They say that ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun’. That seems to have changed with our hottest time of the day now seeming to have moved to mid or late afternoon.

I set off for Walsall, near to 4pm, with the temperature at 27 degrees, to drive south to Walsall.  The quest was to meet my son and one of my grandsons to go and watch Aston Villa. Not the best of timing with an estimate of journey time rising from 80 minutes to 100 with people making theirvway home from work. 

We met in the official Walsall FC car park, behind the retail park and walked to a nearby Mc Donald’s for a snack. It was packed with Villa fans, queuing out of the door, chatting and relaxed in the warmth and sun.

Villa and Walsall have a long history of collaboration and always start the pre-season with a game against each other. However this time they were playing Real Sociedad having played Walsall the previous week. Villa Park is not available with the rebuild of the North Stand and other infill areas to increase the capacity to over 50000.

Real Sociedad beat Wolves 2.1 a few days earlier all part of their pre season preparations with games in Toulouse and two in Koln to follow before returning home to San Sebastian in Northern Spain.

Walsall’s Bescot Stadium was built at the end of the 1980’s all part of a redevelopment that included the adjacent retail park. It has seated covered areas on all 4 sides. Three of which are the same height and the fourth, at one end, is three tiers heigh. We sat in the third tier of the stand which gave us a good view of the stadium but not of the goal below us. It also gave a prominent view of the elevated M5, where a continuous stream of traffic whizzed by. During the game it was a bit disconcerting focusing on the game with the traffic as well.

The pitch looked a magnificent green and was being watered before the game, no shortage of water here. it was set off against a hazy blue sky with very few white clouds to be seen.

9269 settled down to watch the game.

Aston Villa 2 Real Sociedad 4

Tuesday 28th July 2026, 19.30 pm kick off.

Bescot Stadium, Bescot Crescent, Walsall, West Midlands, WS1 4SA

Premier League – England (fourth 25/26) v La Liga (tenth 25/26)

Villains v Erreala

Aston Villa, Claret shirts, light blue shorts, goalkeeper in all yellow. Real Sociedad, Black and white vertical striped shirts with white shorts, goalkeeper in black.

The game started at walking pace and a lot of tip tapping at the back from both sides with the game feeling very much like the practice it was.

Villa did start to exert some pressure and were rewarded on 14 minutes when hemmings found space on the left hand corner of the goal area and expertly curled the ball inside the far post for the lead. This only lasted 8 minutes before Real levelled when Soler gifted the ball by the home team defence scored at the second attempt after Bizot had saved.

With the restart it was the spanish team who took the lead when a free in from the left was deflected by a Villa player into the path of Oskarsson who just tapped in at the far post. Almost immediately Villa levelled after Buendia eluded 3 players to pass the ball to the 17 year old, Madgo, who showed considerable strength in holding of a defender and slotting the ball under the goalkeeper into the middle of the net.

This heralded changes by both sides with what looked like 8 or 9 for Sociedad. These changes also changed the game and the visitors took control. It was though good to see Pau Torres back on the pitch and looking his imperious self.

Sociedad went further ahead on 66 minutes when Carrera surged into the goal area and struck the ball along the ground past Bizot. They made it 4 right at the end when a cross was knocked up in the air by Bizot to fall to Ruperez to bundle home.

Madgo impressed with his physicality, speed and ball control, Cisse reminded me of a very young Ugo Ehiog and Pau was calm.

Villa are now off to the Far East with most of their more senior players and new recruits.

There were chips but having just had some in Mcdonalds I couldn’t face any more.

Then the fun started The game finished at 21.15 and we were back in our cars in two minutes but didn’t leave the stadium until 58 minutes later, even behind the two Villa team coaches and the two Spanish registered ones taking them of on their journey towards Toulouse. What must it be like on a Saturday when the Retail Park is closing too? Added to that the A38 was closed for resurfacing, good to see, and with that detour was home 3 minutes before midnight.

It was however great to see my son and grandson, see the Villa and enjoy the continuing start to this seasons journey.

With the publication of the lower league fixtures I decided to start my 2026/27 season with a trip to Goldthorpe.

With the heatwave continuing it was a pleasant evening drive, 22.5 degrees, to the Dearne Valley to watch a Friday night friendly. The dry warm weather meant farmers were out with combine harvesters getting in the wheat. It seems a few weeks earlier this year.

I had watched Dearne and District FC for some time with my first visit back in October 2022 when they were playing on a pitch used by their many junior teams, as they awaited the completion of their current grounds upgrade. They were promoted from the Central Midlands League to the Northern Counties East League Division One, and I visited them again at their current location. They had made great strides to get the ground ready for their new level and having been runaway winners of that league last season I was interested to see how they had progressed.

The concrete walkway round almost three sides is completed, and one seated stand and one standing covered area, made from containers have been fitted out. The transit van that had served as a drinks and food outlet had gone replaced by another converted container. Progress definitely but with costs doubling each level you gain, and ground regulations increasing there will be more to do both on and off the pitch.

The playing surface has suffered from the very prolonged dry spell and although basically flat does have some undulating areas and dry, yellowing patches.

Brigg Town, I watched early last season when they had a disastrous start, later recovering to finish 6th in the NECL Division One. I sat in the covered seated stand behind some of their supporters who were not happy. They had seen their team lose all of their pre-season friendlies by at least 3 goals and were fearful of their line up in this fixture. They also were bemoaning the fact that not everyone had turned up.

Dearne and District FC 6 Brigg Town FC 2

Friday 17th July 2026, 19.30 pm kick off.

Dearne and District FC, The  Century Cladding Community Welfare Ground, Furlong Road,  Goldthorpe, S63 9EH.

Northern Counties East League Premier Division team v Eastern Counties League Division One team.

Dearne, in all red shirts with some thin white stripes down the front wit red shorts. The goalkeeper in all fluorescent green.
Brigg, all royal blue shirts with  some cross fading and blue shorts. The  goalkeeper in all yellow.

A good crowd was present, briefly increased by regular passing trains on the banking behind one goal.

The Brigg fans were adding up the pre season goals against after just 4 minutes  when a
ball through to Jordan Kershaw, I thought he was very offside, allowed him to stroll forward and roll the ball to right of Brigg’s young goalkeeper, into the net.

With 16 minutes gone it was Jordan Kershaw again who found space to shoot but this time hit the post. However he was not denied 12 minutes later when he took advantage of the goalkeeper hesitation and chipped over his grounded body into the open net.

It was not all one-way traffic though and Brigg grabbed one back when a low hit corner was steered into the Dearne goal by Josh Batty with 33 minutes gone. Dearne, a big team, in comparison, scored again, 4 minutes later, when Justin Circuit collected the  ball on right, shaped to shoot and curled it out of reach of the goalkeeper into the top left hand corner.

A Dearne player now shouted loudly that the young Brigg keeper couldn’t  kick far so move up. The keeper then struck the goal kick so that the ball landed just in front of  Dearne’s 18 yard line and the Brigg  keeper shouted “Can’t kick, fuck off”. This drew loud laughs from the players and crowd.

The teams left the pitch at half time with the home side leading 3.1 but with Brigg not crumbling.

D&D pressed hard again at the start.of the second half with their number 2 launching throw ins from the side to beyond the penalty area which were proving effective with their height superiority.

Justin Circuit made it four on 56 minutes when from the right corner of the goal area he curled the ball just inside the far post.

Brigg kept trying and with a penalty awarded to them, for a trip, Josh Batty despatched it for his second goal.

Thirteen minutes from the end one of the amazing long throws was met by Owen Fieldsend, whose bullet header screamed into the net for a 5.2. lead.

Just 2 minutes later a headed clearance was headed back to goal by a trialist and it looped over everyone increasing Dearne’s goal tally to 6.

Dearne and District were happy with their win although the two goals against could have been defended better. For Brigg, back to the drawing board, although they never gave up and have a base to build on.

No chips to start the season, instead a great cup of Bovril but a very dry sausage roll of which I only ate a third. Not a good start to the season.