Steve B the Groundhopper

2.30pm  19 July 2014 Pre-season Friendly at Newall Green High School, Wythenshawe, Manchester Wythenshawe Amateurs 1 Maine Road 0 (att 37) Another friendly and another chance to tick off a rarely-used venue, this time an all-weather pitch at the rear of a school in Wythenshawe, with Amateurs' usual ground probably out of action at the moment due to cricket commitments. The pitch looked narrow, but otherwise this venue was typical of its type, floodlit and surrounded by a high fence. No facilities for spectators, but enough space for those watching to stand inside the fence. As far as I'm aware the pitch isn't used by any Saturday club on a regular basis. This match followed an earlier friendly between the two side's reserves. I don't know how that game finished, but in its closing minutes I saw the Wythenshawe goalkeeper concede an unfortunate own goal when the ball deflected in off his face. As Maine Road play two leagues higher than their hosts I expect...

7.45pm  17 July 2014 Pre-season Friendly at Leigh Sports Village Pavilion AEL Limassol 0 KV Oostende 0 (att 46) Pre-season games seem increasingly odd these days. Tonight's game saw top flight sides from Cyprus and Belgium meeting in front of a few dozen people at the home of Leigh East Amateur Rugby League Club. A rather excessive £10 admission charge might have kept the crowd down, but even if it'd have been free I doubt many more would have been keen to watch what was a low-key game. For me though it was a chance to see a game on an unusual ground. Leigh East's home is the Pavilion at Leigh Sports Village. It's modern, neat and tidy, with the main grass pitch enclosed and floodlit, and open to spectators on two sides. No cover for those watching, but none was needed tonight and I guess amateur rugby league fans are a hardy bunch. On the pitch we had 90 minutes of skillful football, but no goals. Both sides had their moments, with AEL having most of the pos...

1.30pm  13 July 2014 Stewartry Sunday Amateur League, William Telfer Memorial Cup Semi Final Morton Thistle 4 Ship Inn 3 (att 24) Best game of my season so far, although it is of course very early days. The crucial action was in stoppage time, when Morton Thistle recovered from conceding a last minute penalty to score twice to book their place in the cup final. I'd expected them to win this tie comfortably, but although they looked the better footballing side they struggled to create chances. Ship Inn had the benefit of a strong wind behind them in the first half, and took an early lead. Morton were soon level, but it proved just a temporary setback to Ship who were back in front by half time. With the stiff breeze now favouring the home side it took just two minutes of the second half before Morton Thistle made is 2-2. Again they looked capable of scoring more to make the game safe, but failed to do so. Extra time looked a certainty (or maybe penalties, I wasn't t...

2pm  12 July 2014 Pre-Season Friendly at Oasis Academy, Hollins Road, Hollinwood, Oldham Chadderton 2 Runcorn Town 0 (att 30) I don't usually add blog posts about revisits to grounds, but the truth is I didn't realise I'd been here before until I got home and checked. What is now Oasis Academy looks very different to what was, when I came in 2009, the Oak Pit Colliery ground. Back then it was home to AFC Oldham 2005, of the Lancashire and Cheshire Amateur League, and was a semi-enclosed grass pitch towered over by some former mill buildings (Google Maps is yet to catch up, so the map below the photos shows the "old" pitch). Now it's a state-of-art the school, with the pitch turned through 90 degrees and the grass replaced by an excellent 4G surface. There's even a section of open stepped terracing, built onto the front of the changing room pavilion and giving a good view of the pitch, albeit from behind the goal and over a fence. Some might coun...

6.45pm  10 July 2014 Pre-season Friendly at Atherton Community School Atherton Collieries 6 Farnworth Town 2 (att 20) I'm not a big fan of pre-season friendlies, but I made a late decision to head to Atherton School's playing field, which apparently doubles as Atherton Collieries' training ground, for this warm-up match. The fixture was apparently a late decision itself, replacing Collieries' scheduled fixture in Eccles against AFC Monton. The Manchester League side might have given them a tougher game than Farnworth, who play in the third tier of the Lancashire Amateur League and were no match for hosts. Collieries scored three goals in each half, and virtually fielded a different team in each half. Their only blip was slack defending which saw them concede twice within a minute, about 20 minutes into the game, to see their early 2-0 lead wiped out. No facilities for spectators, not that any would be expected for a game like this, although a steep grass ba...

7.30pm  30 June 2014 Pre-Season Friendly at De Vere Mottram Hall Hotel Cheadle Town 0 Dinamo Bucharest 5 (att 156) Yesterday I saw my final match of the 2013/14 season, and planned a break of a week or two before embarking on 2014/15. Then I spotted that Cheadle's intriguing pre-season friendly against Dinamo Bucharest had been moved, at short notice, from their Park Road ground to the plush surroundings of the Mottram Hall Hotel, in the Cheshire countryside. Dinamo are based here as they prepare for the new season, and so an immaculate pitch in the grounds of a luxury hotel staged one of football's more unlikely fixtures. It was never going to be a close contest, but Cheadle did well, limiting the Romanians to just one first half goal. Mass substitutions at half time gave Dinamo more of an edge on the second half, and they added four more goals. Cheadle had a few half chances, and will doubtless have been pleased with their performance, while Dinamo might had scor...