Diary of a newfound groundhopper

Newhaven 2 Saltdean United 2 AET, Saltdean win 6-5 on penalties, Peter Bentley Cup quarter final, Tuesday 14 th November Having, for a variety of reasons, been able to attend a Tuesday night match for the past three weeks, I was keen for that run to continue into a fourth week. However, with my eldest son now back training with his Brighton-based team on Tuesday evenings, and with my taxi services being required there, the logistics of doing so have become somewhat trickier. Yet noticing my home-town team of Newhaven were due to be at home last night, and in a quarter final cup clash with local rivals Saltdean United, I decided that the time was right to pay a revisit to Fort Road. (Sorry, I know it’s technically known as The Trafalgar Ground in these overly-commercialised times, but it’ll always be known as Fort Road to me). Growing up literally a stone’s throw away from the ground, Fort Road became something of a home away from home for me during my childhood. I have fo...

Hassocks FC 0 Lingfield FC 3, Peter Bentley Cup Third Round, 13 th October 2018 Whether or not it’s because in my new guise as a non-league groundhopper I’ve become more aware of it I don’t know, but this year’s Non-League Day certainly seems to have been better publicised than it ever has been before. There’s been ample column inches set aside for the day in various national newspapers and football magazines; airtime has been given over to it on national radio; there has been numerous mentions on television; while I can barely scroll through my twitter timeline without seeing various Non-League Day-related hashtags. With so much publicity for the day, and many clubs doing all they could to entice extra punters through the turnstiles, choosing where to go and watch a game this week was a harder choice than normal. Somewhat bizarrely, then, I ultimately chose to go and watch a game which didn’t offer any Non-League Day admission incentives. In fact, not once on Hassocks...