Nottingham Forest 1-0 Porto  (UEFA Europa League Quarter Final) Folklore will forever tell us that in 1979 and 1980 Nottingham Forest won back-to-back European Cups. I was too young to witness the early days of Brian Clough’s magnificent historical tenure, but I did get to watch his later years in charge, by which time English clubs were banned from Europe due to the Heysel Stadium disaster. During that time, FC Porto won the first of their two European Cups in 1987, beating

Stourbridge 0-1 Needham Market  (Southern League Central Division) Stourbridge FC are 150 years old this year. Formed in 1876 they are nicknamed the Glassboys due to the areas long link to the cut glass industry, and they play at the brilliantly named War Memorial Athletic Ground in Amblecote, a village in Dudley Borough which is one mile directly north of the town centre of Stourbridge near Birmingham. I’ve never been here, until today, and I have never even seen Stourbridge

Alfreton Town 2-2 Buxton  (National League North) Tonight’s Derbyshire Derby is massive. If Buxton win, they will probably be in the playoffs, if Alfreton lose, they will most likely be down, a winner takes all opportunity? Would it be wise to predict a draw? In actual fact, nothing can be decided tonight, the two teams have a game in hand on most around them, ahead of the final two weekends of the National League North season, but victory means bridging the gap on those abov

Cleethorpes Town 2-1 Stockbridge Park Steels (Northern Premier League) It was former Grimsby Town midfielder Tommy Watson who formed Lincolnshire Soccer School in 1998, they would soon become LSS Lucarly before changing their name to Cleethorpes Town in 2008, Watson still to this day involved in mostly coaching the club's juniors. Since changing names a third time, the Owls have rapidly risen up the divisions from winning the Lincolnshire League and both Northern Counties Ea

Alfreton Town 1-0 Chorley (National League North) It's the business end of the season and time is running out for Alfreton Town who are down in the relegation places and fighting for survival in a division they have been in since 2015. Cut adrift it all looks a big ask if they are to stay up with seven points needed to gain even a punchers chance of keeping at the weight they are currently at, against Chorley tonight, they take on a team with little to play for but pride and

Scotland 0-1 Japan  (Friendly) I’ve cut short my enjoyment at Albion Rovers to beat the traffic and head down the M73 and M74 towards Hampden Park from Coatbridge, I’m wanting to get there a couple of hours ahead of kick off so I can park up in a little spot I know which has a decent exit strategy for getting back home to England 'more' quickly. My last viewing of Scotland was ‘that match’ against Denmark. I said to myself the journey was too long to keep doing but the money

Albion Rovers 0-1 Clydebank (Lowlands League) I've got a bit of time on my hands today ahead of Scotland's match with Japan later this afternoon so I'm thinking why not check out some potential games I can attend? Amongst them, Albion Rovers are at home to Clydebank in a 1pm kick off and the town of Coatbridge where Albion play is just twenty minutes from Hampden, pretty much enroute from Dundee, so an easy decision made, I'm out of my hotel for 11am and back down the A9 pas

Scotland U21 0-0 Czechia U21 (UEFA U21 European Championship Qualifiers) The price of fuel is going up, but my road trips seem to be getting longer, something probably has to give, it's time perhaps to stay local for a while, but before that, I'm travelling to Scotland, to cover the national team in both U21 and full internationals this weekend. The U21's are in Dundee tonight and the only ever previous time I have been in the city was when passing through on a train to cove

Morecambe 2-3 Hartlepool United (National League) Boston to Morecambe is just short of 200 miles so it's another lengthy road trip East to West between fifth tier stadiums as less than 24 hours do I watch one National League match between two evenly balanced teams, do I take on another viewing, between two with varied ambition this season. Morecambe are in a relegation battle after a turbulent couple of years, the Panjab Warriors expected bigger and better upon their late ta

Boston United 2-2 Altrincham (National League) It was a tale of two penalties the last time these two teams met earlier in the season at Moss Lane. Jordi Hiwula missed his spot kick for Boston on 32 whilst only four minutes later Elliot Osborne scored his, to give Altrincham a 1-0 home win in November. Tonight's game is likely to be another tight affair, Boston in thirteenth are a point above Alty in fourteenth but the Pilgrims did get beat 6-2 against Carlisle at the weeken

Leicester City 1-2 Aston Villa  (Women’s Super League) I raced back from Braintree last night to pick up a takeaway from Cuzina which is a nice Greek Restaurant close to the City Ground and Trent Bridge, home for 7:30pm the wife put the new Peaky Blinders film on Netflix and we both fell asleep to wake up and find Tommy Shelby was dead.   Spoiler alert! Today is another game of football and one at least a little closer to my south Nottingham home, half hour away in Leicester

Braintree Town 2-3 Scunthorpe United  (National League) I’m knackered today, after getting back from Denmark via Bristol around 9pm last night, I’m back down south for a National League match this afternoon, a couple of hours and more journey time I need to be heading off for 11am, so after a quick dog walk and recharge with full flask of coffee I’m heading to Essex, to watch a couple of sides I’ve seen a bit of this season. Nicknamed the Iron, Braintree are in the relegation

Midtjylland 1-2 Nottingham Forest (UEFA Europa League Round of 16 Second Leg) *0-3 pens aet Mid-Jutland is the central section of Denmark's largest peninsula. Translated to Midtjylland in Danish, the area is home to a team that was only founded as recently as 1999 when both Ikast FS and Herning Fremad joined forces. Based in Herning, Midtjylland are the region's formidable force and are one to be reckoned with amongst Europe's elite, having spent the last 25 years in the Sup

Leamington 0-1 Buxton (National League North) The start of a busy week as I head to Denmark for a Europa League match between Midtjylland and Forest on Thursday, before games at Braintree and Leicester over the weekend, I'm off to Boston then Morecambe next week before covering two Scottish international matches north of the border, the silly season is here as football compresses into the final few months where the business end separates the men (and women) from the boys (an

Alfreton Town 0-2 Peterborough Sports  (National League North) The games are coming thick and fast as we reach the business end of the season and perhaps under the grand scheme this is the most important non-league match I’ve covered so far in 2026, both Alfreton Town and Peterborough Sports are battling for their lives in the National League North relegation zone and should either lose ground on those above today, it’ll heap pressure on their survival chances with little mor

Nottingham Forest 0-1 Midtjylland  (UEFA Europa League Round of 16 First Leg) I really wanted to attend more of Nottingham Forest’s Europa League matches this season but at £60 a ticket I’ve been priced out of watching the club I’ve supported for well over 40 years. It’s not just me either? This week, the club came under scrutiny from fans who weren’t prepared to be ripped off, with thousands of unsold tickets ahead of the Reds second home match with Midtjylland this season,

Newcastle United 1-1 Barcelona  (UEFA Champions League Round of 16) It was the wife’s birthday over the weekend so no matches for me, luckily the wait is worth it as I was always pencilled in for this biggy between Newcastle and Barcelona in the Champions League. It’s my first UCL game of the season, I usually get a couple each year through UEFA but have had to bide my time as others in my position have been sent to the likes of Anfield and the Etihad whilst I’ve often got G