Monday 21 December 2020

The Coronavirus Diaries

This time last year who would've thought we'd be where we are now?

As I understand it, the first Covid-19 case to be announced by China came on 31 December 2019.

Most people, myself very much included, thought it would be another one of those nasty viruses that flares up in East Asia, gets dealt with locally and never really affects countries like mine at all.

Even when it did start to spread, the mood was still very much a dismissive one - the death rate is tiny and it only kills the old and vulnerable.

How things changed.

I first remember getting a bit spooked when I travelled to Paris on Eurostar at the end of January and being surrounded by Chinese tourists, some of whom had terrible coughs.

France declared its first case that weekend while I was there but I didn't think too much of it.

Life went on as normal in the UK for another six weeks and then things started to gradually change.

There was a Sunday in early March when panic buying had become a thing and we thought we'd better head to the local Sainsbury's to see what we could salvage.

It was horrible day, with grey clouds and a fierce wind whipping along Goldhawk Road. As we waited outside the shop, two homeless people began fighting with each other outside the Tube station in a shocking display which combined with everything else really made us feel like the end of the world was coming.

Once inside the shop, all the basics like pasta, flour, eggs, tinned food and toilet roll had pretty much gone but we got what we could.

As we queued to pay, I suddenly and pretty much out of nowhere went into an uncontrollable coughing fit - with stares aplenty I had no option but to run out and leave my wife to pack and pay.

Whether it was the cough or a cough I don't know - it was annoying but I'd had far worse. Whatever the case, I went into self-isolation as the government instructed and took my wife and kids with me.

The first day was utterly depressing - the thought of being confined for two weeks was something I found quite hard to accept.

It was even worse for my seven-year-old who was begging to be allowed to go back to school after only three hours - something I thought I'd never hear!

However, with day one in the bag, things improved a lot.

Aside from the screaming matches over home schooling and the untold devastation done to the house by an imprisoned toddler, the days went quite quickly.

Numerous friends did the shopping for us and chatted from the street.

We live next to some artists' studios and one of them, who we'd never met, brought a load of chalk for my daughters so they could draw on and decorate the wall which runs around our tiny front garden - a place we learned to appreciate like never before.

When my time in isolation ended, lockdown had just begun and I remember trying to imagine what the world would be like when I got out there.

I imagined tumbleweed on the streets and army checkpoints to make sure only the right people were out.

The time came to do a bit of shopping so I stuck my toddler in the buggy and headed out. The backstreets were quiet, hardly anyone was around and those that were gave you a ridiculously wide berth as they took this new concept of social distancing very seriously indeed. 

But then as I hit the main road we nearly got run over by a pair of joggers!

As a keen runner I found this very reassuring but still quite shocking. As I looked further down the street, there seemed to be people everywhere - life was going on pretty much as normal.

Shepherd's Bush is a densely populated part of inner London with most sources of food and supplies coming from corner shops and smaller neighbourhood branches of supermarket chains so the high streets would inevitably have been quite lively and so it proved to be.

Essentials were still hard to get and I could often spend a couple of hours going round the various shops in the area trying to find everything.

Eventually, the giant Westfield shopping mall turned out to be a bit of a godsend for locals like us.

During this period it kept open its large branches of M&S and Waitrose who had great supplies of everything and virtually no customers so trips there were very welcome indeed.

With our routine and supply lines in place, we began to adapt fairly well to the 'new normal'.

One of the most positive things for me in those months was the amount of people who took up running, cycling or walking as it gave them an excuse to get out of the house. 

Aside from a morning at the London Marathon, I'd never seen so many runners. 

Admittedly some of them were very ill prepared and looked a bit ridiculous but they were having a go and fair play to them.

Many millions went on furlough but as a transport worker, I went straight back once my family's time in self-isolation ended.

Thankfully I've avoided all illness and haven't missed a day since mid-March - some bus drivers and station gateline workers weren't so lucky and some friends and I took part in the 'Run For A Bus' event to raise funds for the families of those who died.

Probably the biggest effect coronavirus has had on me and most of you has been on the amount of football we've watched.

All the action ended in March when the lockdown kicked in, leaving clubs at all levels in a strange state of limbo.

The big clubs all had the resources to ride it out but for those in the third tier and below, things got shaky quite quickly.

Before the end of March, all football leagues from the seventh tier and below were declared null and void and several teams who had had great seasons found their efforts expunged from the official record books. 

It was particularly heartbreaking for a club like Jersey Bulls, who play many London clubs in the Combined Counties League, to see their record of played 27, won 27 just disappear taking promotion with it.

Some clubs did benefit though and saw almost certain relegations or tense battles to stay up avoided.

FA competitions weren't cancelled and the top six tiers returned, some just for play-offs after a PPG system was applied, behind closed doors.

The prospect of watching top level football with no crowd or with dubbed sound effects was a strange one. Many Premier League games were put on free-to-watch TV whilst many others were streamed.

Despite this amazing access to live football, which I thought I'd be all over, I barely watched a game and still haven't.

Unless it's an absolutely massive game, I've suddenly realised that televised football doesn't really do much for me any more.

If 'Match of the Day' or a live game is on when I'm around and got nothing better to do then I'll definitely put it on but if I can go out and do something else then I will.

We have Amazon Prime in our house and have for years and I remember being thrilled at the news of them getting Premier League rights but when I had the chance to watch Liverpool v Tottenham the other night, I just went to bed!

For me it's now all about live football - being there is everything.

Whatever the level, give me that over a televised game any day and I'm sure most of you reading are exactly the same.

Consequently, since the return of football with fans in late August, the only games I've seen are a few friendlies and FA Cup matches when my shift pattern has allowed.

Covid-19 also saw me call off this year's Non-League Day (NLD).

I took counsel from people at all levels in the game and came to the conclusion that on balance, an event to promote maximum attendance at non-league matches probably wasn't the most appropriate thing to be holding during a time of social distancing.

Some of the FA Cup matches I went to in September and October really struggled to keep people apart particularly when it started raining so cramming even more people into grounds didn't seem like a great idea.

Having a year off was also quite a good thing for me - organising NLD is a huge drain on my time and finances and I can't say I really missed it. With many Premier League and EFL fans shut out of their own grounds and going to non-league matches week after week in the autumn, I don't think many non-league clubs suffered too much either.

The one disappointment of NLD not happening was the delayed launch of the European Day of Amateur Football.

The trip to Paris I mentioned earlier had been to attend a planning meeting for this new event.

We had France, Germany and The Netherlands signed up to take part in a continent-wide celebration of non-league football and other countries were very interested too.

In France and Germany, the respective local events are run by major football magazines So Foot and 11Freunde so they added great journalistic, logistic and design resources to the mix.

The planning meeting at So Foot's offices went really well as others joined us on Skype from Berlin - in times before Zoom meetings were a thing!

Things have now progressed to a stage where significant EU funding is being discussed but alas we'll now see none of it here, despite being the inspiration for the whole thing. 

There has also been talk of arranging friendlies between sides all over the continent but working out the financing would appear to be the main challenge to that.

If your club have got the wherewithal to do this and would like to arrange something when things calm down then we've got the contacts - get in touch.

Lastly from me, the impact of coronavirus on this blog has been huge. 

Shut from March to August, it was again quite a positive thing for me. 

During a normal year I get about six weeks down time between seasons and even less when tournaments like the CONIFA World Football Cup come to town like they did in the summer of 2018.

Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of this blog launching and it's got bigger and bigger over that time, affording some great experiences and giving me some good friends and new contacts.

But it does come at a cost. As I've written many times on here, it takes eight to 10 hours a week to produce and with an expanding family, finding the time is becoming increasingly difficult.

I now often write it in my breaks at work or on train journeys and very often late into the night or early morning - I'm only writing this now as I'm on call at work and have little else to do.

It's very often the case that I have to choose between writing this blog or going to see a match and the former usually wins.

But I do it because I love it and it gives me some purpose.

However, having a few months off earlier this year has been refreshing and I came back ready and raring for another season.

With fewer matches to cover, it was also proving to be less time consuming too - that was until the last few weeks when lockdown ended.

The introduction of Tier 3 restrictions to some of the leagues and rising Covid-19 rates across the London area have wreaked havoc on this blog!

Some leagues carried on, others stopped, friendlies were arranged, cancelled and altered - sometimes at two hours notice.

Last week I spent probably more time than ever revising and re-revising what I'd written day after day to try and make it as relevant as possible for the weekend and I still missed stuff.

Although I knew there would be significant changes, I planned ahead and got the match maps in place for the usual bumper Christmas and New Year edition but with Boris introducing Tier 4 across London on Saturday it all got called off and rightly so.

I've got a rare Boxing Day off this year so was really looking forward to seeing something but it's not to be. 

I believe there's another Tier review before the end of the month but the chances of anything changing in London look remote.

Personally, Christmas isn't a big thing for me so I'm not too devastated by all the restrictions that have come in. 

A few years ago, I went to watch Lewes play Ebbsfleet United in what had been their scheduled Boxing Day game. 

Bad weather had seen it rescheduled to the end of February and the always-innovative Sussex club decided to go with the Christmas theme with festive songs on the PA, Santa putting in an appearance and mince pies and other seasonal treats on sale in the tea bar and club house.

It was great - hopefully the nation will be able to do something similar. Boris - how about another Bank Holiday on a Friday later in 2021 when we get the family together for a big knees up to make up for this situation we currently find ourselves in???

Well I think that's it from me. I had no intention of writing this when I got up this morning but I've rather enjoyed putting my personal experience of the last year in writing and I could've put a lot more.

I'm well aware that many people have had it a lot worse than me so I don't for a minute want to trivialise anything they or you may have gone through - apologies if I have offended.

Wherever you are, whether you're celebrating or not, stay safe, make the most of the time you have and I hope to see you all back on here in 2021.


NEED HELP?
Got any questions about visiting London? Don't hesitate to ask - be they football or more general travel/touristy queries. I do not charge for this advice like some other sites so don't hold back!

You can contact TLFG through the comments section below or via FacebookTwitter or even by good old email.

Sunday 13 December 2020

TLFG: 14-20 December 2020

Greetings readers and thanks for visiting and trying to keep up!

Writing this blog over the last week or so has been more time consuming than ever as Covid-19 has wreaked havoc with the match schedule.

Fortunately I've been on late shifts at work which has allowed me the mornings to trawl through all our local clubs' websites and social media feeds for the latest fixture info.

With each revision another change would come in, even up until around noon on Saturday when Tooting & Mitcham United had to cancel their friendly against Whyteleafe with around two hours notice because one of their squad tested positive.

The week ahead is arguably even more complicated with midweek FA Trophy games deciding who will face each other in the next round on Saturday, not to mention the government's review of the Tier system on Wednesday.

London's oldest ground needs your help

This could well impact on whether the Isthmian, Southern and Southern Counties East League decide to relaunch their respective competitions.  

Whatever happens, the match maps below are likely to change pretty significantly as the week progresses so keep checking back and I'll do my best to update them.

Once again I'm not going to bother with a daily digest as it's a lot of effort which could potentially be spent on games that never happen.

Although tickets for the top men's clubs are out of reach for most of us, Women's Super League games are beginning to open up with Sunday's derby between Chelsea and Spurs at Kingsmeadow currently on general sale

Tickets are also available for West Ham United v Aston Villa at Dagenham & Redbridge's ground.

If it has to be men's football then you won't be disappointed as there is still plenty to see at our local non-league clubs with numerous FA Trophy ties topping the bill. 

Last week quite a few of you went to watch Croydon enjoy a thrilling 4-3 win over Athletic Newham in the London Senior Trophy, so I'm pleased to report you can catch the next instalment of their cup 'run' on Saturday when they travel to reigning LST holders Peckham Town.

The match at the ominously titled Menace Arena kicks off at 1230pm to allow you to see another local game at 3pm - possibly at neighbours Dulwich Hamlet. Entry is only £3 and I'm told by the club that former Everton and Nigeria striker Yakubu could be in attendance!

After selling out, British Football's Greatest Grounds is back on sale this week

One other thing that might interest some of you is the chance to play your part in renovating the oldest football ground in London.

The fantastically named Old Spotted Dog sits on Upton Lane in Forest Gate on the east side of town, is well hidden, easy to miss and unknown by many locals - I have quite a few colleagues and friends from the area and they always look blankly at me when I ask about it.

Historically the home of Clapton, it's recently been taken over by the fan-owned Clapton CFC after a several years of neglect and they're doing a great job getting it back up to a condition where it can host matches.

They're currently trying to raise £15,000 for a new clubhouse roof and are well on their way to hitting the target but if you'd like to help them and play your part in getting such an historic venue back on its feet, you can donate here.

Talking of donations - many thanks this week to Hinn Li for donating to TLFG's coffee-drinking fund, it's really appreciated.

On the subject of appreciation, it was great to see vloggers/bloggers/photographers 'Two Men In Search of the Beautiful Game' pick up a top award at the Football Content Awards during the week. 

We regularly cross-promote each other so it was really pleasing to see them grab the recognition for all their hard work. Well done chaps!

Well I think that's about it from me - for now. Check back as the week progresses.

Good luck everyone!

THE WEEK AHEAD

The highlights of the next few days include games in the National League, FA Trophy, FA Vase, FA Youth Cup, Women's Super League and Women's FA Cup. There are also games at higher levels but none of them are open to non-season ticket holders.

As always, please make sure you check with clubs before you travel just in case a game has been called off or the venue or kick-off time has changed - this is highly possible for some of the lower non-league clubs or youth matches. Also, please let me know if anything is wrong or missing.

Details on all of this week's games can be found on the following match maps. If you've never used them before, please note that when there is more than one match at a specific ground you'll only be able to see individual match pins if you zoom right in. If you don't, the pins obscure each other and you might miss them. To avoid this, you can also scroll down the list of games on the drop down menu at the top of the map page to make sure you get all the information. Games are listed from top to bottom in date order so Monday's games (yellow pin) will appear first and Sunday's (orange pin) last. Games are also ranked in terms of status so the higher the division, the higher up the list they will appear on each day.

Also if you're unfamiliar with the English league structure I indicate the level at which an individual league sits in the national 'pyramid' with the Premier League at the top (Level 1) and various minor leagues at the bottom (Level 10). Typically a top level game will see crowds of anywhere between 20,000-60,000. These figures will gradually decline as you go down the leagues until you get to Levels 8-10 where attendances of 150 or less are most common. However, capacity restrictions are currently in place at all grounds because of Covid-19 meaning only clubs from the seventh tier and below can currently admit spectators.

It should also be noted that the top four levels are for fully professional teams. Level 5 has a mixture of professional and semi-professional teams, while Levels 6-10 will see most players paid but it will vary from no more than travel expenses at the bottom, right up to several hundred pounds a week at the top.

MIDWEEK MATCH MAP
Monday fixtures - yellow pin
Tuesday fixtures - green pin
Wednesday fixtures - blue pin
Friday fixtures - black pin



WEEKEND MATCH MAP
Saturday fixtures - blue pin
Sunday fixtures - orange pin





GET INVOLVED
If you're going to see a game, whether you're a local or a visitor, please let me know what you've been up to. If you're interested in reviewing a ground in the London area for this blog then get in touch. I also very much welcome photos of your football travels.

NEED HELP?
Got any questions about visiting London? Don't hesitate to ask - be they football or more general travel/touristy queries. I do not charge for this advice like some other sites so don't hold back!

You can contact TLFG through the comments section below or via FacebookTwitter or even by good old email.

Monday 7 December 2020

TLFG: 7-13 December 2020

Apologies for the late publication this week, I've simply been too busy.

My shifts at work have been at really unsociable times and I'm pretty tired so it's a bit of a minimalist effort I'm afraid.

Sourcing match info in the current climate has also been far more time consuming than normal and I readily admit to completely missing several games last week with clubs announcing matches or changes of opponents at very short notice. Thanks to all of you who take the time to alert me to any such alterations, I really appreciate it.

The next few days are likely to be equally turbulent so apologies in advance if I miss anything and keep your updates coming.

Croydon played their first game at the Crystal Palace NSC
(Photo by Mike Smaldon)

To re-cap, clubs at every level are now letting a limited number of fans in but the capacities are so low at Premier League and EFL clubs that you won't get in without a season ticket.

It's the same at some National League clubs but for most in the fifth tier and below, you should be able to get something if you're organised and book in advance.

Sadly, the Isthmian League and Southern League are still suspended but some of their clubs are playing in the FA Trophy, county cups and friendlies.

It's the same in the SCEFL but matches in all our other local ninth and 10th tier leagues are taking place.

Looking back to the weekend just gone, I saw that quite a few of you went to see Croydon's first game at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

What a match it was too with the hosts coming back from 3-0 down against Athletic Newham to win 4-3 with a last-minute goal. 

A friend of mine who's been discovering non-league matches for the first time with me over the last few months is actually from Croydon and this was his first Trams match - hopefully it'll persuade him to become a regular.

That's about all I've got time for at the moment as my next shift is kicking off shortly. 

As I always say, check all match details before you travel and please let me know if you become aware of any short notice alterations.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The highlights of the next few days include games in the National League, FA Trophy, FA Vase, FA Youth Cup and Women's FA Cup. There are also games at higher levels but none of them are open to non-members.

As always, please make sure you check with clubs before you travel just in case a game has been called off or the venue or kick-off time has changed - this is highly possible for some of the lower non-league clubs or youth matches. Also, please let me know if anything is wrong or missing.

Details on all of this week's games can be found on the following match maps. If you've never used them before, please note that when there is more than one match at a specific ground you'll only be able to see individual match pins if you zoom right in. If you don't, the pins obscure each other and you might miss them. To avoid this, you can also scroll down the list of games on the drop down menu at the top of the map page to make sure you get all the information. Games are listed from top to bottom in date order so Monday's games (yellow pin) will appear first and Sunday's (orange pin) last. Games are also ranked in terms of status so the higher the division, the higher up the list they will appear on each day.

Also if you're unfamiliar with the English league structure I indicate the level at which an individual league sits in the national 'pyramid' with the Premier League at the top (Level 1) and various minor leagues at the bottom (Level 10). Typically a top level game will see crowds of anywhere between 20,000-60,000. These figures will gradually decline as you go down the leagues until you get to Levels 8-10 where attendances of 150 or less are most common. However, capacity restrictions are currently in place at all grounds because of Covid-19 meaning only clubs from the seventh tier and below can currently admit spectators.

It should also be noted that the top four levels are for fully professional teams. Level 5 has a mixture of professional and semi-professional teams, while Levels 6-10 will see most players paid but it will vary from no more than travel expenses at the bottom, right up to several hundred pounds a week at the top.

MIDWEEK MATCH MAP
Monday fixtures - yellow pin
Tuesday fixtures - green pin
Wednesday fixtures - blue pin
Friday fixtures - black pin



WEEKEND MATCH MAP
Saturday fixtures - blue pin
Sunday fixtures - orange pin





GET INVOLVED
If you're going to see a game, whether you're a local or a visitor, please let me know what you've been up to. If you're interested in reviewing a ground in the London area for this blog then get in touch. I also very much welcome photos of your football travels.

NEED HELP?
Got any questions about visiting London? Don't hesitate to ask - be they football or more general travel/touristy queries. I do not charge for this advice like some other sites so don't hold back!

You can contact TLFG through the comments section below or via FacebookTwitter or even by good old email.