The Unforgotten

Maghull  1  FC Bootle  1

West Cheshire League – Division One

Admission / Programme – Donation / No

Maghull Football Club, now there’s a blast from the past!

I can recall my days at University, sat in my room in the house that I shared in the former mining village of Silverdale in Staffordshire. I wasn’t big on study of the academic kind, no, I was more of a student of non-league football, after what had been a few years where my attentions had been taken elsewhere.

When I say elsewhere, I was a non-league obsessive right through school, but then as I moved into Sixth Form, got a car, a girlfriend, a job and all that, I had become a regular watching Derby County home and away. It was all about the Rams, and stuff like watching Belper Town, and checking the league tables in the Mail on Sunday fell by the wayside somewhat.

But University kind of changed things, the season ticket at the Baseball Ground lapsed, the away games stopped, the job came to an end and the girlfriend also moved on…..I had time on my hands. I started to buy ‘Team Talk’ magazine again, I started to check out the results and the tables, and then before long I felt I was back up to speed with all that was happening, particularly in the North of England.

The North West Counties League became a source of interest, largely because I was now based in the Potteries, and it was the competition in which the Potteries sides played. Eastwood Hanley, Kidsgrove Athletic, Newcastle Town, Nantwich Town, and another name that won’t be overly familiar to many people, K Chell were names that spring to mind, but other names such as Burnley Bank Hall, Stantondale and Haslingden were clubs that you simply don’t hear about anymore.

One club who’s name was prominent at that time was Maghull, a team based on the Northern edges of Liverpool not far from Aintree. Maghull were founder members of the North West Counties League, joining in the 1982-83 season having previously been members of the Cheshire County League. They remained in the competition until 1999 when they stepped back into the West Cheshire League, a move that came about from what I recall, because the club was unable to secure floodlighting which was to become mandatory in the NWCL.

So Maghull, they came, they had a good few years, and then they dropped back into more local football, and from my own perspective, they fell off the radar. When I say fell off the radar, on the occasional trip to Southport I’ve seen a sign for the place as we passed, and it would make me wonder what may have happened to them, but other than that, nope, they’d been forgotten.

But then as we moved into 2024 and the lists of Regional Feeder League clubs who had applied for promotion to Step 6 came out, they re-appeared, they’d applied, they were rocking along very nicely in the West Cheshire League and now was the time to look to get back to where they once came from.

I’ve had my eye on it since, always planning on venturing over for an early evening midweek kick off as the season drew to a close. After a weather related postponement the previous week, that time had come.

The M62 behaved pretty well, and the ground itself is easy to get to from the motorway network. You head up the M57 to it’s conclusion at Aintree and then carry on for a very short while along the A59 dual carriageway before entering into Maghull. The ground is off to the right, located between the dual carriageway and the Leeds / Liverpool Canal.

I must admit to being a bit surprised to find out that the venue the club use on Hall Lane is in fact the very same ground the club used back in the North West Counties League days. It’s a large expanse and as you drive in the cricket ground is immediately in front of you, with the football ground off to the right. The football ground is separated from the cricket pitch by some green fencing, while the pitch itself is surrounded by a modern looking barrier. The clubhouse and dressing rooms is a single story building set back from the half way line, while in front of it, slightly to the right is a small area of covered terracing of the metal construction type that arrives pre-built.

Floodlights haven’t landed yet, but having spoken to a club official (who was very helpful and welcoming), they are due shortly after what has not been an especially straightforward planning process, in terms of objections etc.

It’s very tidy in terms of a venue, and while the area itself is very urban, it does have a bit of a rural feel to it, probably due to the size of the expanse and the proximity of the tree lined canal and perimeter. 

Maghull need to finish top five to get promoted, and that was as a good as in the bag. The league is going to be won by Mossley Hill Athletic, but second place is very much up for grabs and the visitors, FC Bootle, were also in contention for that spot.

On a very pleasant evening, a decent crowd approaching three figures rocked up for a game that was evenly matched and tense out on the park. The visitors took a first half lead through Jacob Jones, and it did look as if the three points were heading West, but, as the game moved into added time the hosts grabbed an equaliser through Darren Brannigan. It was probably about right on the balance of play.

So, Maghull Football Club, a real community club with numerous teams and players under it’s umbrella, look like they are back, not that they ever went away of course. But they are back into prominence in terms of the National League System, and recent history tells us that clubs from the North West feeder leagues typically do well when they step up to the NWCL, and I see no reason why they can’t do the same.

Maghull are finally unforgotten.

Petanque

Leamington Hibernian  1  Wake Green Amateurs  2

Midland Football League – Division Three

Admission / Programme – No / No

Prior to this season I’ve seen Leamington Hibernian play home games at three different venues, and I know of at least one other that they’ve used.

I first saw them at Ajax Park in Warwick, then I saw them play at a ground in the village of Bishop’s Tachbrook, before finally watching them in action in another village close to Leamington called Cubbington.

Since Cubbington, they’ve been sharing the home of Hampton in the Solihull area of Birmingham, but a fire put the ground out of action, so now they’ve de-camped to Stockton Cricket Club on the outskirts of Southam.

So, along with Burntwood Town and Malvern Rangers (two clubs that I seem to think are no longer with us), they are the club that I’ve seen on the most grounds, and, they still soldier on in the Midland Football League, albeit nowadays they find themselves in the bottom tier and that would be notionally at Step 8 of the non-league pyramid.

I have always looked upon the Hibs with fondness, and that stems back to my first ever visit to Ajax Park when I visited on a May Bank Holiday in 2010. The club were playing Perrywood, and I was wearing a Derry GAA jacket. A chap came over to me and starting talking about the GAA and how he was a Cork man, that man was Jim Barry, the Irishman who formed Leamington Hibernian.

Jim and his wife Joy formed Hibs in 1974. Joy is no longer with us, having passed away in 2020, and at her funeral, the players of the club formed a guard of honour, but Jim is very much around and seemingly involved with the club he has been such a fundamental part of for 50 years.

Jim at pitch side though during the game, now that was a sight, players, officials, you name it, if they weren’t up to scratch, he let them know in no uncertain times in that unmistakable Irish accent!  

The Stockton move came about, as I say due to the unfortunate fire, but when Hampton moved back in, Hibs didn’t, and that got me wondering, maybe they quite liked the new home, maybe they planned to stay?

Well, on the basis that we are now at the end of the season and they are still wandering out to the edges of Southam to play games, I thought I’d go and have a look at what the place was all about.

The pitch at Stockton, like many others, has succumbed to the wet weather over the past few months, so I kept an eye on it, but with an affirmative regarding the game against Wake Green Amateurs, I chose to take a punt and head down the M1 and M69 before following the Rugby Road down to Stockton itself, a very pleasant looking Warwickshire village.

The cricket and football pitch is located on the edges of the village, right next to some new build housing, one assumes therefore that the builders do not want, or indeed are unable to get their grubby mitts on the sports facilities, because it does like prime for a bit of development!

Anyway, when I landed the place was busy, some kids teams were training and the car park was full, but spotting a little track that ran down to another car park right behind the goal of the football pitch at the very bottom end, I was soon parked up.

The clubhouse was tidy, and spacious, and indeed busy. A mixture of kids parents (and kids), locals having a drink and those who had come to watch the game meant seats were at a premium, so on that basis the visiting officials table did for me, I mean, they weren’t to know were they??

Another thing I spotted, which you don’t see very often, is that the facilities incorporated Stockton Petanque Club. I last saw that down at Larkhall Athletic on the outskirts of Bath, and with respect, you won’t find many grounds with Petanque clubs associated with them in the Sheffield County Senior League! What is Petanque you may ask? It’s a form of bowls apparently, French apparently, played by people with cash apparently, and it seems as hard as you look, you won’t find it on the Sky Sports…….

How did it transpire then? To be fair it was a fairly even first half with the hosts taking the lead on what was a very cold and blustery evening, but things turned around in the second period, with the visitors equalising from close range and then as the game moved into added time they broke the Hibs hearts with a winner. 

Will Hibs be playing at Stockton again next season? Who knows, but one thing is pretty much guaranteed no matter where they end up, the Petanque club are going nowhere!

Elephant In The Room

Farnham Town  4  Balham  0

Combined Counties League League – Premier Division South

Admission / Programme - £8 / £2

Farnham Town have been absolutely smashing it this season.

Playing in the Premier Division South of the Combined Counties League, they have won every league game bar three, which have been drawn. With just three games to go (at the time of writing) they have 99 points and a goal difference of +100.

Promotion was secured some time ago, to the Isthmian League, and in terms of domination of a competition, I can’t ever recall a team in a senior competition being in such a position before. I stand to be corrected, but if we take the National League System, there has been no equal in the top six steps of non-league football. It really is that impressive.

So, the elephant in the room, you don’t just assemble a squad of your typical Step 5 footballers and produce a team that steamrollers everyone in the league the way Farnham has done, you need to do a bit more than that. To be fair, Farnham have got players from Steps 4 and 3 playing for them, and there is nothing wrong with that at all, clearly the club have ambition and those players have chosen to take a step down to join a club where hopefully they will be on a journey that sees them playing back at the levels they arrived from, and possibly even surpassing them.

Of course, lets not be naïve, players of that ability don’t step down levels for those reasons alone, there has to be some financial recompense on offer to ‘facilitate’ their moves to Farnham, and it’s fair to say that while I’ve never seen or heard a figure as to what the weekly wage build might be, let’s not kid ourselves, it’s gonna be a big one!

I don’t know the ins and outs of where the money is coming from, some of it will be self generated of course, but I did hear that they have financial backing, and I do stand to be corrected here, but my understanding is it’s a consortium of You Tubers that are providing the assistance.

What the truth and the reality is, is only the business of the club and those involved with it, but, what I would say is that it’s ok having money, but you need to spend it wisely, and no one could argue that Farnham Town have not done that this season.

Let’s start with the town, this is a Surrey town that is very much commuter belt. As you drive in it exudes wealth and prosperity, in fact it’s a lovely town that ideally I wouldn’t have minded having a look around, but being mindful of the car parking situation at the ground, I chose to head straight to where the action was going to be.

The ground is located to the West of the town centre, just off the main road that heads out to the A31 by-pass. Set down a narrow lane, it’s hemmed in on three sides by housing, with the fourth side is a large memorial hall. There isn’t much space in the car park but being early I managed the get the two chaps on the gate to let me through barrier and take one of the few remaining spaces, and this was only at 1.30pm.

The clubhouse sits outside the ground and is the kind of place the serves both those going to the game, or indeed any locals who simply just want to pop in for a drink. It was a tidy venue, and on an unusually sunny and warm day, it was nice to be able to take advantage of the outdoor seating.

Once through the turnstiles you have a smart new seated stand to your left, with the dressing rooms behind, while further down beyond the stand is another new construction, this time some covered terracing. To the right of the turnstiles is a food outlet and more importantly, from a money making point of view, an outdoor bar that did a roaring trade it has to be said. 

The bulk of Farnham’s fans (495 turned up today), position themselves behind the North goal, and this is quite a quirky part of the ground. Set around a steep grass bank, the hard standing rises up gradually from one corner, reaching a high point in the opposite corner where at this stage you are quite a distance above pitch level. Set in the very middle, right behind the goal is a seated stand, while behind this are apartments that overlook the pitch. No one seemed to be watching from the apartments, and I’m not sure how happy they are to have such fine views, but in terms of standing or sitting to watch a football match as a paying spectator, the vantage point is superb. Plus, on a warm dry day, sitting / lying on a grass bank is never a bad thing!

The side opposite the turnstiles (the memorial hall side), has the dug outs, a TV gantry and a small but older area of cover. Overall though, a nice ground, a mix of the new and old, but very tidy and well looked after, money has clearly been spent, so credit to the club for not neglecting the facilities.

I have to say, the vibe around the place was very good, many of the club officials and supporters were wearing ‘Champions’ t-shirts, while the atmosphere was all very positive and jovial, but, what is the actual history of this football club?

Formed in 1906 following a merger of two sides, one being the wonderfully named Farnham Bungs, they joined the Surrey Intermediate League and then ultimately moved into the Surrey Senior League. In 1971 they joined the league that was to become the London Spartan League before transferring to the Combined Counties League in 1980.

The league title was won in both 1991 and 1992 and the second time lead to promotion to Division Three of the Isthmian League. However, they never started the campaign due to not having the funds to upgrade their ground, so it meant a season in abeyance before they re-joined the Co-Co in 1993.

Since then there have been a couple of blips whereby they’ve been relegated from the Premier Division to the First Division, but nowadays things are very much looking rosy and this time will see them actually start an Isthmian League campaign!

So how did the game against play-off chasing Balham pan out?

It felt like Farnham didn’t get out of third gear throughout the game, and they didn’t really need to if we are being truthful. Having said that, after a fairly even period of early exchanges it took a while for Farnham to get going until the impressive Shamal Edwards finally scored after 38 minutes Then just a minute later Owen Dean made it 2-0 and it was effectively game over.

Adam Liddle scored a third juts before the hour mark and the fourth goal came in added time when Dean finished coolly for his second goal.

Farnham march on, and I fully expect that they will be one of the favourites, if not the outright favourite to take the Isthmian League Division One South Central title next season, but how far they can go is an interesting debate. 

Guess it will all come down to one thing…… 

Main Event

Denaby Main  2  Swinton Athletic  3

Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League – Premier Division

Admission / Programme - Free / Online

Tickhill Square in Denaby, now that brings back some memories.

It would have been 1984-85 when I first went, in Belper’s Northern Counties East League Championship season, and I remember the 1-0 victory well. Largely because it was the day when Burton Albion infamously lost 6-1 to Leicester City at the Baseball Ground in the FA Cup Third Round, and as the afternoon wore on the shameful scenes at the game were being broadcast on the radio.

The following season I can remember going on the opening day and seeing a 3-3 draw against the Nailers, and my abiding memory of that game is speaking with my Dad to the then Denaby Secretary, Arthur Jones, before the fun on the pitch started. 

I went a few more times thereafter, but then things got a little bit spicy in the mid-Nineties when the two clubs were going neck and neck for the NCEL title. In 1996-97 Denaby did indeed win the crown, losing just three games, but ground grading issues meant they were overlooked for promotion to the Northern Premier League and Belper as runners-up were promoted instead.

It went down like a shit sandwich, Denaby in their match programme for the final game of the season accused Belper of skulduggery, suggesting that because Mr H Senior was on the NCEL management committee, he pulled a few strings on the ground grading front and that was what swung it Belper’s way. Absolute rubbish of course, he had nowt to do with ground grading, but Denaby of course were entitled to think whatever they wanted to!

Denaby were never the same side again, and at the end of the 2001-02 season the club folded when they lost the use of Tickhill Square.

My early memories of Tickhill Square were of a ground that had a grandness about it, but it had clearly seen better days. The old main stand was a wooden affair that eventually burned down, while opposite was a further stand that from memory ended up being condemned and replaced by a new structure. It was a venue that oozed history, for Denaby United had a pretty illustrious one in the Midland and Yorkshire League’s, which included an FA Cup First Round appearance in 1958, when Oldham Athletic won 2-0 at Tickhlll Square.

So let’s fast forward then. Denaby United did re-form playing in the Sheffield County Senior League, albeit not at Tickhill Square, however, it didn’t mean that football was finished for good at the old venue, because along came Denaby Main FC.

Denaby Main joined the County Senior League in 2014, and since then they’ve done a great job in returning Tickhill Square to it’s former glories, as I shall try and explain.

I had no plans to go to Denaby Main on a Wednesday night in April for a 6pm kick off, but as my games of choice one by one fell by the wayside due to the rain, I had noticed a very confident tweet coming out of the club saying that they had no plans for a pitch inspection and the local derby against Swinton Athletic was very much on.

As we moved towards kicking out time at the office I’d made my mind up, 28 years after my last visit, I was going back, very curious to see how it had changed, not just in terms of the ground, but also the surrounding areas.

Denaby Main (as opposed to just Denaby) is a former pit village sat between Conisborough and Mexborough, and upon arriving in the village it was notable that various new commercial units had appeared on the edges, while some of the former pit houses had been replaced with newly built dwellings.

Parking at the cemetery which sits behind the old Denaby & Cadeby Miners Welfare building, I wandered in through the turnstile block behind the goal and cast my eyes around the venue, and indeed, it was much changed. The old main stand which was destroyed by the fire, has been replaced by a small seated stand, with the area to the rear that used to house the dressing rooms and a car park now sporting a Youth Hub.

On the opposite side is nowadays where all of the action is, a tidy bespoke seated stand, raised up from pitch level, provides the main vantage point, while to the side of this is a newly built dressing room and clubhouse block. A small area of cover also resides behind the goal at the Welfare end, and this stands away from the pitch tucked into the corner of the ground, while the opposite end remains open flat standing.

I would suggest, other than floodlights (the original lights have long since gone), this is a ground easily fit for Step 6 football, but whether the club have any intentions to move to this level, I couldn’t say.

So how did the game go? Well, firstly I was mightily impressed that they kicked off at 6pm, which is the set time for County Senior League games come April. I’ve been to many that have been later due to players struggling to make it on time, but in this case, no such concerns. The game itself was a bit of a cracker to be fair.

Denaby stunned the visitors by taking a two goal lead, but then we saw a dramatic turnaround in the second half where Swinton pulled a goal back from the penalty spot, before grabbing a late equaliser. As the game went into injury time the visitors threw the kitchen sink at Denaby and as we moved into the sixth minute of the aforementioned time, they forced home the winner which lead to some pretty impressive celebrations pitch side involving the team, the bench and a couple of rogue pitch invaders!

So that was Denaby, it was nice to go back, and it was great to see how Tickhill Square has gone through some impressive redevelopment work. The memories though, they truly did come flooding back…

Fine (Part 2)

Bashley  0  Cribbs  3

Southern League – Division One South

Admission / Programme - £10 / Online

It’s about January, and I’m telling Mrs H about the fact I’ve booked the Easter Weekend in Exeter, for myself, so I can attend the South West Peninsula Ground Hop, she’s fine with that, Mrs H does “Fine” very well.

But then, after a couple of moments of thought, back came the counterpunch…

“Ok, but I feel a bit left out now, and it’s ages until our Summer holidays, so why don’t we go away for the second weekend of Easter?”

I had to think on my feet, and in an almost tourette’s style response I simply blurted it out…

“Portsmouth!”

In a matter of seconds, after computing the question, I quickly thought of an area of the UK where I had a few grounds to visit, and, might be a half decent tourist destination. When I say half decent, when I went to Portsmouth as a kid it was a dump, but something in the back of my mind told me a renovation job had been done on the place and it was quite a good spot to visit.

Within an hour we had three nights in an apartment in Southsea booked, and with that I gulped in nervous anticipation. I mean, very little research had been done, I had thrown one in on a whim, and now we were going on a holiday to place that for all I know could still resemble downtown Beirut!

But, that aside, the choice of games was plentiful, it was still January, I had plenty of time to work out what we could do and hopefully try and justify the destination, which of course if it all went wrong, would be my fault, and my fault alone!

I felt a little more at ease having spoken to Steve, who in fact didn’t burst out into laughter and wish me all the best for the remaining days of my existence, in fact no, he said how nice it was nowadays around Portsmouth, he even recommended a restaurant!

So, the time had come, Devon had been a blast, it was then off to Wroxham on the Monday, back to work on the Tuesday, the Dutch visitors were in town on the Wednesday and then, finally, on the Thursday morning it was destination Pompey, which was duly arrived in around 11.30am.

You know what, it turned into a really good trip. Day one saw afternoon tea up the Spinnaker, a wander round the historic docks and then a few beers in Southsea which I have to say has some very nice bars and restaurants. Day two started with a bit of shopping action around the Gun Wharf Quay retail outlet, followed by the aforementioned meal at the impressive Brasserie Blanc, then of course, it was Saturday…..

My thinking around the football was driven by the awkwardness factor. In the sense that, which of the teams playing at home would be the trickiest to get to, and back, in a day from Derbyshire? We had a choice of Sholing, which is located in the East side of Southampton, Chichester City, which is a plastic option to the East of Portsmouth, and then slightly further along you’d also got Bognor Regis Town playing at home. But, the one that ticked the boxes was Bashley in the New Forest, about an hours drive from Portsmouth, set in a very scenic part of the World, and a bit of a swine to get to under normal circumstances.

The day started with a trip to Lyndhurst, an attractive small town in the New Forest, with an impressive Ferrari dealership as one of it’s main tourist attractions! We had a bit of an amble before taking a leisurely drive down through Brockenhurst, seeing more of the forest, before eventually arriving in the village of Bashley.

Bashley is a tiny place, and it’s pretty remarkable that they have a football club full stop, let alone a football club playing at Step 4. At one stage they even plied their trade in the second tier of non-league football when members of the Southern League Premier Division, but more on that shortly.

The club were formed just after the last War, starting life in the Bournemouth League before moving to the Hampshire League in 1983. They became founder members of the Wessex League in 1986, becoming inaugural champions, and then went on to win it twice more and in 1989 they found themselves promoted to the Southern League.

The first season in the Southern Division saw them crowned champions, and indeed gain promotion to the Premier Division, where they finished an impressive fourth in their first campaign, but after four seasons they were relegated back to the regional divisions again.

They spent eleven consecutive seasons at this level before a two season spell when they got moved to the Isthmian League which I’m pretty sure from a logistical perspective went down a treat! They came back to the Southern League though with a vengeance in 2006-07, winning the South Western Division with a stunning 102 point haul.

It was back to the Southern League Premier Division again where they spent a further seven years before relegation and two awful seasons in the South Western Division where they finished bottom twice, won a total of one game and over the two campaigns conceded 349 goals!

The Wessex League beckoned, and after a rebuild the club bounced back and won promotion at the end of the 2021-22 season thanks to a runners-up finish. The Southern League had been home since, and this season, relegation is unlikely, but mathematically they still have a little bit of work to do.

In the clubs first ever FA Vase season of 1987-88 they lost out to Emley in the semi-finals, drawing at home and then losing away, whereas in the FA Cup the greatest day came in 1994-95 when they won at Chesham United in the First Round Proper before losing 1-0 at home to Swansea City in the next round. 

So what’s the ground like? Very pleasant I have to say given it’s rural location. The entrance off the main road sees the Village Hall to the right and the turnstiles directly in front of you. The clubhouse sits behind the goal, next to the Village Hall, with the tea bar at one end. Moving round anti-clockwise to the garden centre side of the ground, you have a new hospitality area, next to a seated stand, with the dressing rooms behind.

Next to the stand is an area of covered terracing, and then another identical area of covered terracing which is out of bounds due to being used as a storage area, sits right night to it’s twin. Beyond that it’s hard standing behind the goal and then on the dugout side of the ground you have a couple of steps of terracing that run all the way back down to the turnstiles.

Bashley is a friendly club, and the whole place has a nice feel about it. On the day though that friendliness extended onto the pitch where play-off certainties Cribbs cruised a relatively comfortable victory against a home side that were pretty ineffective.

Harris Feltham gave the visitors the lead in the 23rd minute from the penalty spot, and then in the 53rd minute another penalty was despatched by Bailey Croome. The third goal came just after the hour mark when Jake Brown produced a lovely chip to the beat the Bash goalkeeper.

So back to Pompey we went, the little break almost over, but, one last thing.

When I said Mrs H does “Fine” very well, I meant it, and by that I’m referring to the parking fine I discovered on the Saturday morning slapped to my car! Seems she had inadvertently given my registration plate details, complete with a couple of letters incorrect, to the owners of the apartment, so the car ended up being wrongly registered! I’ve contested it, but I’m not holding my breath….

Revenge is best served financially, apparently!