It's me again. That assiduously diligent blogger from East Retford upon Idle, the one who apparently doesn't care much for all of that list-ticking and number-crunching malarkey. To that end I suppose you could say that at least I’m consistent with my deceitfulness and hypocrisy, if nothing else.
If you were paying attention twelve months ago, then you would know that I made precisely the same claim then, just before the 2025-26 campaign got underway. So, for purposes of idly filling a few more column inches and keeping this account active, here is yet another list; containing a crunchily numbered sixty-six teams that I will be endeavouring to visit during the 2026-27 football season.
A large percentage, though not all, of these grounds are previously uncharted territory for yours truly. I also have my reasons for factoring in a few revisits to this not entirely exhaustive schedule. Of course, these won't be the only places where I will be dipping my oars across the course of the forthcoming campaign, but I felt the need to set myself some kind of a challenge and target (on top of what I will already be doing), to add a bit more structure and organisation to my usual scattergun, hotchpotch and chaotic approach to selecting where my football travels will take me.
The bracketed numbers are the respective distances from my swanky homestead, but you’re not daft, you will already have worked that out for yourself.
Aberford Albion (51)
Altofts (40)
Arlesey Town (110)
Bakewell Town (38)
Berry Brow (55)
Beverley Town (55)
Birstall United (52)
(Birmingham) OJM (92)
Blackstones (56)
Boldmere St. Michaels (80)
Bourne Town (55)
Burngreave United (28)
Cadbury Athletic (91)
Campion (58)
Chelmsley Town (81)
Chorley (103)
Clitheroe (93)
Corinthian Casuals (181)
Coventry Copsewood (81)
Enfield Town (140)
Field Olympic (65)
Friar Lane & Epworth (64)
FVC Grace Dieu (56)
Golcar United (64)
Goole United AFC (39)
Gornal Athletic (96)
Great Driffield AFC Rovers (68)
Hall Green United (39)
Heather St John’s (61)
Horbury Town (40)
Hornsea Town (69)
Horsforth St Margaret’s (56)
Howden Clough (52)
Huntingdon Town (82)
Ilkley Town (67)
Immingham Town (46)
Ingles (59)
Keighley Town (66)
Kellingley Welfare (46)
Kirby Muxloe (58)
Kirk Deighton Rangers (50)
Knaresborough Town (59)
Leeds City (57)
LIV (Supplies) (54)
Lutterworth Athletic (74)
Newark & Sherwood United (24)
Nuneaton Griff (76)
Otley Town (62)
Pinchbeck United (60)
Racing Club Warwick (92)
Rawdon Old Boys (59)
Robin Hood Athletic (44)
Saffron Dynamo (65)
Salts (60)
Scarborough Athletic ( 87)
Sculcoates Amateurs (54)
Sherburn White Rose (41)
South Leeds (48)
Southwell City (25)
St Neots Town (89)
Warrington Rylands (99)
Warrington Town (99)
Wetherby Athletic (50)
Whitkirk Wanderers (45)
Wisbech Town (77)
Wyke Wanderers (55)
The 2026-27 non-league fixtures have tantalisingly started to trickle through various media channels, and the details of the early rounds of a healthy cross section of cup competitions are springing up in abundance, too. There’s even a United Counties League GROUNDHOP UK weekender in the offing at the end of July.
Added to that, there are already a multifarious selection of pre-season friendlies listed all over t’interweb. Of course, some will say that I can't legitimately claim to have visited a ground if the game I watch there is only a friendly. Well, screw them.
As a fully fledged elder of the so-called ‘groundhopping fraternity’, I only apply one rule to my chosen quest. And that is: to tick oo and count any venue, I must have actually seen a game played there, between two bona fide football teams. As an aside, I discount Charity matches and any intermediate level games played between teams younger than the U18 age group.
I've been involved in football at various clubs, both professional and non-league, who've played at any number of levels for upwards of four decades. By now I’m probably qualified enough and quite comfortable in making my own decisions as to how I record where I have been.
As a spectator, I’ve been watching games since I was six years old (1969). Initially, I was accompanied by well-meaning older relatives, all of whom were attempting to sway my support towards some irksome team or another (and failing dismally). In common with every other avenue of my life, I chose my own direction back in the day and will continue to do so now that I'm an OAP myself. Nobody else's do’s and don'ts are of any consequence to me whatsoever.
I have a soft spot for the places where I originally started watching the beautiful game during my formative years, even though several of them have completely changed in appearance. In a few instances, grounds have vanished as teams have relocated, while others have gone out of business altogether.
Changing the subject ever so slightly; I’ve now “Done the 92” several times over. You’ll already know exactly what the means, unless you are reading completely the wrong sort of Substack account. As regards visiting the teams who were promoted into the Football League this season to keep my number up, I’ve already been to them both before and don't feel any obligation to visit either again. Not even to give my completed total a ‘genuine’ purist stamp.
I’ve seen league and non-league games at Rochdale's Spotland. And I’ve visited York City’s LNER Community Stadium several times over the last few years, having previously seen the Minstermen playing in league, cup and non-league games at their former home of Bootham Crescent, in fact I even saw my only ever Setanta Shield game there in November 2008.
Anyway, with all of this talk of forthcoming games appearing en masse just over yonder horizon, I feel the urge to present another list of my desired locations cunningly disguised as another Substack blog post very soon. Watch this space.
From a solely football perspective, I hope you’re all enjoying the ongoing World Cup as much as I am. In the main, I’m swerving social media for the duration of the tournament, because it becomes even more clogged with uninformed, half-witted, grunting ignorami than usual every four years. Enjoy the silence 🤫
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