It’s been coming for a while but in 2025 every lower league team seemed to have a long throw expert who could launch missiles into the heart of the defence. It seemed a throw back to twenty years ago when Rory De Lap terrorised Premier League teams.
What was also strange that in a year of a long hot summer with drought warnings and hose pipe bans, I came up against torrential rain. It started at Wimborne on New Years Day when arriving at the game with 30 minutes to kick off I was told that the game had just been called of because the all weather pitch was flooded. Into the spring and I was at Anstey Nomads, near Leicester, where the continuous down poor forced the game to be abandoned. Early Autumn and I visited Ottley where it just poured and poured from the time I got out of my car to the time I was sat back in it. It ruined the match and my view of the club, I’ll have to go back. Rain was not finished with me and a visit to FC Grace Dieu on 25th November was again greeted by rain, which I sheltered from in the car until just before kick off and then a match that actually benefited from it as each team battled to an exciting draw partly due to the pitch being unplayable on my mind but OK for the officials.
I managed to visit both the Harrogate teams, Harrogate Town and Harrogate Railway with the former having been a recent stella climber through the Non-League ranks. Keeping on the railway theme a trip to Lincoln Moorlands Railway revealed a club with great facilities from the past that is hanging on in there. On the flip side to this Barnard Castle FC have built a ground, at Tens Field, from nothing, and look to eventually go higher.
A couple of usual visits to Hallam FC, which I joined as a member which they encourage, to help give themselves the income to continue their journey as the oldest football ground in the world. I also joined Clapton FC after a visit to ‘The Old Spotted Dog’, London’s oldest ground and hope to be able to visit it again, this time for a match.
Having made several attempts to watch a game at Appleby Frodingham I finally beat the weather and made it. I also made a pilgrimage to Clarence Park to see St Albans City where I first saw my first match 70 years earlier. Unfortunately they were not good and eventually were relegated from the National League South. Talk has resurfaced about a move to the edge of Chiswell Green near an M25 junction. Great for away fans but the City base is in the City and I wonder if they did a transport to home games survey they would find that a large proportion travel by foot. I will follow this with interest and some trepidation.
I was lucky to get a ticket to the FA Cup Semi-final between Aston Villa and Crystal Palace but Villa didn’t turn up to play one of their bogey teams, the result was predictable. However Villa continue to surprise and ended 2025 in the top 3 of the Premiership, what a manager UNai Eery is.
Sad new in the summer with the demise of the Non-League Club Directory, I miss it but have been gifted subscriptions for ‘Nutmeg’ – The Scottish Football Quarterly and ‘Welsh Football’ – The National Football Magazine of Wales. How refreshing both of thee are in that they cover the complete breadth of their game, rather than a few traditional teams (but now not the most successful clubs) that an English Football Magazine would showcase.
A return to see two games, including the final, at the Berwick Charities Cup competition, was a highlight and I was also lucky to take in Berwick Rangers at the same time. A further trip to Scotland allowed me to see an early round of the Scottish FA Cup at Clachnacuddin (Inverness) and Partick Thistle on my return. Having seen some very attractive and skilful lower league matches in Scotland in the last few years I am not surprised to see, that despite a normal negative view of their national team, Scotland have qualified for the World Cup this year.
A foray into Wales found me on a sunny evening at Llangollen where I watched a competitive local derby in amongst a friendly, happy, family atmosphere with a great countryside backdrop, shame they lost. The hills as a backdrop were rivalled at Keswick and Ilkley.
In the Autumn a weekend feast of FA Cup games played in towns on the river Trent resulted in the underdogs St Albans and Gainsborough both being beaten by EFL teams. An FA Sunday Cup game on the Trent did not lift the gloom either in that it was another miserable weather game. But the best game of the year was on a very sunny day in Bradford where Bradford City won in added time against Fleetwood to gain automatic promotion to EFL league one. The tears and joy of the fans was infectious and will stay with me for many a day.
It was the River Erewash derby between Stapleford and Sandiacre that saw out the year and a 4.2 victory for the home side didn’t reflect how close the game was.
Here’s looking forward to a great 2026.
payonthegate 