Finally, the 2016-17 "ontheroad" football season has ended. It seems a hell of a long time since the first pre-season game between
Eastwood CFC and Blaby on 2nd July 2016.
Now as we enter the closed season it's time to summarise (although not in
any great detail you will be pleased to hear!)
After the Eastwood game, a
further twenty pre-season games followed before the season proper began on 6th
August 2016 with a CMFL fixture - eventual champions Selston winning 3-2 at
Blidworth. My final game was a visit to Sherwood Colliery to watch the Notts
F.A. Sunday Intermediate Cup final between Attenborough Cavaliers and Ladybrook
Local on 30th May 2017. The time
period? 297 days or 42 weeks and 3
days!!
As the season progressed, Kev's
outings became somewhat curtailed for one reason or another, and I was at
times, "Billy No-Mates" at games!
Nevertheless, up to Christmas I had logged 122 games, and with the mild-ish,
dry-ish winter, not too many games were called off and even if they were, there
was usually a game at Basford or Eastwood's 3G pitches to fill the void.
After Christmas, and with work no
longer an issue after my retirement, I decided to try and get as many games in
as possible, hoping for 250 + at season's end.
Midweek afternoon football became an important part of my getting used
to being one of the great unwaged, and these games along with several Saturday
morning fixtures saw me actually end up
with a total of 285 games under my belt. Not bad for someone who likes to stay as
local as possible to his Hucknall base.
The 285 games were, on the whole,
watchable. A few were distinctly rubbish and some were not worthy of being
labelled "football", but rough with the smooth, eh? April 2017 saw me at 35 games and this
was the highest monthly tally of the season - the total enhanced with the usual
visits to local league's cup finals.
For season 2016-17, match
reporting was never going to be a priority for me. The "ontheroad"
blog series is now ten years down the line, and although my love of the game
hasn't diminished since the first in blog appeared in 2007-08, the passion for
writing match reports certainly has!
Summary of 2016-17 season
Games : 285
Goals : 1305
Average: 4.57 goals per game
Most in a game: 16 - Chesterfield FC U19 13-3 Retford Utd U19
in November 2016
The blog for season 2017-18 is
already active. Will I be able to surpass the 2016-17 match total? I
doubt it. Will I regain my love of writing/reporting? Maybe - but don't hold
your breath! My aim for the season is
for "ontheroad" to take in a dozen or so new grounds, and take in as many
games as are available locally - will we succeed? Let's hope so.
Saturday and midweek local
fixtures and results will still be listed as per usual for season 2017-18. I am looking to add a few Sunday league
fixtures and results as well, and
hopefully take in a few local Sunday games, all being well.
Kev and I have purchased Basford
United season tickets for the coming season - we have enjoyed our many trips to
Greenwich Avenue over the past six or seven years, and watching its
transformation from a fairly standard ground with fairly standard facilities to
a state of the art 3G stadium, has been nothing short of amazing. The season ticket covers the clubs 21 home
games - still leaving us with 200-250 other games to go to - hopefully.
Then ...
....and now
Many thanks to all those who
still follow the site - after ten seasons I am still amazed at the number of
views each week. Also, many thanks to the leagues for continuously improving
their result publication times. In the bad old days it used to be 7:30pm before
all the results were in - nowadays they are, with the odd exception, available
at around 5:30pm.
So it's farewell to the 2016-17
football season -- roll on 2017-18 !!
