A good friend of mine texted me on Thursday to say he was off to see Hallam -v- Norstell Miners Welfare (The Fancy Dans) in Sheffield on Saturday which prompted me to think that I could probably do the same – i.e. go to a football match albeit non-League. So on Saturday, I packed the warm coat, mask and headed off to see AFC Bridgnorth -v- Bilston Town. Strange times when you can’t see professional football due to the NHS getting twitchy again over Covid-19. Why you can’t accommodate 10,000 people in a 35,000 seater stadium smacks of repression rather than common sense.

Bilston won 2-0 and you can read the match report here.

Non-League has much to commend it not least it’s proper honest football with dedicated fans. It also attracts the same proportion of idiots so you can image what these were like from Bilston. Also imagine the idiots nice people from The Lunt being told by a smart official in ties and jackets to wear a mask whilst sitting in the three row stand. Enclosed is not a word that would immediately come to mind here so why they thought mask wearing, other than keeping your face warm – was a good idea eluded me.

The grounds are also just one step up from the park as you’d expect however Bridgnorth did have two stands, two good sized dugouts, a clubhouse and a tea shop.

In terms of a day away from work, housework/decorating and a feeling of doing something worthwhile this tiny piece of escapism was well worth the 60 mile round trip and great to see live football again.I finished the day off with a Venison stew and a bottle of wine and watched football all night except when I updated the football pages on the website which took me two hours longer than I anticipated. Oh well.

Sunday was the complete opposite with chores being the order of the day. But at least I had a good rest watching the TV later.