Steve B the Groundhopper

6.15pm 1 September  2026 Huddersfield and District League, Premier Division Cumberworth 5 Honley 2 (att 27) Cumberworth made it two wins from their two opening fixtures with an entertaining and ultimately comfortable win against 10 man Honley. The home side took an early lead, but the game swung firmly in their favour thanks to a pair of goals in quick succession after around half-an-hour. Any remaining chance for Honley evaporated when they had a player sent off just before half time. Cumberworth got a fourth goal five minutes into the second period, but then eased off and risked allowing their opponents back into the contest. Honley scored twice, although between the goals they were fortunate not to suffer a second dismissal. The home side recovered, and netted a fifth goal to finally kill off any Honley hopes of an unlikely comeback. Cumberworth's Crown Field ground,  my only unvisited venue in the top division of the Huddersfield League, is in the village of Birdsedge. Lik...

6.25pm 21 April  2026 Huddersfield and District League, Division Three Dalton Athletic 3 Honley reserves 5 (att 22) This time of year, when lower league teams play early evening midweek matches to catch up on their fixtures, is known as the 'silly season' among groundhoppers. It's an opportunity to watch even more random games than normal. The fourth tier of the Huddersfield and District League wouldn't ordinarily be on my radar for a match on a Saturday afternoon, but on a Tuesday evening in April it's a different matter. I only realised I needed to visit Dalton Athletic when I was looking for potential games to go to. They had been playing home games at the DRAM Centre , but have now moved a short distance to the Netherhall Learning Campus. It's as basic as a football ground can get. A large school playing field with several pitches. The goalposts were square, rusty and askew. The grass had been cut, but the cuttings littered the pitch, and the white lines wer...

6.15pm 28 August  2025 Huddersfield and District League, Division Four Fenton United 1 Fothergill and Whittles 3 (att 24) A year ago, almost to the day, I saw this same fixture. Twelve months on and both the venue and the division may have changed, but the outcome was the same. Last year, in division five,  Fothergill and Whittles won 6-0.  This time, following promotion for both teams, they had to settle for a narrower winning margin, although they were still comfortable victors. Fenton might feel they deserved something out of the game, but the visitors' sharper finishing was the difference. Two first half goals put them in control, and they added a third after the break. The home side got a late consolation. Last year's game was at Huddersfield's Reinwood Recreation Ground, but Fenton United have now relocated to an artificial pitch at Huddersfield rugby union club's Lockwood ground. It's fairly typical of its type, being floodlit and enclosed by a fence. But it ...

6.15pm 3 September 2024 Huddersfield and District League, Division Two Hade Edge 3 Holmfirth Town 5 (att 26) Chances are this was my final early evening midweek game until next spring, but an eight-goal thriller at a wonderfully scenic venue was a fine way to draw a line under the early part of my football season.  Hade Edge is a small village near Holmfirth, and their Flowery Fields ground is another of the picturesque gems that exist in the Huddersfield and District League. There's a modern pavilion, erected in the years since Google's street view camera last passed, and a sloping enclosed pitch that has a pair of small dugouts on the near side. Hade Edge began the local derby well, taking an early lead and soon doubling it. Holmfirth were slow to get going, but a penalty for a needless handball allowed them to pull a goal back before half time. Within five minutes of the second period starting the visitors had turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. The goal that put them in f...

6.15pm 29 August 2024 Huddersfield and District League, Division Five Fenton United 0 Fothergill and Whittles 6 (att 18) Division five is the sixth and bottom tier of the Huddersfield and District League, and will likely be the lowest level of adult Saturday afternoon football that I'll see all season. But football at all levels can be entertaining, and a match on a new ground to visit on a Thursday evening made it well worth the relatively short rush hour journey across the M62. This was the opening league fixture for both sides, and it was visitors Fothergill and Whittles who got their 2024/2025 season off to the best possible start. It took a goalkeeping error to break the deadlock, and provide the away side with their opening goal. It was only 1-0 at half time, with little sign of how one-sided the second period would be. Fothergill and Whittles doubled their lead just after the break, and from then on they ran away with it, adding another four goals. Fenton United play home ga...

6.15pm 30 April  2024 Huddersfield and District League, Premier Division AFC Lindley 3 Britannia Sports 4 (att 38) Two years ago I saw AFC Lindley  at the Birchencliffe Sports and Social Club, but not all their home games are played there. Some, like tonight's, are on a pitch at nearby Celandine Avenue. It's a single pitch in a small public recreation ground on the outskirts of Huddersfield. There's no changing rooms, and players get changed at Birchencliffe before heading to the ground. AFC Lindley were playing their final league fixture, safe in the knowledge that, barring a defeat of well into double figures, they were unlikely to fall into the bottom two and possible relegation. There was little danger of that against bottom side Britannia, who began the evening without a league win all season. The home side opened the scoring. Britannia equalised but the game still seemed firmly in Lindley's favour. Two goals, the second just before half time, gave them a 3-1 advan...

6.30pm 25 April  2024 Huddersfield and District League, Division Five Brook Motors 1 Allerton 1 (att 25) Allerton missed out on the chance to secure a second-placed finish when they failed to hold onto an early lead at Brook Motors. They went ahead in the opening minute, but didn't manage to build on that despite creating the majority of the game's best chances. A Brook Motors goal midway through the second half levelled the score and that's how it stayed. It was the home side's final league fixture. Allerton complete their matches on Saturday, and will now need to beat champions Deighton A to leapfrog Honley reserves and finish as runners-up. Brook Motors are a club with a long history. Their current home is the Jagger Lane Recreation Ground in Honley, near Holmforth. There are two parallel pitches, with a side-to-side slope. This game was played on the one closest to neighbouring Honley Cricket Club.

6.15pm 23 April  2024 Huddersfield and District League, Division Two Wooldale Wanderers 1 Grange Moor Saints 2 (att 14) There's no shortage of scenic rural venues in the Huddersfield and District League, and Wooldale's West Fields Park is up there with the best. It's also up on a hill above Holmfirth, so even on on a relatively mild spring evening there was a cold wind to contend with. I imagine it could be a challenging place to watch or play football in the depths of winter. The pitch is surrounded by lanes so narrow it's best to take advice on where to park (on a grass verge by the track behind the top goal), and the final approach is easier if you don't meet another vehicle coming in the opposite direction. The players change a short walk away in the village of Wooldale, where the club have a base that doubles as a community facility. The ground itself is just a pitch, with a steep slope. Grange Moor Saints have enough games left to turn a more likely mid-table ...