Finnaldo

Went St Neots with Hinckley as a train day, disappointed with the town as a pub crawl but super impressed with the ground. Can’t be understated what a bit of concrete and a three step terrace behind the goal can do for atmosphere, easily one of my favourite grounds I’ve been to with Hinckley. As you say the perfect example of a modern non-league ground.

Much like wider journalism, sports journalism has been so discredited over the years with a name over substance approach on punditry and quantity over quality with the advent of clickbait and ‘fast news’, and that’s just exacerbated by the alternative provided being teenagers on TikTok with the loudest, most outrageous brain rot they can game the algorithm with, or professional contrarians spewing a minute of unsupported nonsense. It’s the KSI FIFA revisionism writ-large, Vardy is just a better regarded example of the treatment Heskey got 12 or 13 years ago.

A lot of clubs seem to put in place some advances ticketing/booking systems they don’t fully understand/have the mean to operate fully, and in the case of Banbury it seems to come down to either being unable or being unwilling to deal with the unpleasant elements of their supporter base.

On a similar note: Hinckley’s Christmas fixture kicks off at 2pm with kids go free and free mulled wine and Christmas snacks!

This Syrian offensive would have been 100% Turkey-backed and I suspect they’d have let some players, including Israel, in on it behind the curtain. I imagine there’s promises of moderation in the government and if HTS steps out of line then Turkey will step in and sort it out. It, however, a very bad time to be the SDF/Rojava right now I imagine.

Hinckley stormbusters overcame Darragh to get their fourth win in a row. Wasn’t there but it sounded like a very disciplined performance from the lads over a decent Eynesbury side to repeat the 3-1 score line from our opening day reverse fixture. Very difficult midweek trip to Rugby Borough on Wednesday, get out of that with a positive result and an unbeaten December looks a very real possibility.

Third win on the spin yesterday for Hinckley, 1-4 against Northampton ON Chenecks, they started the afternoon in fifth so that’s back-to-back decisive wins against play off teams. Looks to be coming together but another hard game against Rugby Borough coming up Wednesday after next in the middle of two winnable games at home vs Eynesbury on the 7th and Godmanchester on the 21st.

That was a very good episode, enjoyed the Marcus Law one they’ve just released as well. They’re probably the best produced for Midlands Non-League content by a margin in terms of what I’ve found, although the hosts seem to struggle outside their particular areas (roughly A5 corridor teams). Out of their stuff I’d recommend Gaz Dean, Jas Singh, Dean Gill, Kyle Storer, Mark Noon, Gez Murphy and Ivor Green. Either played/managed a good level or have quite an interesting insight into the game even if it’s slightly lower. I’ve struggled to find decent and consistent Non League content, but if I do find anything I’ll make sure to post!

Anyone know what they’ve put in the water at Darlaston? I know they’re not exactly urchins but from what I’ve heard and listening to Dean Gill on the Non-League Treatment Room it didn’t sound like they had a particularly big budget even at step 5, currently occupying the play off spots at step 4…

Great club Halesowen, need to make a trip over to the Grove. That small area is a mental hotbed for non-league, Halesowen, Bromsgrove and Stourbridge all well supported, Alvechurch & Redditch not far away either. Hinckley finally, finally finding some consistency with back-to-back wins for the first time this season with a good win at home to March. Conceded first within a minute but a fantastic second half meant a good value 3-1 win, not far off play offs now but with a tough run including 4th place Chenecks away Saturday we’re going to need to build off of good performances lately.

‘Football is cyclical’ is the biggest cop-out for accepting poor; near-negligent running of the club by a crumbling regime out of ideas and completely unable to reform or reorganise itself on any serious level. Even if you accept whatever pseudoscience is to determine the size of football supporter base, the fact we’re comfortably in the top 25 suggests we can then easily maintain Premier League football. The fact we’re eight/nine years removed from a Premier League title and three years removed from a series of European football runs shows it’s not a cyclical decline but a terminal spiral by utterly incompetent upper management. This all started with “Of course we won’t go down under Brendan!” because it was decided that the ownership and ‘their manager’ could do no wrong despite failing top four objectives twice by way of two unbelievable collapses. Since then we’ve seen often the same crowd erode expectations to “Going back to 2005/06 Leicester is just life”. Simply accepting and even defending worsening outcomes creates even worse results. This is an observable pattern at this club over the last five seasons but some will never bring themselves to accept how poorly ran we are from the very top.

I’m unbothered about Trump winning and find the Democrat-style Liberalism very tired and what they’ve got is what they deserved etc…. ….but didn’t the Trump lot storm a government building last time they lost? I think they’ve got some catching up to do to be the biggest gang of mentalists across the pond

Tbf they’re sat on a massive acreage of pitches that are rented out/used across youth teams, women’s teams, vet teams etc., they did a piece in the Non-League Paper that suggested they’re making good turnover on that alone.

Put two shit candidates forward get a shit outcome. Don’t actually expect it to be that bad but I do expect the US’s stature overall to falter. America is gripped between the very safe, undeterred establishment that has provided managed decline since the turn of the millennium and grifters out for a payday who will probably manage said decline even worse. Another wake-up call for us and other European nations to get our affairs in order ASAP.

I actually really enjoyed the Camden Stout. Took me by surprise as I expected it to be a bit crap but found it very smooth and enjoyable. Titanic’s standard stout is fine but the plum porter, especially the reserve, is unreal. Probably one of my favourite beers full stop.

Hinckley were apparently looking at him last season. From what I can tell he’s on a wedge, to the point Hinckley (which I assume had a bigger budget than Coalville currently do) we’re priced out, and he’s essentially playing with mates under considerably less pressure than further up the pyramid or for bigger clubs. Given he seemed up to it at step 4 I’d wager he’s not all that ambitious with his football, which is fair enough but a shame in some ways as he could definitely do a job higher, or for an ambitious Coalville looking to go up.

No game for Hinckley today, but lost 1-0 to Daventry on the weekend. First 30 minutes they scored and just looked head and shoulders above us, then they took their foot off the gas at that point and we looked a lot better for credit. Second half we threw the kitchen sink at them, probably three efforts that go in any other day (off the crossbar and bounced out off the line, cleared off the line, a good save after a great run down the left), but you could tell they were well behind organised. Dav went down to ten with half an hour left then nine deep into extra time, so ultimately worth their win. Good enough start I think. Two wins, a draw in a poor game that we win if we turn up and two losses to top teams where you could say we were probably worth a draw if not more. Out in the FA Cup preliminaries to a decent step four team. For a consolidation season it looks very promising, would say an outside play offs chance isn't off the cards at all. Some tough games coming up though.

Hinckley outclassed by a fantastic Malvern 5-2, were competitive at times but you can tell they’re a good step 4 team. Great people from the players, playing staff, board and directors so difficult to begrudge really! Onto another tough game at home to Daventry next week…

Hinckley AFC continue in the FA Cup tonight, step 4 Malvern Town at home which will be a really solid test, fingers crossed a decent result and back in the hat!

Walk your pint off on the way back to the ground too! Glad you enjoyed it and hope you’ll be down again, but I recommend going a few local clubs and seeing what you enjoy. Plenty Leics clubs really kicking on at the minute

As far as I’m aware that’s the case, yes.

Coalville lose 1-0 to Clifton on the road, it’s of course a regroup and consolidation season but even in the circumstances you think they’d be wanting better than no point after three games. I only went the first game but if there’s not been significant change, then some at-level experience is desperately needed in that team, it’s a lot to ask of young lads to compete at a level built on physicality. That said, it takes time and I hope they see some results sooner rather than later.

Because they’ll be paid an absolute wedge. Nuneaton’s budget will be well into four figures when most teams aren’t paying and some charge players subs. Anything other than winning the league at a canter would be an embarrassment. That said they fell £4k short on their crowdfunder for ‘off-field costs’ so will be interesting what impact that has.

Assistant is decent too I heard @Tevez Hinckley got a pretty controlled win against a Highgate side much diminished from last season. Malvern Town next which should prove a much firmer challenge.

…No comment Have to say though, from a Hinckley point of view it was an extremely encouraging performance, I’ve very rarely came out on a lost game as happy as I did that one. Game was spoilt by the first red card decision by the ref, but showed a lot of character to stick in it and probably have some of the better chances in the end. If we see that level of commitment throughout the season then we could be in for a good season. AP you can see the organisation and skill, doesn’t look fully there yet and a bit light up front (granted Billy Kee wasn’t playing). Even with our performance you’d have expected them to put us to the sword. In summary: certainly a good team and deserved favourites but perhaps not the runaway winners myself and a lot of others expected. Rugby Borough seem to have put together something decent this season. I’d have an eye on them as a dark horse this year.