Steve B the Groundhopper

3pm  25 January 2020 West Cheshire League, Division One Marshalls 7 Capenhurst Villa 1 (att 36) It's sometimes tempting to think there's a not a huge difference in standard between leagues when you get into the amateur ranks. But, enjoyable as the day's earlier Liverpool Old Boys League match was, this game was at another level entirely. The West Cheshire League, in particular its top division which sits at 'step seven' of the non-League pyramid, usually delivers football of a high standard. Marshalls were excellent, and in the first half at least Capenhurst had no answer. The hosts scored early, soon doubled their lead, and although the visitors got one goal back they trailed by an insurmountable 5-1 by half time. Marshalls had made it seven with half-an-hour left to play, and would surely have score more had they not been reduced to 10 men. The straight red card, for a reckless challenge, was justified, but seemed harsh compared to other incidents in th...

1.15pm  25 January 2020 Liverpool Old Boys Amateur League, Division One St Margaret's Old Boys 2 FC Salle 1 (att 14) I probably spend too much time looking at football fixtures. But groundhopping sometimes becomes a sort of logic puzzle, where the solution is in the occasional alignment of kick off times, matches and venues. Two lunchtime kick offs at Heron Eccles, both with first teams at home, followed by a pair of three o'clock starts, again featuring first teams and in two leagues I like to complete, was all the incentive I needed for an afternoon on Merseyside. There are a trio of 3G pitches at Heron Eccles, one of the excellent football hubs that have sprung up around Liverpool. None of them overlap a grass pitch, still there and with nets up but not it use today, where I watched Lucas Sports play in 2002. Both the later games would require floodlights, and so I knew that even if the grass pitch was used for one of the day's early games I was still guarante...

1.45pm  18 January 2020 SJFA West Region, League Two Vale of Leven 1 Maybole 3 (att 76) I'm getting towards the final few grounds I've got left to visit in Scottish Junior football. Whether I'll complete the full set while the grade is intact remains to be seen, although so far the West Region hasn't suffered the exodus that's hit the East. If the west of Scotland gets a pyramid league of its own, and Scottish FA licensing becomes sought-after by junior clubs, then Vale of Leven's historic Millburn Park, in Alexandria, might become a millstone for the club. The ground hosted Scottish League football until the 1920s. Almost a century later it's a wonderfully atmospheric, if crumbling, football venue. Ground-graders in England wouldn't be happy, but fingers crossed any Scottish equivalents would take a lenient view. For now though, and maybe for years to come, it's a classic junior football ground. Three-quarters of the pitch are surrounded ...

10am  18 January 2020 Strathclyde Saturday Morning League, Premier Division Blackthorn Rovers 2 Uddingston 2 (att 9) After the heady heights of the new Spurs stadium in midweek I returned to more more familiar groundhopping surroundings, being part of a single figure crowd watching a game on an open park pitch. But, no matter what the venue, every football match provides its own dramatic narrative. The story of this game was two late penalties that gave the home side a share of the spoils against the unbeaten league leaders. For a side without a league defeat this season Uddingston underwhelmed for most of this game, although to be fair to both teams it was a heavy pitch and a chilly morning, neither conducive to great football. I arrived at Greenock's Battery Park expecting the match to be on the caged 3G pitch, but that was busy with kids' football while the adult players were warming up and preparing to play on one of two grass pitches. There wasn't much bet...

8.05pm  14 January 2020 FA Cup, Third Round Replay Tottenham Hotspur 2 Middlesbrough 1 (att 49,202) Recompleting the 92 clubs that make up the Premier and Football Leagues in England can be a chore. The likely hassle of securing a ticket to visit the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium didn't fill me with enthusiasm when the club finally moved into its new home. Cup matches are usually a good bet to go on general sale though, and Spurs sensibly reduced prices for this midweek replay. Their website was well designed to cope with high demand, with an efficient and swift queueing system, and by last Friday lunchtime I had a pair of tickets. Not quite in my hand, but in my email inbox. Even with a booking fee the print-at-home tickets were good value, and preferable to paying around twice as much for a Premier League fixture. Practicalities aside, another reason visits to new grounds at this level aren't great is that the venues are too often soulless and forgettable. That's i...

3pm  11 January 2020 Liverpool County Premier League, Premier Division Alumni 1 FC Pilchy 3 (att 11) From the game at Tiber Street it was took no more than 10 minutes to drive the Jericho Lane Football Hub, where Alumni have set up home. They played on pitch three, furthest from the hub buildings and beyond pitch one which is the new home of South Liverpool FC. They were at home as well, but I'll save a visit to their pitch for another day. Pitch two wasn't in use, and had rugby posts as well as football goals. All three pitches are artificial, and none of them overlap the grass pitch where I saw Essemmay Old Boys in 2006. The site of that is now covered by the car park. The official spectator area for pitch three is limited to just the centre section of the near touchline, but Pilchy's supporters gathered on the far side and I wasn't challenged when I walked around the pitch perimeter. Alumni are bottom of the table, but must have had hopes of a welcome th...

1pm  11 January 2020 Liverpool County Premier League, Division One The Empress 8 AFC Kirkby 2 (att 13) My primary reason for a day watching football in Liverpool was an alignment of fixtures that, I hoped, would allow me to watch this game at 1pm followed by another just a couple of miles away at 3pm. It might have been tight, but it turned out to be easy thanks to this match getting underway a little early, a swift turn around at half time, and a slightly truncated second half. Maybe the referee had also had plans for three o'clock, but more likely he decided that AFC Kirkby had suffered enough by the 85th minute, and so he called time a few minutes early. To be fair on the visitors the scale of this defeat was harsh. They took a 10th minute lead from the penalty spot and were more than a match for promotion-chasing Empress for the first quarter of the game. But when The Empress clicked into gear they steamrollered Kirkby. Five goals in about 20 minutes turned a 1-0 d...

10.30am  11 January 2020 Merseyside Christian League, Division One St Teresa's Norris Green 0 St Sebastians 2 (att 13) St Teresa's stay stop of the league but it's surely just a matter of time before St Sebastians overtake them. The visitors maintained their 100% record with a win that moves them to within a point of the home side, with six games in hand. A fixture between the league's top two seemed a good choice for my first ever experience of the Merseyside Christian League. The standard was high and I thought it compared well with other amateur leagues in and around Liverpool. St Sebastians went ahead in the second minute, but any suggestion that would pave the way to an easy win was dispelled by a resolute performance by St Teresa's. The home side were always second best, but not by much, and the visitors didn't get their second goal until the final kick of the game. There was no time to even restart after the score became 2-0. Most Merseyside ...