F.A. Premier League

Tuesday 3rd March 2026

Kick Off 19.30 On Time!

Everton 2 Burnley 0, attendance 51,959

32’ 1-0 Tarkowski

60’ 2-0 Dewsbury-Hall

@ Hill Dickinson Stadium

32 Regent Road

Bramley Moore Dock

Liverpool

L5 9SR

£58 Admission

£4 Programme available, didn’t bother buying.

Completing ‘The 92’ is a bit like painting the Forth Road Bridge. Every time you think you’re done, another ground appears. Not that that’s a bad thing mind. The full set was first achieved in August 1990, with regular top ups since. In fact, Everton’s former home of Goodison Park was ground number 7 on the list when I saw them beat Leicester City 5-1 on December 28th 1986. I’ve since re-visited the first six grounds, but will likely never return to Goodison, despite it still remaining in use for women’s and youth matches.

Hill Dickinson Stadium was only opened during the summer, having been built on reclaimed dock land, on the banks of the River Mersey, just a couple of miles west of their former home. It has an all seated capacity of 52,769, giving them around 13,000 extra places than they had previously. Normally you have to register to buy tickets, which I believe costs around £35, but tonight’s game had gone to general sale, with just the ticket price incurred, so a real result! All stands had availability and we opted for the upper tier down the side, in row 62. It’s a fair hike up to the seats, but once there, the sight lines are superb. In fact, there probably aren’t too many seats where this wouldn’t be the case. We’d arrived quite early, soon realising that coming by car was problematic, due to how far out from the stadium the parking restrictions stretched. We opted to pay £15 at a pop up car park, at a gated business premises exactly a mile north of the stadium, wary of the reputation the city carries for car thefts. The gates would be locked an hour after the final whistle, but no problem getting back well before that, once you’d negotiated the bottle neck trying to leave the vicinity of the stadium.

Everton came into this sitting eighth in the table, whilst Burnley were second bottom. Quite how Burnley can be above anyone in the table takes some believing and shows just how poor Wolves must be. This was pretty poor stuff to be honest and not a great advert for a league constantly claiming to be ‘the best in the world’. Everton were just going sideways at every opportunity, or back to Pickford if they wanted to mix up the sterile approach occasionally. Burnley were simply dreadful and rarely got out of their own half, let alone into the Everton box. We were lucky that we saw one goal, let alone two. The opener came from a Garner cross, with Tarkowski heading back into far corner from the far post. That goal would have been enough to take all three points, but they added a second on the hour, when a through ball from Ndiaye was finished with a deft chip over the diving ‘keeper from Dewsbury-Hall. The atmosphere was very muted throughout, not helped by the lack of quality served up on the pitch and despite Burnley looking to have filled their allocation, they were only heard once, but soon quietened down again.

I’ll be back here in July, having obtained a Sunday day ticket (only £28) for the Rugby League ‘Magic Weekend’…..a decision I regret now and not something I’m really looking forward to. Getting away after the game was easier than expected, but a bit of a drag getting through endless sets of traffic lights heading back to the motorway. Closure of the M6 from J14-J13 meant SatNav took us via A50 and M1 instead. All good until dropping off my passenger in Uxbridge. No access back onto the M40 due to roadworks, with the M25 closed from J15 to J14 and again between J11 and J9. Finally got home dead on 3 am!

E.F.L. Youth Alliance (Northern Section) Cup Final

Tuesday 3rd March 2026

Kick Off 13.00 Actual 13.02

Blackpool U18 2 Carlisle United U18 1, attendance 150

39’ 1-0

79’ 1-1

88’ 2-1

@ Common Edge Community Sports Village, 3G Pitch

Common Edge Road

Marton Fold

Blackpool

FY4 5FH

No Admission or Programme.

An early start this morning, blighted by the usual crawl on the M25 from J9 to J16, heading north to the southern outskirts of Blackpool, just east of Blackpool Airport and the 3G caged pitch at Common Edge Community Sports Village. It’s the standard set up, with spectator viewing on the whole of the near side, with dugouts opposite. Ample parking and entry via the main building, where toilets were available, but little else.

It was the northern section final of this competition, with the winners facing A.F.C. Wimbledon to determine the overall champions. We were thirty five minutes in before any real chances were created, with Blackpool lobbing the ball wide after being put through on goal, but it only took four more minutes for them to make the breakthrough, when a deflected cross from the right was swept in from six yards. Right on halftime Carlisle nearly levelled, following up a fumble by the ‘keeper, but hitting the post. They did grab an equaliser with eleven minutes left, when a through ball saw striker and ‘keeper race to the ball, with the challenge falling perfectly for a supporting player to lob into an empty net from 25 yards. Blackpool grabbed the winner with two minutes left, when a corner from the right was headed out to the edge of the box and returned with a volleyed shot that flew into the far corner.

Back on the road before 3 o’clock, heading south for the main event of the day…..

West Midlands (Regional) League

Premier Division

Monday 2nd March 2026

Kick Off 19.45 Actual 19.46

P.S. Olympic 2 Pelsall Villa Colts 2, attendance 64

20’ 0-1

36’ 0-2

39’ 1-2

45’ 2-2

@ The Dell Stadium, 3G Pitch

Bryce Road

Pennsnett

Brierley Hill

DY5 4NE

£4 Admission

No Programme.

A rare Monday night fixture threw up the chance to tick off yet another 3G cage, but at least this one is the regular home venue for the club, once again re-completing this division for me, rather than some random venue borrowed in order to catch up on fixture backlog. I’d seen Oldswinford play on the stadium pitch here back in 1991, with tonight’s game played on a pitch that runs parallel to it, backing on to the stand. Entrance is through the main building, where there’s a refreshment kiosk and toilets, with admission taken from a table set up as you exit to the pitch, which runs lengthways away from here and has the usual spectator area running along three quarters of one side.

The match was 4th versus 10th in the league table and was a game of two halves. All the goals came in the first half, with the visitors squandering a two goal lead. They broke the deadlock with an angled shot that was touched in from close range and doubled their lead with a shot on the turn from 20 yards, that the ‘keeper got a hand to, but couldn’t prevent the shot going in via the post. Six minutes before halftime, a speculative cross/shot from wide on the right sailed over the ‘keeper into the far corner to make it 1-2 and they levelled the scores in the dying seconds of the half, when a cross in from the right was touched in from 6 yards on it’s way into the bottom corner. Olympic hit the crossbar early in the second half and should have won the game a minute from time, when they were awarded a penalty, but it was well saved by the ‘keeper.

Journey up to the Midlands was trouble free, unlike the return. Access from the M42 onto the M40 was closed, meaning a diversion up to the next junction, adding about five miles. Three sections of single lane roadworks (no actual work taking place) were encountered on the M40, followed by closures on the M25 between J15 and J14 and again from J11 to J9.