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.