A STORY EVERY WAY YOU TURN
During extended periods of no football, the mind can wander. Finding myself without a game after Chester’s home fixture was postponed due to geographical uncertainty, I decamped to the seaside for a well-earned break. Enjoying a stress-free Saturday watching other scores roll in, there was agony and ecstasy all over the land, but none of it applicable to me. Eventually making my way home, for reasons that may never be clear I decided to visit a handful of football clubs along the route, take a photo of each ground and sit in the car for a few minutes lost in my thoughts. It’s a life, of sorts.
While not obviously relevant to Non-League, first up was AFC Bournemouth, the shiny Vitality Stadium almost unrecognisable from the Dean Court to which Chester City were regular visitors. It’s also where it arguably all began for me, my first published work being a brief interview with a youth player called Edward Howe. I re-interviewed him there a few years ago, and he recounted keeping Bournemouth in the Football League
– despite a 17-point deduction – at the expense of Chester.
He’s now manager of the world’s richest club, but I’ve got a column in The NLP so who’s the real winner? And while Bournemouth enjoy life in the Championship, I would rather be Non-League forever than have a Bubbles Champagne Bar attached to my football club. East to Eastleigh, where I’ve seen it all: a win, a draw, a defeat and a postponement, the controversial waterlogged pitch incident of 2017. Still scarred by this late decision, the sight of the pitch being watered as the rain came down brought it all back. That said, if you’d told me then that in 2022 the car park would be utilised as a Covid testing centre I’d have been even more surprised. Exiting said car park (briefly with my boot open), the drizzly tour of the M3 corridor took me next to Farnborough, the home of aviation. My only previous visit was when they were still Town and we were still City, a damning indictment of the fragile nature of NonLeague football, forever at the whim of despotic owners. My primary memory of Farnborough is finding an internet café in Peru early one morning to follow text coverage of our game there, victory secured with a 90th minute penalty.
Back to the present, and the resurfaced car park was relatively full, with high-pitched yelping from within the stadium tantalisingly hinting at a match
or training session. Stealth snap secured, I was shocked to see that their next home fixture was against Wimborne Town. Farnborough may have lost the ‘Town’ suffix, but Aldershot have gained it, yet another club to go out of business and reform with a slightly different name.
Drive-by
Shrouded in vegetation, more forest than stadium, the Recreation Ground lurks high above the town, almost impenetrable to invaders. Never get out of the car. No photos. Instinctively heading towards the hidden away
end, I spotted the road where my wing mirror was once sheared off by an ambulance, opposite La Fontaine, the pub no longer there.
Deep into Surrey next, destination Woking, their main stand looming above the houses. It’s where I sat with my two-year-old son for his first ever game, one of numerous visits over the years, including at least two wins, one of them with a screamer live on Sky. With my impromptu drive-by affording a glimpse of the Moaners’ Corner ‘Cafe’ I laughed
inwardly and headed into town, past The Sovereigns pub, scene of many a pre and post-match scoop. Inside the M25 now, but time for a traffic-blighted visit to Hayes & Yeading. Situated at a dead end next to a tip, this was at least familiar, unlike the shiny new stadium where I’ve never seen a game, my only prior engagement being with a pre-merger Hayes. Asked by the car park attendant if I was there for the filming, that sounds very much like an exclusive reveal of Ted Lasso, Season 3. But what else have I learned from this one-man odyssey? Non-League is volatile, albeit crucial, to the community and football is by nature cyclical. Next stop Wembley…
Steve Hill’s Wall of Sport: My Descent Into Multiscreen Madness is available in all formats now.