This time of year, I usually advertise the new seasons Non-League Club Directory. Unfortunately this year I have recieved the email below that gives the sad news that the 2024/25 edition was the last one and after 47 publications there will be no more. Thank you for those many seasons of joy when thumbing through the many pages of tables and results of teams I had never heard of and aspired to visit in the future. In the early years it was invaluable for addresses to grounds now so easily found via Google Maps.
I will cherish all 47 editions that sit on my shelves and once again thank you and wish you well in your continued support for the game at this level.
Email from The Non-League Club Directory
Thank You…
You may or may not have heard that unfortunately last year’s edition of the Directory was in fact the last one.
Between myself and James Wright we tried our best to keep it going, for another season at least, but for a number of reasons it has not been possible to continue.
As some of you will know the above was where it all started 47 editions ago. Football has changed for the better, and worse but the one thing that remained the same throughout, the passion of real non-League followers and your support of the Directory, as well as our other publications such as Team Talk magazine.
Whether you bought just one edition or have the complete set (you must have a very strong book case!) thank you so much.
Good luck to you and your club for the season ahead.
July 4th, was an exciting day for many football fans with the draws for the FA Cup Extra Preliminary round, the first round of the FA Vase, the FA Trophy and the FA Youth Cup being made.
I was also privileged to attend Two Football Podcasts in Sheffield as part of the Crossed Wires Podcast Festival. In its second year in Sheffield, and this year being sponsored by BBC Sounds.
Crossed Wires adds to the many festivals held in the city, e.g. ‘Off the Shelf’, ‘DocFest’ and the music festival, ‘Tramlines’. I have seen some good football related talks at the first two.
My first Podcast was John Murray and Ian Dennis, BBC radios senior football commentators, chatting about their experiences in covering football all over the world. Working from a script, the Podcast was to a live audience and recorded for later transmission this summer, ‘The Football Daily – Commentator’s View’ took their usual chatty style although without their normal third compatriot Ali Bruce-Ball.
It was unbelievably relaxed and flowed often without their script. Putting faces to voices was unusual, although I was able to recognise both of their voices. What I took away from the hour was the amount of research they put in to each team, season and game with Ian Dennis showing his red book that he produces for each season and updates each day.
Ian Dennis is the usual commentator for the Saturday 3 pm kick off game and it was great to hear how proud he was to welcome the many millions of listeners each week when the ‘World Service’ hand over to his commentary.
Later in the day I was back to hear an hour Podcast by the BBC Sheffield Football team who cover the six senior teams in the area with commentary, phone ins, interviews and updates regularly. The Podcast was called after one of their shows, ‘Football Heaven’ but this had a strap line of ‘Access all area’ with them being able to air their own views as it was not to be broadcast.
Rob Staton, Andy Giddings, and Adam Oxley were able to tell of their most difficult match, interviews, phone in, club, journey and much more. These three have had very interesting careers so far, surviving a few scrapes on the way. Great to hear peoples true and frank views on all aspects of covering local football in a mostly humorous way.
As well as two informative and happy hours of football chat they were performed in the old Cole Bothers building which is slowly being cleared and brought back to life after John Lewis abandoned the City, something locals will never forgive them for.
From the Nutmeg tree seed, a spice is produced, and from its shell, a spice named mace is made.
Both these spices are used for flavouring both sweet and savoury dishes. Used in excess quantities, you can experience hallucinations.
These feelings I am getting now as I dream of a new football season. Unfortunately, there is yet any normality as we still await the Non-League fixtures of 2025/26 to be published. The upper leagues have already published theirs for maximum exposure, and we are enduring the FIFA, Club World Cup, but surely some reality is needed.
For this, I have turned to the latest quarterly Scottish football magazine ‘NUTMEG’, which, as usual with its exemplary, engrossing written style, is sustaining me and lifting my spirits.
Thank you Nutmeg.
I have also been sustaining myself in readiness for the new seasons ‘Chip League’ and recently was lucky to have some chips that, if served up at a football ground, would have been winners. Great chips at ‘The Daffodil Tea Rooms ‘ in Eakring.
No Pie, No Priest – A journey through the folk sports of Britain
Written by Harry Pearson
Published by Simon & Schuster 2023
With no football to watch live, I saw this book by Harry Pearson, who wrote two of the most interesting and well written books about all types of football games, The Far Corner and he Farther Corner.
I thought I might find within the covers of this book a new sport to watch in these dull days until the start of the new football season.
Harry Pearson journeys through Britain to view and critique local sports that are still played but have been in place from Medieval, through Victorian times to today. Most have not managed to get a national foothold and have shrunk into small local or regional areas.
From cheese rolling, Highland Games, Tap and Slap, Shin kicking, Bowls, Local Rules Wrestling, and many more. I felt he was most fascinated by Stoolball, a team game, now played only in small clusters that first surfaced around 1480. The rules of 1881, updated between 2018-20, put together in Sussex,, are still in use today, but it has not washed over Britain. It is a game similar to cricket played by ladies’ teams, mixed teams, and at schools.
There is a review of some of the ball games that pre dated football, but all in all, Harry has not convinced me to take up or follow one of them. His writing style, with much humour and picture painting of the sports, competitions, areas, and journeys, keeps you engaged and enjoying the book. Thank you for the book, I’m hoping there may be a follow-up up to ‘The Farther Corner’.
The thick, warming Bovril at Clay Cross FC one evening game to help see off the cold made me wonder where Bovril started to become an iconic football drink.
Bovril is a drink that is associated with football. Many cups and mugs of it have been drunk at matches, particularly on cold winter days on wet and windy terraces, and huddled up to food kiosks. Sometimes, it was brought in by the supporters, in ‘Thermos Flasks’ but usually dispensed by a willing helper often in a freezing hut or warm and welcoming club house. Surprisingly, this British beverage originated in Canada, where a Canadian based Scottish butcher named John Lawson Johnson developed his business after years of running a very successful butcher in Edinburgh, where his beef stock was very popular.
The products big chance came when Napoleon III ordered tinned beef for his army, but Johnston suggested a canned beef extract, and Johnston’s fluid beef was born. A return to London in 1886 saw him promote his product, which he now called Bovril. Scott and Shackleton took it to the Antarctic, and their use to stem the cold and fortify them was noted.
Johnston’s promotional and advertising skills were exceptional, and one advert showed Pope Leo XIII with a steaming mug of Bovril with the heading “Two infallible powers. The Pope and Bovril. ” Within a few years of launch, Bovril was being sold in over 3000 grocers, pubs, and chemists.
Reproduction advertising material from Bovril’s early days.
It is Scottish football that seems to claim Bovril as its own with an archived ‘Glasgow Evening Post’ from the Friday 23rd September 1892 edition showing an advert for a ‘Grand Football Match’ at Ibrox with a strap line of ‘Bovril Served Hot’. In the same week, the club linked Bovril with pies. Before the start of the ‘Great War’, one stand at Ibrox was known by fans as The Bovril Stand due to a large advert on it. The rest is history as it spread as the preferred drink of fans all over Britain.
Its popularity has waned in recent years with the rise of all types football food, coffee, and alcohol taking over the tradition of a pie and Bovril.
Bovril as a product now comes in stock cubes, jars, and granules, making it easy to make a cup. Even a vegan version, based on beets, was launched in 2020 in conjunction with Forest Green Rovers but this seems to have fallen by the wayside along with a Chicken based version where a group of devotees are trying to get the company to resurrect the product.
Bovril will, I’m sure, be with us for many more years.
Written by Mike Keegan, Published by Reach Sport 2021
I don’t usually read autobiographies or biographies but I picked this book up and found that it was not either of these, but a brilliantly written book by Mike Keegan, a long term fan of Oldham Athletic about the arrival of Joe Royale at the club on a lorry and the fairy tale journey of a team that was down and out financially and on the pitch, to slowly rise to the top division in England and appearances at Wembley.
It is not just a football book but a social commentary of the despair of northern towns/cities fighting against the industrial ravages of the 80s and 90s. The town had lost much of its faith in the football club too, but Joe Royale, his team and the overall management team ignite their passion in the club and lift the spirits of the town in general.
I had forgotten this story with other personal things taking over my world at the time. Joe Royale, who was an exceptional player, put his whole heart and soul into this journey despite lucrative offers to move elsewhere. If you want a warm feel-good book, this is it.
I have been to Oldham Athletic for a meal cooked by MasterChef winner Simon Wood but never to see a football match, this I will remedy in the new season.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a lift, whether a football fan or not.
N.B. On 1st June 2025, Oldham won the National League Playoff final at Wembley and will play in League 2 of the EFL in the new season.
Back in January 2019, I wrote about the passing of Hugh McIlvanney, one of the greatest sports writers of his time and an inspiration to me to read and write on football. The last few days have seen the passing of Brian Glanville, another colossus of writing on football. He was a prolific writer who didn’t hold back on his views and criticisms of players, officials, administrators, the game, and more. He had earned this rite and admiration of fellow soccer alumni through a career that included writing for Corriere Dello Sport, living in Italy, and most notably for the Sunday Times. A prolific writer of books, he also wrote the screenplay GOAL! the official film of the 1966 World Cup that won a BAFTA.
With McILvanney, he was at the pinnacle of his profession, and his passing perhaps represents the passing of the last greats of the written word on football. Now replaced by YouTube and Pod Casts, which I am sure he would have stood astride of those media if they would have been available in his era.
Of those that didn’t have chips, the National Award Winning ‘Great Northern Pie Company’s’ pie with mash and mushy peas at Stockport Town was outstanding. Having watched my grandson play at Everton’s training ground in the morning, I needed some food, and I could have eaten two of them. Really well served in a large comfortable area, Stockport Town should be congratulated. Gretna’s Scotch pie with gravy changed my mind on Scotch pies,’ I suppose in Scotland they know just how to cook them.
Retford FC’s pie and peas were good, but Appleby Frodinghams’ Cheese Burger with bacon was better. Thank you to the ladies who persuaded me to buy one. I think their reprieve from relegation was due to the food!
Sandiacre impressed me in that they had returnable and reusable plates.
The chips as usual were a mixed bag, both at TNS and St Albans, they were good but the seasoning ruined them, and with real potatoes at Gainsborough Trinity, I thought they had cracked it but they were only warm. I had chips three times at Hallam during the season, and twice they were up there near the top, but one time, they were close to the bottom, which shows they can be variable and subjective on the day.
The chips at Clay Cross were good and enhanced by the very thick Bovril, which you could almost stand your spoon up in. Second during the season was Coleshill under the Gazebo in the rain, but the winners by a fair margin were at Hednesford where not only was the game one of the most entertaining I have ever seen but the chips were hot, crispy. golden, but most of all, tasty.
I wasn’t sure that I would carry on with my chip league, but I’m ready to sacrifice my body again for another season.
payonthegate 2024/25 chip league
Club Score Comments Hednesford 82 Really good taste. Coleshill 74 Tasty under the gazebo. Hillsborough Stadium 73 Tasty, golden, soft inside, if they had been hot would be higher Hallam 72 Hot and Tasty South Leeds 72 Freshly cooked, good Friday night out. Clay Cross 72 Good taste. Very thick Bovril. Matlock 70 Big portion Hallam 69 Hot Crispy and Tasty Clifton All Whites 67 Enjoyable Sheffield FC 67 Good texture St Albans City 65 Good Chips but seasoning ruined the taste Gainsborough Trinity 62 Real Potatoes but dry and only warm Basford 62 Greasy background taste, good food hut. Worksop 60 Gone backwards since last times improvement Pinxton 59 Chips were limp and over cooked Mansfield 58 Only ate half, greasy, why chips in away end not main stand? Knaresborough 56 Warm , little taste Sandiacre 56 Lingering, greasy taste, served on a reuseable plate TNS 55 Chips were great but the seasoning ruined them. Hallam 55 Warm and soggy, not up to usual standard Albion Sports 55 Lasting greasy taste Brigg 54 Too greasy, friendly club house. Wombwell 52 Taste of burnt fat. Wembley 40 Cold, limp, dry, + Burger was horrible, the FA should be ashamed Fakenham Town 0 No Chips Club Thorne Colliery 0 No Chips Wolves 0 No Chips Kiveton Park 0 No Chips Gretna 0 No Chips but the Scotch pie was great. SJR Worksop 0 No chips, packet of Quavers instead. Sheffield Union 0 No Chips, didn’t go to the club house. Keswick 0 No Chips Retford FC 0 No Chips but pie and peas were delicious Appleby Frodingham 0 No Chips, very good Cheeseburger with bacon Wakefield FC 0 No Chips, good beef pie and gravy Ansty Nomads 0 No Chips and the burger was tasteless Bradfordn City 0 No Chips, enormous food queues, atmosphere electric Stockport Town 0 No Chips, Award winning, Great Northern Pie Company, WOW Loughborough Stnts 0 No Chips, sausage roll dry. Ilkley 0 No Chips, but had my favourite crisps ‘Seabrooks’ Chesterfield 0 No Chips Aston Villa 0 Couldn’t get to the food kiosks, too busy Shrewsbury/TNS 0 No Chips
Another season of sheer joy watching all levels of football, seeing one of the best games I have ever seen, an abandoned game, promotions, pitch invasions, nostalgia, re-birth, disappointment and a little boredom and much more.
It all started at Fakenham, one holiday evening in July when the football was relaxed and the burger cooked on a barbeque outside was the highlight. 38 games later at my penultimate game I would be there to see Bradford City fans, players and officials joy in gaining promotion, 40 years after the fire at the ground that claimed the lives of 56 people.
On the way, I saw Hallam reel in Selsden’s huge points advantage but just failed to pip them in the quest for automatic promotion. They managed it via the playoffs.
A visit to St Albans, 70 years on, saw them win, although they still suffered relegation from the National League South. Ian Culverhouse, Paul Bastock, and the rest of the team have agreed to stay on for next season. They were hired too late for St Albans to avoid the drop, in the end, by only 1 point after at one time looking completely doomed at Christmas.
I always enjoy an evening of football at Matlock, but a poor showing in their FA Cup replay was only a portent to their relegation at the end of the season.
Wakefield failed again in the playoffs to get out of NCEL Division One, and I watched them play at home, this time at Fatherstone Rovers ground. Last year, it was at Wakefield Trinity’s. This nomadic romp may soon be over as they try to secure a permanent home at Brook Farm. In the Dearne Valley, there continues to be a resurgence, and it is Wombwell Town that has developed an impressive ground and gained promotion.
From visiting Premier grounds at Wolves and Villa to watching Sheffield Students in the 12th tier, I have been impressed at the quality of football. Talking of Students I again visited Loughborough Students, one of my favourite haunts, but this was soured by a £70 parking fine over a £1 parking fee. This was eventually squashed after the usual battle.
A stop off at Hackney Marshes to reminisce and nearby ‘The Old Spotted Dog’ to see the oldest ground in London was a happy event. Not so happy was the trip to North Leicester to see an abandoned game at Ansty Nomads, I still haven’t dried out.
European football was provided by TNS at Shrewsbury, and I later visited their true home ground near Oswestry. This is a very well run club that deserves its status as the best Welsh team. Competition in the Cymru leagues will be fierce in the coming season with a new structure looming and being based on this seasons placings.
I finally made it to Appleby Froddingham in Scunthorpe after a few re-routed journeys due to bad weather. The friendliness made up for the average facilities, and I am pleased to see that they have been reprieved relegation and remain allocated in the 10th tier. The facilities were not extensive at Keswick, but, ‘Oh’, what a scenic ground in the park, with the Lake District Hills as a backdrop.
Great to have seen a Bury victory as they make their slow but sure come back through the leagues. What marvellous support they have both home and away. A mention of support brings me back to St Albans, where despite relegation, they still hosted the 5th highest average attendance in the National League South.
County cups are often forgotten by clubs, yet on a cold evening I saw Ashbourne nearly upset Clay Cross, a team who won the United Counties Division One, in my view one of the hardest leagues to get out of anywhere in the country due to its competitiveness. The oldest derby in the world drew a crowd well over 1500 at Hallam to see them beat Sheffield Fc in ‘The Sheffield and Hallamshire County Cup’. The final of the cup where Worksop just beat Hallam was my final game of the season.
I have saved the highlights and lowlights to last. Visiting Gretna and watching some surprisingly skilful football and some skilful parking and a tasty scotch pie. A visit to Wembley to see Aston Villa not turn up and be humiliated by Crystal Palace and experience the worst football food of the season, the FA should do better. Biggleswade were down and out at half time at Coleshill in the cup, but turned it round, eventually winning 4,5, especially pleasing for their Chairman whom I went to school with. Another 4.5, this time on penalties after 4.4 after extra time, saw Gainsborough Trinity beating Hednesford after also looking to have no way back. This game was one of the most exciting I have ever seen in my long history of watching football.
For sheer emotion, the joy of the fans of Bradford City, when their 95th minute winner and promotion clincher went in, was my highlight of the season. To have been their and experience it was tingling.
2416 fans turned up at Hillsborough to see the final of the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Cup final and no one was disappointed. It was a cold evening, only 11 degrees, yet it was a pleasant walk to the ground from parking the car just outside the ground, something you couldn’t do when ‘Wednesday’ are at home.
Fans of both teams mingled in the bars and food kiosks before taking their seats. I was able to get one of the padded seats, so I sat back waiting for the players of Worksop Town FC and Hallam FC. Both have had successful years coming second in their respective leagues and both gaining promotion by way of the playoffs. Worksop Town will be leaving the Northern Premier League and returning to the National League North after an 18 year absence. Hallam FC will be leaving the Northern Counties East League, Premier Division, next season, and moving up to The Northern Premier League, East Division a level they have never before played at. Despite these moves there will still be two level between the clubs, Worksop at the 6th level of English Football and Hallam at the 8th level.
Both teams entered the arena to some vocal fans and a drum beat by the Hallam contingent. The grass surface looked like it was starting to be prepared for the close season with patches of sand all over the pitch. After the customary introduction to the supporters and each other the teams stood in the centre of the centre circle with everyone standing and observing a minutes silence on this 80th Anniversary of VE Day.
The Sheffield and Hallamshire County FA Senior Cup is the 5th oldest in the world and next year it will be 150 years old, having been first played for in 1876.
Worksop Town 2 Hallam 1
Friday 8th May 2025, 19.30 kick off. Hillsborough Stadium.
Tigers v The Countrymen
Worksop; grey shorts and shirts the front of which had a vertical black panel on one side, the goalkeeper had an orange top and black shorts.
Hallam; All royal blue strip with the goalkeeper in a pink top and black shorts.
Worksop looked in control from the start but Hallam were letting them come to them and counter attacking with some quick breaks down the wings particularly down the right. Hallam were also controlling the tempo of the game with slow goal kicks, throw ins and set pieces, this was something they continued with all match.
It was Worksop who took the lead when with 16 minutes gone, a cross from the left was beaten out by the Hallam keeper but only onto the head of Aleks Starcenco who directed it down and into the bottom right corner of the net. The game now ebbed and flowed and despite the difference in League levels Hallam held their own to only trail by the one goal at half time.
The floodlights were turned on at half time with it coming over gloomy, and Worksop should have made it two with only 4 minutes gone from the re-start when the ball was blasted over the bar from very close range. A few minutes later, Warhurst in the Hallam goal kept them in the game with a reflex point blank save.
The Worksop dominance continued with the Hallam break aways, and one of these lead to an equaliser when a cross in from the left found Rio Allan, unmarked, and he cleverly dinked it over the goalkeeper into the net. Que celebrations by the players just in front of their fans. Rio Allen had played some skilful football all night and deserved the goal.
This set up a nerve wracking 20 minutes for both fans with the pattern of play resuming as before. Both sides made numerous substitutions, and it seemed destined for penalties to decide the tie, when with a minute to go Worksop struck again, when after a higher tempo attack the ball was received by Aleks Starcenco on the right corner of the Hallam goal area and he blasted it into the top right hand corner of the net. Hallam could not come back in the final 4 minutes of added time but all of their team gave their all. Worksop will have known that they had been in a hard won game, just deserving to edge it on the night.
Football Food
Great to have chips again, they were a good portion, tasty, golden, firm to soft inside, and but for the fact that they were only warm they could have been the chips of the year, score 73.
payonthegate 