Eleven more games since pre-Xmas, including three in the Birmingham area, have taken me up to 103 for the season and 6,763 altogether.
Christmas was spent with my sister and her husband in Smethwick. On one day we had 12 relatives at the house.
The first football was a Midland Football League Premier Division fixture between Boldmere St Michaels and Heath Hayes.
The Barber saw Wealdstone at home to Bath City
I had never been to the Trevor Brown Memorial Ground before and it was reached by one train from Smethwick Rolfe Street to Birmingham New Street and another from there to Chester Road.
My money at the turnstile was taken by a young lady in a Santa outfit. She said she worked in health care and also did some modelling. I thought I was dreaming.
The Mikes were third in the table but lost 2-1 to the team lying third from bottom. The crowd was only around 50 but Villa were at home to Man Utd and that may have affected it.
On the Tuesday before Christmas we were at an FA Trophy First Round tie between Worcester City and FC Halifax Town. The former, who share with Kidderminster Harriers, lost to the only goal scored five minutes from time.
Joe Hart in the blizzard at the Baggies
We weren’t back at Smethwick Galton Bridge station until nearly 11pm but Martyn was kindly there to meet us with the car.
We booked tickets over the ‘phone for West Brom v Man City in the Premier League on Boxing Day and had seats almost directly behind the goal at the Birmingham Road End. It was at this game that I remembered how much I enjoyed watching football in a raging blizzard.
It was so bad in the second half that we could barely see the action at the other end.
The day after that I came back to London and subsequently saw Whyteleafe v Tooting (2-0) and Tooting v Carshalton (1-1) in the Isthmian League’s Division One South before two FA Cup Third Round ties on the first weekend of 2015.
The floodlights went out at the Valley
Charlton’s game with Blackburn was held up for 12 minutes after the floodlights failed on Saturday and I saw the upset of the round as QPR were well beaten at home by League One Sheffield United on Sunday.
My admission tickets cost £5 and £10 respectively, which was very reasonable.
I’ve now been to 463 FA Cup games.
At the weekend just gone, which wasn’t as cold as I was expecting, I saw Wealdstone lose 3-1 at home to Bath City in The FA Trophy Second Round and was the only spectator at a London Accountants League classic that finished KeepEYupEY’s 4 KPMG Dynamo 3.
