'Season 2006-07 Compendious'

A season that personally started way back on a hot July afternoon,with an Intertoto Cup tie at St. James Park finally came to a close last Saturday in Fife.
I have thoroughly enjoyed writing and capturing images of my groundbagging exploits of 2006-07,I may not have the word skills of Stuart Hall,the journalistic scribblings of Brian Woolnough or indeed the photographic skills of an employee of Getty Images but in the words of an old 1970’s impressionist “this is me” and the good feedback I’ve received during this past season has made the whole experience gratifying.

I managed to attend 71 games throughout the season and bagged 29 new grounds,so my first “thank you” goes to my fantastic ‘breadknife’ Debra for letting me off the leash,even though she would prefer to see me at home (no I don’t mean St.James Park) on a Saturday.
Among those 29 grounds were many throughout the non-league,a stadium which is now dead,a home that has now dropped from ‘The 92’,a big shiny red one with 60,000 seats,a trip to Jormani,Scotland and even an appearance in deepest Darlington,so after all this I’ve lost contact with my old Saturday afternoon mucker from ‘Gillette Soccer Saturday’ Jeff Stelling,I hope he’s keeping well and if you see him tell him I’m asking after him.

Included amongst those 71 games is of course supporting the two clubs closest to my heart,that big club north of the Tyne “treated” myself and the fellow Geordie Nation to a season to forget,being one of the worst in recent times,thankfully action was taking at the end of the season to hopefully rectify the mess the club currently finds itself in, a new man at the helm,with a fresh approach and new ideas will at least give the Toon Army fresh optimism for next season.(wonder if there’ll be an end of season DVD,would anyone purchase it?)

As far as the club at the south of the Tyne,things are looking much brighter,with an ambitious Chairman who is willing to give the club his full backing,a new manager who since his appointment in early March,saw his side go 12 games unbeaten through to the end of the campaign,just running short of making the play-offs,all this and the promise of a new football ground as well,things are definitely on the up for the Heed Army.

Finally I would like to thank everyone who sent there grounds lists and helped make this little website take off,I’ve made a lot of friends throughout the ‘Groundhoppers Union’ both at home and abroad and hopefully our paths will cross sometime during next season,I’m grateful for an comments left on the blog and always look forward to hearing from you fellow bloggers as well as the personal emails I receive, so thank you very much,it’s all been worthwhile.

Throughout the summer the site will be regularly updated including the world famous ‘Ground Image Of The Month’ the continuing series of ‘The Football Bog Blog’ as well as ‘My Back Pages’ which features stories from my first visit to various grounds (similar to the Leeds Road post) so have a good summer and I hope the stadiumitis bug can ease off until July/August.
Cheers! SS

P.S. ‘The 100 Football Grounds Club Groundhoppers Union Meeting 2007’ destination – Morecambe ? ;-) anyone interested or any suggestion let me know.