Netherton United - The Grange

Netherton United FC
The Grange
Charlotte Way
Peterborough
Cambridgeshire
PE3 9ES

Official Website
Twitter

Ground: 143
Date: Saturday 9th July 2022
Netherton United 5-1 Peterborough Polonia
Pre-Season Friendly
Attendance: 26

Netherton United - History

Netherton United were founded in 1991 as an under-12 team after a group of local children were unable to find a local team to play for. The club moved through the age groups before moving up to adult football in 1998 when they could no longer play youth football. This saw them join Division 6 of the Peterborough & District League, the league's bottom tier at the time. However, they were moved up to Division 5 in 2001 when Division 6 was disbanded.

In their first season in Division 5, they finished as runners-up to earn promotion to Division 4 and finished 3rd in their first season at this level to earn promotion to Division 3. At the end of the 2004/05 season, the league was reduced to three divisions and this saw the club placed in Division 1 to continue their rapid upwards momentum.

Five years later, they won promotion to the Premier Division and this is where they have remained ever since, finishing as runners-up in the 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons before winning the title in the 2017/18 season. The club have also applied for promotion to Step 6 several times in recent years, but a combination of restructuring at Step 6 and uncertainty brought about by the pandemic has seen the club drop those ambitions for the time being.

The club have won a number of local honours, winning the Peterborough Senior Cup in the 2017/18 season, the Peterborough & District League President Premier Shield in the 2013/14 and 2017/18 seasons and the league's Charity Shield in the 2014/15 season. Also, despite never playing above Step 7, they have competed in the FA Vase before in both the 2017/18 and 2019/20 seasons. However, they only won one of their four games in the competition by beating Downham Town in the 1st Qualifying Round in 2019 before suffering a narrow 2-3 defeat to Wroxham in the 2nd Qualifying Round.

My Visit

After the changes to Yaxley's pre-season schedule were confirmed, I had originally intended not to groundhop this weekend and instead be at our first pre-season friendly against Peterborough United's Under 23s. However, this changed when I found out my mum and stepdad would be away on Saturday and I decided, out of curiosity, to see if there were any new grounds I could get to on the bus.

Almost immediately, I saw that Netherton United were set to be at home and my decision was made. I did also look out for other local options such as FC Hampton (by far my most local unvisited club), but my tight budget ruled out most of the few other options that did emerge. The other challenge in my search for other options was the fact that most PDFL clubs are very inactive on social media, meaning I had no way of knowing if they would be playing or not.

Still, I kept my eyes open for any other option while doing my preparatory research during the week. Nothing else came up in the end, and I instead spent a lot of time figuring out my plans for the rest of the month after Yaxley's FA Cup draw was confirmed. This planning even continued into yesterday morning as I was preparing to leave and is still far from done as I type out this entry.

Regardless of all of that, I left the house at around 12:30pm yesterday and got a bus into Peterborough just before 1pm. I wasn't even on the bus for ten minutes before I had to get off and from there it was a short ten-minute walk to the ground. This meant I arrived with forty minutes to go before kick-off, giving me plenty of time to get into the cage and get my ground photos.

This sign was redundant, as you could walk straight into the ground from the "You are here" rather than going all the way around

In stark contrast to last weekend's wet and miserable weather, this was a very hot and sunny summer's day and the cover at the ground provided little protection from the sun due to being made from a transparent material (perspex, I think?). Still, it was better than nothing and so I remained there the whole time after taking my photos. Hopefully that was enough to stop me from getting sunburnt again so soon after that happened on holiday.

At the end of last season there was a two-tier difference between these two sides, with Netherton being in the Premier Division of the Peterborough & District League while Polonia were in Division 2. However, I understand that Polonia have won promotion to Division 1 for this season, so I was hoping this wouldn't prove to be too much of a pre-season mismatch.

Peterborough Polonia were awarded a penalty four minutes into this game, but their number 6's effort from the spot was tame and easily saved. Polonia would be made to rue this wasted opportunity when Netherton took the lead two minutes before half-time, their 11 scoring a direct free kick from just outside the box.

Eight minutes into the second half, Polonia equalised with an audacious long-range effort from their 11. This sparked a madcap ten minutes that saw four goals scored. Four minutes after the equaliser, Netherton regained their lead with a simple but effective corner routine: the ball was played short to their 8, who hit a powerful cross to the far post area where 7 was waiting to hit a header into the crossbar and in.

It was 3-1 almost immediately as Polonia cheaply conceded possession and Netherton's 11 hit one in from long-range. Two minutes later, he completed his hat-trick and made it 4-1 after a pass split the Polonia defence and set him through one-on-one for an easy finish. Netherton still weren't finished though and made it 5-1 with fifteen minutes to spare as their 10 caught the keeper out with a direct free kick from 30 yards.

Confusingly, Netherton were playing in their away kit for this game (and for the Reserves game that followed, it looked like), while Polonia were in the red and black that is usually Netherton's home colours

While it did prove to be a bit of a one-sided contest in the end, this was still another entertaining pre-season friendly and productive work-out for both teams, with Netherton's 11 (someone called Riley) being the stand-out player in his time on the field. Polonia were able to play well in spells and I could see their strategy of creating space upfield with tight passing sequences working well against Division 1 opposition, but Netherton's defence generally had enough nous to deal with it. Of course, it also helped that Netherton seemed to be fitter and had more players available, so they were able to rotate with substitutions throughout the game more often than Polonia were.

As with last week's friendly, this game kicked off around five minutes late and the needed drink breaks in each half meant the game didn't finish until just before 4pm (when Netherton's Reserves were set to kick off in their game against Eunice Huntingdon). Even with this being the case, after walking back to the bus stop I had around fifteen minutes to wait until the bus arrived.

While I waited, I found a spot in the shade near the bus stop and sat down on a wall there to write my match report. A minute or two after I finished writing, the bus arrived and it was a quick ten-minute journey back to Hampton, followed by a fifteen-minute walk back to the house. I then had time to sort out my photos and post them on social media before we had a barbecue for dinner. A good day out in all despite the heat.

As I mentioned early in this entry, I'm not really sure what my groundhopping plans for the rest of the month are now after Yaxley were drawn away at Ipswich Wanderers in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round. I think my plan is to do a double in Leicester on the 30th and then ask for a lift somewhere on the 23rd, but I'm not entirely certain yet.

The Ground

The Grange is a great ground for Step 7 and is the first I have visited that is inside a cage. Space limitations mean that there is only hard standing on two sides of the ground: behind the near goal and on the left-hand side of the pitch (relative to the entrance to the cage). Along the side of the pitch is an area of covered standing which provides the only cover at the ground with space for around 100 people.

The ground is also floodlit, with the pylons positioned outside of the cage due to the space constraints. The clubhouse is also outside of the cage and has recently had the club badge painted onto it. There is another smaller building next to this which has "Netherton" spelled out in bricks atop it and which now seems to be used as some sort of restaurant.

With the addition of some seats, the ground would be more than good enough for Step 6. There is space alongside the existing cover to do this if the club ever renews its ambitions of playing at Step 6.

Photos

Cottesmore - Westray Park

Cottesmore AFC
Westray Park
Burley Road
Cottesmore
Oakham
Rutland
LE15 7DH

Official Website

Twitter

Ground: 142
Date: Saturday 2nd July 2022
Cottesmore 5-2 Horncastle Town
Pre-Season Friendly
Attendance: 35

Cottesmore - History

Cottesmore were founded in 1941 as Cottesmore Amateurs (it is not clear when they dropped the Amateurs from their name) and spent the first 40 or so years of their existence in local leagues. In the 1980s, they moved up to the Leicester & District League before moving up to the Leicestershire Senior League in 1992. After finishing 3rd in their first season in Division 1, they won promotion to the Premier Division and remained there until a bottom-place finish in 2001 saw them relegated back to Division 1.

Seven years later, the club finished bottom of Division 1 but found themselves promoted to the Premier Division due to vacancies arising from the creation of the East Midlands Counties League: eight clubs left the Premier Division to join the new league, and this allowed Cottesmore to be promoted due to their ground being floodlit. They have remained in the Premier Division ever since, but they have ambitions of climbing the pyramid and have applied for promotion to Step 6 in recent seasons.

Despite having never played above Step 7, the club have competed in the FA Vase once before: in the 2019/20 season, they beat higher-level opposition in Radford and Harrowby United before losing to fellow Step 7 side Clay Cross Town in the 1st Round. On a more local level, they became the first side outside of Lincolnshire to win the Ancaster Cup in the 2012/13 season, repeating the feat in the 2014/15 and 2018/19 seasons. They also won the Leicestershire Senior League's League Cup in the 2019/20 season.

My Visit

It's been a long and boring six weeks of no football, a decent chunk of which has been spent coming up with different plans for pre-season groundhopping. The monotony was broken up by a week away in Cromer in mid-June, my first holiday since the covid pandemic. It was a great holiday, but no football being on felt like something of a missed opportunity when we were staying so close to Cromer Town's Cabbell Park ground (I also got some photos of Wells Town's ground when we visited Wells-next-the-Sea during the week).

Either way, my plans at that point were to start groundhopping on the 9th of July, with my first match of the season set to be Yaxley's home pre-season friendly on the 2nd of July. While on holiday, I set my sights on a long-overdue visit to Great Yarmouth Town on the 9th of July, but by the time I was home again I realised that this wouldn't be affordable due to having to pay for a pre-order earlier than I was expecting; wherever I went for my first groundhop of the season, it would have to be a fair bit cheaper than Great Yarmouth would be.

Then another wrench was thrown into my plans by the fact that Yaxley's first pre-season friendly was cancelled due to a shortage of players. This left me with a dilemma: should I try to find a new ground to visit on the 2nd instead, or would I be better of waiting until the 9th for there to be more options involving lower-level teams that would be more affordable to visit on my low budget?

I thought about it for a bit and ultimately decided to ask for a lift to this game because I didn't really want to wait for football any longer if I could avoid it. While I had been considering visiting Cottesmore on the 23rd for the Rutland Cup final, this was preferable to not getting a game in at all for another week (and I've also found plenty more options on the 23rd anyway).

After receiving approval for a lift I had the rest of the week to do my usual research, think of more potential plans for the rest of the month and continue to work on updating the Step 7 page of my football grounds document (I'll add that to the blog next month, or whenever I'm satisfied that it's fully up-to-date). I was also starting to think about planning around my ambition to watch a match in every single Step 7 league (excluding groundshares and second pitches) and this briefly made me regret ticking Cottesmore for a pre-season friendly, as it was comfortably my easiest way to get a tick in the Leicestershire Senior League Premier Division. However, there's plenty of other easy options for me in that league, so the regret quickly passed.

With Cottesmore only being a half-hour drive away, we didn't have to leave the house yesterday until just after 1pm and this saw me dropped off at the ground with around 25 minutes to go until kick-off. It started to rain a little as I made my way into the ground, before stopping for a while as I worked on my circuit of photos and watched some swallows flitting around inches above the pitch in search of food.

The rain was very stop-start throughout the first half before becoming torrential for much of the second half, so I spent the entire match under the wooden cover while moving every now and then to try and get the best view possible of both goalmouths (easier said than done with support pillars in the way). It definitely didn't feel like a summer's day in terms of the weather or temperature, to put it lightly.

Normally, I don't post league tables this early into the season, but at least for pre-season matches I think it will be interesting to post last season's league tables to see how the two teams fared last season. In this case, we can see that Cottesmore had a much better season in Step 7 than opponents Horncastle Town did last year, but not quite good enough to win promotion as they finished behind two other applicants.

Only Horncastle posted a teamsheet, but without numbers it didn't help much with my match report

Cottesmore caught Horncastle napping early on to take a 2nd minute lead, their number 10 hitting a shot beneath the keeper. Cottesmore were on top for most of the first half after this and Horncastle struggled to get any sort of attack together.

The away side had their first shot on goal in the 39th minute before equalising two minutes later: after a quick counter, the Horncastle 7 ran onto the ball and chipped it over the keeper from just inside the box. On the stroke of half-time, Cottesmore regained the lead as their 9 ran down the wing and set up 10 to turn past a defender and place his shot in the bottom corner.

Ten minutes into what became a very wet second half, Horncastle equalised for a second time when someone found space in the box to hit a low shot across the keeper and in. Cottesmore regained their lead once more in the 71st minute when their 9 was left unmarked on the edge of the box for an easy finish.

In the final ten minutes, the game started to become very stretched and Cottesmore were taking full advantage by playing long balls over the top. This tactic paid off in the 82nd minute as Cottesmore's 17 scored their fourth with a powerful half-volley after being left in acres of space. It was then 5-2 six minutes later as their 10 beat the offside trap and calmly chipped the keeper.

After six weeks away, this was a good game to start my 2022/23 groundhopping season with, or about as good as you could expect from a pre-season friendly. Certainly a good run-out for both sides to start their pre-season preparation with.

Despite kicking off around five minutes late, a slightly shorter half-time break meant the game finished at around 3:45pm and I headed straight out of the ground and back to the car to get out of the rain. The half-hour drive home gave me more than enough time to write up my match report, and this allowed me to make an early start on sorting out my photos before settling in for a relaxing evening.

In terms of my upcoming groundhopping plans, I've got some broad ideas for what I want to do this month, but I'll wait until next week's FA Cup draw to finalise them one way or another. Regardless of that, I'll be aiming for another groundhop next weekend, either by visiting my most local club FC Hampton (who play below Step 7) or by getting a bus into Peterborough to tick off Netherton United. That will depend on the weather and on if FC Hampton actually have a game next weekend or not.

The Ground

Westray Park (named in recognition of their former chairman's 61 years of service to the club) is a great ground for Step 7 that probably only needs seats to be good enough for Step 6. Unlike many at this level, the ground is floodlit and enclosed, thanks in part to being surrounded by trees and hedges on three sides. Furthermore, the ground has hard standing on two sides: behind the near goal and on most of the near side. There is also space to potentially add more hard standing behind the far goal in future, while the dugout side looks too cramped and overgrown for hard standing to be viable.

There is also some covered standing at the ground in the form of a small wooden structure that is very pleasing on the eye. However, its supporting pillars do somewhat restrict the view of the pitch, depending on where you stand inside.

A small training/children's football pitch sits above the main pitch and is even fitted with two small wooden dugouts. A series of shipping containers can also be found up here for toilets, a tea hut known as Cotts Cafe and the players' changing rooms.

Photos

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.