After the early postponement of the match I was meant to attend (Winslow Utd v Buckingham) yesterday, I found a different one to VLOG that was almost certain to go ahead as it was to be played on a 3G surface.
I turned up at Oxford City’s ground to take in bottom side Long Crendon’s home match with 13th placed Southam United in the Hellenic League Division One.
In the quick research I had done, I discovered that Crendon hadn’t won since the beginning of September!
I had visited Southam earlier in the season, and found them a super helpful club, so, I contacted chairman Michael Davis to see if a interview with manager Richard Kay could be arranged… and of course, the answer was a yes, and, Richard was great with his time for me.
What I wanted to really know when I arrived though was, why was Long Crendon, in step 6, ground sharing with a National League team?
I found Tom Folley, the assistant manager, Director of football and a committee member at Long Crendon, who happily agreed to an interview on camera to give me the answer.
Tom, like everyone connected with the club who I met yesterday, was fantastic, especially manger Waheed Ramzan, who, before the match, agreed to give me a full time interview, even though, realistically, it had the real potential to be another defeat for his team.
About 15 minutes before kick off, still trying to decide where to film, I got talking to Ben, also part of the staff for the home team, who, unbelievably, told me I could go up on top of the stand, onto the camera balcony, to do match filming from there….honestly, you don’t know how happy that made me.
Some of the Southam players who I had been talking to earlier whilst they were warming up, spotted me up there and gave me a bit of friendly banter!
So, primed in an ideal spot, the match kicked off.
Of course, I won’t tell you what happened, as I want you to watch the vlog at the bottom of this post, but, trust me, what I saw, I really didn't expect... there were goals and I thought the team of officials were excellent!
At full time, I climbed down from my lofty perch, did the pre planned interview with Waheed, and headed into the clubhouse where Crendon chairman Gerald Reilly bought me a welcoming cup of very hot coffee.
Once that was sunk, and final link filmed, I headed home, buzzing that I had had another brilliant day out at Non League!
Huge thanks to Long Crendon and Southam United for the generosity they showed me, and also, to Winslow United for calling the game off early enough which gave me plenty of time to rearrange.
Here's the VLOG, hope you enjoy it!
Thank you to Darren Ashley for sharing another excellent informative VLOG with an insight into Non-League Football.
Please make sure to subscribe to Darren's YouTube channel.