17 May 2026 And so, for the very final time this season – a trip to Wembley in glorious sunshine to watch AFC Stoneham in their bid for Vase glory to add to a league title and two other local cups along the way. I’m not actually sure who needs a report from this one, most people of a Purp persuasion were in attendance and it was even live on TNT! But I went, so I write, that’s the gig. A tight, cagey game. Stoneham looked the more nervous in the early stages but they set

15 May 2026 Welcome back to the blog – been a while, hasn’t it! 11 whole days since Hamble Club won the League Cup Final. Since then, AFC Stoneham have bounced back from that defeat by winning two finals (Russell Cotes and Southampton Senior) and they’re busy preparing for Sunday at Wembley in what is, presumably, the biggest day in the club’s history. And we’ve also had the league allocations for Step 5 in 2026/27, which sees quite a few changes for the Wessex. The most

4 May 2026 OK so it’s been nine days since I had a report for you. What’s happened in those nine days? Well, Fareham and Stoneham made it through to the Russell Cotes Cup final, due to be played this Thursday. Fleetlands duly wrapped up the Division One title, congratulations to them (and for us, the joys of Powder Monkey Park!). And in the playoffs, Whitchurch won away at flying Follands; and Yateley beat Colden Common in a fixture which had to be reversed because (long

25 April 2026 And so, after 38 rounds of matches and two semifinals, it comes down to this: Portland United v Laverstock & Ford for the second promotion spot into Step 4. Congratulations to them both for getting here, but there can only be one winner. The league games between these two saw two home wins: 3-2 at the Camp & Satherley, and 2-1 at the Dell (so 4-4, with Lavvy winning on away goals). The hosts had to be favourites for this one – home advantage in the windy city

22 April 2026 I’ve said before that it takes a particular kind of nutter… I never thought I’d be going to Sherborne as a neutral, but then there was a sunny Easter Monday afternoon… but Portland, as a complete neutral, on a Wednesday night? A new definition of madness! Playoffs, though… another game which I approached as a genuine neutral, just hoping that both teams would adopt the same positive approach as Hamble and Lavvy on Tuesday and, as I said then, not die wondering

21 April 2026 First of the playoff semifinals, then – second against fifth, 13 points between them at the end of the regular league season although as last year proved, that’s no guarantee of anything. Possibly more to the point, the hosts came into this in flying form, rounding off their campaign with a 7-0 pummelling of Bemerton Heath Harlequins (having also won 7-0 in the cup last Tuesday), while Lavvy will have been disappointed to close with a 5-1 defeat at Downton. Bu

So that’s the end of the season, for Brock at least. I sometimes wait until after the final game to post my annual review, but when does a season end? I’m still planning on attending at least one and probably two playoff semifinals; the final next weekend; the League Cup final; the U-18s final; and even the Vase final to cheer on the Purps. And yes, I’ll write a report from every game I get to. But the Vase final is still four weeks away and if I don’t post my season revi

18 April 2026 And so for the final time in 2025/26, Matchday 38. I might call this the traditional annual trip to the island, except that we’ve been to East Cowes twice this season already so any novelty has long since worn off! Even so, this is a fixture that I always look for when the dates are announced, hoping that it’s not a midweek in January… and the final day of the season seemed reasonable enough. I actually like the Zilch Waste Stadium in Cowes – friendly people,

14 April 2026 And so for a final time this season, welcome to the Meadens Skoda Arena. A season of promise which ultimately turned into a season of building – absolutely nothing wrong with that by the way – but there’ll be time for wider reflections on the season once it’s done. For now, a focus on a match-up against the Zebras, whose season has been quite similar, also ending in the group of teams who were never concerned about the relegation zone but didn’t quite scrape i

11 April 2026 Two points from four games – tough games, in large part, it’s true – and Brock have suddenly slipped to 9 th in the table, having been 4 th a couple of weeks ago. Playoff prospects are slipping away… Those three games against Portland, Baffins and Lavvy always looked likely to be decisive, and defeat in the first two has made the equation very tricky indeed. And now in fourth place sit today’s opponents Laverstock & Ford, who have been on a strong run of for

7 April 2026 You know something I forgot to mention on Saturday: Noel’s goal was the 100 th that New Milton had conceded this season. If they’re wondering why they’re at the foot of the table, there’s a pretty big clue right there… Moving on – that wasn’t a great afternoon for the Badgers, and an away game against direct playoff rivals was either the last thing they needed, or the perfect opportunity to get back on the horse. I’ve always quite liked the PMC Stadium, whic

6 April 2026 Sunny Easter Bank Holiday, so why not find some football to watch? An unexpected one, this – I had never thought I would take in a neutral game at Sherborne, one of the more remote grounds in the league, and I hadn’t even contemplated it until Sunday evening. When I did, at first, it was almost as a joke. But the joke put the idea in mind, and I thought – well, why not? besides, having seen New Milton Town relegated at the weekend, the Content Adviser and I ha

4 April 2026 When these two teams met at the Meadens just after Christmas, one was in the playoff spots and the other in the bottom two. Fast-forward to Easter; if the game had been played a week ago, the status quo would have prevailed, but then on Wednesday Lavvy won at Sherborne to nip past Brock and into 5 th . Also on Tuesday – let’s give a bit of credit to Hythe and Dibden. They were the worst-affected team through all the postponements and had a ridiculous number of

31 March 2026 So before commenting on tonight, one final note on Saturday’s game. Some of you may have seen that HamRec rather unwisely shared the video of their equaliser on social media… which showed just how far offside the scorer was. Maybe not the best plan to provide the evidence of that, guys! Really frustrating – the assistant on the far side was good all afternoon, but the guy on the near side had been less convincing and… OK I’m going to add, Brock had plenty of

28 March 2026 I started this weekend still buzzing a bit from Thursday night’s U-18 semi-final, with the young Badgers beating Cobham Sports 3-1 with an outstanding performance, classy football and some great goals. Those who weren’t there definitely missed out, and those who haven’t read my report of the game – well, you should. On to Saturday. Now we’re definitely into “the run-in” – the part of the season where things are decided. For a few teams in the Wessex, this

26 March 2026 Thursday night football, what’s not to like? U-18s in their league cup semifinal against Cobham Sports. Obviously this isn’t my usual gig but if I’m reading the tables right, Cobham are going OK in the Premier Division, with Brock mid-table in Division One West, so the visitors probably started favourites for this… A thoroughly entertaining game between two decent teams, both trying to play football and showing a lack of inhibition which maybe some Premier D

24 March 2026 No preamble tonight. League Cup quarter-final for the Badgers away at Hamble Club. Brock don’t have a great recent record at the Abbey, and the recent league meeting was… controversial. Let’s not dwell on that; best move on. The Monks have very strong recent history in this competition, reaching the last two finals (both against Portchester, won one and lost one), so there was no sense that they were going to be taking this one lightly, especially with a pl

21 March 2026 In my overexcitement on Thursday – and with the pressing demands of commenting on seven goals and some amazing saves at both ends – I don’t think I fully did justice to how brilliant it was to see both Tyler and Rian back, playing the full game and reminding anyone who needed it of quite how much we’ve missed them. Rian’s goal was an added bonus, but they both showed all the qualities which made them certain starters before their respective injuries, and it was

19 March 2026 Before I start today, a small whinge. I know, not like me… Some of you will have noticed that New Milton Town lost 9-0 at Stoneham at the weekend (credit to the Purps here, two 9-0 wins in a season!). Anyway the Brickies have six games left – and they are all at home. All six. Yes, fixture planning is tough, but there are still five Saturdays to go and surely at least one of those five should feature an away game? I get all the arguments about the weather,

12 March 2026 That time of year: Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday for both these teams. Two days ago, Millbrook eased to a 3-0 win against Cowes Sports (in front of 48, I ask you) while Brock – well we all know about Brock on Tuesday, let’s not dwell on either the result or the ref. There were good things, amongst the chaos, so I’ll hold to that. More importantly, for the second year in succession, a semi-final of the Southampton Senior Cup against Millbrook at Hythe