2022/23 Plans

To conclude my blogging for the 2021/22 season, I want to look ahead and think about my groundhopping plans for the 2022/23 season. However, this is perhaps easier said than done as it is not entirely clear what my financial situation is going to be like, with much depending on how soon I can get a job and what sort of job that ends up being. With that ambiguity hanging over me, I've decided to be a bit more ambitious with the plans I've drawn up so far in the hope that things go according to plan (and, in some ways, as an additional motivation for me to do what I can to make it happen).

I have drawn up a preliminary list of some of the grounds I want to visit next season, but I want to talk about a few of my broader goals for the season before getting into those specifics. One of these goals of mine is to visit more grounds at Step 3 and above next season, as I only visited one of those in my 29 groundhops this season (Lowestoft Town, who have of course since been relegated to Step 4 anyway). There are a lot of excellent grounds at those levels that I very much want to visit, so I hope to be able to strike a balance between those grounds and the grounds at Steps 4-6 that I usually focus on.

As an extension of that general point, I also want to visit at least two new grounds in the 92 next season to start making progress on that again. After Scunthorpe's relegation to the National League, I'm down to just 10 of the 92 ticked off and I want to start getting that number up a little again. With any luck, I'll be able to do an away game or two with Norwich in the second half of the season, but if not there are a few easy options I have my eye on in the lower leagues such as Stevenage and Mansfield Town.

Another of my big aims for next season is to do more away games with Yaxley. This season, I only managed eight, two of which were in cup competitions. Granted, I did miss out on two due to train issues (Spalding) and Storm Eunice (Shepshed), but I'm still a little disappointed to have not done more. Next season, there will be thirteen grounds in Yaxley's league that I've not yet visited, and if the fixture schedule is nice that could end up as fourteen as Cambridge City are set to move into their new ground next season. Either way, I'm hoping to at the bare minimum visit eight of these thirteen new grounds in the league, plus any new ones Yaxley head to in cup competitions. I'm also open to revisits on occasion, primarily around Bank Holidays or over the Christmas period when money for new ticks is tighter.

On the subject of local football, the promotion of Peterborough Sports could potentially give me the opportunity to tick off a few Step 2 grounds. As I understand it, they will be putting coaches on for away games and, depending on the cost of that, I'm hoping to follow them on the road a few times throughout the season.

That aside, my biggest plan for next season's groundhopping is one that is contingent on getting a job: once that happens, I aim to have a weekend away somewhere and get a groundhop or two (or more if the location allows) in while I'm at it. Currently, I've got three options in consideration for this: Edinburgh, Hastings or Axminster in Devon. Whichever I choose, this is unlikely to happen until near the end of the season due to needing a job and not wanting the weather to ruin things. However, I think something like this is perhaps a more realistic prospect for me in the early stages of the 2023/24 season, so I'd be content with another long trip or two like my two trips to Crook and Horden this season.

With all that laid out, here's a preliminary list I've drawn up of grounds to visit in the 2022/23 season:

First, I said earlier that I want to visit at least eight of the new grounds in Yaxley's league next season, so those five are just the ones I want to visit most. For Spalding, that's because of both locality and the annoying way I missed out on it last season. Harborough is another one I've chosen due to locality, while Dereham is one I'm interested in due to my family links in Norfolk and Halesowen is one I want to finally get ticked off after missing out every time Yaxley have played there so far (once because of the FA Trophy, once because of covid and once this season because it was on the weekend of my sister's birthday). And Gresley is the fifth due to their impending ground move. Hopefully I'll get all five of those and several others ticked off next season, but it depends entirely on when the fixtures end up being scheduled (I'm worried that Dereham away will be on Boxing Day or something ridiculous like that).

The three I've written down as visiting Peterborough Sports are a lower priority than Yaxley away games, so if any of those three clash with a Yaxley away game I'm more interested in I'll have to miss out. Of the three I have written down, I'm interested in Leamington currently because it's in the absolute middle of nowhere and is otherwise impossible on public transport (and therefore otherwise impossible for me currently), while Hereford is basically just representative of my desire to visit any of the ex-FL teams in the National League North. Bradford (Park Avenue) is another that's a little tricky on public transport and is one I expect to be less popular.

That aside, I've written down two National League grounds in Wealdstone and Dagenham & Redbridge. The former is one I had intended to visit this season due to their cheap tickets for 18-23 year olds (just £8 for National League football), but having missed out this season I'll have to do it in the early stages of next season instead if I want to take advantage of that (though it won't be the end of the world if I don't). As for Dagenham & Redbridge, I have noticed that they always do one game a season where they only charge £5, so I want to make sure I take advantage of that next season to tick it off. Alternatively, they hold a lot of cup finals in May each season, so that's another option to tick it cheaply.

As for the rest, Stevenage is there as a representative of my desire to tick at least one ground in the 92 next season, while Honiton Town represents my ambition for another couple of long trips on the train next season. The rest are either grounds that have been on my radar for a while (such as Railway Athletic, while they're still playing at Boston United's former ground), or ones that are local or cheap on the train. The only one I should perhaps explain more is that, while I could do King's Lynn Town with Peterborough Sports, I imagine it'll be cheaper to tick that off on the train and when they get a home draw in a cup competition and charge less for admission (as happened when they played Peterborough Sports in the FA Trophy last season).

Well, that turned out to be a considerably longer ramble than I had intended. Either way, that's that for my blog this season but, pending Yaxley's pre-season schedule and the rumours of a massive nationwide railway strike in the summer, I'll be back in early July for the start of the 2022/23 season. In the meantime, I'll be working on refining my document on grounds to visit by train to give me more options on that front and hopefully save myself a little bit of money on my travels next season.

Thanks for reading everyone, and see you again in July.

2021/22 Review

So, here we are. For the first time since 2019, a season of non-league football has been completed. The full slate of promotion and relegation has happened and clubs will finally be able to progress after being stuck in place for a few years. From a personal perspective, I finally got properly back into groundhopping after doing basically none in the 2020/21 season between lockdowns. And so, with that being the case, I've decided to do a full season review to celebrate and to help tide me over until the new season starts again.

Regular readers of my blog will have noticed a running theme in my entries: train issues. I rely either on lifts or public transport to get to games, so I use trains for a lot of my groundhops and that has posed quite a few issues this season. At its worst, I missed out on Yaxley's game away at Spalding before Christmas due to staff shortages (thanks, omicron!) cancelling my train, but thankfully that was a one-off. Still, trains being late was a consistent trend this season, with it seeming to be the case that incremental delays are just normal now and more significant delays are no longer the rarity they used to be.

Even with those issues, I got a good amount of groundhopping done this season with 29 new ticks added to the list and 19 new programmes added to my collection. Not everything ended up going to plan, not least in terms of how few Yaxley away games I ended up going to (just 8 overall, and only 6 in the league), but I did a lot of interesting things along the way. Undoubtedly, my most notable trips were the two long trips up to County Durham to visit Crook Town and Horden Community Welfare, the latter being especially significant given how it is going to change over the summer.

Those ambitious trips were fairly reflective of my overall approach to groundhopping this season, in that I wanted to do some more northern ticks after three years of University and ticking loads of grounds in the south. My visit to Crook was also significant for being the first time I used a bus for part of my journey to a ground: prior to this season, it wasn't something I'd even thought to try, but now I've got the confidence to do it and open up a whole load of new options for me next season.

Another change I made to my groundhopping approach also came from one of those long trips up north: after doing so when I visited Horden, I've now started to write my match reports on my phone on the way back from most of my groundhops. This doesn't sound like a major change, but it's been a definite improvement as far as I'm concerned. It allows me to pass the time more effectively on the journey back while also ensuring I'm writing while the match is fresh in my mind. Most importantly, it means rushing around less when I do get back home, as I don't have to write the entire thing from scratch and sort my photos out while also trying to fit in dinner, a shower etc.

A few smaller, interesting things also happened here and there on my travels this season. For instance, I won a half-time raffle for the first time at Diss Town, recouping my matchday costs in the process. Sure, that meant I only won a tenner, but that's still something that takes a fair bit of luck. I was also used to mark where a throw-in should be taken at Radford back in January, which was a bit of a strange moment (not least because of the coincidence needed for the ball to just happen to go out directly in front of where I was standing).

There's a lot more I could go on about, but I don't want to turn this into too much of a ramble. Instead, I've come up with some awards to show appreciation to the best experiences I had this season: these awards will cover best ground visited, best backdrop, best match (as a neutral and with Yaxley as two separate awards), friendliest club (again, as a neutral and with Yaxley as two separate awards) and best food. I'm sure my regular readers can come up with good guesses for most of these, but without further ado let's get right into it:

Best Ground

No surprises here, The Sir Tom Cowie Millfield of Crook Town was by far the best ground I visited this season, absolutely oozing with history everywhere and more than worth the long trip up north to get there. The main stand is a thing of beauty and the covered terrace next to it is a very interesting structure too, but there are plenty of smaller touches too that make it special like the excellently-named "Only Food and Sauces" food hut next to the stand. Absolutely worth a visit and I'm so glad I got to tick it off this season.

Honourable mentions for this award go to Atherstone Town and Canvey Island: the former has been one I've wanted to get to for a long time and is undoubtedly deserving of higher than 10th tier football, while the latter was a pleasant surprise that I wasn't expecting to get to anytime soon (the standing terrace behind the near goal was a particular highlight).

Best Backdrop

As well as the facilities at a ground, I've started paying attention to the surroundings of the grounds I visit this season, thanks in part to reading Mike Bayly's excellent book British Football's Greatest Grounds after getting it for Christmas. Unsurprisingly, it is one of the grounds featured in that book which wins this award: Belper Town's Christchurch Meadow. Behind one goal you have the church which (presumably) gives the ground its name, as well as the town of Belper built into the hills. Behind the other goal, you have a much more rural view of the hills of the Derwent Valley. But the thing that well and truly sets this ground apart is the imposing East Mill building towering over the ground, and it all comes together for a special groundhopping experience.

Honorable mentions here go to Fisher and Belstone. In Fisher's case, an otherwise-bland ground is redeemed by the view of the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf that can be seen behind one of the goals. Meanwhile, Belstone was set in the nicest rural location I visited this season, surrounded by trees and also made more interesting by the presence of a massive pylon behind one of the goals on the second pitch directly next to the main one.

Best Match (Neutral)

This one was a little more difficult to decide on, as all I really have to go off is the match reports I have written on this blog and the little summaries I post at the end of each one. I'm sure some of the matches I attended as a neutral have highlights posted somewhere online, but I just decided to read through my reports and go off of gut feeling rather than going on a wild goose chase for highlights that likely don't exist.

Based on that gut feeling, the winner of this award is Horden Community Welfare 4-2 Jarrow. In my report and summary, I mention being very impressed by the quality of attacking play from both teams for a 10th tier match and I think that's enough to elevate it above other matches I attended as a neutral this season.

My honourable mentions here are Desborough Town 2-2 Rugby Town and Warboys Town 3-2 Wisbech Town Reserves, with both sounding like real topsy-turvy encounters with plenty of drama to take note of (including a last-minute equaliser for Desborough).

Best Match (Yaxley)

By contrast, I had a very easy time deciding which match to highlight here (not least because all that matters to me here is the result rather than actual entertainment value) as one stood well above the rest as not just the best Yaxley match I attended this season, but quite possibly one of my all-time favourites: Lowestoft Town 2-3 Yaxley. The first time I've seen us on the right side of a cupset and it was a fantastic experience. Nerve-wracking, but utterly fantastic and it will definitely live long in the memory (not least because there are highlights available online that I can rewatch whenever).

Honourable mentions here to the smash and grab that was our 1-2 win away at Stamford and to our impressive 3-1 win against Spalding United at the start of the season, the latter being quite possibly the best overall performance I've ever seen from a Yaxley team.

Friendliest Club (Neutral)

In my neutral groundhops, I don't try to make a huge fuss of myself to get special treatment from the clubs I visit. Usually, I just post on Twitter to confirm where I'm going and when I arrive, but I tend to stick to myself once I'm there rather than making a huge fuss about being a groundhopper. This approach means that cases where a club go above and beyond to welcome me/make me feel welcome really stand out.

And that was definitely the case with Belstone, who were quite possibly one of the friendliest clubs I have ever visited. While some special treatment did come into play (getting a lift from the station to the ground and getting free drinks and admission courtesy of Lee), it was also because multiple supporters, club officials and players were very friendly and eager to have a chat. It's not an experience I'm used to, but one I'm very glad I had and more than enough to wholeheartedly recommend paying them a visit next season.

For this award, I have three honourable mentions rather than the usual two, with one being a club I only encountered through their away fans. The first is Langford, as I remember their gateman being very friendly as I came into the ground. Blackstones were also friendly, but I think that's at least in part because there are quite a few people I know who are involved behind the scenes there.

As for that third honourable mention, even though I only encountered them as away fans, I was very impressed with Jarrow and a group of their supporters called the Hackle Hecklers: they were a vocal group who provided a great atmosphere throughout the match with their repertoire of good-natured songs in support of their team. That experience alone has made me want to pay Jarrow a visit soon and get the full experience.

Friendliest Club (Yaxley)

Whenever I go to an away game with Yaxley, I am able to get boardroom hospitality and this makes for a very different experience to visiting the club as a neutral. As every club I visit this way is friendly, deciding on one that stood out above the rest wasn't exactly easy. In the end, I decided to give this award to Lowestoft Town as I do remember them being especially welcoming as we arrived and also very gracious in defeat (even though it must have been a very difficult result for them to take).

Honourable mentions here go to Belper Town and Histon, both of whom I noted down as being especially friendly on our visits this season.

Best Food

And now for this year's final award, one that will no doubt make Footy Scran on Twitter happy. However, this was another difficult one as I haven't taken the best notes for a lot of the football food I've eaten this season (mostly just noting down what I ate, rather than any thoughts on it). However, there are a few exceptions to this, and it is one of those that takes this award: the steak pie and chips with gravy I had at Horden Community Welfare (£3). It was a sizable portion that was excellent value for money and very tasty to boot (so much so that I could forgive that a very small section of the pie crust was burned).

The first honourable mention here goes to the cheese toastie and chips I had at Stotfold (£3.20). The main reason I chose to mention this (beyond the fact that it was a good toastie, despite using very thin bread) is to highlight the fact that Stotfold offer a far more diverse range of food options - including mini pizzas, scampi, chicken nuggets and much more - than most non-league clubs do. Obviously, there's practical reasons why most clubs keep it simple on this front (i.e. cost), but it would be interesting to see more clubs experiment beyond the usual choices of pies and burgers.

My other honourable mention here goes to the cottage/shepherd's pie I had at Lowestoft Town (free) as part of the boardroom hospitality before kick-off. I feel bad for not remembering which of the two it was, but it was very nice either way.

Closing Thoughts

Other than a couple of minor negative experiences throughout the season, this was a thoroughly enjoyable season of groundhopping and I'd just like to thank every club I visited this season for their hospitality and entertainment, not just those I gave awards to above. I would also like to congratulate all the clubs I visited who have subsequently gone on to win promotion after having such ambitions stalled for the last two years.

Next weekend, I'll round off my blog for the season with an entry talking about some of my plans for the 2022/23 season and then that'll be it until July. Thank you to everyone who has read my blog this season, especially those who have propelled my Lowestoft Town and Crook Town entries up to being my two highest-read entries ever.

Belstone - The Medburn Ground

Belstone FC
The Medburn Ground
Watling Street
Radlett
Hertfordshire
WD6 3AB

Official Website
Twitter

Ground: 141
Date: Saturday 14th May 2022
Belstone 3-0 Wingate & Finchley Development
Hertfordshire Senior County League Premier Division
Attendance: 83

Belstone - History

Belstone were founded in 1983 as a Sunday team and moved into Saturday football at the start of the 2009/10 season after years of success in the Marathon and Harrow Sunday Leagues; they won at least some silverware in all but the 2000/01 season before moving into Saturday football. The Saturday team joined Division 1 of the Hertfordshire Senior County League and finished 6th in their first two seasons, before finishing as runners-up in the 2011/12 season to earn promotion to the Premier Division.

They have remained in the Premier Division ever since, finishing 10th in their first season at this level but quickly becoming one of the league's strongest teams. They won their first Premier Division title in the 2014/15 season and finished as runners-up in the seasons before and after this. They started to slip down to mid-table after that second runners-up finish, but the two covid-curtailed seasons allowed them to rebuild and then win their second Premier Division title this season. The club applied for promotion to Step 6 this season as well, but delays to planning permission being granted look set to halt those ambitions for at least another year.

Outside of league success, their Saturday side won their first silverware in the 2013/14 season when they won the Hertfordshire Senior Centenary Trophy for the first time. They also won the Aubrey Cup in the 2017/18 season and the Pauline Mary Fox Trophy in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons.

My Visit

After last weekend's groundhop, I knew I had one more in me for the season, but that wasn't always the case. Instead, my initial plan had been to get in two more by getting a lift to Moulton Harrox's home game in the Peterborough & District League yesterday and then heading somewhere on the train next weekend (most likely Kew Park Rangers in south London).

However, this plan was scrapped a couple of weeks ago when I tried to confirm where that Moulton Harrox game would actually be played (as it wasn't listed as their usual home ground on Full-Time): I asked them on Twitter and was told that it was neither being played where Full-Time said nor at their usual home ground, but they did not say where it was actually being played instead when I asked. I also later noticed that they had previously ranted on Twitter about that "meaningless league game" being arranged, so that plan was scrapped (I have since noticed that the game unsurprisingly was not played).

With that being the case, I did have another look to see if there were any other games at new grounds I could get a lift to on the 14th to still allow me another groundhop on the 21st, but there were no suitable options and so I had little choice but to settle for just one final groundhop for the season on the 14th.

So, with an absolute maximum budget of £30, I headed onto Full-Time to look at various Step 7 leagues and see what options I would come out with. My initial shortlist contained Kew Park Rangers, Stonewall, Dunnington and Wakefield, with Dunnington being the most expensive option and the two in London comfortably being the cheapest.

I was very much undecided on where I wanted to go from these four options, but I initially felt myself narrowly leaning towards Dunnington despite it being both the most expensive to get to and the least substantial ground in terms of facilities. To make sure I didn't rush into a decision on impulse, I ultimately decided to at least wait until after writing up last week's blog entry to decide. However, by that point the only decision I had reached was that I didn't want to head anywhere on the London Underground, so I removed the two London options from my shortlist and searched once more for other options.

In the end, I posted about my final four options (Dunnington, Wakefield, this and LIV Supplies) on Twitter and asked a couple of questions about some of them to confirm a few things to help me make my decision. In doing so, I received an almost-immediate reply from Belstone and I got chatting to them about a few things. Their friendliness from the start very quickly made my decision an easy one and I ordered my train tickets on Monday for just short of £20.

After dealing with the surprise confirmation of the provisional 2022/23 league constitutions on Thursday, I got to writing up the club history on Friday and carried out the rest of my usual preparations for my final groundhop of the season. Yesterday didn't get off to the best of the starts, though, as I'd had a poor night's sleep due to the alarm at the school across the road going off at 5:30am. I was able to get back to sleep after that, but it wasn't a great sleep so I started the day with quite low energy.

My first train of the day left Peterborough at 11:25am and, despite running into some traffic again on the way into Peterborough, I was dropped off with plenty of time to spare for the slow journey into London St. Pancras. At around 12:45pm, I arrived in London and headed across to the other platform for my train, although I had a half-hour wait due to how all the timings had worked out.

From there, it was a half-hour train journey to Radlett station, where I got picked up by Belstone coach Lee as we had spoken about earlier in the week. This meant I arrived at the ground at around 1:40pm, considerably earlier than would usually be the case (as I had originally booked my tickets with the half-hour walk from station to ground in mind) and the welcome from all the club officials was very warm as I headed into the clubhouse.

At this point, I was pleasantly surprised when Lee offered to cover both my admission to the game and any drinks that I wanted in the clubhouse throughout the afternoon, so I asked for a bottle of Älska Nordic Berries cider and sat down in the clubhouse while drinking it. The league trophy was on a table in the clubhouse, so I made sure to grab a photo of that as well in the time I had before kick-off.

The Hertfordshire Senior County League Premier Division trophy

While waiting for kick-off, I got a free teamsheet from Lee, got chatting to several other supporters and club officials who had known I was coming and took a few other photos from inside the clubhouse (something I usually neglect to do on my groundhops, at least in part because I don't often head inside them).

Eventually, at around 2:40pm, I decided to head out to do my usual circuit of photos before heading back into the clubhouse for another cider to drink during the first half. For the first half, I watched the game from one of the benches in front of the clubhouse, whereas I spent the second half watching from next to the home dugout.

This was the teamsheet Belstone posted on Twitter, whereas the ones Lee gave out featured little bits of information about some of the players. I saw no teamsheet from Wingate & Finchley, though.

Though both teams made a slow start, it was champions Belstone who drew first blood in the 18th minute when Jamal Adu found space on the left to run into the box and chip over the Wingate & Finchley keeper. This saw Belstone take control and they came close to doubling their lead twenty minutes later: Dene Gardner shot low from the edge of the box, but the keeper managed to push it wide for a corner. While I was noting that chance down, Belstone took the corner and doubled their lead with a free header from Eyituoyo Akinbulumo.

Belstone continued to dominate in the second half and took just six minutes to add their third and final goal of the afternoon: an excellent ball over the top found Tommy Pidgeon and he cut inside before placing his shot in the bottom corner. The rest of the half saw Belstone create plenty of chances as they sought more goals, but no more came and it finished 3-0. In the 90th minute, Wingate & Finchley found themselves down to ten men as their 17 was sent off for a high tackle.

A decent game of football to end my season on. Despite having rotated a fair bit to give some of their younger players some game time (as Lee was telling me beforehand), Belstone were well on top throughout and good value for the win. They definitely stepped up a level in the second half when they brought their usual first-team players on from the bench though. Either way, both teams were keen to play football the right way and it was a good-natured contest too apart from that late sending-off.

In a break of play late in the second half, I had noticed that my planned train back to Peterborough from St. Pancras had been cancelled, so I could stay behind after the full-time whistle to see the title celebrations. While we waited for everything to be ready for those to start, I started checking train times to see what train I would be aiming for at St. Pancras and hence how long I'd be able to stay for.

In truth, though, I was happy to be able to stay behind and see Belstone celebrate their success this season after such a warm welcome from everyone at the club (probably one of the friendliest clubs I have ever visited while groundhopping, in fact): I wish them the best of luck next season and sincerely hope they can get everything they need sorted so they can fulfil their ambitions of moving up to Step 6 next season or beyond, as they definitely deserve it.

After the main part of the celebrations was finished, I headed back into the clubhouse to watch the final few minutes of the first half of the FA Cup Final before starting my 25-minute walk back to the station. As it turned out, I could have gotten an earlier train had I left a few minutes earlier and hence gotten an earlier train back to Peterborough, but that wasn't the case.

Instead, I got the 6:45pm Thameslink to Peterborough and ended up arriving at around 8:20pm after a fifteen-minute delay between Finsbury Park and Stevenage. It was then a taxi back home and this meant I made it back into the house at around 8:40pm, close to an hour later than I had originally planned. This meant I had to rush around a bit to fit in a shower, dinner and getting my photos sorted before my usual Saturday evening Discord call.

While this was my final groundhop of the 2021/22 season, I'm not done with blog entries this season just yet. Instead, I'll have two more to post in the next week or two: one will be a review of my 2021/22 season (best game, best ground, friendliest club etc.) and the other will be an early look at some of my groundhopping plans for the 2022/23 season. But after that, there won't be anything for me to add to the blog until early July when I'll get my groundhopping back underway again.

The Ground

The Medburn Ground is a good ground for Step 7 set in a lovely rural location. There is a small covered stand on the near side which is primarily used for standing but contains a few seats at the back. Additional uncovered seating is provided in the form of some benches in front of the clubhouse and a couple on the dugout side.

There is hard standing on three sides of the ground, though there is plenty of space to add far standing behind the goal in future. The clubhouse is positioned behind the near goal, while the near side and far goal are bordered by trees. Trees also border some of the dugout side, but not all of it due to the presence of a second pitch next to the main one (this second pitch has a massive pylon directly behind one goal).

There is much the club need to do to make the ground meet Step 6 grading criteria, but they are confident that planning permission will be approved in future. And as Roffey's ground shows, they can definitely make this meet those criteria without compromising the lovely rural feel it currently has.

Photos

Hucknall Town - Watnall Road

Hucknall Town FC
Watnall Road
Hucknall
Nottinghamshire
NG15 6EY

Official Website
Twitter (Reserves)

Ground: 140
Date: Saturday 7th May 2022
Hucknall Town Reserves 1-4 Radford Reserves
Nottinghamshire Senior League Division 1
Attendance: 72

Hucknall Town - History

Hucknall Town were founded in 1943 as Hucknall Colliery Welfare and changed to their current name in 1987. By this point, the club were playing in the Notts Alliance League and they won the title in the first two seasons under the new name. This saw them move up to the Central Midlands League and their success continued, with back-to-back league titles in their first two seasons in this league followed by a runners-up finish in the 1991/92 season.

This earned the club promotion to Division 1 of the Northern Counties East League and they earned an immediate promotion to the Premier Division by finishing as runners-up. Their upwards momentum was halted for a few seasons as they initially finished in the bottom half, but they improved to a 6th-place finish in the 1996/97 season and then won the title the following season to earn promotion to Division 1 of the Northern Premier League.

Their first season at this new level was another successful one as they finished as runners-up to earn promotion to the Premier Division, only missing out on the title on goals scored due to having points deducted. They took a couple of seasons to adjust at this level, but they soon won the title in the 2003/04 season and were promoted to the newly-formed Conference North; they should have been promoted to the Conference Premier that season due to restructuring, but had to settle for the North due to ground grading.

The club finished a respectable 10th in their first season in the Conference North, but this signalled the peak of their fortunes and they started to slip down the table in the next few seasons before finishing bottom in the 2008/09 season to be relegated back to the Northern Premier League; they would have been relegated the season before if not for the demise of Halifax Town. Another relegation followed two seasons later and, after two seasons in Division 1 South of the Northern Premier League, financial difficulties saw the club voluntarily relegated three levels to the Central Midlands League South Division.

After finishing 13th out of 17 teams in their first season at this level, fortunes quickly improved and they alternated between finishing 4th and 3rd for the next few seasons before winning the title in the 2018/19 season to earn promotion back to Step 6 in the East Midlands Counties League. After covid caused the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons to be declared null-and-void, they were transferred to Division 1 of the United Counties League for the 2021/22 season and finished 5th. This saw the club compete in the promotion play-offs, but they lost to Hinckley in the semi-final. Their Reserves spent the 2021/22 season in Division 1 of the Nottinghamshire Senior League, two levels below the first team.

The club have a good track record in the FA Cup, reaching the 4th Qualifying Round six times in the 2000s. The most recent of these runs came in the 2006/07 season when they beat Lincoln United and Nuneaton Borough before losing to King's Lynn Town. The club have also reached the final of the FA Trophy in the past: in the 2004/05 season, they beat Bracknell Town, Radcliffe Borough, Southport, Northwich Victoria, Cambridge City, Hereford United and Bishop's Stortford before losing to Grays Athletic in a penalty shoot-out in the final. As for the FA Vase, their best run came in the 1985/86 season when they reached the Quarter Finals: they beat Irlam Town, Coventry Sporting, St Dominics and Blue Star before losing to Warrington Town.

My Visit

Much of what I discussed in last week's entry about my planning for these late-season groundhops also applies in this instance, except I had come to a final decision much more quickly and it was that final decision which influenced my decision-making last week: after considering such options as Wakefield and Willenhall Town, I ended up deciding on a visit to Linby Colliery Welfare.

Making my decision so early allowed me to order my train tickets early, spending just £8.35 on advance tickets to and from Nottingham compared to the usual £17 or so it would cost. I had also considered getting train tickets from there to Hucknall, but the timings didn't really work out and I decided it would instead be easier to use the tram to get there. This approach also meant that if the weather took a turn for the worse and matches were postponed, I could very easily adjust to one of the many other options available in the Nottingham area.

One of my back-up options was Hucknall Town due to their recent announcement that they are set to move to their new ground in September. I knew this was happening fairly soon after having been in the works for years, but not so early into the 2022/23 season. Despite this, it wasn't my first choice as it was their Reserves playing rather than their first team, and I'd have preferred to save it until a first-team game early next season.

However, that all changed on Wednesday when, while pondering options for my final groundhop of the season, I noticed that Linby's game had been moved to a 2pm kick-off (and this was confirmed by the club when I commented about it on Twitter). Having already ordered my train tickets, I was set to arrive in Nottingham at around 1:40pm, so I knew I had no way to make it to Linby in time for kick-off.

With that being the case, I decided that I would head to Hucknall Town instead to get the current ground ticked off before it goes and to give me more freedom of choice in the first month or two of the 2022/23 season. As such, I wrote up the club history on Friday and had a look at the tram timings to try and gauge what time I would get to the ground and whether I would have time to pop across the road and look at the new one being built or not.

We ended up leaving the house just before 12pm yesterday and, despite running into some traffic on the way into Peterborough (presumably due to Peterborough United's early kick-off), I was still dropped off at the train station with ten minutes to spare, more than enough time to collect my train tickets and get onto the train. Much like last week, I had around an hour on the train so I took the time to have lunch before arriving in Nottingham on-time.

From Nottingham station, it was just over half an hour on the tram to Hucknall at the very end of line, and from the tram stop it was a further twenty-minute walk to the football ground. As I approached the ground, a club official came out looking for a ball and I followed him in stepping over a small bit of fencing into the car park (rather than walking a few hundred yards further down the road to find the actual entrance). I then took a few photos from outside of the ground before figuring out where to go to get into the ground itself.

With this being a Reserves game, admission was free and so I went straight into my circuit of photos before heading into the bar for around ten minutes before kick-off to get out of the heat. Once I headed back outside just before kick-off, I chose somewhere to sit in the shade in the main stand and quickly became very glad I'd brought a jumper and light jacket with me as it was considerably colder in the shade. On the bright side, this seat gave me a great view of attacks in the nearby goal and I decided to do something I haven't done in ages: take photos during the match.

Radford were the better side from the start and quickly took control of this match, but for much of the first half they were sorely lacking that final bit of quality in the final third. Their first good chance came in the 17th minute when their 10 poked 11's cross over the crossbar. In the 33rd minute, Hucknall almost scored a comical own goal when a defender tried to head the ball back to keeper but put too much power on it and sent it over the keeper's head. Fortunately, the keeper got a finger to it to push the ball narrowly wide of the post.

Then, two minutes later, the Hucknall defence found themselves in trouble again as they failed to clear a succession of Radford attacks, with 6 eventually putting a shot inches wide of the post. Radford finally made all their pressure pay off by taking the lead in the 39th minute: a corner was whipped in and Jay Bugg managed to get his head on it to send the ball beyond the Hucknall keeper.

Radford remained on top in the second half and could have easily made it 0-2 in the 53rd minute: their 10 was picked out by an excellent through ball and he ran into the box before squaring to 11 for what should have been an easy tap-in, only for the Hucknall keeper to somehow manage to keep it out. Hucknall weren't so lucky five minutes later, though, as a deep cross from Radford's 6 was headed by Hucknall's 5 into his own net.

It was 0-3 moments later as Radford's 11 - a consistent live wire that Hucknall couldn't deal with - found some space on the right wing and took full advantage, hitting a low cross into the box for Ash Dixon to tap in. While the game was very much over as a contest at this point, Radford still wanted more goals and continued to bombard the Hucknall defence as they sought a fourth goal.

That fourth for Radford came in the 76th minute as a free kick was poked in at the near post by Bugg. Five minutes later, Hucknall scored a controversial consolation as Ryan Butler ran onto a through ball and placed his shot low beneath the Radford keeper. Despite the club linesman flagging for offside (and it looked fairly clear-cut to me from my position in the stand), the referee overruled him and awarded the goal. This seemed to slightly rejuvenate Hucknall and they had a couple more decent chances in the closing stages, but without being able to further reduce the deficit.

The moment that Jay Bugg gave Radford a first-half lead

This was one of the more one-sided games I've seen as a neutral this season, with Radford Reserves dominating from start to finish and deservedly coming out on top. Only some poor decision-making at times (something that could be said of both teams) stopped them from winning by a greater margin. Either way, this is the third time I have seen a Radford side play this season (having visited their ground in January and seen them away at Blackstones a week later) and they've won all three times, scoring ten goals and conceding just two. I was also particularly impressed with their number 11 yesterday as he provided a constant threat on the right wing and deservedly racked up two assists as well.

Even though we didn't kick off here until 3:05pm, a short ten-minute half-time break and minimal added time in either half meant that the full-time whistle blew at around 4:45pm. This was a little earlier than I had expected, which meant I had plenty of time to go across the road and see how their new ground on Aerial Way is progressing. From what's been built so far, it looks like it will be a pretty impressive facility in its own right, though I will be impressed if they do manage to have it ready to go by September as it looks like there's still a lot that needs to be done in the next four months to achieve that.

Once that was done, I walked back to the tram stop and arrived there just as a tram was pulling in. On the way back to Nottingham station, I plugged my phone into my power pack to get it charging while I checked Twitter and BBC Sport to see how things had progressed in the non-league play-off finals and in the final day of Football League and National League North and South football.

This made the journey pass by in what felt like an instant, but now I had around 45 minutes to wait at Nottingham station for my train back to Peterborough. I spent £2 on a muffin in the station cafe and ate that and a packet of crisps to tide me over until I'd be able to get home and have a proper dinner. I also made a small start on my match report before the train arrived, finishing it while standing on the completely packed train on the way to Grantham.

The train eventually arrived in Peterborough at around 7:45pm, around five minutes late due to allowing more time for everyone to get on at Nottingham and then off at Grantham. This meant I didn't get back into the house until 8pm and I decided to have a shower first before having my dinner of lasagne and garlic bread. I then worked on my photos after finishing dinner before jumping onto the usual Discord call to round off a busy day.

In all likelihood, next weekend will now be my final groundhop of the season (due to Moulton Harrox being incredibly unhelpful in not telling me where they're actually playing their match next Saturday). However, I have absolutely no idea where I'll be going as I'm very much undecided between 4 or 5 different options. Let's just say that it'll be a surprise, unless you follow me on Twitter and I confirm my destination there first.

The Ground

Watnall Road is a ground that has hosted Step 2 football in the past and it definitely shows in the scale of the facilities here. The entire far side is under cover with a mixture of seating (270 seats in all) and standing areas, and the area behind the near goal is entirely covered standing as well. There are also five steps of uncovered terracing behind the far goal, with crush barriers in place on two of the steps. The dugout side of the ground is exclusively open hard standing, though there is an old club shop building on this side of the ground at least.

With an official capacity of 4,000 and a record attendance of 1,871 for their FA Trophy semi-final against Bishop's Stortford, the ground would probably still be good enough for Step 2 to this day. It is however becoming a bit dilapidated in places now (no doubt due in part to focus shifting to their impending ground move), with several seats torn out of the main stand being just one example of that. That said, it is a ground with plenty of history and one I definitely recommend you pay a visit before it goes if you haven't already.

Photos