I decided that in the heat I would stay very local and visit Shirebrook Town who were at home to Selby Town in a Toolstation Northern Counties East Division One game. I had also decided that with the continuation of my chip league I would re-visit previous winners to give them a chance to regain their crown.

It was very hot registering 34 degrees in my car as I parked it under the shade of a Hawthorn tree. The sky was a bright blue but there was a hint of a breeze which might help the players as well as the agreed fluid breaks. The grass area in front of the stadium was like my previous visit laid out for whippet racing or training, poor whippets in the heat.

After going through the turnstile I could soon see that the whippet track had more green grass than the pitch which like other games this season was yellow and crisp with a little green in the goal areas, in fact better than the previous week at Shepshed.

I have written about the history of both theses teams before but would mention that this is Selby’s 103rd year although football had been played in Selby in previous years. They were the only team to have played in all 62 seasons of the Yorkshire League, being founder members, before it merged to form The Northern Counties League. Selby had started their League campaign better than Shirebrook with two wins and a defeat to Shirebrook’s 2 draws and a defeat.

Shirebrook Town 1 Selby Town 0

Shirebrook played downhill (although not a big slope) in the first half and although both teams competed hard neither gained an advantage.

This all changed on 20 minutes when a melee in the middle of the park was defused by the referee calling the drinks break and after consulting he sent a Shirebrook defender off for what looked like retaliation after being pushed in the back.

Shirebrook had till now edged the game but Selby now had the man advantage and they looked like taking the lead but for a last minute timely tackle with an open goal beckoning. The clearance found Josh Deveraux on the right who just kept running to the by line near the goal mouth and cut a shot across the goalkeeper for the ball to be nestling in the back of the net. One nil to the ten men of Shirebrook which they fiercely defended until half time.

The game had become a very tetchy affair since the sending off with the officials decisions being constantly challenged by the benches, in particular the home team. The heat, uneven bounce of the hard pitch, constant verbal’s and the dogged resistance from Shirebrook all added to the tension.

After 55 minutes an off the ball clash of heads led to a lengthy delay and the players from both sides leaving the pitch with what looked like nasty head injuries.

Selby kept pressuring but failed to make any decisive attempts on goal. Shirebrook held on even with 11 added minutes for what was a courageous and hard won game.

The chips as always at Shirebrook served by a very friendly happy team were very, very hot (cooked fresh), golden, crispy on the outside and soft inside but a light greasy aftertaste left me to give a score of 79 one less than the previous week at Shepshed.

For me the 2022/23 football season is underway with my first game at Shepshed Dynamo. Shepshed of the Northern Premier League, Midland Division played Winterton Rangers of the Northern Counties East League, Premier Division in the Extra Preliminary Round of the F.A. Cup. Shepshed are one level above Winterton in the Pyramid structure and with home advantage were favourites to win.

I often start my season at this first stage of the F.A. Cup but today I had an extra reason.

My son joined me to watch the match and we reminisced that in 1991 we had last been here to see Shepshed Albion beat Stourbridge Swifts 2.0 after watching Stourbridge beat Long Buckby 1.0 in the previous round. The significance to my son and I was that as the teams were warming up my son then nine retrieved a ball from behind the goal dribbled it back onto the pitch and then chipped the goalkeeper to see the ball nestle in the net. We have always maintained that he scored a goal at an FA Cup match!

Shepshed’s ground also has some notoriety in that it is on Butthole Lane and some Talk Sport morning presenters made a point of talking about it over too many shows.

201 people were there which I thought was disappointing for the start of the season, but it is holiday time.

The ground has no parking but we were rerouted to a nearby campus where there is ample tarmac parking. The temperature said 23° on the car but a slight breeze made it feel more comfortable than that. The bright blue sky had scattered wispy clouds that gave a little relief from the sun. The pitch slopes slightly end to end with a few undulations but the grass was yellowing in large patches and the goal mouths had no grass cover being dusty from where it was worn last season. The long hot summer has not been kind to the pitch and a long period of rain will only cut the pitch up further and provide a poor playing surface this season.

Shepshed Albion stated playing over 120 years ago in local Leicestershire Leagues but changed their name to Shepshed Charterhouse in 1975 due to financial support. This helped them to league wins that left them only two levels away from the football League in the Southern Football League, Premier Division only to be transferred to the Northern Premier League, Premier Division.

The club had a few months flirtation with Martin O’Neill as manager but their star waned and in 1992 they went back to their old name of Shepshed Albion. The following year they sought help from near neighbours Loughborough Dynamo (Just over junction 23 of the M1) and re-named and reformed as Shepshed Dynamo. some ups and downs and re-organisation of leagues now sees them playing in the Northern Premier League , Midland Division.

Winterton Rangers have had a more stable existence having started life in 1934 at Winterton in Lincolnshire just north of Scunthorpe. They played local football until 1965 when they joined the Lincolnshire League and five years later the Yorkshire league which in 1982 was re-structured to form the Northern Counties East League where they have stayed. Despite some highs and lows they are still in that League now playing in the Premier Division.

Shepshed Dynamo 0 Winterton Rangers 0

I have headed this blog it’s good to be back, and it is, but this game was not memorable. Shepshed took control of the first half from the start but were ineffectual in front of goal and other than the chat to my son there was little to commend the 45 minutes.

The second half was much the same and there were few Winterton shots on goal. The Winterton defence was resolute with the man of the match, Nathan Popple in goal, making two high class saves. One full stretched diving to his left and another at his right post when he denied Zayn Hakeem touching the ball onto his post and away from danger.

Zayn was replaced with 15 minutes left which baffled us as he was the most effective forward and we would have subbed centre forward, Dempsey Arlott-John who seemed to be suffering from a calf strain and brought Zayn inside to spearhead the attack.

So all square and a replay on Wednesday night at Winterton, yes a replay, they are back in the early rounds this year.

I had commented last season that I may not keep my Chip League going because of a higher than desired cholesterol result. A bit of weight loss, a better diet and statins have reduced this so chips are back on the menu. Whether it was the pre-season wait but the chips were superb. After waiting a while for the food kiosk staff to sort out a boiler problem they produced a £2 tray of chips that were hot, golden, fluffy in the centre, no after taste of oil and delicious. I have only scored them 80 as it is the start of the season but I think it is a score that may well not be beaten in the next 9 months.

While most of the nation, some in the Wells club house, were watching England beat Sweden four nil to set up a final appearance against France or Germany I went to Wells-next-to-Sea to see them play Heacham in a pre-season friendly.

Heacham have been setting these parts of the North West Norfolk football world alight in recent years with six promotions to reach the Thurlow Nunn League after winning the Anglian Combination Premier League. Heacham will now take their place for the first time in the FA Vase having attained their new status. Heacham have risen from the North West Norfolk League Division 1 in the space of 7 years, 6 promotions. They are now making numerous changes to their ground including floodlights.

Wells Town FC founded in 1903 play on Beach Road that runs down from the iconic Wells-next-to-Sea quay towards the beautiful sands. You can look down on the pitch from the walk way to the beach which is also part of the sea defences. There is a good club house and changing rooms at one end of the pitch set back from a very well maintained car park. The pitch has modern floodlights and is mainly flat but a little bumpy in places. The grass is brown and crisp and I overheard the keeper of the pitch saying it is the worst he has known for 30 years. They play their football in the Anglian Combination Division 1.

Despite these two teams doing well in this part of Norfolk two other local teams Hunstanton and Snettisham, who both could trace football teams back over 100 years, have folded in the last year. Hopefully these two town’s will see some form of football being restarted in a shot while.

The match was billed as a 7pm start so when I arrived at 6.50 to find that I was the only spectator with a few players from each side having a casual kick about I thought I must have not done my research properly

More players drifted in and by 7.35 they kicked off with a crowd that had now swelled to 30

A coffee and a KitKat in the homely club house filled the time.

With no team sheet I had to ask who was who.

Wells should have scored in the opening minutes when a player was put through but somehow failed to score. After this it was all Heacham being what you would expect from the more senior side. But around 20 minutes Wells went ahead from a break away which this time the Wells player easily beat the goalkeeper.

How Heacham did no equalise in the first half was down to poor finishing, the woodwork, dogged defence and a superb goalkeeping display.

A quick turn around, five minutes, again saw a pattern of Heacham attacks develop and roughly on the hour they levelled, when their pressure saw the ball tapped home after a melee in the Wells goal area.

I stayed for a further 15 minutes of Heacham pressure and left before the end. Something I had never previously done. I saw later that Heacham had snatched a winner.

Both teams would have been happy with the run out in a competitive local match in the right atmosphere

The competitiveness boiled over on a couple of occasions with the referee having to remind the Heacham bench of their behaviour. The referee had a good game and must have enjoyed his run out as well ready for the new season.

A really pleasant evening getting in the football mood for the season to come.

I’m not sure if a trip to the New York Stadium was the start of a new season or the end of the last one.

The game I went to see was France v Italy in the Women’s Euros 2022 group match.

8541 people had turned out on a glorious Sunday evening with the skies beautifully blue only broken by a few aeroplane vapour trails, the pitch was looking like a billiard table but bright green and even at 8.00 pm it was a balmy 27 degrees.

What was striking was the almost 50-50 split of male and female fans. The last women’s game I attended was a League cup final at Bramall Lane where the split was 80% female most of whom were under 18. That game was a very dull affair but this had great promise with France unbeaten in 15 and ranked No3 in the world and Italy ranked No 14 and twice previous winners of the competition. The French fans by far out numbered the Italians which was evident in their singing of the La Marseillaise.

France 5 Italy 1

France looked strong from the start but if Italy’s Barbara Bonanasea could have scored in the third minute when through on goal we may have witnessed a completely different contest. It was France’s goalkeeper, Pauline Peyraud-Magnin who stopped her and who looked world class all night.

After this scare France took complete control with their two centre backs dominating and making some beautiful wide passes that were controlled on the run enabling the French team to get past the defenders and instead of crossing cut in and either shoot on goal or tee up a team mate. By twelve minutes France were comfortably two nil ahead and a fan next me said that this will probably be the most skillful team to play at the New York Stadium in the forthcoming season. No one in the ground would have argued with that.

France continued to dominate and it was a surprise that some dogged defending kept them out. After 30 minutes Italy started to get more into the game and for 10 minutes seemed to take control. Whether France were just taking a breather they raced back to score three more goals in the 7 minutes up to half time. Of the five goals Grace Geyoro had scored three of them, a well taken hat-trick.

Everyone sat back expecting France to come strong in the second half but they seemed to relax and threatened the Italy goal but never achieved their first half dominance. This may have been due to them using their full five substitutes to give as many players as possible a run out. Italy too used all of their substitutes and seemed to be livelier and more committed and Martina Piemonte headed home a consolation goal with 15 minutes left. Italy’s task could have been harder had VAR not over-ruled the referee’s red card for Sara Gama after what appeared a very strong tackle. The referee had taken her aside in the first half and warned her about some harsh tackles and if she has shown her the yellow card then the Italian would not have remained on the field.

A beautiful evening topped of by some beautiful football skills flowing mainly from France. They are definitely one of the tournaments favorites but did leave a question mark over their lapse half way through the first half and their tailing off in the second.