Horbury Town joined the Northern Counties East League last season. I fully intended to pay the club a visit but never managed to get around to it. This season, I am determined to tick off the Juice Personnel Stadium in double-quick time.
After last night’s enjoyable opener of The United Counties League Groundhop at Saffron Dynamo, I am joined for today’s four Hop games by The Fox and Essex Joe.
272 clubs are involved in the FA Cup preliminary round as the remaining Step 4 teams join those from Steps 4 to 6 which made it through the extra preliminary round, including FA Cup debutants Okehampton Argyle, the only Step 6 club to definitely be involved in this round so far.
What do we all do in the close season? Some eagerly await new signings, complain when the fixtures aren’t out at the same time as the Premier League (“Workington away on a Tuesday, AGAIN!”) and daydream about winning the League by Christmas.
A few Notts County youth friendlies and three highly enjoyable Khalsa tournaments have kept me going over the summer but now the new season proper begins.
In the latest in our series we pick the brains of a man whose lifetime in the game has covered most jobs and every level – former Arsenal winger Ian Allinson.
STEVE Morison, the new and thoroughly unexpected manager of Hornchurch, bristled when I asked how he’d cope with coaching players of a lesser standard than the Cardiff City stars he’d recently guided to Championship safety.
Being snobby is an accusation that could never be levelled at Steve Morison, who accepted an offer to manage Isthmian Premier Division side Hornchurch less than a year after guiding Cardiff City to Championship safety.
When the EFL announced strict new rules aimed at preventing clubs falling into the wrong hands, it begged an obvious question. Can the National League look forward to a future where it is not forced to reanimate the lifeless corpses of once proud sides?
We are down to the scrapings now. Only the desperate and the die-hards are scratching around for football. Some even scuttle off abroad for their football fixes: Scandinavian leagues all play during the summer.