I have my dream job and this has been my dream season. Over the last nine months, whenever anybody has asked me if I am tired of the travel, the writing or the matches, I have done my best impression of the weary explorer. I hope they didn’t see through the thin facade.
In 2024-25, I set myself the challenge of watching a home game, and separately writing a detailed feature, on each of the 92 football league clubs. Doing the 92 took monumental planning, 17,686 miles, over 80 interviews and 198,000 words. On Sunday at the City Ground, home of my beloved Nottingham Forest, that journey was completed.
There were two principal driving forces: to share my firm belief that the English football pyramid is this country’s greatest cultural asset; to demonstrate that football clubs are not only important on Saturdays at 3pm. They help, soothe, support, accompany, guide and save lives in their communities. It has been an honour to tell those stories.
The project has been a great success; I am saying that now without fear of jinxing it. That shapes our work in the future. The only way to respond to this season is to work out how to take its best elements and fine-tune them. If I walked away from the football pyramid now, I would feel like a fake.
That’s all for August and beyond. For now, let me say to those who sent letters, messages and emails of support and to every reader who engaged with Doing the 92 – thank you. I’ll never have another season quite like 2024-25.
Here are 92 things I learned from Doing the 92
1) You can park at every ground in the Football League without paying for the privilege. Never use those ad hoc car parks that charge you because you’ll just queue for ages to get out. Simply go onto Google maps, look for minor roads with plenty of bends and turn-offs (generally indicates residential) and then use Street View to check for permit parking only. The exception is London, but then that’s a slightly different tip: don’t drive to London.
2) That car parking spot may be 20 minutes’ walk from the ground but – if you are able to walk the distance – that’s good! The approach to a ground, and how it reveals itself, is the perfect introduction to the live spectacle and can often be better than the match itself. I also understand that some people will see this as mawkish nonsense.
3) In general, the range of chants across English football is something to celebrate. But I am looking forward to a couple of months off from sitting or standing in EFL ground and hearing “Everywhere we go. Watching [insert club name here], putting on a show”. It’s even worse when the club name doesn’t scan and you have to hear “Super Donny” or the equivalent crowbarred in.
4) And while I’ve got that soapbox out of the cupboard, there must be more to life and imagination than the chant “Do do doooo, football in a library”. You’ve travelled across the country to gloat about the atmosphere of another club; you must be able to do better than this. This message is for the attention of roughly 75 of the 92 clubs.
5) Seeing the words “fan zone” written down used to make me wince – too American, too calculated, too much forced fun. In fact, the reality is beautiful. At the side of most EFL grounds now is an area where the adults can have a beer, kids can be entertained in a safe environment and the club can make some extra money. Everybody wins (and Carlisle United’s was my favourite so I’m sad to see them relegated to non-league).
6) I could write a (very) long read on the differences in half-time competitions at EFL stadia. You’ve got: regulation penalties vs the club mascot, dizzy stick penalties, kicking the ball to land on the centre circle, kicking the ball from halfway to go through a hole on the goalline, penalties through holes in a target, a weird child relay race around the touchline, scoring from increasing distances and kicking a ball into a bin from range. Love them all, thank you.
7) I will be producing a ranking of all 92 football grounds – personal preference, please promise not to shout at me – but let’s just say that a stadium enclosed by either terraced streets, a river, park or beach is good. A stadium ringed by TGI Fridays, Gala Bingo or Frankie & Benny’s isn’t.
8) As someone who only started driving three years ago, the way in which the motorways of England are a completely different nexus of roads at night than in the day has blown my mind. I’m not moaning: I know that roadworks need to be done. It’s just a bit hard to focus on that when you’re driving home from Manchester via Stockport, Bakewell and Ashbourne.
9) This season has established weird landmarks of which I have grown incredibly fond, mileposts to home or my next destination. I now love the Pennine Tower, Darwen’s Jubilee Tower, Trow pool and water tower, Watford Gap and Scotch Corner and the section of the M5 near Bristol where the two carriageways split and cut across different levels of the escarpment. Yes, I am a laugh.
10) I was adamant that this project would not turn into a best pie/worst toilets oversimplification, because I’m better than that. On which note: the best pie was definitely Morecambe and it comes with mushy peas. And now we have lost them to non-league too.
11) I’m seriously not doing the worst toilets, but a shout out to Oakwell for having the only old-style toilet block that I encountered all season. You go inside, you stand near the wall, you piss on it, you leave. I love it. I am not a weirdo.
12) Back to the culinary experience, because the range of options at most EFL grounds has increased exponentially over the last decade. In 2015, eating bao buns, Korean chicken or quesadillas outside a League One stadium would have seemed emphatically “game’s gone”. But why shouldn’t football fans expect better and why shouldn’t local, independent businesses come into the wider family of a football club?
13) That said, I would advise any supporter who has the time on an away day to make the most of the wider experience. Too many times as a fan have I fallen into the trap of heading straight to a stadium to buy food rather than wandering around the local area (particularly in the late summer and spring months). Shout out to Koi Sakana in Bournemouth, one of my many happy places on this journey.
14) There is a new generation of football club “ultras”. They are aged between 14 and 21, mostly wear black, one of them brings a drum and they congregate behind one of the goals in a mimic of groups across Europe. They are also responsible for creating atmosphere, include a higher percentage of female members than their predecessors and (from my experience this season) almost never cause trouble. So good on them.
15) Every football club has at least one old boy who has roughly 300 pin badges attached to a waistcoat or hat or jumper. Spend five minutes walking near him and hear how many people say hello to him or wish him good day, as if doing so is part of their own matchday routine. It will cheer your soul.
16) We all know this stuff, but please allow me to say it anyway: the train services in this country are a national scandal on an industrial scale and football supporters get screwed over more than most. Cramped services, weekend timetables, cancellations, delays to miss connections, matches rearranged at late notice, last services leaving a town or city 20 minutes before full-time. It should not be this way and we have acquiesced to such shameful mistreatment by private companies waved through by the government.
17) The Pepification of lower-league football, in which clubs across the divisions are trying to play out from the back in a mimic of Manchester City’s style, is definitely a thing. I have watched Newport County (under Nelson Jardim) and Carlisle United (under Mike Williamson) do it. Neither manager is in charge now and both clubs finished in the bottom three of League Two, which suggests that it’s hardly a foolproof strategy.
18) There’s no delicate way of saying this: I have spent 2024-25 missing the best campaign by my beloved club since I was nine years old. There has been something wonderful about experiencing Nottingham Forest qualifying for Europe as a supporter watching on TV and chatting to excited mates and family members after matches. That was also probably a strategy of emotional self-preservation to make up for not seeing much of it live.
19) One of the greatest joys in English football is sitting in a ground on a Saturday afternoon, looking between the gaps in the corners or over the top of small stands, and seeing bustling life carrying on. You feel smug that you are getting to watch football and they are not (you ignore that they might not care about watching football). Crewe Alexandra’s Gresty Road and Mansfield Town’s Field Mill (I’m sticking with the original names) are two of the best for it.
20) The stadium with the best view outside when sat inside is Burnley’s Turf Moor. Go to the top of the James Hargreaves Stand and just take it all in. If I supported Burnley I reckon I’d have squatter’s rights up there by now.
21) And the ground that has the best view of it from outside is Grimsby Town’s Blundell Park. Look across at it from the nearby railway bridge on a crisp, sunny morning and feel yourself loving football at least one per cent more every minute.
22) Related: everybody will have their own favourite settings for a football ground, but mine is definitely by the sea, in a northern town that believes it has been a little forgotten by those in positions of governmental power. This possibly has a hidden subtext about fish and chips.
23) I think that the best finish I saw this season was Romaine Mundle for Sunderland against Preston, a shot that had so much curl it visited a different postcode on its way. Honourable mention for Tom Bayliss’ unstoppable free-kick for Lincoln City against Peterborough United.
24) I am continuously amazed at the number of football supporters who have personalised number plates, or personalised messages on their number plates, related to the football club they support. I never promised that all of these would be deeply wise.
25) One of the tragedies of modern football – its organisation and the inevitable dance with the trappings of capitalism – is that it would be incredibly difficult for any supporter to complete the 92 in a single season due to the limitations in registering with clubs for tickets. That annoys me and I don’t really know what can be done about it.
26) There is a growing mural culture within English football and I am absolutely here for it. Your best examples are Tranmere Rovers, Blackpool, Huddersfield Town, Crystal Palace and Notts County, but every club should have at least two. Use your end-of-terrace houses, people.
27) The inevitability of this project is that I was given a snapshot (or multiple snapshots) in time of a club’s experience. The randomness of away opponents produced some interesting results. I saw Plymouth Argyle play three times away, lose each time by an aggregate scoreline of 0-7 but then win their home game 5-1 to almost get back to parity. I saw Doncaster Rovers play five times.
28) For other clubs, I barely scratched the surface and missed the headline of the season. When I watched Leeds United lose 3-0 at home to Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough at a mutinous, toxic Elland Road in August, I didn’t think that Leeds would win the Championship title with 100 points and Carrick would be fighting for his job after finishing 10th.
29) If you really want to get a sense of the managerial turnover in the EFL, spend a year infrequently interviewing them. Over the course of this project, I interviewed Danny Rohl (Sheffield Wednesday), Tom Cleverley (Watford), Scott Lindsey (MK Dons), Charlie Adam (Fleetwood), Rob Edwards (Luton Town) and Des Buckingham (Oxford United). Rohl is the only one left in his job now – and that is likely to change this summer.
30) I have watched matches involving over 1,000 different players this season, so it’s hard for players to stick out. With the admission that I have only a snapshot, a tiny sample size, one player who stuck out in each division to me:
- Viktor Johansson (Stoke City) – if there is a better non-top flight goalkeeper in the world, I would be amazed. I cannot fathom why he isn’t in the Premier League
- Odeluga Offiah (Blackpool – on loan from Brighton) – a one-man right-hand-side, capable of defending smartly to win the ball and then steaming up the pitch to overlap or create chances with it.
- Luke Molyneux (Doncaster Rovers) – I saw Doncaster more than any other team and Molyneux scored five goals from the wing. He developed late after leaving Sunderland for non-league. He’s also capable of being excellent in League One after promotion
31) There is nothing quite like the feeling of being swept up in the joy of a last-minute winning goal that everybody around you is desperately wanting. Coventry against Oxford United and Peterborough United vs Stevenage were the two best examples from this season.
32) I stood on many terraces this season, and each has their splendour. But there’s nothing like standing on the large red heart at Exeter City’s St James Park, there to symbolise their ownership model. Once again, Exeter finished as the highest-ranked fan-owned club in English football. It isn’t without its significant challenges, but it’s utopian in spirit. Long live the model.
33) In September, I shadowed Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver for the day and evening, including sitting on the bench next to him during the game. The thing that stuck out the most was the level of micromanagement of individual players during a game by the coaches: timing and direction of runs, defensive shape, passes, positioning to receive the ball. It makes it all the more worth it when you beat top of the league at home.
34) Football grounds, particularly those older ones in lower league, may be majestic from the stands but the real magic lies when you are allowed behind the scenes. Forget your wide corridors and staircases leading both ways up from reception. We’re talking about a narrow labyrinth of passages where you walk past a laundry room to get to someone’s office and a nook underneath the stadium that is just about big enough for a hobbit.
35) It’s time to end the concept of the bubble game. A Cardiff City supporter who lives on the Pembrokeshire coast at St Davids shouldn’t have to drive 110 miles to Cardiff – past Swansea – to get on a coach that goes 45 miles to Swansea, get the same coach 45 miles back to Cardiff and drive the 110 miles – past Swansea – to get back home just to go to a football match. If every other derby in the country can do it, it’s time to put some trust back into south Wales.
36) I love lower-league match days for the blend of modern insertions and traditional staples. Take this example from Colchester United: consecutive adverts on the big screen before the game were for “Greene King – the official pouring sponsor of Colchester United” and a Dolly Parton tribute act in one of the club lounges the following Sunday.
37) Always look where you are going to and from a football match, rather than checking scores, reading match reports or doom-scrolling the social media platform of a rampant narcissist. The low moment of my 2024-25 was stepping in dog mess near my car a mile from Bramall Lane. The windows were open on the way back.
38) The best accent in the country (and probably the world) for shouting the question “Who the f–-king hell are you?” is Chesterfield’s.
39) I was incredibly fortunate to meet several heroes this season, although all of them are too humble to accept the praise. This is the chance to give them some love. The first was Marc Jones, one of the founders of AFC Wimbledon and a man who lives his football club more than most as a result. As his son said when Marc apologised to him for pouring his money into this rather than inheritance: “Dad, you left us a football club”.
40) You must read this piece for all the evidence of why Carol Shanahan, chairperson of Port Vale, is such a diamond. But I have never met anyone who is so determined to run their football club as a place where everybody feels wanted, seen and special. And I was absolutely delighted that she got the automatic promotion she was so desperate for in November.
41) Ash Hackett has been the chief executive officer of Blackpool FC’s Community Trust since August 2011, more than a third of his life. Few have seen more of the struggles and social deprivation facing Blackpool and few have done more to help people circumnavigate or get through them. More than anything, I wanted this project to reflect that football clubs are not just for Saturday afternoons. Ash, and everyone who works in community schemes at clubs across the country, are the best of all of us.
42) Finally, meeting people when doing pieces on the community aspect of football clubs was a genuine privilege. Learning about the sessions that Notts County put on for those going through a cancer journey, and how simply organising some exercise and social interaction made the toughest period of their lives a little better, was a punch to the gut. Those sessions happen several miles from my house and I had no idea.
43) There has been a North American revolution in English football ownership, with 32 of the 92 clubs now with significant US shareholding. That contains a wide range of experience (literally from first to 91st in the 92), but it really hit home at Birmingham City vs Wrexham in September. I’ve never been to an English league game that seemed so deliberately rolled in glitter. Both were promoted automatically.
44) I honestly can’t pick a best game, so choose between Arsenal 5-1 Manchester City, Coventry City 3-2 Oxford United, Doncaster Rovers 1-1 Notts County, Rotherham United 4-2 Charlton Athletic or QPR 2-2 Leeds United.
45) I honestly can pick a worst game: Accrington Stanley 0-0 Cheltenham Town. Tuesday 28 January, so damn cold. There were six shots in the first half with a combined xG of 0.22. There was not a single shot on target in the second half. It was a game that happened and I was there to watch it.
46) I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you haven’t been to Deepdale yet, you must. Preston North End possess the best football statue on earth. It’s called the Splash and it should be on your football bucket list.
47) The two best public address system announcements of the season: “The attendance includes 760 supporters from the railway town of Swindon” and “We would like to inform Bournemouth supporters that the last train home from Southampton station has been cancelled”. Both went down well.
48) As somebody who was born and grew up in the East Midlands, and has only ever lived elsewhere for four years (also inland), there is something incredibly alluring about being at the seaside before attending a football match. It’s like I have accessed some geographical cheat code that allows me to combine a childhood summer holiday with the inanimate thing I love the most in the world. I will now spend the rest of my life watching as many football matches within sight of the sea as possible.
49) The loudest noise I heard in a stadium this season was at Villa Park, when Jhon Duran scored the winner against Bayern Munich in Villa’s first home European Cup game since beating Bayern by the same scoreline in the final in 1982. Everything is cyclical.
50) There really is nothing like spending most of your season in the EFL to make you appreciate football without VAR. I know that it’s here to stay and I know that nobody cares what I think, but my god it is nice to see a goal being scored, glance over to the assistant referee, see no flag and know that none of the joy you are witnessing around you is being wasted.
51) The No 1 football aesthetic is the bright glare of floodlights shining through a mist, and there’s no better place in the country to experience it than at Huddersfield Town. Something about the climate, topography and the floodlight design gives you the best chance. Yes, I probably am overthinking this.
52) That said, the best conditions in general to watch football at an EFL ground (lower stands are key here) is an evening game after a sunny, late April day. You get warm sunshine for the build-up, a marvellous sunset around half-time and then the game ends in darkness for the floodlit aesthetic to take hold. Perfect.
53) Finally on lighting – I know, I know – shout out to Stevenage and their Lamex Stadium. Before night matches, Stevenage leave the floodlights off for as long as possible but underlight their stands. It gives the place a unique glow that is absolutely on point.
54) The award for most surprising quote in a Football League ground goes to Mansfield Town’s Field Mill. On the walkway to the seats is a large speech bubble in which the following words from Dmitri Shostakovich: “Football is the ballet of the masses”. It’s not all pirouettes and pliés in that Mansfield team.
55) The standout pre-match experience was at Vale Park, where I attended a short church service that occurs before every home game at Holy Trinity on one corner of the ground. Songs are sung (He Who Would Valiant Be, naturally) and prayers offered for the safety and wellbeing of the players and staff. I am not a religious person in any way, but there was certainly something to admire in it all.
56) Forgive the solipsism (Ed: they have got this far, Daniel) but one thing that crept up on me this season was that it wasn’t just a tour of English football, but of England (and Wales). In terms of rural areas, the road that takes you the long way round from Ulverston to Barrow-in-Furness was the breakout star. I also drove to Huddersfield Town through a series of Kirklees villages in which Christmas decorations were starting to be put up and people were wrapped up outside pubs for a quick post-work pint. Those are two basic recipes to make my heart burst.
57) There is no more watertight indication of a club in poor health than empty seats. This season, that was seen best at Blackburn Rovers and Cardiff City in the Championship. The potential in these places has been trampled upon by the misguided actions (or outright inaction) of the owners and it leaves a semi-permanent watermark. Each empty seat tells a story of someone who is no longer coming to watch this team.
58) English football supporters have typically been slow to protest (and that continues across lines of partisanship). But peaceful protest remains an effective way to make your voice heard about pricing, concerns over the direction of the club or financial mismanagement. In Swindon in December, I walked with hundreds of fans wearing orange hats to campaign for their club to be cared for better by owner Clem Morfuni.
59) The best stand in the Football League is the Hazell Stand at Newport County’s Rodney Parade. It is archaic in all the best ways: a mass of rusting lattice framework, cramped seating, a view that makes long balls into the air something of a mystery and some unique floodlighting that rises from the roof. It also only runs for two-thirds of the touchline. What more could you want? Rhetorical question.
60) We’ve got far enough in for me to spit out some hot takes, so here it is: Bristol is the best city in England and Gloucester Road is the best road to walk. It contains a fantastic blend of cultures in its shops, cafes and restaurants and, after a couple of miles, you reach a football ground. Nothing else needed.
61) Shrewsbury is the best town in England. The history within its buildings means that it should be overrun with tourists. Instead it retains an independent feel, has plenty of great little restaurants (shout out to CSONS for a cheaper, more homely small plates option) and is small enough to wander around for an hour or so before walking to Gay Meadow.
62) Of all the clubs in the Football League, it’s on a matchday at Barrow that you really notice an amateur feel (to clarify, I absolutely intend that as a compliment). From Russ Rawley and his raffle to the retired supporters who redecorated all of the club offices and meeting rooms, this is a club in an end-of-the-line town that relies upon an army of volunteers and is infinitely more special for the privilege.
63) The most notable press box in the country (and every industry type will be nodding along to this) is at Leyton Orient, where you are up in the gods of the biggest stand. There is netting in front of you to stop pigeons flying up and joining you (and you from dropping your laptop onto the head of some poor bugger below). It’s like watching a Football Manager game play out below.
64) For all that some Premier League stadiums have become homogenised to present a familiar experience to the higher-end supporter here for a day rather than a season, the atmospheres at the biggest games still make you tingle. I was lucky enough to go to Arsenal vs Manchester City the day after Blackpool vs Charlton. It is in the differences of those two experiences that the beauty of the whole thing lies.
65) My biggest gripe of the 2024-25 football season has been goalkeepers going down injured (patently without being injured) and thus giving the manager of their team a chance to give a team talk to the outfield players. I would estimate that I have seen it 25 times in 92 matches and it has to stop. The solution? Players have to stay away from the touchline as the injury is treated.
66) The prize for most spectacular time-wasting goes to Preston away at Sunderland, who managed – I think – four separate delays in the space of seven minutes to kill the game with a 1-0 lead. At which point Sunderland promptly equalised with Mundle’s aforementioned spectacular goal. Love you, karma.
67) A referee getting booed at the end of a match that the home team hasn’t won is cultural heritage, I understand this. But I have noticed a rise in recent years in antagonism towards every decision made by officials. There’s a weird indirect impact of VAR in the Premier League whereby the increase in scrutiny of decisions as a whole has caused more anger even in the divisions without VAR. Great fun!
68) I’m aware that some people see tourist supporters at football matches as a bad thing (and there is a tipping point vs season ticket holder numbers, I agree). But if you go and watch an EFL game with a Korean player on the bench for the home team, and see a group of Korean students who have got to the game two hours before kick-off just to see their compatriot warm up, you cannot help but be cheered. It’s hardly their fault that clubs have deliberately priced out local supporters from Premier League grounds in pursuit of revenue streams.
69) The only EFL team I watched play twice at a home game this season was Carlisle United – that shouldn’t be a source of any pride for them. Carlisle had one of the biggest budgets in League Two after relegation. They still managed to get themselves relegated in a blur of bad decisions and missed opportunities to create some certainty on the pitch. It is a travesty that this city loses a league football club as a result.
70) Can we please talk about the unforgivable way in which football clubs ruin the atmosphere before matches with loud house music because somebody has told them that that is what young people want? Wigan vs Bolton, a local derby, had all pre-game noise from rival supporters drowned out by, I kid you not, a guy called MC Finchy. I’m not saying Finchy isn’t a bloody good DJ, but should he be working here?
71) A message to all football clubs: if you name a stand after someone, have some information boards outside the ground that tell that person’s story and why they are so symbolic in the history of the club. Ipswich Town, with their Bobby Robson Stand, have got it spot on – they are the example to follow.
72) One of the things that makes me emotional at a football ground is the memorial garden at Burnley’s Turf Moor. It includes the Brian Miller memorial, a dugout with seating dedicated to the one-club man. It allows supporters to have dedicated plaques to Burnley-obsessed loved ones and I think that every club ought to have one.
73) I am a soppy sod, so there is genuine sadness at saying goodbye to old football stadiums in favour of a move to something shiny and modern. By that measure, Goodison Park really is one of the greats. It also immediately puts me back down to 91 and makes me a non-completist again. The grind never ends, people.
74) Watching every team play at least once allows for a wonderful footballing iSpy where you see familiar old players now at lower-league clubs that had escaped your attention. So here’s to you Stephen Quinn (Mansfield), Chris Martin and Scott Sinclair (Bristol Rovers), Sam Vokes (Wycombe), Sam Clucas (Lincoln), Albert Adomah (Walsall), Paul Dummett (Carlisle), Lyle Taylor (Colchester) and Will Grigg (Chesterfield).
75) Every football ground should have a map of the stadium on each corner with a “you are here” label. I’ve done a lap of the stadium before now and seen entire groups of away fans passing by on the anti-clockwise loop. Don’t assume that people know your stadium.
76) Not the most important point to make, sure, but the bar for the “How shit must you be, we’re winning/drawing away/at home” chant has been lowered to an unacceptable level. If you haven’t won in five away games and then are winning in the sixth, you just went through a bad patch. Let’s set some standards here people.
77) A public service announcement: don’t be the bloke (it’s always a bloke, sorry) who thinks that it is acceptable to tell everybody around them in the stand what they should think or feels the need to basically loudly commentate on the match. Nobody is going to hear you, call up an agent and demand that you are signed up by a broadcaster to do punditry. You can’t see it but the people behind you are looking at each other and laughing. I’ve become 15 per cent worried that this person is me through the course of this paragraph.
78) The benefit of being in the ground two hours before kick-off is that you get to witness the first paying spectators take to their seats. This is particularly special because they are generally broken down into: elderly couple, who have done this routine for decades; parent(s) with young child, who is still filled with the wide-eyed wonder of seeing the pitch; committed club disciple, who comes at this exact time because he did so that one time, nine years ago, when they beat their rivals 6-0.
79) Statement of the obvious: it would have been so much harder to do this project, perhaps even impossible on a manageable budget, if I didn’t live in the Midlands. We might have no seaside, underfunded councils, a nagging lack of regional identity and consumer price rises that don’t seem to match the local economy, but we can get to Barrow in three-and-a-bit hours and Plymouth in four-and-a-half. Swings and roundabouts.
80) Lots of hotels have excellent facilities and amenities, none of which you will use. There are only four things that you really want in a hotel: pillows that are changed regularly and so aren’t forced out of shape by a thousand different heads, a plug socket next to the bed, free half-decent WiFi because it’s 2025 now and doors and windows that are as close to soundproof as possible. Everything else is (literally) noise.
81) Several years ago, the gambling industry brought in measures whereby you could block yourself from certain apps, certain areas of websites or the bookmakers entirely for a certain period of time. They need to do the same thing with hotel chains and full English breakfasts.
82) In completing this project, I have done 17,686 miles on trains, buses and in the car. So from the bottom of my heart, and in no particular order, thank you to: Elis James and John Robins podcast, Off Menu, Matthew Crosby and Ed Gamble podcast, Athletico Mince, Ricky, Steve and Karl (the XFM years), Big Thief, Olivia Rodrigo, Bon Iver, Phoebe Bridgers, Maggie Rogers, Career We Go, Collings and Herrin, Socially Distanced Sports Bar, Football Cliches and every mainstream indie band from the late 90s and 00s. You have been there with me.
83) You might as well have the other final statistics:
- Grounds: 92 (plus Wembley)
- Games 95 (two at Carlisle, two at Wembley)
- Total goals: 238
- Breakdowns: 0 #LoveMyYaris
- Accidents (car or toilet): 0
- Total weight gained: I have just printed out a four-month running plan, that’s all I’ll say
- Total words written (including end-of-season wrap-ups: 198,000)
84) This project took a huge amount of planning. It started with a massive spreadsheet and the announcement of televised EFL fixtures until January which was then updated according to TV selections in the Premier League and rearrangements for international breaks, cup fixtures and weather. That spreadsheet has been sitting in my brain for the last nine months, knowing where and how it would have to shift to create a backup date for as many clubs as possible. You curse not being able to depend upon the playoffs.
85) Within that spreadsheet framework, I knew that I would have to be flexible and react accordingly. The biggest gulp came in January, when I set off from home (no snow) for Sunderland (also no snow) and soon became aware that Yorkshire was very much “snow”. I turned back on the A1 – nothing is worth putting safety at risk for – and then griped about not being able to fit Sunderland in. Mercifully it all worked out. To bastardise the Gary Player line: “The more I stare at this Excel document, the luckier I get”.
86) The other key, obviously, was to work in the background on a feature idea for each club that roughly (and sometimes loosely) revolved around the timing of the match. When that involved speaking to multiple people at the club or supporters of it, I would try to arrange those for when I was in town because next week you have another two or three matches to attend and pieces to write.
And yet I still got lucky. Burton Albion played at home in the final midweek of the season and marked their Great Escape. I left the last weekend free for a non-league relegation piece and Carlisle obliged. Rearranged games fell nicely and only sometimes did I have to do something stupid like drive from Nottingham to Bournemouth to Burnley to Aston Villa to Nottingham for three games in three days.
87) And then on other times I got unlucky. You see Liverpool vs Arsenal scheduled in May back in September 2024, when both have started strongly, and it sounds an alarm that you have a good chance of watching the title being won either way. And then Liverpool dominate, Arsenal draw too many games and you’re heading to Anfield two weeks after Liverpool have won the league for a knockabout half-competitive match. What I’m trying to say is: thanks for announcing your departure, Trent.
88) There was only ever going to be one place that I ended this season, though, and one fixture written in pen from the start. For those of us who are head over heels for football, the ground our team plays in is an extension of our own homes. We have experienced a broader range of emotions there than anywhere else. We have met strangers who became friends and went with friends whose presence ran through our lives like a vein as a result. The City Ground is where football began for me and it is where this season would always end.
89) I have learned that football clubs actually will help you out with access. Working in the Premier League as a writer or journalist, email often tends to exist as a one-way arrangement (“Hey, hope all’s well – just chasing this up in case there is any availability soon Ends faux cheerfulness). I understand it. It also makes you want to happy-cry when a League One or League Two football club agrees to open its doors for you to come and tell a story that you believe matters to supporters.
90) And I have learned that people really do want to hear those stories. One of the most pleasing aspects of this season was hearing from supporters of EFL clubs that a piece of writing had reflected the mood. I don’t say this as a boast, but instead because so many of these supporters feel that their club is ignored by national media until they either draw a big team in the FA Cup or fall into financial emergency. They appreciate people taking the time. I think we’re all like that in some way.
91) No details yet, but we learned that we aren’t just going to do this for one season. It won’t be all 92 clubs in 2025-26, because I’d probably expire by November. But I’m delighted that I’m still going to be covering the football pyramid in detail as much as possible.
92) Finally, the one thing that will always be a privilege about covering live football, and there’s no way of saying it without sounding twee, is that you are potentially witnessing the best or worst day of the season for every supporter present. That will never stop being an absolute honour and it has made this season the best of my life. Cheers.
