Fjord Focus

16 Monday Jun 2014

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Thursday 12th June 2014 ko 19.00

Tippeligaen

LILLESTRØM 3 (Fofana 6 Knudzon 35 Høiland 71)

STRØMSGODSET 0

Att 5,315

Entry 270 NOK (£26.52)

No Programme

Teamsheet- Comp’

If it wasn’t for the Swedish Groundhop, I simply wouldn’t have been at this game. For the last 2 years organiser Kim Hedwall has taken the event away from Stockholm, and this year decided to move for his most radical move yet, moving the whole event to Gothenburg. That brought, at least to my eyes, Norway into my equation, with a coach service available from Oslo. Of course that was for the Friday, I just needed a game for the Thursday. I spotted that top-flight Lillestrøm were at home, and then to my extremely pleasant surprise I had company in the form of Sim, who’d been on the Scottish tour that included Neilston and Stuttgart’s very own Andreas whose help I’ll never forget on the German border after a trip to Banik Most. Continue reading →

Skewen

11 Wednesday Jun 2014

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Friday 23rd November 2007 ko 19.30

Welsh Premier League

NEATH ATHLETIC 2 (Price 78 Bevan 90)

ABERYSTWYTH TOWN 2 (S Roberts 18 Sherbon 32p)

Att 218 at Llandarcy Park

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

Today’s “Greatest Hit,” is a little unusual. Not only does the ground not exist (for football) but neither does the team either! The roots of the club lie in BP, British Petroleum and their predecessor National Oil Refineries. The club was founded in 1922 as National Oil Refineries F.C as the works team for the new refinery, and played at Llandarcy Park, now to the south-west of the M4 as it passes by Junction 43. Continue reading →

Weegie

10 Tuesday Jun 2014

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Scottish Junior FA West Region Superleague, Premier Division

POLLOK FC 2 (Hunter 41 Diack 89) Aitchison sent off (denying clear goalscoring opportunity) 6

LANARK UNITED 1 (McCluskey 71) McLaughlin missed penalty 6

Att 415

Entry £5

Programme £1 (they issue for every game)

Badge £3.50 but charged £3 due to lack of change

Meat Pie £1.20

Bovril 80p

In early 2011 I wasn’t in a good place. My marriage had ended, and I was sat alone in a house I knew I was destined to leave. Fortunately I am blessed to have a friend in Dumfries in Iain and I was both fortunate and grateful to get a phone call to say,

“Come up (to Dumfries) and visit, and since its you, I’ll let you pick the game.!

Well you shouldn’t ever turn down an opportunity like that, so I travelled up, collected Iain, and at lunch time we parked in the Morrison’s car park adjacent to the ground. Iain extracted a large wedge of cash from the supermarket ATM, and one of my memories of the day was that he found it pretty much impossible to spend it at Newlandsfield Park. Iain, my friend, this is the wonderful world of the Juniors, no rip-off prices here! Continue reading →

Research you understand?

09 Monday Jun 2014

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Saturday 20th August 2011 ko 11.00am

Division 7 Norra Örebro

IFK LINDESBERG II 1 (Fredriksson 90)

HÄLLEFORS A.I.F. 4 (Eriksson 5 Mohammed 45 65 85)

Att 17 at Stadskogsvallen

Entry FREE

No Programme

With the 8th annual Swedish Groundhop starting on Friday, I thought I’d give you a little of the background on the event, and the lengths that the organiser Kim Hedwall goes to make the event a success. I help Kim where needed, mainly as a sounding board, and we’ve developed the hops as being for discovering the kind of ground that is a little more obscure. And let’s be frank, it’s not difficult to book a flight to Arlanda to watch A.I.K. at the Friends Arena, and if you do have difficulties, contact me at this site, and I’ll give you guidance. We use the hop to find places that probably have not seen a British hopper, an example on last year’s hop was Månkarbo where the weather was matched only by the locals’ curiosity! Continue reading →

The Ying and the Yang

08 Sunday Jun 2014

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Saturday 10th May 2008 ko 15.00

Highland League

WICK ACADEMY 3 (Weir 9 Shearer 27 Macadie 73)

FRASERBURGH 2 (Johnston 22 Hale 78)

Att 263

Entry Comp’

Programme £1

Pain is part and parcel of being a groundhopper, it’s the yang to the ying of a wonderful ground and an exciting game. For some the pain is self-inflicted, the hopper who doesn’t count nil-nil draws travelling from Blackpool to Fakenham 3 times for example, but my ground of pain for years was Harmsworth Park. Of course if the place had have been just a few miles from where I was living at the time, Banbury in Oxfordshire, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but Wick Academy are the most northerly senior club in the UK, and a trip here took more than a little planning. Continue reading →

Arrivals & Departures

07 Saturday Jun 2014

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Saturday 22nd May 2010 ko 12.00

Welsh League Division Three

ABERTILLERY BLUEBIRDS 4 (L Lewis 17 Davies 32og Goodenough 64 80)

GARW SBGC 0

Att 126

Entry & Programme £2

So another of my “Greatest hits,” and sadly this is one Valleys ground you can’t see a game at anymore. Bluebirds have just vacated Cwm-nant-y-groes in favour of a 3G pitch at the local leisure centre. The club finished bottom of Division 3 this season, so I would imagine they’ll return to the Gwent County League. The ground isn’t actually in the town, rather than small village outside of Six Bells, and perhaps that’s why the move is so popular with both club and council. The club get a more practical ground, suitable for their needs, and the council save on the costs of maintaining Cwm-nant-y-groes. But of course, sometimes there’s more to it than mere practicalities. Continue reading →

How Green Was My Valley?

05 Thursday Jun 2014

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Saturday 28th May 2011 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division Two

TREHARRIS ATHLETIC WESTERN 2 (Harris 54 Glasey 65)

DINAS POWYS 1 (Jones 74)

Att 115

Entry & Programme £3

I remember my first glimpse of the Welsh Valleys, as the A470 crept north past Merthyr Tydfil, heading north away from Cardiff. Other than the signs in both Welsh and English, the scenery whilst beautiful, Castell Coch is here after all, the scene only really changes when you head into the valleys. You’re heading into coal mining territory here, and the streets narrow, the hills get steeper and the lines of terraced cottages stretch as far as the eye can see. The book and film, “How Green Was My Valley,” was based on here.

Continue reading →

Pourquoi?

02 Monday Jun 2014

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Sunday 1st June 2014 ko 15.00

Ligue du Nord-Pas-de-Calais Division d’Honneur

U.S.F.C. TOURCOING 1 (Nsangou 68)

U.S.L. DUNKERQUE II 0

Att 357

Entry €2

No Programme

Pennant- Comp’ “Because you have travelled a long way”

Sometimes the easiest way to succeed in anything is to simply hitch yourself to a good idea. This was an obvious example, my regular reader will no double recognise Clapton-fan Andy, Lee whose site, Adventures in Football is a goldmine for the hopper, and Peter whose Itinerant Football Watcher site is, I think the gold standard for football blogging. My role in this was little more than take Lee to Folkestone, pick up Andy and park up so as to meet Peter for the trip under the Channel! Whilst the Channel Tunnel will never win awards for aesthetics it is a wonderful feat of engineering, and gets the impatient international hopper to France in 35 minutes!  Continue reading →

Rain Clouds Over Leith

29 Thursday May 2014

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Sunday 25th May 2014 ko 15.30

Scottish Premiership Play-Off Final 2nd Leg

HIBERNIAN 0

HAMILTON ACADEMICAL 2 (Scotland 12 Andreu 90)

Agg 2-2 AET Hamilton won 4-3 on penalties

Att 18,301

Entry £10

Programme £2

Team Sheet FREE

I’d wanted to pay Easter Road a visit for ages, for one thing it was the last of the Scots Big 5 for me to do (Rangers, Celtic, Hearts and Aberdeen being the others), and the O.C.D. side of me wanting to visit a ground I’d parked near to a number of times on holidays! There was also the “Which Hibs?” factor to consider, after a trip to the Maltese Hibernians, the additional “S” is important, just ask a well-known groundhopper! The full sorry story, and the trip to the Maltese version can be found here! Continue reading →

Two Magpies

27 Tuesday May 2014

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Sunday 25th May 2014 ko 13.00

Scottish Womens Football League 2nd Division South East

BOROUGHMUIR THISTLE 3 (Livingstone 10 Hanson 50 To 83)

HUTCHINSON VALE RESERVES 1 (C Devlin 15)

Att 13  at Meggetland Sports Complex, Edinburgh

Entry FREE

No programme

As I stood in the almost deserted stand watching a game a pitch’s width away I watched two magpies stand on a crash barrier and survey the scene. Like me, they were sheltering from the torrential rain, most of the other spectators tried to keep their umbrellas from turning inside out at pitchside, but lets face it, if there’s cover its best used! Continue reading →