Happy New Year

To all connected to the following sites, which have been invaluable to me in writing this blog and are all 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 & Beyond.

Football in Berkshire is an excellent not for profit site that doesn't leave a stone unturned when reporting on football at all levels in the county.

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 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.

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.

Groundhopper 2000 showcases Stephen Lang's excellent photographs of the game in the Scottish borders while Scottish Football Fixtures does exactly what it says on the tin with a comprehensive guide to matches taking place north of the border.

Home for Christmas

Butlin Road, home of Rugby Town FC, last Saturday when the home side took on Quorn in the Midland Division of the Northern Premier League.

'The Valley' are my home town team and I spent many years as I was growing up coming to Butlin Road whenever Coventry City were not in action or away from home.

These were very much the glory years in the history of the club, then called VS Rugby but now back to the name that reflects their original formation.

Jimmy Know made sure that his name would forever be a part of football's rich folklore, the Scot who had spent most of his adult life around the footballing scene in Coventry and Warwickshire, took VS to Wembley glory in the 1983 FA Vase Final and to within a whisker of promotion to non-league's top tier.

With the Sky Blues having left Highfield Road in 2005, that comforting familiarity, of somewhere you were happy as a youngster and that largely remains as you remember it, comes from Butlin Road nowadays in footballing terms.

While the layout is mostly the same, it now boasts an excellent main stand, comfortable bar and all-weather pitches behind one goal, improvements that have allowed the club to become more of a part of the local community and insure themselves against some fallow years on the pitch and a wider apathy in the town itself.

Despite promotion last season, attendances still tend to hover around the 200 mark and there were less than that watching as Quorn overcame the loss of an early goal to run out comfortable 4-1 winners as the 40th anniversary year of that Vase triumph draws to a close.

On a day when the retail parks were busy (the town centre retains the layout I grew up with but, alas, has been hollowed out as shops have decamped further out) I sincerely hope that the current period of stable, secure ownership can last for many more milestones to come.

From Academical to Supermarine

Two of the most interesting club names in British football with special admission offers for the Saturday before Christmas (23rd Dec).

All tickets are £5 at New Douglas Park, the home of Hamilton Academical as they welcome Kelty Hearts in Scottish League One, the hosts currently sitting just behind Falkirk at the top of the table.

And it is also football for a fiver at Swindon Supermarine (accompanied under 12's free) when they host Bracknell Town at the Webbswood Stadium.

Not only that but you will get a voucher on the gate this Saturday to come back for the same price the following weekend against Didcot Town.

Best Seat in the House

From my living room in Sheffield on Friday evening, while listening to the Sky Blues beat Birmingham City, I was transported to Kirkcaldy for a very enjoyable game between Raith Rovers and Partick Thistle, the magic of the iPlayer bringing the BBC Scotland coverage to me.

I've blogged and tweeted for nearly a decade now on the subject of affordable football, almost always in terms of going to games but it does mean something else to me and that's the way that I consume the game while at home, which usually means the Beeb.

From the excellent coverage on local radio, to Match of the Day and Sportscene (for coverage of the top leagues in England and Scotland, live football from the Women's Super League, Scottish Championship and Irish Premiership, I get most of what I need to keep in touch with the game at lots of levels and in different parts of the UK.

Everybody's different, of course, and much of the above won't float everyone's boat but, at a time when the broadcaster's future seems to under perpetual threat, I think its always worth highlighting what you get for your money.

But all too often it is hidden away and you have to seek out games like the Raith one if you want to watch it.

The excellent Sean Ingle wrote in The Guardian recently, about the kind of output a BBC Sports Channel could show.

His main concern was the lack of airtime given to those sports that come to the fore in Olympic years but are then relegated to online or the red button, but the point is valid for football coverage away from the top leagues and if it was available on Freeview or a Sky platform then I'm sure would be popular, especially as the games are being covered anyway.

Thank You

To two clubs who kindly follow @AffordableFooty on X, Dronfield Town FC and Worsborough Bridge Athletic, both currently plying their trade in Division One of the Northern Counties East League.

Dronfield host Yorkshire Amateur on Saturday 23rd December and are offering free admission to all as an early Christmas bonus while it is 'Pay What You Can' when the Briggers host Parkgate in a 1pm kick-off on Boxing Day.

Old Trafford Nights

Following on from the previous article about the FA Youth Cup, it is good to see that Manchester United will play their 3rd Round tie against Derby County at Old Trafford, rather than farming it out to Leigh Sports Village as they could have done.

The players from both teams, together with their family and friends, will remember the occasion forever no matter what their future careers hold.

Kick-off on Tuesday 19th December is at 7pm and tickets are priced at just £3 for adults and £1.50 for under-16's. 

More details on the game can be found by clicking here 

In Praise of...The FA Youth Cup

First competed for in the 1952/53 season, The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup, to give it its full name, is something of a calm, constant presence in an ever-changing football landscape.

It may go under the radar on a national level but the FA Cup-style structure allows those youth teams affiliated to non-league or lower league clubs to enjoy moments of glory, play at some of the game's most famous grounds and also use any success they do have to attract more youngsters to play, and in many cases, study with them.

All three of those things combined, for instance, at Hemel Hempstead Town FC this week with an excellent victory over Exeter City in the second round of the competition sparking joyous scenes and earning a trip to Sheffield Wednesday and Hillsborough in the next round.

32 ties are due to take place by Saturday 16th December with home ties for the likes of Everton, Sheffield United, Wolves, Leicester City (against Chelsea) and Watford (against Manchester City) all hopefully being played at the host club's main stadium.