The Ground Junkie!: Bucket List For Next Season

Obviously this isn't the best time to start a football blog. I mean the season is all but over, only a couple of big matches remain like the Fa Cup final and the Champions League final, none of which I am going to. the next match for me which I am definitely going to is Lowestoft vs Braintree on the 25th of July, since I am away from something like the 3rd until the 11th and then again from the 13th until the 24th. bit annoyed that I am missing some good Braintree friendlies like the games against Millwall XI and Reading XI at home. Hopefully I can find a match on the island of Lanzarote which is where I am going from the 13th. but as soon as i suggested going ground-hopping on holiday, my mum was extremely sceptical about instead of me relaxing on the beach in the sun i was going to watch a football match...

Either way, here is a bucket list for what I want to achieve next season.

Do at least 5 Braintree away days.

due to me going to a school which we had to attend school on Saturday mornings it was incredibly hard to get to away games, since I am leaving that school altogether now since I am in year 11 I now have the opportunity to go to more away games with Braintree. The grounds that I definitely want to go to are Torquay, since when we played them at home I met a few Torquay lads about my age who travelled up for the day. also we beat them 5-1 away last season, so i just want to see them again so i can rub it in their faces!! Tranmere because their ground is huge for the conference level, Chester, Wrexham and Woking or Aldershot because my uncle lives down that way and it is fairly easy to get to.

Us Braintree lads on the right and the Torquay lot on the left (I'm the one in the Santa hat)

Do a Chesterfield, Colchester and Yeovil away day.

The reasons for these three teams are because I have a few mates who support them who want me to do a few games with me. Two Chesterfield fans who I met during our 6-0 Fa Cup hammering at our ground last season, My mate Kieran who is a massive Col U fan. Met him a few times at Colchester and when he sometimes visits Braintree. We agreed I will do a Colchester away day if he comes to a Braintree away day. finally there's a guy who is a massive Yeovil fan, he wants me to come along to a Yeovil away day. We've been talking online quite a bit, and puts all his videos online on his YouTube channel. He's also a member of the famous "Street FC Ultras" which is also pretty cool.

Also last time I saw Chesterfield I managed to get the best selfie ever with Ex-Manager Paul Cook

Go to more Clapton Games.

The Essex senior league is one of my favourite leagues in the football pyramid. mainly because it holds my other team Clapton. but also because of the wide mixture of teams. You have Clapton obviously, FC Romania which was originally a pub team which was set up by Romanian Immigrants, and they are now good enough to play at Step 5 in non league, However the only time I have seen them play was in the Gordon Brasted Memorial Trophy where they lost 8-0 away at Takeley. Also there are a couple of grounds just up the road from me which are Stansted, Takeley and Sawbridgeworth. I don't care where the Clapton games are. As long as I'm there!!!

Clapton Ultras at the Gordon Brasted Memorial Trophy Final (Me on the left)

Meet more Groundhoppers

Last season I met two main groundhoppers (excluding my mate Dan) Firstly I met Matt Harrison at Colchester vs Crawley earlier this year. If you didn't know Matt himself has his own blog too. We only had a brief chat at half time and after the game, but still Matt is a very friendly guy!! I Would love to meet up again mainly because at Colchester I look awful... I also met Russell Cox also known as the Wycombe Wanderer at Coggeshall town a few weeks back his blog is another one that's worth a read, I also said, if I had the chance I would make it down to Wycombe's Ground soon. Furthermore I met Ellis and Gibbo from the YouTube Channel "Away Days" When they visited Braintree's ground a couple of months back. Would love to meet those guys again!!