Following the sad news that Nuneaton Borough FC were to be no more at the end of the 2023 season with the club falling into financial difficulty which led to their removal from the Southern League at Step 3 it was heart breaking to think that the town would no longer have a club ending 130 years of its proud footballing heritage. So, we was overjoyed to hear a new phoenix club was going to be set up and Nuneaton Town FC were formed! Nuneaton Town FC is now an officially regis

The main ethos behind us starting Proper Football was to shine a spotlight on the game outside of the Premier League and give a platform to champion all that is great about non-league and grassroots football and the wonderful pyramid that is the foundation for our beautiful game. There are many other individuals on social media who share their love of non-league football and Ray Margetson's excellent content that details his travels around the country visiting many grounds, g

One of the topics that I have covered quite regularly on our Podcast is that of homegrown players in the modern-day game not getting the same opportunity as what may well have been afforded to players of yesteryear, the reason for this, and this is only my opinion is the mass influx of foreign players into every level of the English football pyramid with many of the top sides having more foreign players than homegrown, this quite obviously means there are far less openings an

Whilst scrolling through social media we came across a new page on Facebook called 'Girls Go Groundhopping' and watched one of their short Vlogs on a recent ground hop to a non-league game, we thought it was a great concept and was wonderful to see a dad taking his two daughters to the football. We got in touch with Tony the father of Freya and Scarlett and asked him all about Girls Go Groundhopping. What inspired you to start up your Facebook page with you and your two daugh

We had a very pleasant day out down in West Sussex to watch Chichester City on Saturday for their home game against Sevenoaks Football...

We recently got in touch with the man behind FootyWatch, Andy Stone aka Stoner who is a ground hopper and grassroots reviewer who is also an ambassador for The Cystic Fibrosis Comfort Fund charity after reading his fantastic thread on social media of the recent Wessex derby between Westbury United and Frome Town. Stoner has kindly shared his videos, pictures and match thread with us of the enthralling encounter in a derby game that had everything which you can see further dow

Many fans make long journeys up and down the country following their teams or on a ground hopping adventure to tick off another football stadium, well, one such football fan made a 1,000 mile + trek from the outreaches of the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia Via Stockholm to watch Dial Square FC who play in Chertsey, Surrey at Step 8 of Non- League on a Tuesday night! The fans name is Harald Kristiansen and he has been following Dial Square FC for about 3 years and is part of the

I'm a season ticket holder for tier 9 team Redhill FC who play in the Combined Counties League Premier Division South at Step 5 of the non-league pyramid and play their home games at Kiln Brow. Although I wasn't at the game this week away to the Jersey Bulls, I was their last week at the home game to bottom of the table but much improved Colliers Wood where Redhill won 1-0. This game will always be remembered as it was the first game I turned up dressed as a Lobster! 🦞 Yes,

Ramsgate Football Club are the lowest-ranked team left in this year's FA Cup. They are one step away from reaching the 3rd round for the first time in their history but in their way are one of the most famous giant killers in the history of the competition, AFC Wimbledon, who under their previous guise beat Liverpool 1-0 in the Cup final back in 1988 against all the odds. Ramsgate have sold out their allocation of 1500 tickets and 20 coach loads of Rams will be packing out th

Cray Wanderers London's oldest football club celebrated a landmark moment on Friday night in South East London when the floodlights were switched on for the first time at their new ground at Flamingo Park. Cray Wanderers FC  was formed in 1860 when migrant workers, building the Cray Valley railway viaduct, teamed up with villagers from St. Mary Cray for a “lunchtime kick about”. Little did these early footballing pioneers realise that what started out as a bit of fun would st

Oxford City have won the National League South playoff final with an emphatic 4-0 victory over St Albans City. The game was over as a contest in the first half as the Hoops raced into a 4-goal lead in front of a record attendance of 3,100 at their Marsh Lane ground. Oxford City who finished 3rd in the National League South this season beat Worthing at home 2-0 in the playoff semi final and now with this playoff final success, they will be plying their trade at their highest-e

Dawley Town Football Club a team based just South of Telford in Shropshire have had a remarkable season in the Salop Leisure Football League Premier Division which is the 11th tier of the English football pyramid. They not only won the League but also went the whole campaign unbeaten winning 26 of 27 matches with only one draw. The Invincibles decided to celebrate in style through the town, but the mode of transport was the back of a scaffolding truck instead of an open-top b

Bury FC Supporters' Society and Bury AFC have both voted overwhelmingly in favour of a merger. They will come together under the name Bury and be back playing at Gigg Lane next season! Members of both clubs failed to reach a two-thirds majority in the first merger vote in October. This time 90.1% of the Bury FC Supporters' Society and 97% of Bury AFC members voted to form one club to play at Gigg Lane from next season. Having a unified club in Bury means it also now qualifies

In the Isthmian Premier League playoff final it was Aveley who were victorious after beating Hornchurch 0-1 in front of 2,040 fans. Aveley will be joined in the National League South next season by Truro City who won the Southern Premier Division South playoff final defeating Bracknell Town 2-3 away with a 94th-minute winner! In front of 1,554 fans. In the Northern League Premier Division Warrington Town beat Bamber Bridge 1-0 with a goal in the 90th minute having been down t

NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH Congratulations to AFC Fylde who won the National League North after winning 2-0 at Bradford PA, a result that sadly sent the home side down, Kings Lynn in second place also won but it just wasn't enough to overhaul the new champions AFC Fylde. Kings Lynn Town will now go into the playoffs along with Chester FC, Brackley Town, Alfreton Town, Kidderminster Harriers and Gloucester City. Here's a great little Vlog from the Brackley Town v Alfreton Town matc

Here are all the upcoming fixtures for the Non-League Playoff finals and Inter-Step Playoffs for relegation and promotion for Steps 3, 4, and 5 in the Non-League pyramid. Badshot Lea, Bemerton Heath Harlequins and Rugby Town have been automatically promoted from Step 5 on Points Per Game to fill the vacancies left by Harlow Town and demoted duo North Shields and Skelmersdale, who have both failed ground grading requirements and had their appeals rejected. Bideford, Carlton To

It's that time of the season again when the Premier League and Championship take a week off for the international break but more importantly it's when Non-League football takes centre stage with the annual Non-League Day which celebrates semi-professional and grassroots football in the UK. The concept of Non-League Day was set up by James Doe in 2010 as a social media experiment, after being inspired by a pre-season trip to Devon to watch Queens Park Rangers play at Tavistock

Join Proper Footballs' Gary Harris & Dan Slawson tonight Thursday 2nd March @ 7 pm with Dave Nathan & Marc Brewer 2 of the inaugural fan owners at Dial Square FC on our live Proper Football show ‘Under The Floodlight'. The diehard disgruntled Arsenal fans will be discussing why the club was formed in 2020 & their reasonings for their distaste of modern-day football owners and how fans are treated. It's the money. It's the greed. It's the way fans are treated as customers. We'

Southend United have confirmed their tax bill of close to 2 million pounds has now been settled. The Shrimpers were due back in the high court on Wednesday due to a winding-up petition issued by the HMRC but a club statement has revealed the outstanding money has now been paid. The statement said: "Ahead of the HMRC hearing on March 1, the club can confirm the monies owed to HMRC, under the petition, have been paid in full. The statement added: "Funds as working capital have

Tomorrow (March 1st) Southend United the Essex club founded in 1906 faces one of the biggest days in its 117-year existence. The club who owes £1.4 million to HMRC will be in court to face the winding-up petition. Under the ownership of Ron Martin, the club has suffered various winding-up orders for unpaid tax bills, numerous transfer embargos and staff and players going unpaid. The Shrimpers players have now been paid their January salaries albeit 28 days late and remarkably

Another transfer window has come and gone and another obscene amount of money has been spent. A total of £815m was spent in the January window and if you add that to the summer window of £1.9bn it brings the total transfer figure to an astronomical amount of £2.715bn! A big chunk of that money will have gone out of our game to line the pockets of the agents, clubs and players and out of the UK in some instances. But, how much of it will go back to the grassroots clubs? The pl

What a landmark day for the fans of beleaguered Scunthorpe United. The Lincolnshire club who were on the verge of going out of existence with an HMRC winding-up order hanging over them along with the news from earlier in the week of an interested consortium pulling out of a potential takeover, things were looking very bleak, adding to the fact they were sitting rock bottom of the National League and without an away win for 25 months the trip to Halifax Town on Wednesday eveni

Scunthorpe United supporters invaded the pitch on 70 minutes at yesterday's National League game against Woking to protest about the dire situation at the club. Scunthorpe United were in the championship in 2010 and as recently as 2017 were on the verge of gaining promotion back to the 2nd tier. Their demise since then sees them sit rock bottom of the 5th tier and on the brink of going into administration and possible liquidation after being served a winding up petition by th

Hereford FC are the latest team to join the growing trend of community-owned football clubs after The Bulls supporters secured 50.1% ownership of the National League North side. Hereford United were originally founded in 1924, but were sadly wound-up in the High Court with debts around £1.3million in 2014 and owing HMRC £100,000 in unpaid tax. The Whites had been in financial difficulty since they were relegated from the Football League in 2012 and were then demoted two divi

One of the reasons we started Proper Football just over 18 months ago was because some of us had become disillusioned with football, yes, that may seem a bizarre thing to say and beggars the question, why set up a football page? Well, for those of us who follow teams in the Premier League or a yo-yo side in the Championship, since the birth of the Premier League on 27th May 1992 we have gradually seen our clubs which we have worshiped like a religion and have played a massive

It was great to see the fans flock in to watch their clubs over the holiday period in the lower leagues of the football pyramid, one big factor is the fixtures are planned so that doubleheader matches are scheduled for the Boxing day and New years day fixtures between local sides, something that has sadly been lost on the Premier League and EFL! Some of the stand-out attendances were in step 6 in the National League North and South. Darlington had a record attendance at Black

We all know football has the habit of conjuring up amazing stories, be it heart warming, emotional or freak results, just like Leicester City winning the Premier League, Wimbledon's Crazy Gang defeating the might of Liverpool to lift the FA Cup in 1988, 42-year-old Roger Milla coming out of retirement to score in the World Cup for Cameroon, David's beating Goliath's in the 3rd round of the Cup or Jamie Vardy getting an England call up just 4 years after playing non-league foo