Steve B the Groundhopper

3pm  14 March 2020 Central Midlands League, North Division Crowle Colts 0 Dinnington Town 1 (att 75) This blog isn't the place to write about my day job, but after a working week dominated by coronavirus planning it was a relief to get back to something approaching normality on a Saturday afternoon. Normality up to a point. Heading to a game when so much football has been stopped, and with no indication of if or when it might restart, was weird. Whether or not these two clubs will play again this season remains to be seen. If the Central Midlands League season is curtailed then at least Dinnington will have remained unbeaten in the games they have played. They had to battle hard to come away from Crowle with three points though. It was a tight game of few clear chances. Dinnington had more of the play but Crowle came closest to scoring. A goalless draw looked likely, until increasing pressure from the visitors eventually paid off with an 89th minute goal. Dinnington ha

3pm  7 March 2020 Eastern Counties League, Division One North Needham Market reserves 0 Mulbarton Wanderers 2 (att 66) Reserve teams who play a different venue to their first team present something of a groundhopping quandary. If they're close enough to home I might visit for a midweek game, but usually I just ignore them. However, Needham Market's second team plays step six football, and I'm close to completing all the grounds down to and including step six (the top 10 levels of English football from the Premier League down). The Suffolk town is too far for an easy midweek trip, and anyway Needham Market reserves play evening games on the main ground at Bloomfields, rather than their official home next door on the 3G Arena. So rather than a long trip merely to watch a reserve team at home I took the opportunity to double a visit with the day's earlier game at Henley Athletic. That the visitors were table-toppers Mulbarton Wanderers was an added bonus. The

12 midday  7 March 2020 Suffolk Senior Cup, Quarter-Final Henley Athletic 2 Ipswich Town U18 1 (att 299) It was men against boys and the men pulled off something of a surprise by knocking Ipswich Town's youngsters out of the Suffolk Senior Cup. It's good to see a club like Ipswich entering county FA competitions. Surely it can only help the development of their young players to have occasional games against adult sides and where the result matters more than how neat the passing is. It was a big day for Henley, and smart thinking meant this game kicked off early enough for many in the crowd to also get to Portman Road in time for Ipswich's League One fixture. It also allowed me to get to two games. An excellent strike gave Ipswich a first half lead, but it was cancelled out by a Henley penalty just before half time. An interesting contrast in styles of football, and a close game, was decided by a second half winner for Henley. The home side were hanging on a bit

7.45pm  3 March 2020 Peterborough and District League, Premier Division FC Parson Drove 0 Netherton United 3 (att 50) Both these sides have applied for a place in next season's step six, but Netherton's comfortable victory means they remain clear at the top while Parson Drove's slim hopes of promotion have surely gone. The visitors were ahead early, their goal a rare highlight of a disappointing first half. The second period was much better, and Parson Drove were unfortunate to concede a second goal after a they'd been on top for a spell. By the time Netherton got their third goal the result was beyond doubt. It was competitive and feisty encounter, and I was a little surprised no red cards were shown. The closest we got to that was 10 minutes in the sin bin for a Netherton player. Parson Drove are likely to face at least another year at this level, but they've been busy developing the facilities to enable them to step up when the chance comes. The pitch