Hungry Hungerford Deliver Parkway Flooring

No printed programme, and at the time of writing I haven’t managed to locate the way to download the e-programme. Here's the club crest on the toilet block instead.

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 15 March 2025 at Bolitho Park
Result	Plymouth Parkway 0 Hungerford Town 2
Competition	Southern League Premier Division South (Step 3)
Hopstats	796 on the lifetime list and I’ve been wanting to visit this ground for some time. It temporarily re-completes my coverage of all grounds in the English pyramid unless I count Everton as already open. As far as I know Hashtag United (at Aveley) are the only club currently groundsharing so this is “The 251” which is the 92 plus 72 National League (3 x 24) plus the 87 (88 minus 1) grounds in the four step 3 divisions of 22.
Context
Lower mid-table plays upper mid-table. I suppose Parkway will need a few more points to avoid a relegation fight, and Hungerford might still sneak into play-off places.
Match Report
I like Bolitho Park – it’s neat and tidy with covered seating or standing on three sides, and decent enough facilities and services for this level. I think it is the club’s second season at this level. On the pitch, the home side made a rather shaky start to this game and gave Hungerford confidence. It wasn’t much of a surprise when Rafa Ramos put the visitors in front midway through the first half. He had plenty of time to control a pass from the right flank and complete a composed finish. With just the one goal deficit at the interval, words must have been said at half-time, and Parkway started the second half brightly. However, they fluffed one good chance by not spotting a final pass and meanwhile Hungerford showed their threat with a header that looped on to the bar. To be brutally honest it was all rather flat, with not much for the home crowd to cheer. Their side never really threatened more than the odd half-chance, and then Ramos got his second with 81 minutes on the clock to seal the away win. There was time for Hungerford’s Louis McGrory to get a second yellow and thus a red card in stoppage time as they tried pragmatically to hold the ball at the corner flag. He got to the showers about ninety seconds earlier than his teammates, but the suspension will frustrate the management I should think.
So What?
The clubs end the day in 15th and 7th place respectively in the division. Parkway are seven points clear of the relegation places and Hungerford are six points short of a playoff place.
Pre-match Entertainment
I had stayed overnight on Friday, so had time for a walk around a couple of Plymouth dockyard areas. This is a city steeped in British colonial and maritime history. It’s the first time I’ve ever visited the city centre and I think I will be back at some point to engage more with those historical and cultural features. It made a very good impression for a short break in the future. First appearance of the buoy-meets-gull joke this season
Ground & Match Pix
Plymouth Parkway in Yellow.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
The background to this, and the latest keeper top colour league table, is here on this dedicated page. Today, Green beats a different shade of itself and keeps one clean sheet. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Draw Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 49% (87 from 176)
What Next?
Nothing much else in March because of some other commitments, except for Cambridge United v Northampton Town on 29th, but I hope to get a few more grounds ticked before the end of the season. I suspect Everton will be my priority somehow at the start of 2025-26. I have 34 left at Step 4 but I dare say that promotion and relegation will change that. I’d like to get that list done by the end of next season if at all possible. It’s not realistic for me to try to get any further down the pyramid than that!

 

Andover The Points

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	3 January 2011 at The Portway Stadium (12 noon KO)
Result	Andover 0  Hungerford Town 3
Competition	Southern League Division 1 South & West (step 4)
Hopping	Venue #362.  I am here because it is a noon kickoff, giving me the chance of a Hampshire Bank Holiday double hop.  As it happens, this is the third time I have seen Hungerford this season.  I blogged their draw at North Leigh, and saw their 6-1 win in the reverse of today’s fixture as part of an August Bank Holiday triple.
This match in one sentence
Andover's Manager was highly animated ... ... but the coach was unmoved. A controlled and effective performance from the visiting side ensured home manager Alan Leader had multiple opportunities for touchline apoplexy and histrionics.
This match summed up in the style of: The Daily Express
Managers of lower league football teams are endangering your pensions by winding up their players to such an extent that the National Health Service cannot afford the subsequent workload.  A spokesperson for an eminent scientist at a university somewhere is also concerned that hot air emanating from dugouts is responsible for a major part of global warming and if you breathe in all that airborne testosterone your hair may fall out.  Hungerford’s comfortable 3-0 win is yet another sign that the coalition government is failing and it should not be so important for football teams to get into Europe.
So what?
Hungerford are 8th in the division but with some games in hand that keeps play-offs as a reasonable ambition.  Andover are bottom with a horribly negative goal difference and step 5 is beckoning.  They have only picked up one point at home all season, though to be fair they have played fewer home games after early-season problems with the playing surface meant that they did not play at home in the league until October.
The drama unfolds
Hungerford gradually asserted themselves after the early skirmishes and after 23 minutes Jemal Johnson laid off an inviting pass to an onrushing Chris Blackford from left midfield.  He finished the move with a crisp low shot.  0-1 at half-time. Richard Bland scored early in the second half to put the result beyond doubt, and then showed great persistence to get a second from a rebound after his first shot had been well saved.  Andover tried hard to get a consolation goal, even sending their #5 up front for the last 20 minutes.  Hungerford were in no mood for gifting, and to be honest had a great claim for a penalty turned down.  I rather suspect the player in question will be told to go down rather than stay on his feet next time.  When the officials missed an obvious Hungerford corner a minute later, we were treated to a display of petulance in the other dugout.  Hungerford manager Bobby Wilkinson went for the broody pacing-up-and-down approach but to be honest I think he would have gone into orbit had they not been two up by then.
Alternative activity of equal excitement for tourists in Andover
Hide an Acme™ cartoon strength supermagnet in the woolly hat of the aforementioned Mr Leader and take him to the nearby Museum of the Iron Age.  Watch as he heads away a succession of incoming prehistoric cooking vessels whilst at the same time shouting at you that you are rubbish and/or in the wrong effing position.
A snippet from the programme
An edited excerpt from “Game On/Game Off”, an article about the effect of the winter weather on a non-league club. “Initially (the secretary) has to decide whether a pitch inspection is required … and if he decides the answer is yes then he has to find a referee to carry out said inspection.  The match referee usually lives too far away to help and the inspection has to be carried out by a referee of the level of at least being an assistant in the Southern League.  There is nobody of that standard living in Andover although there are a couple who work in the town.  On one occasion last season it took eleven phone calls before finding an available official. (If) the pitch inspection results in “No Game” … then the secretary has to ring the league, all three match officials, the opposition (who are seldom pleased) and the manager (who is generally even less pleased!) and arrange for the decision to be relayed through the website and the local media… so give a thought to the poor secretary when the game is called off – again!”
What I learned today
Whoever put the marker for this club on Google maps has the directional sense of a drunken fruitbat.  In technical terms, it's really up a bit and to the left.
What Next?
A short drive across the county for a 3pm showdown at Alresford Town where Winchester City are the visitors.  Blog post will follow as soon as possible – an early night is called for as it is my first day in a new job tomorrow.  If my new boss is reading this, I’ve done all the preparation, honest!

Sheep May Usually Safely Graze

Hopperational details

Saturday 27 November 2010 at Eynsham Park, North Leigh 1 Hungerford Town 1 in the Southern League Division 1 South & West (step 4).  I am here because it was the first game I could find confirmed as “definitely on” (thanks to the club website) on a freezing cold day that decimated the local fixtures, and I made it with five minutes to spare.

This match in one sentence

Both sides will feel they could and should have won this one.

So what?

This was a thoroughly entertaining draw for my 50th hop of the season (there were a few in August before this blog started).  North Leigh are solidly in mid-table and Hungerford Town will move from 6th into the playoff zone if they can win games in hand.  Eynsham Park goes on to my personal list of “most picturesque settings for a game of football”.

Who caught the eye on the pitch?

If I have to pick one player today it will be Hungerford Town’s goalkeeper Kieron Drake.  An excellent early save in a one-on-one kept the score at 0-0 and then he talked the whole team through the first half, in which he personally had relatively little to do.  North Leigh made him work harder after the break, and there was not much he could do about the equaliser.  However, he also made a very good late save to deny the home side their second win of the week. The Hungerford goal was well worked, with Jemal Johnson beating the defender and the referee playing advantage.  The ball was teed up for Ryan Crockford who finished with aplomb.  Ben Reardon was given too much space on the right wing for the North Leigh equaliser – he cut inside and fired a shot into the far corner.

This match had the same effect on my pulse rate as …

… Wagner singing The Song of the Rhinemaidens from Das Rheingold accompanied by Jedward on duelling banjos.  My overseas readers may have trouble with that one.

A snippet from the programme

North Leigh “has had two top ten finishes in its first two seasons in the Southern League Division One South and West, and is looking to consolidate its position further in the forthcoming season.  Facilities at the Eynsham Park ground have improved significantly over the past few seasons.”

What I learned today

This is not a level playing field!

What Next?

A week of watching weather forecasts and watching club websites, I would think.  As the saying goes, "Red sky at night, shepherd's getting the balls back off the sheep".