Friday 25th July 2025 ko 19:45

United Counties League Premier Division South

COVENTRY UNITED 0

AYLESTONE PARK 1 (Samuels 70)

Att 490 at Butts Park Arena (Coventry RUFC)

Entry £7

Programme £2

I grabbed a seat at Butts Park Arena with plenty to think about. GroundhopUK have run events in the UCL for over 10 years, helped by the Peterborough & District League padding out the fixtures for the first few years, and the UCL’s footprint gradually drifting north. But we’re close to the end, and that does come with complications.

For one thing it does become difficult to make the event make geographical sense. We managed to see football in 5 counties this weekend, and you sometimes do have to work to make the games not seem like you’re mopping up the waifs and strays.

Not that there was any likelihood of that being the case here. Coventry Rugby ground is a mighty impressive ground (stand?) and it was certainly good to see Coventry United do a printed version of their normally online programme for this match.

Elsewhere they relied on their normal matchday practice to cope with the crowd, and yes folks if you want to see a club doing something radical on one of these events, look to when GroundhopUK go off piste a little!

They are a club I do have a lot of time for being formed in 2013 by 4 Coventry City fans unhappy at Sky Blues’ owners SISU moving the club into a groundshare at Northampton Town’s Sixfields Stadium. The unofficial moto for the club was and still is “No politics, just football for Coventry”.

The irony of the rugby club being now restored to being the pre-eminent club for their sport in the city while the football is now the second club for theirs, and both clubs being happy with that arrangement is unusual to put in mildly!

The game took time to get going but was settled Louis Samuels’ quite sublime free kick. He, both clubs, we and others simply felt it was good to be back in the footballing groove.