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Trying To Survive
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
Mar 169 min read


First Leg Second Best
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,
Mar 137 min read


All To Play For
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
Mar 118 min read


Spilt Tea
Boston United 2-2 Woking (National League) Woking have sacked their Manager Neal Ardley after a 1-0 defeat at Marine in the FA Trophy. I had thought Ardley was doing reasonably well having watched Woking win on the road a couple of times this season. The Cardinals went on an eleven game unbeaten run before Christmas but have since won just twice in the league and after four defeats in five games the team are starting to look over their shoulders. No such trouble for Boston w
Mar 47 min read


Winless Running
Scunthorpe United 3-3 Solihull Moors (National League) Another Saturday game and another trip to Scunthorpe United, as I head over to North Lincolnshire to see the Iron take on Solihull Moors, a team that I've not yet seen play this season. The Moors are solid in mid table but aren't in a great run of form right now, just one win in seven and that coming at lowly Morecambe a few weeks back. They did start the year in great form after a 4-1 win over Sutton before Christmas, t
Mar 27 min read


Getting Through
Nottingham Forest 1-2 Fenerbahce (UEFA Europa League Play Off Round) As a Forest fan and in doing a bit of freelance work for UEFA, I’ve been asking for a Reds Europa League game all season and finally, I’m given one, in truth I known about it well before the first leg win in Istanbul, in Vitor Pereira’s first game (against his old club) his new side put in a brilliant performance, to all but put this tie to bed. Forest won 3-0 in Turkey to give themselves a real advantage t
Feb 277 min read


Shots Rising
Braintree Town 1-2 Aldershot Town (National League) I’m back on the road again today, heading south-east, the only way is Essex, but before my match night in Braintree, I’m going to cut the grass, as we’ve had two days of sunshine after three months of rain and it’s finally now firm enough to take the weight of my mower. The Iron are struggling, five points below safety they sit fourth bottom of the National League and since watching them beat Eastleigh here last month, they
Feb 267 min read


The Brute-iful Game
Leamington 1-2 Merthyr Town (National League North) Two days ago I'm sat watching Luka Modric spray balls for AC Milan across the San Siro, tonight I'm in Leamington for the visit of Merthyr Town. How football can so quickly bring you back down to earth. I'm knackered, Monday was about return flight and recovery, flicking channels over to Walsall & MK Dons every time Everton had a corner in their awful match against Manchester United. I saw some complaints of the Premier Lea
Feb 258 min read


San Siro
AC Milan 0-1 Parma (Serie A) San Siro has long been on my bucket list, so when hearing of its devastating potential demolition within the next five years, I said to the Mrs, “We have to pay it a visit before it goes”. So at Christmas, I surprised the wife with a trip to Milan and with it, a couple of tickets to the football which was the only catch for me taking her with me. I chose this game as given the option of Inter or AC who both play at the iconic Stadio Giuseppe Meaz
Feb 248 min read


Buckaroo
AFC Telford United 2-2 Chorley (National League North) A new ground and a new club tonight, growing up in the 90’s Telford United were a regular on the Grandstand vidi-printer as Des Lynam read out the scores from the GM Vauxhall Conference. A fifth-tier club since the day the Alliance Premier League was formed in 1979, the Bucks stood for 24 years in the same division of English football until financial hardship in 2004. Liquidated with over £4m of debt, but with a brand sp
Feb 188 min read


Valen-Nine (Goals) Day
Scunthorpe United 3-6 Boston United (National League) It’s St Valentine’s Day, but not in my house, as I wake up alone tired and hungover from Redditch United and the night before, the Mrs has already sodded off to the gym, and I’m out the door early afternoon and gone for most of the day, back for my M&S meal for two however, by 6:30pm tonight. It’s derby day, of sorts, Lincolnshire verses Humberside, Boston and Scunthorpe is a match I’ve been lucky enough to regularly atte
Feb 158 min read


View Point
Redditch United 5-2 Barwell (Southern League Central Division) It's official, Redditch United have become only the second team in world football to go carbon neutral, matching the efforts of the world's first, Forest Green Rovers, for reducing their emissions footprint. Credit to the Southern League Premier Central Division side who are also doing ok this season in the playoff places, unbeaten in three, they come into tonight's game off the back of two good local derby wins a
Feb 147 min read


Late Penalties
Brackley Town 1-1 FC Halifax Town (National League) I've got the thermals on for a Wednesday night in West Northamptonshire to watch yet another National League game. The Saints of Brackley Town have been doing ok under the interim charge of centre half Gareth Dean, previous manager Gavin Cowan recently left to take the job at Shrewsbury Town at the end of last month, on a limited budget Cowan over-achieved with this small part time squad of players, having won the National
Feb 126 min read


Changes
Boston United 1-0 Gateshead (National League) I spent a lovely morning on Monday meeting the daughter and granddaughter of a former Nottingham Forest footballer who served in World War II for the Royal Navy, Arthur Hedley Williams was a seaman who also played for Bilsthorpe Colliery and Huthwaite CWS winning the Notts Alliance league title with both. I wrote a full article on the Nottingham Sport website about his amazing story which can be read here . Boston United are unde
Feb 116 min read


Top Addicks
Nottingham Forest 0-2 Charlton Athletic (Women’s Super League 2) Annoyingly my match at Brackley Town got called off yesterday, the weather in England is testing the soddened surfaces across the country with persistent depressing rain right now and it’s the second time in just a few days I’ve had a cancellation. I stayed in digs after the Forest Green match on Tuesday night, a quaint pub in the middle of the Cotswolds, to travel the following day down to Taunton, but luckily
Feb 86 min read


Video Analyst
Forest Green Rovers 4-2 Woking (National League) It’s a bit of a road trip today. I’ve got a last-minute game in Taunton added to my diary for Wednesday night so whilst in the South-West I may as well stop over on the Tuesday, I look for cheap rooms on Booking.com and find the Hunters Hall Inn in Kingscote at just £54 per night, just a ten minute drive from Nailsworth, the Cotswolds home of Forest Green Rovers FC. After a good start to the season FGR have dropped a little of
Feb 48 min read


Reds Given The Blues
Birmingham City 5-1 Nottingham Forest (Women’s Super League 2) Another Sunday watching Forest women, but this time it’s across the A42 and to Birmingham as I’m given the green light by the Mrs to work my two day weekend in the cause of our summer holiday fund. During the ‘Karen Carney’ years, Birmingham City were a major force in the English game, twice finishing Women’s Super League runners up, they won the FA Cup in 2012 and made a number of League Cup finals too. They had
Feb 28 min read


Six Roads To Braintree
Braintree Town 2-1 Eastleigh (National League) The games are coming thick and fast, a busy month ending in Essex ahead of plenty more action to come in February. I last visited Braintree on Bonfire night where there were plenty of fireworks, but not much on the pitch in a dire single goal defeat to Brackley, I’ve seen their results have hardly improved, Steve Pitt’s side have lost their last three, including a penalty shoot out defeat in the National League Cup at Truro City
Feb 18 min read


Jesus Walks On The Trent
Nottingham Forest 4-0 Ferencvaros (UEFA Europa League Group Stages) As I don’t often get the chance to watch them, I’ve been looking at ticket prices all week to see my team Nottingham Forest play their final Europa League group stage match of this season, they’ve already qualified for the playoffs, not much riding on this one, so it’s annoying to find out prices are around £60/70 per ticket for what is pretty much a meaningless match. A couple of seasons ago fans were moani
Jan 308 min read


Sports Stun Silkmen
Peterborough Sports 4-3 Macclesfield (National League North) Storm Chandra has been threatening to call matches off up and down the country today, but Pims Park is made of hardened stuff these days, a 1pm pitch inspection passed, it’ll be my first watch of Macclesfield FC, the team that beat the FA Cup holders Crystal Palace earlier this month. Formed as recently as 2020 after Macclesfield Town went bust, it’s been a rapid rise since local businessman Rob Smethurst brought t
Jan 288 min read
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