EVERTON WOMEN (Walton Hall Park)

FA WOMEN'S SUPER LEAGUE, EVERTON 3-1 BIRMINGHAM CITY, ATTENDANCE: c700

Finally, after an 18 month wait, today brought about the opportunity to watch Everton play at their new ground at Walton Hall Park. I wasn't the only one drawn to this televised early kick off, with plenty of familiar faces in the crowd.

The ground has been redeveloped for use by the Everton Women's team in the grounds of Walton Hall Park, which is also the home Liverpool County FA. It currently has a capacity of 1,500 but this will be increased to around 2,200. There is 500 seat stand in place and there are plans for a covered terrace to be built on the opposite side, which should be completed by the end of 2021.

The ground was due to host the first game in September 2019 but delays meant the first game at the ground wasn't played until February 2020, Everton suffering a 3-2 loss to Manchester United.

Everton have had a tough start playing, and losing, to both Manchester City and Chelsea without scoring a goal. Today provided the opportunity to bounce back and claim their first victory of the season against a Birmingham City side also yet to win.

German international Leonie Maier scored on her Everton debut after 13 minutes when Grace Clinton's blocked effort found it's way to her on the edge of the box and she curled her shot into the bottom corner, via a slight deflection.

Everton were dominating the possession but not really creating any clear cut chances, Birmingham even less so, but on 32 minutes the visitors were level. Jade Pennock created space for herself and drove into the area to fire past Sandy MacIver in the Toffees goal. A fine strike.

I thought that was a great finish but Everton's record signing, Hanna Bennison, went even better on 73 minutes. After neat link up play with Toni Duggan, the 18 year old Swedish International hit a superb shot into top corner to restore The Toffees lead.

Victory was confirmed in stoppage time when Danish international Rikke Sevecke rose to head home an Izzy Christiansen corner. The three points lifted Everton off the bottom of the table and hopefully now the only way is up.

From Walton Hall Park it is approximately a 20 minute walk to Goodison Park where the Everton male counterparts beat Norwich City 2-0 to complete a good day all round. Up the Toffees!

Highlights of the game can be viewed by clicking here

GLOUCESTER CITY (New Meadow Park)

FA CUP 2nd QUALIFYING ROUND, LONGLEVENS AFC 1-3 GLOUCESTER CITY, ATTENDANCE: 2,320

This afternoon I headed to Gloucester to visit the first of the three brand new grounds in the National League North that I needed at the start of the season (York City and Boston United being the others).

This Sunday afternoon though it was an FA Cup tie I was watching as Gloucester City took on Longlevens in a huge local derby, the first competitive meeting between the sides. This was a proper David vs Goliath match at it was National League North (step 2) vs Hellenic League (step 5).

The game was officially a Longlevens home game but the tie was switched to Meadow Park on police advice. Both clubs were rewarded with a record crowd for the new ground with over 2,300 present, including plenty of familiar faces from the groundhopping fraternity.

I did say new ground by the way, or is it a rebuild? That's a debate for others. As far as I am concerned it is a new ground as I never previously visited Meadow Park.

Gloucester returned to the city in 2020 after a nomadic 13 year existence groundsharing at Forest Green Rovers, Cirencester Town, Cheltenham Town and Evesham United. The original Meadow Park was destroyed by flooding in 2007 when the River Severn burst it's banks. There is a famous photograph that shows the water almost touching the crossbar (it is easily found with a Web search).

Although the new ground is on the same site, in the Hempsted area of the city, the pitch, the two 350 seat stands and clubhouse have been raised over 10ft to safeguard against any future flooding. The terracing from the original Meadow Park is visible behind the South Stand.

The first game at the new Meadow Park was an FA Trophy game against Needham Market in December 2020. The Tigers won 4-2. I was heading the next game on Boxing Day against Leamington, with my ticket purchased and everything, but then Covid-19 restrictions were imposed and that game was played behind closed doors before the season was eventually null and voided.

Longlevens were enjoying their best ever run in the FA Cup, this 2nd qualifying round being the furthest they had ever been before. Unfortunately for the Levens today was where that run ended. They gave a good account of themselves but in the end Gloucester just had too much.

The Tigers were on the front foot from the off and took the lead through a Danny King shot after 12 minutes. Any thoughts of a cup upset seemed unlikely at this point with Gloucester dominating the the game.

However, on 31 minutes, Longlevens scored the goal of the game when a quick counter attack led to the ball falling to Cam Williams who curled in a shot, from outside the area, past the despairing dive of Jake Cole in the Gloucester goal.

This rattled Gloucester and for a few minutes Longlevens had them pinned in their own half but half time came at a good time for The Tigers and within minutes of the restart they were back in front, King tapping home at the far post.

Gloucester dealt with the attacks from Longlevens and probably should have extended their lead on the counter but the win was finally secured with eight minutes remaining when King headed home to complete his hat-trick.

A deserved win for Gloucester but Longlevens bowed out with their heads held high.

SELSTON FC (Parish Hall Ground)

FA VASE 1st QUALIFYING ROUND, SELSTON 2-1 BARROW TOWN, ATT: 122

After my initial plan of York City vs Hereford fell victim to an outbreak of Covid-19 in the away camp, the finger of fate led me to Nottinghamshire for an all United Counties League FA Vase tie between Selston and Barrow Town.

Selston is a former mining village 13  miles north of Nottingham. Selston Football Club was formed in 1968 as a Sunday league club before moving into the senior game in 1986 when they joined the Central Midlands League. They moved to the Midlands Regional Alliance in 1992 but rejoined the Central Midlands in 1997. They won promotion to the Supreme Division in 1999 but were relegated back to the Premier in 2002.

The first team went into abeyance for three seasons, as the club concentrated on its youth set-up, but returned in 2006 to re-join the Midland Regional Alliance, winning the Division Two title in 2008 before moving to the Nottinghamshire Senior League in 2011. In 2015 they rejoined the Central Midlands League, winning the South Division title in 2016 and again 2017, and they were then promoted to the East Midlands Counties League.

After the restructuring of the non-league pyramid in 2021 they were transferred across to the Premier Division North of the United Counties League.

Selston play their home games at the Parish Hall Ground in the centre of the village. The ground is three sided, as it is shared with the local cricket team.

This Vase tie was an entertaining game to watch. Barrow will probably be wondering how this game got away, but it proved the old adage that it's not how you start it's how you finish. 

The Riversiders were much the better team in the first half and, after taking an early lead when Nick Reeves (8) headed home from a corner, they failed to capitalise on their advantage. 

Selston equalised somewhat against the run of play after 19 minutes, when Lucas Brough broke clear but his effort was saved by Randall but the rebound fell to George Layton who fired home, despite the Randall recovering to get a hand on the ball. Even at 1-1 the visitors still looked the more likely as their two wingers were causing all sorts of problems for the Selston defence.

In the second period Selston nullified these threats and, after taking the lead on 65 minutes, when Layton drilled home his second of the afternoon, they were quite comfortable in seeing the game out as Barrow simply ran out of ideas.

An enjoyable game to watch on a pleasant afternoon in Nottinghamshire.

SUNDERLAND RCA (Meadow Park)

FA CUP 1st QUALIFYING ROUND, SUNDERLAND RCA 2-4 STOCKTON TOWN, ATTENDANCE: 324

There were plenty of choices on offer today but I could not resist the lure of an FA Cup tie. After much deliberation, I decided to head to the North East for the match up between Sunderland RCA (of the Northern League) and Stockton Town (recently promoted to the Northern Premier League).

Sunderland RCA are based in the Ryhope area of the city and their full name is Sunderland Ryhope Community Association. The club was founded in 1963 and competed in local league's until the mid 1970's when the club folded after entry to the Wearside League was refused, as there was already a team called Ryhope competing in it.

The club reformed in 1978 and joined the Northern Alliance before becoming founding members of the Northern League Division Two in 1982. At this point the club were now playing at their own ground, Meadow Park, which is currently known as Sunderland LGV Park for sponsorship purposes. The Sunderland prefix was added in 2006 when the club joined forces with Springboard Sunderland and in 2010 they were promoted to the Northern League Division One.

It was a wise decision to head here to today as I witnessed an absolutely brilliant FA Cup tie.

The home side were fastest out the blocks and had a couple of efforts blocked within the first minute and had a couple of good chances after that but, against the run of the early play, Stockton took the lead when Kevin Hayes (14) scored from a free kick (pictured left). The visitors controlled the play after this and were 2-0 up after 22 minute, a superb flowing move culminating in the ball been played out wide for Mikey Roberts to run onto and fire into the bottom corner of the net.

Stockton nearly made it three but a quick counter resulted in Sunderland's Michael Annang-Colquhoun scrambling home after 28 minutes. This clearly lifted the home side and on 36 minutes they were level, Simon Jakab heading home.

There were chances for both teams before the break, Sunderland coming the closest when Mark Davison hit the crossbar in stoppage time.

After such an open first half the second half was always going to be a little more cagier but it was Stockton who always seemed to have the slight edge. It wasn't until 20 minutes from time that they finally pulled away when Hayes scored his second, via a slight deflection of a defenders heel (pictured right) and then substitute Nathan Steel wrapped the tie up with six minutes to go. 

A fantastic advert for the FA Cup and reaffirmed my belief that it is still the best Cup competition in the world. Stockton will now travel to Curzon Ashton in the next round, which should be another intriguing encounter.