Like buses - you wait for ages for a game then 2 come along at once...

More rain meant the stop-start nature of the non-league season continued, leaving Handsworth without a game for 2.1/2 weeks after the home victory against Goole AFC on 25th November. NCEL Premier games scheduled for Golcar and Garforth on the two following Saturdays were postponed along with the County Senior Cup tie at Sheffield FC, which should have happened between these two Saturdays.

So, next up was a home fixture against Barton Town on Wednesday 13th November followed by another, 3 days later and at home again, against Maltby Main. They turned out to be 2 very different games! 

The Ambers seemed to have built on the momentum of the 6-1 win against Goole and largely dominated when Barton Town visited Oliver's Mount but a hatful of spurned chances meant the game stood at 0-0 until the 84th minute when Handsworth skipper Mitch Dunne headed home. 

Mitch Dunne's header gave Handsworth the lead v Barton

Perhaps a little naively, The Ambers pushed for a 2nd goal but Barton hit them on the break and grabbed an equaliser in the 4th minute of added time. The disappointed Handsworth faithful had to settle for a draw which almost felt like a defeat!!

It was one of those games (and we've all been there and seen them!) which would have had a very different scoreline if Handsworth had put away half of the chances they created.

On to the next fixture which was again at home but this time against a Maltby side who had recently dragged themselves off the foot of the table. Handsworth's Leon Howarth scored an absolute cracker in the 10th minute and The Ambers eventually won 1-0 to move up to 6th place in the division.

Leon Howarth's 10th minute strike brought Handsworth the 3 points v Maltby

The difference in performance between these two fixtures was like chalk and cheese. A top drawer performance and only one point was the result in the first game but then a below par performance brought a win! Football really is a "funny old game."

Ian Robinson's excellent match reports are here:

https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/handsworthfc/teams/126071/match-centre/1-14094549/report

and here:

https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/handsworthfc/teams/126071/match-centre/1-14094610/report

My photo albums from both games can be found by clicking the links:

https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/handsworthfc/photos/2023-12-13-ambers-11-barton-ncel-prem-1086130.html

https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/handsworthfc/photos/2023-12-16-hfc-10-maltby-main-ncel-prem-1086431.html

Next up is a Boxing Day visit to Hallam FC. We can't make that game but we should be at Oliver's Mount on 30th December when we host high-flying Emley.  

That's the first of a 3 games in a week sequence. Wednesday 3rd January, we'll meet Sheffield FC in a S&H County Senior Cup game. Although it's technically their home game, it will be played at Olivers Mount on our 4G pitch to ensure the game goes ahead, (unless it snows!!!) having been postponed once already.

Then we are at home again on 6th January when we'll face the ever-improving Bottesford Town, again at Oliver's Mount.

See what I mean about games coming along like buses??!!

On the non-football front, we had a brief visit from our son Mark who drove from his home in Rotterdam to spend a few days with us because he and his wife aren't able to visit Sheffield at Christmas. It was great to see him (not least because he sorted out my external SSD which I thought I'd broken!) and the next time we meet up will hopefully be in Holland in the new year after they have moved  into the new home they've just bought. 

With no football to take pictures of, I've spent some time sorting out some old photographs and reliving some old memories, most of them happy, at Belper Town, Frecheville Cricket Club and of course Handsworth FC as well as holidays and bird-watching trips. I've been a member of Flickr since 2011 and wondered if you'd like a look at the 60,700+ photos in dozens of  albums which I've posted on there in the last 12 years. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/62126085@N04/albums

Go on! Grab a cuppa and have a browse! You know you want to!! 😜

I doubt there'll be another blog post before Christmas so I just want to wish you all (I'm assuming I have more than one reader!!!) "A Very Merry Christmas" and "All The Best for 2024" from Nortoner and The Duchess XX

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

No football weekend again!

With Handsworth's trip to Golcar ruled out because of the weather last Saturday and the fact that about 3 inches of snow fell on our estate so I couldn't get the car out, it was a no football weekend for us. Well, I suppose I could have got the car out but I don't drive in the snow!

The reorganisation of Handsworth's original fixture schedule due to earlier postponements meant the new dates had left The Ambers with 7 games in December 2023. Three of these were to be at home and 4 away. A tough ask given that Christmas and New Year were later in the mix somewhere.

Handsworth should be in action next on 5th December (tomorrow) in the County Senior Cup game at Sheffield FC. Nortoner Towers is about a mile up the road from Sheffield FC's home at the Coach & Horses ground so conditions will be similar to what they are in my back garden! Despite rain all day there is still standing snow about and with more rain forecast for this evening and Tuesday morning, another postponement looks on the cards. We'll see.

A cuptie postponement complicates the remaining fixture list because Cup games take precedence over league matches so a new date for this tie would add to the congestion. As well as the County Senior Cup, Handsworth will have another fixture to slot in.

We await news of our next opponents in the JCP Construction League Cup but the draw for the 3rd round hasn't been made yet. There are 2 second round League Cup ties to be played over the next week so it will probably be in the New Year before those games can be arranged.

Fixture lists compilation is one of the hardest tasks for any league administrator at grassroots level. The Duchess, (my other half - Sheila) spent many long hours over many years sorting out fixtures for the Under-11 to Under-16 age groups when she volunteered on the Committee of the Sheffield & District Junior Sunday League. Before she finally retired from the Junior League, she had the process down to a fine art and could compile the fixture lists for all age groups and all divisions in about a fortnight.

Anyway, with the Golcar game to be added and cup ties to be sorted, as it stands, Handsworth remaining fixture load looks like this:

December 2023 - 6 games - 5 league fixtures and 1 cup tie. 3 games away and 3 at home.

January 2024 - 4 games - 4 league fixtures. 2 games away and 2 at home.

February 2024 - 6 games - 6 league fixtures. 4 games away and 2 at home.

March 2024 - 3 games - 3 league fixtures. 1 game away and 2 at home.

April 2024 - 1 game - 1 league fixture. 0 games away and 1 at home.

As ever in these cases - fixtures are subject to change! 😉

Since there's no new football pictures to edit and show you, here's a picture of a winter moon taken from our bedroom window. 

This one shot reminds me that almost all of my photography these days is concentrated on football. Pre-Covid, I did a lot of wildlife and landscape photography and the plan is to get back to a more diverse portfolio in the new year. That's the plan anyway although knowing me, this plan will just get tagged on to my "Gunna do it!" list which is already several pages long!

Until the next time. See yer!