FC Halifax Town

2nd April 2023. With an almost sell-out crowd expected at Altrincham, we had no trouble in agreeing an early departure…

26th March 2023. It had been tipping it down all morning with the rain clattering the windows as we slowly counted down the minutes before we could set off…

13th March 2023. Superstition is a big thing in football, and I was wearing my late father-law’s long sleeve Manchester City away top…

8th March 2023. You can never underestimate the excitement to be had from a quiz. We had 122 miles ahead of us, in rush hour traffic…

4th March 2023. It was one of the first fixtures we looked for back in summer, an opportunity to visit a town where our team…

19th Feb 2023. “I-O-Shaymen, Shaymen-I-O,” boomed Whirlwind Jim as he left the house, wrapped in his large Shaymen on Tour flag…

16th Feb 2023. It’s always the quiet ones that you have to watch. They sit there, passive, and observant…

12th Feb 2023. Cardboard, scissors, string, sticky tape, tin foil, and a spot of leftover Christmas tinsel, it’s always exciting traveling with…

5th Feb 2023. No sooner had we rounded up the usual suspects, than we were there. Oldham is just…

29th Jan 2023. ‘I remember going to County and the Shaymen being 2-0 up at half-time’, announced the Greetland Shayman as he climbed into the car…

8th Jan 2023. Flippers, snorkel and wetsuit, the rain was falling that hard it seemed appropriate attire. We were only 12 miles into our…

27th Dec 2022. Snow and hail was falling, the roads were full of slush with car tracks visible in the ice ahead…

27th Nov 2022. There was just a hint of deep turquoise behind the black clouds on the Eastern horizon to indicate that dawn was approaching…

13th Nov 2022. Dawn was just starting to break; the overnight clear skies had left pockets of mist lingering amongst the bright white streetlamps…

9th Nov 2022. Oh, the joys of a midweek away game; the teatime traffic, dark and wet…

6th Nov 2022. They call it the magic of the FA Cup but trying to round up the usual suspects for a grand day out was more of a challenge than usual…

16th Oct 2022. “It’s always exciting to go somewhere different, a break from the routine, perhaps somewhere where you may never go to watch football again…

9th Oct 2022. Bright sunshine, a kaleidoscope of colours of trees on the side of the roads and 243 miles to travel to the game…

25th Sept 2022. ‘Ping!’, it was 7.00am and my phone alerted me to a new message. ‘Sorry, can’t make it…

18th Sept 2022. It was a little like the age-old excuse, ‘the dog ate my homework’, we all knew the truth, but nobody wanted to say…

4th Sept 2022. ‘It’s red!’ shouted the Greetland Shayman from the back seat, and in an instant everyone in the car was in uproar…

30th Aug 2022. ‘Thunder only happens when it’s raining, players only love you when they’re playing…’…

21st Aug 2022. It has been a very busy week; in fact the phone had not stopped beeping from first thing in the morning until last thing at night…

7th Aug 2022. They say that hard work and dedication always pays dividends in the end…

16th May 2022. After 45 games, several miles on the road and a few goals here and there along the way, we still needed…

3rd May 2022. Hope, expectation, anticipation, nervousness, apprehension, and tension, it’s amazing all the myriad of emotions that pass through you on the way to football…

24th April 2022. There was real excitement in the car as we headed off down South. It’s been twenty years since the Shaymen last played at Root’s Hall ands…

16th April 2022. We were first in the queue at the chippy, or to be more realistic, we were the queue. The chippy opposite Altrincham’s Moss Lane ground is probably the most efficient in Europe…

27th March 2022. ‘What are you setting off at that time for?’ asked the Greetland Shayman’s neighbour, ‘It’s only three hours away’…

23rd March 2022. “What could possibly go wrong?” was Tesco Pete’s response to our proposed travel plan to North Wales…

6th March 2022. By the time it reached 5:58am we were already discussing how much more time we were going to give them…

23rd Feb 2022. It was just like the good old days when we set off, there was no rain, no wind, no clouds, just warm afternoon sunshine…

30th Jan 2022. It was unusually quiet on the back seat for the first couple of hours of our long journey south…

23rd Jan 2022. Dawn was just breaking as we left Halifax; the skies were a blend of orange and turquoise with the dual Emley Moor TV masts standing proud on the horizon…

16th Jan 2022. Every blade of grass was glistening silver in the early sunshine, with each step came a crunch and a footprint fixed into the frost…

4th Jan 2022. ‘Well, it’s now 10:55, so I’m going back home as I’m freezing,’ announced Tesco Pete though text message…

29th Dec 2021. It was one of those strange days between Christmas and New Year, we weren’t sure what day it really was or indeed what time kick off was…

22nd Dec 2021. It was perhaps superstition, saving the planet or just routine. Our usual meeting place was just over a mile from the Horsfall Stadium but…

12th Dec 2021. It’s not often we get to travel to a new ground to watch the Shaymen in action. It’s perhaps the first time since our visit to…

7th Dec 2021. “All I want for Christmas is Slew….” Sunday was our usual choir practice day, but with our game switched we had no choice other than to practice on the move…

28th Nov 2021. The car wheels were spinning wildly, the snow was charging down making visibility almost impossible, under the glare of the streetlights…

21st Nov 2021. It’s not often we set off with the expectation of three points, but with Dover firmly rooted to the bottom of the league without a win…

31st Oct 2021. If it had been any other away game, we’d have been worried. The rain was lashing down, it was still dark, very dark and the windscreen wipers were going twenty to the dozen…

24th Oct 2021. “I’m not sure this is a good idea,” came the advice from the back seat, “I’ve located four chip shops within a mile of the ground” he continued in desperation…

17th Oct 2021. It was just like the good old days, a spot of lunch before setting off, less than 30 minutes to the ground…

3rd Oct 2021. There was a definite autumnal feel in the air as we set off on our 202-mile journey South down a calm M1 motorway…

26th Sept 2021. Dawn had just turned to daylight, the weather was still with a little fine rain in the air, anticipation was high…

6th Sept 2021. The excitement had been building all week; with back-to-back wins, six points in the bag and in contrast to the previous week…

29th Aug 2021. 5-5-5, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s the latest formation the club ought to be playing according to the experts on the forum…

23rd Feb 2020. “Does anyone know where the gents are? I’m thinking about stripping down to my Y fronts,” announced Colourful Ken…

26th Jan 2020. We were gathered around the gleaming white tables waiting quietly and patiently, the brown leather seats were comfortable, but the televisions were yet to be switched on…

12th Jan 2020. The wind was howling, the rain was intermittent, and the roads were deserted. I could see a strange ghostly figure at the side of the road in the distance…

5th Jan 2020. It was dark and cold, the start of a brand-new year and our first away game of 2020. All the usual suspects were excited, engaged and fully prepared…

27th Dec 2019. “I’ve got a digital senior citizen’s ticket going free,” I told the Cantankerous Shayman over the phone. It was like all his Christmas’s had come at once…

8th Dec 2019. The Staffordshire sunrise was wonderful, the earlier rain had relented, the wind had dropped and we were two hours into our journey south…

28th Nov 2019. There was a light breeze, visibility was very poor, daylight had slipped away, and the only source of light came from a distant security light…