The players warming up before the Northern Premier League Division One North game between Trafford FC and Kendal on Saturday afternoon.
I like Shawe View a lot as a ground to visit. There's a warm welcome as you come in, it's neat and tidy all the way round and the grass banks are great places to stand and watch the game while also providing plenty of nooks and crannies for the many children in attendance (there's a nice group photo of all the youth and junior teams on the club website, taken on Saturday) to play their own little impromptu matches.
The heady mixture of a comfortable Trafford win, sealing their place in the play-offs, and the welcome sight of the sun meant that plenty of spectators took the opportunity to bring their beers out onto the terraces and enjoy one of the civilised pleasures of the Non-League game.
And why not after a relentless winter that has impacted on so many clubs up and down the country with postponements and rescheduled matches stretching resources to the limit.
There's little time to rest for the players who might try and ease through a couple of days at work before Tuesday evening's play-off clash at Prescot Cables.
The Football Association is hosting this year's UEFA European U17 championship between 4-20 May at venues across the Midlands and South Yorkshire and tickets for all matches are on sale now.
16 countries are taking part and here are five matches that catch the eye from the initial group stage.
England begin their campaign against Israel on Friday 4th May, kick-off 7pm, at the Proact Stadium in Chesterfield.
The Three Lions were runners-up in last year's competition before going on to lift the World Cup in fine style and a new crop of players will be looking to achieve similar success.
Any meeting between Germany and Holland whets the appetite and they will play each other on Saturday 5th, kick-off 3pm, at Walsall FC while the other two teams in their group, Serbia and reigning champions Spain meet at 5.45pm the same day at Burton Albion's Pirelli Stadium.
Rotherham United's New York Stadium hosts the final on Sunday 20th May and the South Yorkshire venue will also welcome Bosnia & Herzegovina and Belgium on Tuesday 8th and England for their final group match against Switzerland on Thursday 10th (both 7pm kick-offs).
Tickets for England matches are priced at £5 Adults and £2.50 Under 17's, Seniors and Students.
Other games are £4/£2 and special schools rates are available.
Full details on the FA Ticketing page.
Regulars on these pages in the earlier years of Affordable Football, The Spartans FC have continued to offer excellent value and facilities at Ainslie Park with the first team being just one part of a thriving community club.
And now there is a shot at the Scottish League as Spartans, winners of the Lowland League, prepare to take on Highland League champions Cove Rangers over two legs with the winners meeting the bottom club in League Two, Cowdenbeath, in a relegation/promotion play-off.
After Saturday's first leg, Spartans bring Cove back to Edinburgh on Tuesday 1 May with admission prices set at £10 Adults, £5 Concessions and free for Under 16's.
Whether Spartans go up or not, however, the Lowland League will continue the fine progress it has made since its inception in 2013 as part of a move towards a pyramid system in Scotland.
The league's Twitter account carried a lovely graphic earlier in the season showing the admission costs at all of its clubs and highlighting the good value football on offer.
A busy time up and down the country and hopefully there's something of interest for you here...
Swansea City Under 23's take on Sunderland at the Liberty Stadium on Monday 23rd at 7pm with free admission for all spectators.
Also in Division One of Premier League 2 on Monday at 7pm it is Leicester City against Derby County at the King Power Stadium where admission is £3 Adults and £1 Concessions.
In Division Two there are scheduled fixtures for Monday evening at Villa Park, The Madejski, St Mary's, The Hawthorns and Molineux but check with the clubs beforehand for any late changes.
The SFA Youth Cup is at the silverware stage and Aberdeen and Hibernian will meet at Hampden Park on Thursday 26th at 7.30pm.
Cash admission is available on the evening and entry is priced at £5 Adults and £2 Concessions.
Bramall Lane hosts the final of the FA Sunday Cup on 29 April at 1pm.
Reigning
champions Hardwick Social, of the Stockton Sunday League, are looking
to retain the trophy with Gym United from the Bury St Edmunds & District Sunday League aiming to stop them. Admission is £5 Adults and £1 for Under 16's.
Just down the road on 29 April (2pm kick-off), Chesterfield FC
host the FA Women's Premier League Cup Final between Blackburn Rovers
and Leicester City with admission to the Proact Stadium priced at £5
Adults (including match programme), £2.50 Concessions and £1 Children.
On the same afternoon, Sunday 29th, Prenton Park hosts the FA WSL1 clash between Liverpool Ladies and Everton Ladies at 2pm.
Admission is free to Liverpool FC members and season ticket holders and also Tranmere Rovers season ticket holders. General admission if purchased online is £5 Adults, £2.50 Concessions and £12.50 for a family.
Some upcoming Cup Finals which may be of interest if you are nearby...
The SFA Youth Cup is at the silverware stage and Aberdeen and Hibernian will meet at Hampden Park on Thursday 26th at 7.30pm.
Cash admission is available on the evening and entry is priced at £5 Adults and £2 Concessions.
Bramall Lane hosts two FA finals on consecutive Sundays starting with the Sunday Cup on 29 April at 1pm.
Reigning champions Hardwick Social, of the Stockton Sunday League, are looking to retain the trophy with Gym United from the Bury St Edmunds & District Sunday League aiming to stop them.
Admission is £5 Adults and £1 for Under 16's and the same prices apply the following Sunday, 6 May, when the Inter League Cup is decided between the Amateur Football Combination and the York Football League.
Just down the road on 29 April (2pm kick-off), Chesterfield FC host the FA Women's Premier League Cup Final between Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City with admission to the Proact Stadium priced at £5 Adults (including match programme), £2.50 Concessions and £1 Children.
The same stadium will also be prominent in the FA's hosting of the UEFA Under-17 Championship this May.
Arsenal and Chelsea will contest the 2018 Women's FA Cup Final after their respective triumphs against Everton and Manchester City on Sunday afternoon.
I find it strange that the semi-finals are not played at neutral venues. Home advantage perhaps counts for less in women's football but it still means an imbalance in support for the two teams involved.
There will be no such problems at Wembley on Saturday 5th May (kick-off 5.30pm) and the presence of two London clubs could see last season's record crowd of over 35,000.
Tickets are priced at £15 Adults, £5 Concessions (OAP's and Students) and once again are free for kids.
Some matches that may be of interest over the coming seven days...
On the Under-23 front there are games scheduled for Old Trafford (Friday 20th at 7pm) when Manchester United host Everton and Anfield (Sunday 22nd April at 1pm) when it's Liverpool against Chelsea but check in advance with the clubs to make sure nothing changes.
London Bees play the third of their free admission WSL2 fixtures when they entertain Brighton & Hove Albion at 8pm on Wednesday 18th.
Bad weather prevented Abingdon United hosting a 'Pay What You Like' fixture on Easter Monday but they have rescheduled it for this Thursday (19th) when Thatcham Town are the visitors for a Challenge Cup semi-final tie.
New Douglas Park, home of Hamilton Accies, is the stage for two West of Scotland Amateur Cup semi-finals this week on Monday (16th) and Wednesday (18th). Both games kick-off at 7.15pm and admission is priced at £5 Adults and £2 Concessions.
There is Cheshire Senior Cup semi-final action at Nantwich Town against Stalybridge Celtic on Monday (16th) at 7.45pm). Admission has been reduced to £5 Adults, £3 Concessions and £1 Under 16's.
The following sites have been invaluable to me in writing this blog and are well worth a visit.
The London Football Guide - James Doe is the man behind Non-League Day and set up TLFG
to provide a comprehensive guide to football (at all levels) in the
capital and its suburbs. On a weekly basis he runs through all of the
fixtures of note and is also happy to answer queries from anyone coming
to London and looking to catch a match.
With its focus on a similar patch geographically, The Cold End
combines news and match previews with reports, highlights and some
great photographs of Non-League football in London, Hertfordshire and beyond.
If there is anything you need to know about football in Oxfordshire then the Oxon Football blog covers everything from Oxford United downwards while Football in Bracknell
is an excellent not for profit site that doesn't leave a stone unturned
when reporting on football at all levels in the Berkshire town.
Women’s football features regularly on these pages and the excellent She Kicks website has features, stats and regular fixture updates covering all levels of the game in the UK with Scottish Women's Football performing a similar function in its area.
The official FA WSL site also has an easy-to-navigate fixture list with ticket info and links.
Non-League
Matters is a good resource for fixtures, tables and stats from all
levels of the game below the Football League and the Forum
part of the site has a section where special ticket offers, free and
reduced admission and ‘Pay What You Want’ fixtures can be publicised.
The
Northern Counties East Football League is my local Step 5 league and
the home of Hallam FC who have featured regularly on the site. The NCEFL website is an excellent resource for results and fixtures while many of the clubs in the league feature on the Non League Yorkshire website which has a wealth of news, match reports and opinion from across the county.
North of the border, Scottish Football Fixtures
does exactly what it says in the title with day-by-day fixtures from
all levels of the Scottish game and regular Twitter updates.
I've always enjoyed Neil Jensen's writings in the Non-League Paper (the print edition of which is a great source for upcoming fixtures) but they are just the tip of the iceberg of his wonderful Game of the People website which has features and views on football in all corners of the globe.
And a quick word for Partizan Bristle and it's cracking tales of groundhopping in the West County and beyond.
Tickets
are now on sale for all matches in this summer's UEFA Under-17
Championship which will be hosted by England and played at Chesterfield,
Walsall, Rotherham and Burton Albion in addition to St George's Park
and Loughborough University.
There are lots of ways for youngsters to get involved
with the tournament in addition to discounts for schools, families and
clubs with many of the games played at times designed to encourage
school trips.
Amongst
the general sale of tickets at £4 Adults and £2 Children, there are two packages, priced at £10
Adults and £5 Under-17's, one for all three of England's group stage
matches and one covering both semi-finals and the final which is set for
the New York Stadium in Rotherham on Sunday 20th May.
Update: Tournament ambassador Wayne Rooney made the draw for the competition last week and England's three group matches will be as follows:
Friday 4 May: Versus israel at Chesterfield FC, kick-off 7pm
Monday 7 May: Versus Israel at Walsall FC, kick-off 3pm
Thursday 10 May: Versus Switzerland at Rotherham United FC, kick-off 7pm.
A look ahead to what's happening over the next seven days and there's a wide variety of football on offer...
There is free admission at the Ricoh Arena on Monday 9th at 2pm as Coventry City Under 23's host Crewe Alexandra in the Professional Development League. Quite a few Under 23 matches are scheduled for a team's main ground in the coming week including Norwich City against Wolves on Sunday 15th. Tickets are available on the Canaries website and admission looks to be free but with a small processing charge.
I've not seen admission details yet but it shouldn't be too costly to watch Newcastle United Under 23's against FC Porto in the Premier League International Cup semi-final at St James' Park on Thursday 12th at 7pm.
Bath City have rescheduled their Family Day for Saturday 14th when Hungerford Town are the visitors in National League South. Two Adults and Two Children can watch the game for £20.
Cardiff City Stadium hosts the FAW Women's Cup Final on Sunday 15th at 3pm with Cardiff taking on Swansea City in the showpiece game.
Tickets are priced at £4 Adults and £1 Juniors/OAPs but if you attend the FAW Under 16 Girls Cup Final at Cardiff's Leckwith Stadium earlier in the day (£3/£1) then you'll get a free ticket for the later game.
Qualification is also continuing for the 2019 Women's World Cup and Scotland host Poland at St Mirren on Tuesday 10th, kick-off 7.35pm. Tickets are priced at £5 Adults and £2 Concessions.
Helping to run a club, at Non-League level or its equivalents in Scotland or Wales, is hard enough at the best of times given the time, paperwork and effort involved.
But a seemingly never-ending winter will have pushed many clubs to breaking point as they contemplate how to fit in a huge amount of unplayed matches between now and the end of the season.
I’ve read about clubs at Non-League level in England with more than 20 games still to be scheduled and fitted in, a huge task on the administrative side not to mention for players who are not full-time and who will often have to fit their football commitments around their main employment, for groundstaff and, let’s not forget, for referees too.
And it’s the seemingly never-ending nature of the winter that is causing frustration upon frustration as frozen or snow-bound pitches give way to waterlogged marshes.
Financially the pressure will grow with each passing postponement, especially of those all-important derby matches that the likes of West Didsbury & Chorlton and Great Yarmouth Town had planned for Easter Monday.
The knock-on effect of that is that matches will then have to be squeezed in to a schedule that means supporters cannot make as many as they would like.
Community-wise it means that important, engagement-building afternoons such as free entry at Dronfield Town or a Family Fun Day at Bath City have had to be shelved either for a later date or the season as a whole.
So, if you can get down to watch your local team at least once between now and May (or June or July or whenever the final whistle is blown on the campaign) then I’m sure it will be hugely appreciated.
