the novelty of bringing a beer out to the side of the pitch. My first port-of-call once through the turnstile is to Colls' clubhouse – and I see that sponsors Skuna make beer, so I get a pint of their ‘Smooth craft beer’. Not bad.

Speaking of sponsorship; Lupine Travel, a Wigan travel firm that’s known for its rather ‘off the beaten track’ tours, is sponsoring Colls’ training kit this season. With their Wigan-Pyongyang tour for next year booked up already, they have offered one from Atherton too – holidaymakers can take in a Colls’ game before embarking on the train journey that goes from Atherton to Wigan, London to Paris, across Western Europe to the East, through to China and eventually, North Korea . Like the Wigan trip, it sold out very quickly – but don’t worry if you’re intrigued as Lupine are running another tour from nearby Hag Fold after they (controversially, in my opinion), won a Twitter poll over my local Wigan train stop, Pemberton.

Whilst there are spots of rain in the air, I go and sit in the small stand by the entrance side of the ground. There’s another covered stand on the other side, with the rest of the ground open to the elements – Warrington have brought plenty of support and they’ve stood behind one of the goals, singing and banging a drum. The crowd immediately around me are a good mix of ages – from young kids with their replica shirts to an old lady sat next to me with her black-and-white Colls’ scarf on – again, summing up the community aspect of Colls’ and non-league football in general. It’s whilst sat here that I spot Lupine’s VISIT IRAQ advertisement hoarding behind one of the goals – apparently it's one of their more popular destinations. I just hope the net the ad sits behind will be the destination for some good goals tonight!

The two teams walk out to the tune of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ – through a rather extravagant Fly Emirates­­-branded retractable tunnel. It’s (obviously/probably) been donated to the club – and it does make me laugh as they don’t really need it. It doesn't even match up with the door to the changing rooms – the players even have to walk up some steps to get to them!

Colls’ start well; a shot from all of 25 yards hits the post, rebounding out to an attacker whose resulting header went just wide. Warrington took this as a warning and quickly endeavoured to take control of the ball – they seem very adept at switching the play from defence to attack quickly, leaving their opponents chasing shadows.

Warrington take the lead around the 25^th minute; a quick exchange of passes sees an attacker with a sight of goal, but before he can act upon it, he’s clipped and the referee blows up and points to the spot. The penalty was neatly converted past ex-Wigan youth keeper Theo Roberts – and just 3 minutes later, he was picking the ball out of the net again when Tony Gray headed home. “He’s bald but he doesn’t care, Tony, Tony Gray’ sing the Warrington contingent about their striker.

Colls’ waste a decent chance when a free-kick is crossed high into the Warrington penalty area and with a free header, the attacker doesn’t even get it on target. They were quickly punished – a thunderous strike from outside the Colls penalty area puts the visitors three goals up. Hard lesson to learn for the Premier League newbies here. “You’re just a bus stop in Wigan” sing the visiting supporters – bit harsh; they’re a train stop at least.

With the rains starting to come down hard during half-time, I was glad that I was able to nip for a cup of tea just before the break – I’m now snugly sat back in the stand whilst much of the 645 crowd are getting soaked. Some Warrington supporters come to sit in the stand just before the start of the second half, one of whom waxes lyrical about the size of the crowd that’s turned up – this sort of crowd would be decent for the National League North, let alone this division below it.

Warrington grab a fourth after an hour played, putting the game to bed – moments after Roberts made a great double-save, the ball was whipped back in and headed home. It’s just a question of ‘how many they’ll get’ now.

Or is it?

Colls’ haul themselves back into the game with two quick-fire goals – first a header from a corner sees the ball power into the top corner of the net and then a clumsy trip allows Gareth Peet to step up and smash home a penalty. The Colls supporters are buoyed now; shouting on their side, whilst those Warrington supporters sat nearby, are audibly nervous.

The match turns into a great watch in the last quarter as both sides are pushing for the next, crucial goal – I’m that invested, I decide to get involved. The ball is kicked out near us and bounces on the concrete. Despite the Warrington supporters pleas of ‘take your time’, I move quicker than The Flash to fag the ball and chuck it back to the Colls’ left-back. If they DO come back from this, I’ve played my part.

Into the last 10 minutes and Colls come within a whisker of getting their third – a shot from outside the area (visibly) rattles the post. You sense that was their last chance to set up a barnstorming finish – and it was. Warrington held on for a win that they (their supporters, anyway) probably thought they had wrapped up at half-time. They nearly didn’t.

On the way back to the station, I reflect on Colls’ performance, although seeming nervous at times, they did show promise. They played one of the promotion favourites tonight, after all, so a first half hiding off them shouldn't be that much of concern (more of a 'welcome lesson'). Everything I’ve experienced at the ground tonight was impressive and I hope Colls can establish themselves at this level and grow even more. 

I’m just hoping the train I’m on stops in Wigan and not North Korea; I’ve got work and more tuna-and-cheese Panini’s to eat tomorrow. 

Atherton Collieries 2

Warrington Town 4

Attendance: 645

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The New Football Season Cometh

As I’m writing this, the ‘start’ of The Football League and National League season is barely 15 hours
away (I say ‘start’, as Luton Town and Middlesbrough have just played out an enthralling 3-3 draw, live on the telly).

Nevertheless, in a few short hours, near enough a million people will be winging their way to football grounds across the country, walking, driving, catching the coach, train or tram. Supporters everywhere will be going out for the first time in their new replica shirts; singles, couples, families and mates.

Whilst on their way, they may stop off at a favourite pub, café, restaurant, shop, food stall, ice cream van (it has been warm!); supporting the businesses and communities that surround a football club. Chats will be had about the game, their hopes for the season aired, as dreams of success are created. The more technological fans will be taking photos of themselves, others, the scenes around the ground, posting them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat for everyone to know that the football season is back.

On arriving at their destination and before they take up their seat/spot, friends who haven’t seen each other since May will shake each other by the hand again, swapping stories of their summer. Pints will be sunk and pies will ate – as they await for the drama to unfold on the pitch.

The two teams will come out to applause that probably won’t be as loud for the rest of the season – those clapping are doing it enthusiastically after missing being at a game for so long. Then everyone will settle down to watch; all the new players and the old ones too. New managers playing new tactics, the old managers playing their usual ones – or perhaps something new. The opening game, especially, will be a dull affair or an exciting end-to-end slugfest – and we’ll love it either way. Perhaps there’ll even be a number of goalmouth scrambles to get excited about as well?

This is what the start of the season is for many of us, and we can’t wait!

Crusty The Pie – The Football Mascot We Didn’t Know We Needed, But Got

Just to rope in the name of this blog (again), it would be amiss of me not to celebrate my own team’s novel approach to supporter engagement (and marketing in general) for the new season. Crusty The Pie, the brand-new Wigan Athletic mascot, has been a social media sensation today. Covered on the BBC Sport website, Sky News, ESPN, even NBC in the States, Wigan’s perceived love of pies led to a club competition that saw two children create an amphomorphic pie, complete with his own kit that has ‘Crusty 8 The Pie’ on the back!

I must admit that I was slightly unnerved at first – as ever, I worry about how the decisions taken by the club would be perceived by the wider football community. Would it make the club look backward? No, the vast majority of people loved it – pies and football go hand-in-hand for some supporters and so you could say that Crusty is seen as an embodiment of what being a football supporter is about.

One of the reasons why I do get worried about this kind of thing, is that the 'Wigan is famous for pies' stereotype is born out of a reputation that has been manufactured – yes, we do have many independent bakeries and chain outlets selling the culinary delight, but so do many other towns in the North of England.

The ‘Pie Eaters’ moniker was created during the events of the 1926 general strike when Wigan miners were starved back to work, whilst their colleagues in Leigh, and other nearby towns, stayed put (easy to do so, when you’ve food to eat). Brilliantly, this furthering of the myth helps to get one over on those who tried to shame the town; as we take the name for ourselves, creating a culture which has ultimately seen Wigan’s children create a football mascot with!

From a marketing standpoint, it’s a genius move – the aforementioned news outlets have had tens of thousands of people liking, sharing and commentating on the story. There’s no real negatives to it – after all, it’s a mascot designed by kids, for kids – any adults getting upset over it should have think again, to be honest. As a (literal) Pie Eater, I’m just hoping the quality of the actual pies at the ground improves!

So here’s to a great season of repartee, entertainment, pints and pies – I’ll be kicking off mine tomorrow, with my season of groundhopping also starting very soon.

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Wigan Athletic vs. Everton/Wigan Athletic vs. Burnley - Pre-Season Friendlies

A ‘pre-season warm-up blog’.

So I've just got back from the second Wigan Athletic vs. ‘A Local Premier League Team’ pre-season friendly, and I’m feeling optimistic about my team’s chances this year. Both games were two completely different tests in terms of styles of football, both were draws and I felt that Latics coped well, perhaps even (arguably) shading both contests in the end.

In the lead-up to the Everton game, I was a bit disheartened in truth. No, it wasn’t because Everton were bringing over 8,000 supporters for their only UK pre-season friendly, effectively taking over the ground (why would I be? At £15 a pop, it means plenty of money in the club coffers!), but because, late last week, local Northern Premier League team, Atherton Collieries, had arranged an international friendly against 8-times Saudi Arabian Champions, Al-Ittihad  on the same evening as the Latics-Everton game.

I was genuinely gutted – imagine the groundhopping cred I would have got, covering that game! I’ll be honest here (as if I’m ever not…) – if I hadn’t have already pre-booked the tickets and arranged to go with a mate for the Everton game, I would have made the 15 minute train ride to Atherton instead!

Still, the clash against Everton was interesting enough. Marco Silva has been entrusted with building a side that can crack that BIG SIX caliphate, with big money and a new stadium promised to him in the bargain. I think it’s about time that Everton were given the opportunity to push themselves back to English football’s top table – they’re one of the country’s grandest clubs with a proud history and now it seems, an exciting future in which they can genuinely battle their Liverpool neighbours for prominence in the city, and beyond.

The majority of the action happened in the first half, with the best chance of the game falling to Wigan’s Josh Windass who turned away from a defender before firing a shot towards goal that England’s No1, Jordan Pickford, did well to turn wide. Everton, as you might expect, looked tidy in midfield, with new signing, Fabian Delph providing the solid base to work the ball from. Despite this, they didn’t create much up top – despite having Gylfi Sigurdsson, Andre Gomes, Bernard, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Theo Walcott in the starting side.

In fact, it was Wigan who came the closest to scoring – Antonee Robinson, signed from Everton on a permanent deal after a successful loan spell last season, sprinted down he left, his cross inches from being tapped in by Windass.

We decamp to the concourse for a half-time beer – the catering has vastly improved at the DW Stadium in recent years, with more food and drink options and reasonable (for a football ground) prices. There are plans afoot to transform the inner workings of The East Stand into a supporters bar, which is part of the club’s new owners’ plan to create more supporter engagement, as well as bring more revenue into the club. One thing I don’t suggest trying if you’re visiting this season, is the pies.

Forget the reputation, our pies are nowhere near ‘the best’ – they’re Pukka Pies for a start. There’s been a movement from supporters online to get local bakery Galloways (who have no less than THREE outlets in the town centre alone) to supply the pies – which would be a vast upgrade. The whole point of visiting a new ground is for the atypical experience it provides – having local firms make the pies (and beer) would give the whole experience of visiting a uniqueness. You can’t really have that if you’re left eating Pukka Pies and supping Fosters.

The second half naturally saw vast changes made to both sides, with both Latics and Everton testing out their younger players – Everton introduced former Wigan player and FA Cup Winner, James McCarthy – his first return to the DW since leaving for big money in 2013. Jamie Jones, Latics’ goalkeeper for the night, didn’t have much to do – although Everton probably had the best of the chances, as Kevin Mirallas saw an attempt blocked in the area, before seeing a late free kick fly just over the bar.

It finished 0-0 and a quite content crowd applauded off the players, whilst simultaneously rushing for exits in a Cannonball Run-style race to the outside. Despite believing that The Red Robin, our post-match pub of choice, would be packed with Everton supporters, we were pleasantly surprised to get served quickly. It was whilst supping my Strongbow (don’t judge me – I prefer Thatchers, but that’s all they had) that I found out through the magic of mobile internet that Atherton Colls ended up beating the Saudi giants 2-0! Oh dear.

Saturday saw Burnley come to town. The hot and humid conditions that had been battering down all week were replaced by battering rain – and just 12 minutes in, I thought Latics would get a battering. Burnley showed their Premier League quality early on; their vibrant one-touch passing cutting through the Latics’ defence like a sword through cake.

As the clock ticked past the five minute mark, Ashley Barnes released Johann Berg Gudmundsson down the left, clear of the defence, he elected to square the ball to an on-rushing Jay Rodriguez, who proceeded to slide it into a empty goal. ‘He’s one of our own’ sing the few hundred Burnley supporters in the East Stand – the striker has this summer rejoined his hometown club from West Brom after seven years away.

Six minutes later, Gudmundsson played a ball straight to Barnes on the edge of the Wigan penalty area, with a single touch, he laid it off to Dwight McNeil and the young midfielder brilliantly clipped it into the right-corner, leaving new Wigan No1, David Marshall, with no chance.

We’re in serious bother here, I’ve no qualms in saying – I’m even considering pulling this blog if the score ticks past 4-0. To add to my nerves, in quick succession McNeil has a shot blocked and Chey Dunkley muscles Barnes off the ball just as he’s about to shoot. Thankfully, Latics settled and started to put together a few passes, creating opportunities down the flanks – first, Windass (playing in his best position as a No10 – instead of the No9 he played against Everton), saw a shot go agonisingly wide of Tom Heaton’s post. Then Anthony Pilkington, a native of Blackburn, had a shot from just outside the penalty area go inches over.

Just before the half-hour mark, Latics get their reward – Windass brilliantly cuts inside from the left, fires the ball across the six-yard box where Pilkington is on hand to tap in. Not long later, Windass tried his luck from 45 yards when he saw Heaton had strayed off his line – luckily for him, the ball sailed a yard over.

The second half saw Wigan go with three centre-backs, partly in an attempt to strengthen the back-line but mostly to allow the full-backs the freedom to bomb forwards – and it worked a treat. Latics were (just about) the stronger side in the second-half and got their deserved equaliser.

Robinson is teasing the defence on the left again and this time he produces a low cross into the area to young Latics prospect, Joe Geldhardt, who takes his opportunity and fires it into the corner – producing the loudest cheer of both games! The England youth international is highly-rated here at Wigan, and being just 17 years old, he’s definitely a name you should look out for. Also on the pitch at this point is another 17 year-old, Jensen Weir (son of former Everton and Rangers centre-back, David) – another England (and Scotland!) youth international who has taken to his first team opportunity like a duck to water.

Both sides could have won the game in all fairness – at 19, McNeil looks a great player already and I do hope Burnley can keep hold of him so he can develop his game at a place he’s comfortable at. Speaking of being comfy, we decamp to The Red Robin again after the game to discuss what, for me, was the most entertaining 90 minutes I’ve seen for a while. In a way, you could argue that this result was better than the Everton draw – being 2-0 down to a settled Premier League side after barely 10 minutes must be disheartening at the best of times but the Wigan players showed some resistance against adversity, coming back to draw. This may just well be a worthwhile lesson come the season.

So that’s pre-season over, I’ve got my season ticket for next week’s opener at home to Cardiff City – but that’s not technically me groundhopping, so stay tuned for some of that very shortly!

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