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It's the return of the greatest club Cup competition in the world with the FA Cup🏆⚽ 2nd round taking place over the next four days with the obligatory homemade tin foil FA Cups on show on terraces and stands up and down the country. But which of the 10 remaining non-league sides do you fancy causing an upset? Tonight sees the first potential upset as National League side York City FC face League One Wigan Athletic at home. On Saturday National League North side Alfreton Town FC are at home to Walsall who dispatched the lowest-ranked team Sheppey United in the 1st round. High-flying Maidstone United FC in the National League South are at home to inform League 2 Barrow AFC. Newport County AFC of League 2 are at home Barnet Football Club of the National League. Bottom of League 2 Sutton United FC are at home to Horsham FC of the Isthmian Premier Division (level 7) who had a reprieve in the Cup after Barnsley were thrown out. On Sunday we have two National League sides facing League 1 opposition with table toppers Chesterfield FC taking on Leyton Orient and Eastleigh FC playing Reading Football Club and Aldershot Town Football Club against League 2 leaders Stockport County. Also on Sunday Wrexham take on National League South Yeovil Town at the Race Course Ground. And last but no means least the lowest-ranked team left in the cup, Ramsgate Football Club who play at level 8 in the Isthmian League - South East Division and are top, travel to AFC Wimbledon on Monday night with 1500 Rams cheering on their team! Best of luck to everyone taking part and🤞🏼for the cold weather not to disrupt any of the games.

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 semifinal and now with this playoff final success, they will be plying their trade at their highest-ever league level in their 141-year history! The Oxfordshire club have been more successful as a Cup side in their history having reached the 2nd round proper of the FA Cup along with a few appearances in the first round proper as well. The club was once managed by England's World Cup-winning captain Bobby Moore along with Harry Redknapp as his assistant. Congratulations to The Hoops and best of luck for next season in the National League!

The regular season is now over in the EFL and the National Leagues so it's time for one of football's best most recent innovations...(Tell that to Notts County) The playoffs! Here are the fixtures for the playoff finals in the National League top division and the North and South divisions along with the EFL League 2 semi-finals. Here‘s the lineup for the semi-finals in the EFL League 1 and the Championship including the dates and kickoff times for the finals weekend at Wembley. Best of luck to all the teams taking part.

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 for local council and government levelling up funding with £1.3m is available in total - £450,000 from Bury Council and the rest coming from the government's levelling up fund. A statement on the AFC Bury website said; The motion to adopt the Gigg Lane Stadium as the football club’s home playing venue was approved by 97% of the vote. 1116 were in favour, 34 against and 9 abstentions. The motion to adopt Bury Football Club as the playing name was approved by 92% of the vote. 1046 were in favour, 95 against and 24 abstentions. The Resolution that the Society and Bury Football Club Supporters’ Society Limited (Register number 29385R) (“BFCSS”) shall be amalgamated pursuant to section 109 of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 was approved by 97% of the vote. 1109 were in favour, 35 against and 15 abstentions. As the Bury Football Supporters’ Society also approved their motion to amalgamate with a 90% majority we are pleased to confirm that the amalgamation will proceed subject to the Confirmatory Vote which will now begin and the results announced at the next General Meeting at 7 pm on 19th May. AFC Bury play in the Premier Division of the North West Counties League, the ninth tier of the English football pyramid, staging their home games a few miles down the road from Gigg Lane at Stainton Park, Radcliffe and also Bury fans completed a deal to buy back their old Gigg Lane ground in February 2022 and currently trade as Bury FC but with no team. There has been many disputes and division between some of the two fan groups but hopefully, this will now see some unity and most of all a club back at Gigg Lane representing the local community of Bury.

It's all still to play for in the race for the Championship playoff places with 2 games to go with everyone in with a shout from 5th down to Watford in 13th albeit with the Hornets needing a big goal swing. Luton and Middlesbrough have confirmed 2 playoff places already and as it stands 6th placed Coventry who have sold out the CBS Arena for today's game with a crowd of over 30,000 and 7th-placed Sunderland who have sold out the Stadium of Light with a crowd of over 45,000 expected are currently in poll position. At the bottom of the championship Wigan Athletic will be relegated if they lose to Reading today who themselves need a win to take their survival bid to the final day, Huddersfield still have 3 games to play while QPR and Rotherham need one more win from their last 2 games to avoid the drop. In League 1 Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town will be promoted with victories against Burton Albion and Exeter City respectively today. If Plymouth win and Ipswich lose Argyle will be crowned champions. Plymouth will also be promoted if Sheffield Wednesday drop points at Shrewsbury Town, and Ipswich will go up by matching Wednesday’s result. The scrap for the last 2 playoff places is between Bolton, Derby and Peterborough. At the bottom, Morecambe and Accrington Stanley who play fellow strugglers Oxford need to win today to guarantee taking their survival bid to the final day, while defeat for Cambridge United against Stanley could see them relegated on Tuesday, when they play their game in hand against Burton Albion. MK Dons are still in danger and will be looking to beat Barnsley who are guaranteed a playoff place. In League 2 Northampton Town and Stevenage will be promoted with wins today and the 4 playoff positions are still wide open with Stockport, Bradford Mansfield, Carlisle and Salford all within a chance with the last two teams mentioned facing each other today. At the foot of the table Hartlepool United will be relegated if they drop points in their next game or Crawley pick up one more point. In the National League, it's a shootout between Bromley, Boreham Wood and Southend for the remaining two playoff places on what is their last day of the season. The final relegation place will be filled by Torquay, unless they win and either Maidenhead lose with a seven-goal swing in goal difference on the final day, or less realistically, York lose with a 14-goal swing in goal difference in favour of the Gulls. In the National League North AFC Fylde are one win away from being champions regardless of what Kings Lynn do. Scarborough, Buxton, Chorley, Kidderminster, Gloucester, Curzon Ashton, Spennymoor and Darlington can all still reach the playoffs with 1 game to go. As for relegation, Blyth Spartans need to win to have any chance of overhauling Farsley Celtic, Kettering and Southport. And finally, in the National League South, the last playoff spot is between St Albans and Havant and Waterlooville. Three points on Saturday against Dover Athletic would see Weymouth stay up on goal difference with Dulwich Hamlet needing just a draw to stay up. Best of luck to every team involved.

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 Town and Widnes have been reprieved at Step 4 and don’t take part in the Inter-Step play-offs. It’s also been confirmed this is the final season of Inter-Step play-offs with traditional four-team play-offs set to be introduced at Step 5 from 2023-24. Good luck to all the teams involved!

Football legend John Barnes joined us on our recent live show and told the story behind the England World Cup song ‘World in Motion'' and gives us a live rendition of the rap after we play him the recording of Gazza and Peter Beardsley‘s version which thankfully didn't make the final cut! You can watch the full episode here; 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 https://www.youtube.com/live/eghIX6PtF7E?feature=share Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel and watch loads of other great content and receive a notification when we go Live every Sunday.

We recently caught up with Roo Oxley aka missrooxley on Instagram where she describes herself as “just a casual girl who enjoys footy, drinks and terrace culture." Thanks for joining us at Proper Football Roo, Let's start with you telling us a bit about yourself. Ayup! Thanks for having me! This is weird being interviewed, normally I am the one asking questions and generally being a nosey bastard! You have a book due for release fairly soon on Terrace Culture. What can we expect from it? I have grown up within Stoke City’s terrace culture and have always been fascinated about the subculture that was so prevalent in our city. In the late nineties, there was such a heady mix, a perfect zeitgeist of music, fashion, culture and football that was intoxicating. I wrote about the symbolic consumption of Stoke on Trent’s terrace culture for my master’s degree a decade ago; my book picks up where that left off, but this time interviewing not just Stoke hoolies, but casuals across the UK and abroad, brand owners, and the key casual protagonist, about clobber today. The big question is if there even is a terrace culture today, why and how do we still wear terrace brands? Why do we feel affiliated with brands that have been diluted (Stone Island) if there is not arguably a terrace culture today? Answers are to be found as soon as the book is released! Who's your team and how did you first start supporting them? My team is Stoke City and was predetermined before even my birth. My family has always supported Stoke, even sponsoring the Victoria Ground years back. It’s a thankless task. When and why did you first get into Casual culture? I started going to the match in the late nineties, my first away game was Notts County and I remember being drawn to the mither and skirmishes all flourished in a sea of Burberry and Aquascutum. You either have it or you don’t and casuals just fucking have it. How do you feel you fit im to a predominantly male scene? I couldn’t give a fuck, I’m used to it. I also use it to my advantage haha. People describe hooligans and casuals as thugs, they’ve never been anything other than gentlemanly towards me. Except for those West Ham lads singing a specific song towards me when we played them 😉 In your opinion who/where did casual start? I discuss this in my book, and it can be controversial with certain regions claiming it was they who started the casual scene. Favourite piece of terrace attire? My first piece of Stone Island which an ex-boyfriend brought me for my 18th, from Life in Manchester. A beautiful wheat chunky knit jumper that I would never ever sell. Aside from that, my knitted vintage CP Company jumper which verges on Navy Arctic territory in its aesthetic. Least favourite trend you've witnessed on the terraces? Every fucker wearing a Stone Island over shirt. Yawn. And the general lack of creativity, originality and one-upmanship which underpinned the whole casual ethos and identity. Britain has seen many subcultures come and go, in your opinion what is it about the Casual movement that keeps it still going? It is not going like it was in the golden age of terrace culture, yet there are people, me included, that will always have this affiliation with the casual subculture. It was arguably the last real subculture, and nothing has come close. Being casual is part of your identity, your style. And that, unlike fashion, never fades. Just like the Mods and Punks whose culture is intrinsic to their identity; it will always keep going. Nowhere near the same, but we can still remember the best times by representing ourselves in the casual way. All this is explored in my book… In our opinion, music has always been an important part of Terrace Culture. What would be your favourite tunes for a match day? Anything apart from the Eminem song ‘Lose Yourself’ Stoke play at the start of every game and have done for fucking years. Do you have a favourite album/single of all time? There are too many to choose from, really, but up there is Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy, The Beatles’ I’m Only Sleeping, Oasis Slide Away, Rolling Stones’ Miss You, Liquid’s Sweet Harmony….it is impossible (and immoral!) to pick but one! Favourite band/artist? As above! Can’t choose! Any bands/artist that you feel are part of Terrace Culture? Music was integral to the casual scene. Pet Shop Boys brought Paninaro to the public attention, The Housemartins (Paul Heaton’s the one), Happy Mondays, Oasis… On to a bit about the football.....sum up your team's season so far? Predictably unpredictable! Do you still attend games regularly? I do, and love being in the Championship for the away games. Fuck the corporate yawn fests of Premier League matches. Which club traditionally are your biggest rivals? Port Vale as they are local but we’re always above them. We hate Vale. We hate most other clubs in fact. A lot of fans have been drawn towards lower/non-league football recently. Anyone else you follow? My team could be considered as lower league haha and of course not, You have one team and that’s it! None of this, ‘my second team is…’ Bollox. You’re born into one team and that’s it forever. How fortunate am I that mine is Stoke City 😉 Sum up Modern football in one sentence. Wank! Thanks for taking the time to join us Roo and we wish you all the best with your book that's due to be released later this year! You can follow Roo on Instagram here; https://instagram.com/missroooxley?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= To register interest in her new book please email Roo here; roo.oxley@oxleycontinproductions.com

Join the Proper Football lads this Sunday 23rd April at 6:30 pm with special guest John Barnes! John's brilliant career spanning 18 years saw him star for Watford, Liverpool, Newcastle and Charlton playing a total of 751 games and scoring 198 goals in all competitions and winning the First Division title and FA Cup twice along with the League Cup. John also won 79 caps for England scoring 11 goals and featured in two World Cups in 86 and 90. We'll be chatting to John about his career and discussing the week's big stories along with his former Watford teammate and resident ex-pro Nigel ‘Cally' Callaghan. We'll be doing our usual special features including “The Good Old Days” + “It's a Funny Old Game" and much much more, so don’t miss the show! ⚽👊🏻 Make sure to tune in and get involved with your comments and views and any questions or memories you would like to share with our special guest. You can watch it live on our Youtube channel, so subscribe here and get a notification when it starts. 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 https://youtube.com/channel/UCtr7oTe3DH-Ymo4uxM6xULA Or follow us on Twitter to watch it live here; 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 https://twitter.com/ProperFootball8?t=voFqeo4B83kwlQKtJAx5gA&s=09 Or click on this link to join the event page and get a reminder when we go live on our Facebook page; 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 https://fb.me/e/2QQhDqVJa?ti=wa If you have any questions for John you can Email us at; properfootball2021@gmail.com See you all Sunday at 6:30 pm!

Last night England C took on Wales C at the rain-swept J Davidson Stadium, (Moss Lane to most of us) the home of National League side Altrincham FC. Barnet's England Cyan De Havilland scored the only goal as England C beat their Wales counterparts 1-0. The match attendance was 840 and tickets were reasonably priced at £7 for adults and £2 for kids. One fan who attended the game was Ben Cliff a follower of non-league side Kidsgrove Athletic, Ben said; “The game wasn't the best, but no doubt the wet and windy weather conditions didn't help." Ben kindly sent us a few pictures of Atly's impressive stadium. The England national football C team (previously known as the England National Game XI and the England Semi-Pro national team) is the football team that represents England at the non-league level. Formed in 1979 as the England Non-League team, it features players who play for clubs outside the Premier League and English Football League. Currently, the majority of selected players are full-time professionals with National League clubs. Home matches are played at various League and non-league grounds around the country. Friendly matches are played with equivalent teams from other nations, and between 1979 and 2008, competed in the Four Nations Tournament each season, along with Scotland, Wales, and the full Gibraltar teams. In the tournament in 1980, held in Veenendaal, the opposition was Scotland (players outside the Premier Division, notably Ally McCoist, then playing for St Johnstone). Netherlands Amateurs and Italy under-21. They have more recently begun playing against under-23 teams from the likes of Belgium and Turkey which have included players capped at the full international level. They won the Four Nations tournament for the seventh time in May 2008, winning all three of their matches without conceding a goal. Since January 2003, the team has been managed by Paul Fairclough, who used to manage Barnet until he left the club by mutual consent in December 2008. The squad for the England C v Wales C match picked by manager Paul Fairclough was packed with the finest talent from the National League. Some critics say that having an England C team is not justified but in recent years with an improvement in the quality of their opponents and several success stories, it has been the foundation for EFL clubs looking for the next big talent to emerge from non-League football. Since 2003, the likes of Andre Gray, Sam Clucas, George Boyd and Lee Tomlin have all used it as a platform to reach the Premier League. Barnsley‘s James Norwood who has won a few caps for England C said they were perceived as irrelevant and the response is impassioned. He laughed: “It’s no gimmick at all. It’s true it took time for the stigma to wear off." "When I played we were chuffed to get the new kit, rather than fake stuff, before any of the other England age groups. “But the truth is that England C has been feeding the Football League for years". “At least 75 per cent of the lads I played with are now in the EFL - it’s their breeding ground.” “In the past, when clubs were looking for the next big talent they never looked in the Conference.” "They never saw the value, just a load of ex-pros and young kids." “Now, they take chances on players every summer and every January to see if they could find a diamond".

Save the date, May 7th at Weston-Super-Mare AFC. Combined Veterans UK FC v USA veterans in aid of Scotty‘s Little Soldiers. Back in December 2020, ex-serviceman Jono Farrelly formed the Combined Veterans UK football club to initially play a one-off game to raise money for Blesma, a fantastic charity that provides support to limbless and injured veterans for life, https://blesma.org/ the club raised an amazing £6,500 for the charity and the success of the event made Jono realise that many other worthwhile vital charities could also be helped so the easy decision was made to carry on and use football which is one of the biggest platforms in the world to highlight these amazing charities and give them the funding that they need. The club went on to play an RAF veterans team last May and raised money for another wonderful charity called PTSD Resolution https://ptsdresolution.org/ who assists those affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The next big event for the Combined Veterans UK Football Club will be their first international fixture on May 7th to be held at Weston-super-Mare A.F.C's Optima Stadium against the USA veterans team. The aim is to raise at least £10,000 in aid of Scotty’s Little Soldiers, an amazing charity that supports bereaved military children and young people by providing access to health and well-being support. Please watch the advert below for the upcoming game featuring some of the amazing children who Scotty's Little Soldiers have helped in some way. https://www.scottyslittlesoldiers.co.uk/ Weston's Optima stadium has a 3000 capacity with great facilities including an indoor and outdoor bar, hot food, and on the day they'll be lots of other fun activities going on for kids as well as an auction and raffles. So come along and support your country and the armed forces Veterans community but most importantly the charity that offers fantastic support for our fallen brothers and sister's children. Tickets for the game can be purchased here; 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 https://ticketpass.org/event/ELMGSP/uk-combined-veterans-fc-v-usa-armed-services-fc?promoter=ukcomve And any donations can be made here; 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/jono-farrelly To keep up to date with all the latest news and information with the Combined Veterans FC UK team please give them a follow on Facebook. 👍🏽⚽ 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076275964494 Watch a previous interview we did with the manager Jono Farrelly; 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 UP THE VETERANS!

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're made to feel that the only reason we exist is to spend more money” We think it's fair to say fans from many clubs across the country echo everything the people at Dial Square FC have said and can relate to how they feel, so make sure to tune in and get involved with your comments and views this Thursday at 7 pm and have your say. ⚽👊🏻 You can watch the show live on our Facebook page, YouTube channel and Twitter. All details and links can be found here; 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 Watch on our Facebook page; https://www.facebook.com/properfootballuk YouTube channel here; 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 https://youtube.com/channel/UCtr7oTe3DH-Ymo4uxM6xULA Or Twitter here; 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 https://twitter.com/ProperFootball8?t=voFqeo4B83kwlQKtJAx5gA&s=09 Email us @ getinvolved@properfootball.co.uk