Vale of Tears - Matchgoing 15th to 21st March

[JoeysToe]

Saturday will be my fifth visit to Vale Park. So far on aggregate I have seen Oxford score zero, concede seven and pick up one solitary point. Port Vale haven't won this year, a run of 13 games that included one of Carlisle's two victories of 2024. If we don't win, I expect an away end almost as toxic as Burton last year, during Karl's last days.

Hopefully the day will be made brighter by a walk to the ground via some disused railways and a pint after in the Titanic bar on platform one at Stoke station.

[Southport Zeb]

It's the Scottish groundhop this weekend (weather permitting). Friday night is at Armadale, then Saturday sees three games in Perth (at Luncarty, Kinnoull, and Jeanfield) before an evening match at Sauchie. The final game is Sunday lunchtime at Whitburn, following which I should be able to find a women's game.

Might go to Ashton Athletic on Tuesday, then Southport take on Bamber Bridge in the Lancashire Trophy semi final at Darwen on Wednesday.

[Third rate Leszno]

Port Vale haven't won this year, a run of 13 games that included Carlisle's only victory of 2024.

It's understandable that you missed it amidst the torrent of defeats, but Carlisle did actually manage a win at Burton at the end of February.

No football for me this weekend, I'll be taking photos of rally cars in the woods to the west of Welshpool.

[My Name Is Ian]

Early start this week!

I haven't decided yet. I've got one eye on Wimbledon vs Newport on Saturday but I've not looked at the weather forecast for the next few days, and there's little reason to be optimistic that anyone on grass will be playing any weekend below the top couple of divisions, at the moment.

I think Lancing are at home, which is cheap, easy and will definitely be on, but I'm more interested in Wick vs Forest Row in the SCFL. I haven't been to Wick yet, which on the westernmost tip of Worthing. It's a 2.00 kick off, but if there's any rain between now and the weekend the chances of it going ahead are next to zero. It didn't rain today, but it doesn't feel much like it isn't going to between tonight and Saturday.

Edit: I've looked at the forecast for round here and basically it's light rain from tomorrow afternoon until Saturday morning, so I can't imagine Wick will be on. Their home match last night was rained off.

[Botswana Meat Commission]

Haringey Borough v Cray Wanderers
Isthmian Premier League

Boro’ are three points (and a pretty big swing in goal difference) from safety and Cray aren’t going up and aren’t going down, so hopefully they’re not at the races and Haringey’s good form can continue.

[Patrick Thistle]

Hoping for a twofer on Saturday. Blaenavon Blues v Caldicot Town will be weather dependent I think. Pontypridd United v Barry Town is on plastic so should be fine. Barry really need to turn some decent performances into wins but Ponty bashed them 3-0 a few weeks ago and are in decent form.

[Antepli Ejderha]

I'm hoping to go to Fisher versus Hollands and Blair on Saturday. Let's see if circumstances let me.

[George C.]

Saturday will be my fifth visit to Vale Park. So far on aggregate I have seen Oxford score zero, concede seven and pick up one solitary point. Port Vale haven't won this year, a run of 13 games that included one of Carlisle's two victories of 2024. If we don't win, I expect an away end almost as toxic as Burton last year, during Karl's last days.

Hopefully the day will be made brighter by a walk to the ground via some disused railways and a pint after in the Titanic bar on platform one at Stoke station.

Used to be some decent pubs between Vale Park and Longport station, though no idea if still there...

https://footballgroundguide.com/
probably has a few suggestions?

[Fearful Symmetry]

Proper bag of cans trip to Pontefract Collieries on Saturday, bearing in mind the relative distance between Hull and Ponte Carlo it's actually a 2 hour train trip, which involves going to Leeds and coming back on yourself. Bit of a 6 pointer regarding Ferriby's play off ambitions, but there's a real danger that I might be too pissed to care.

[JoeysToe]

Used to be some decent pubs between Vale Park and Longport station, though no idea if still there...

https://footballgroundguide.com/
probably has a few suggestions?

There are still pubs in Burslem town centre (my favourite being The Bulls Head) but there's only one left open between there and Longport station. It's an incredible looking wasteland of disused industry, falling down buildings and (yes) disused pubs.

[The Mighty Trin]

The Mighty Wakefield Trinity v Bradford Northern on Friday and our first league game of the season. Hoping for a better result than the Challenge Cup mudbath shitshow at neighbouring Featherstone Rovers last Sunday. A jaunt over to Speke Hall on Saturday morning (one of my favourite places, but my parents have never been) and after that Ithey'll drop me off in Warrington for Town v Gloucester City and they can toddle home. Definitely a game this Tuesday, but as yet undecided where.

[Snake Plissken]

To Turf Moor for the visit of Brentford. On the down side, due to injury, the home crowd will be unable to give Ben Mee a richly deserved standing ovation for his service to the club, on the upside, he's not going to be inevitably nodding one into our net from a set piece.

[Artificial Hipster]

There's an outside chance I might be able to make a late dash for West v Glossop tomorrow otherwise it's looking like a blank weekend for me. So given that I won't have done a new ground for a couple of weeks and won't be going to one next weekend either I'm looking at a trip into darkest Staffordshire on Tuesday and another former Counties ground for Stone Old Alleynians v Whitchurch Alport in the Midland League.

[RobW]

Lincoln v Bristol Rovers tomorrow. Given the recent form and the goals, and that the club have announced we're selling a lot of tickets, I can see a 1-0 home defeat being inevitable.

[Ray de Galles]

Gawd, this week's thread started early! I haven't even finished writing up my last week's fixtures yet.

A completely Cymric week for me. Back down to Cardiff tomorrow for Wales v Italy in the Six Nations Wooden Spoon Play-Off, though we could still finish bottom of the table even if we win. The visitors will be deserved favourites for the first time at the Millennium, especially after winning there two years ago.

On Tuesday I hope to head to Donkey Lane for a night of European competition with Enfield Town v Llantwit Major in the FENIX Trophy, which was mentioned on the matchgoing thread the other week.

On the M4 again on Thursday for the absolutely huge Euro 2024 Play-Off semi-final between Cymru and Finland. Bricking it.

[jameswba]

Trinec vs Ceske Budejovice (Czech ice-hockey, play-off QF)

Didn't think we'd get tickets for this, but a few returns came up, probably because the visitors couldn't sell their allocation. The two clubs are pretty much at diagonally opposite corners of the republic. It's the first of a possible seven-game series, but probably the last club ice-hockey of the season for us.

Prague and Ostrava are hosting the World Championship in May, so going to a couple of games in that (France vs Kazakhstan, Sweden vs Latvia, both in Ostrava).

[Patrick Thistle]

Blaenavon Blues v Caldicot Town will be weather dependent I think.

And so it proved to be. Game off.

[The Mighty Trin]

Wakefield Trinity 42 Bradford Northern 12
Rugby League Championship
Att: 7,221

Belle Vue is the oldest remaining rugby league ground in the world and one of the oldest rugby grounds full stop. For the 1936 Challenge Cup semi-final between Leeds and Huddersfield 37,906 souls were somehow crammed in. It's an iconic ground image, but impossible to imagine now, as is the cycle track that once also existed around the pitch.

Tonight was the opening of the new Neil Fox MBE main stand, which has been a long time coming as the club have gone through some pretty dark days over the last 35 years. The club has a new owner who made his money in kitchens and, despite relegation, things are looking up off the pitch. There's a buzz around the city and, although in no way connected, even the Groucho Club are establishing a northern branch in Bretton Hall just south of Wakefield.

Trin limped through twenty-odd years of Super League, but without a sugar Daddy the club could never fully compete and more often than not we survived by the skin of our teeth. Pity the poor sods who watch them week in week out. After a disastrous 150th season last year (losing the first 14 league games) it's almost refreshing to be playing different teams and not to be expecting a clattering. It feels like a healthy reset.

The scoreline flatters Trin, who I would give 6/10 overall and made basic mistakes and lost concentration but hell, after years of losing to Bradford it all makes a refreshing change. Onwards and upwards.

[Greenlander]

Back in the midst of time when the fixtures came out the home game against Preston was one of the most anticipated seeing it pitched Schumacher against his mentor, Ryan Lowe. But nine months is a long time and not only has Schumacher gone, but there's a large proportion of the fanbase that want his successor gone already as they he's the reason our football's gone to shit. Hopefully the disdain for Lowe will override all and we'll storm to the win.

Gut feeling, it will but we won't.

[CY_Boaby]

I'm heading along to the Australia Cup Preliminary Round clash between Swan Utd and Subiaco later this afternoon. Could be a bit of needle in this one as these two faced off at the end of last season in the State League relegation/promotion play-off, where Subiaco triumphed over two legs to remain a State League Division 1 team.

Despite it now being autumn, it'll probably be around 36C when they kick-off at 3pm, so could be a long afternoon with plenty of drinks breaks.

Meanwhile my son and his friend are heading along to the A-League clash between Perth Glory and Western Sydney Wanderers. It'll be his first game without parent supervision so the time has come for this rite of passage; I'm pretty sure I was regularly making the 30min walk across Paisley to watch St Mirren with my mates when I was his age. The fact I'm not there to get hassled by security trying to sneak my beer in means he should have an incident-free afternoon. I'll try get a match report and photo from him.

[Goalkeeper's Dad]

2nd trip of the week for me to Beverley Town's ground, this time to see the Humber Premier League match between Beverley Town Reserves and East Riding Rangers, having been to see the 1st team there earlier in the week.

[NickSTFU]

I'm off to the fast, free-flowing and technically excellent football that will be Shrewsbury and Carlisle.

I'll try not to call Paul Simpson rude names.

[Jobi1]

Nothing for me this week. York are at home but quite honestly I need a couple of weeks off it after recent games. Might have a potter around the garden...

[CY_Boaby]

Swan Utd 2-4 AFC Subiaco
Australia Cup Preliminary Round

Another hot day in Perth and I was too busy enjoying the air-conditioned comfort of my living room that I arrived 20mins late. What I saw of the 1st half was entertaining - Swans scored twice with two well-taken shots, and then Subiaco hit back with a good move down the left. I asked one of the Subiaco subs warming up if the score was 2-1 to Swans, but he said it was 2-2, and no sooner had he said that, Subiaco then scored again to regain their lead.

Swans looked lightweight up front in the 2nd half and created little, and at times the ball was spending a lot of the time in the air. At the death Subiaco sealed their win and I decided to head to avoid the car park chaos. I thought I heard another cheer from the away bench as I was heading away thinking Subiaco scored again, but it must have been them celebrating the final whistle and a place in the next round.

Swans No.3 nips for a pee whilst the Subiaco player in the far corner receives treatment.

[Via Newbury Park]

Currently waiting for a severely delayed District Line train to whisk me to D&R-Maidenhead, a six pointer against a team Daggers never play well against. I'm somewhat dreading it.

Midweek will depend on if the rain can hold off for another few days (I passed Cockfosters' ground on the bus earlier and it still looks sodden); maybe the Fenix trophy game mentioned upthread, maybe St Panteleimon-Biggleswade.