Floodlit Pitch

Comfort Zone. Answering “Brentford” to the ice breaker “Where in the world would you most like to go” at a recent work event was given without a 2nd thought. Partly for comic effect but really it was the first thought I had because the London club’s new ground would finish off the 92 for me, again. It could be an obsession, an illness or a defence mechanism, the default answer to a random question, turn it round to something you feel comfortable talking about. Wishaw, a lovely shade of grey & white. Football’s pre-season is back and this Summer break was one of the shortest I can remember. From my season ending with the National League Play Off SF at Solihull Moors on 29th May to this work trip in Glasgow exactly 1 month later, that's not much of a break. It's part of that obsession that makes you search out a game when visiting somewhere new. so when m eeting colleagues face to face that I’d only previously met on video calls they may have been surprised when I excused mys...

  My football obsession took me to Vauxhall Road, home of National League South Hemel Hempstead Town at the beginning of February for their league fixture against struggling Billericay Town. The ground is amongst an housing estate on the outskirts of the town with the entrance located off a mini roundabout, a prominent sign giving details of the clubs next opponents and also a good marker for those looking for the venue. A driveway leads to the small club car park though most people seem to park on the roads nearby, I chose Leverstock Green Road, mainly to avoid the line of traffic coming away after the game.     The sign at Vauxhall Road Hemel Hempstead and Hemel Hempstead United merged in 1972 and made United’s Vauxhall Road ground their base. Previously Hemel Hempstead had played at Crabtree Lane close to the town centre with an impressive main stand but as the town expanded during the 1960’s & 1970’s this ground was needed for housing, hence the decision to pl...

Choosing Chelsea. The first mention of football in our house was Chelsea, surprising for a small village in mid-Derbyshire but it was the club of choice for my brother, Alan. It was the glory hunter in all of us that the Blues from Stamford Bridge were the team chosen.  The 9 year old Alan checked who were top of the League before answering the question of “who do you support”. In that 1964/65 season Chelsea were chasing the treble of Championship, FA Cup & League Cup, it was the latter that they had to settle for with a 3-2 aggregate win over Leicester City.  Chelsea's iconic Shed. Early leaders in Division 1, losing top spot after a 1-0 home defeat to Burnley at the end of October, they did regain the leadership in February but good runs in the FA Cup, reaching the Semi-Final and that League Cup win probably took some attention away from the title challenge. One win in the final 5 league games didn’t help as they dropped to 3rd and it would be another 40 years before the...