Picture This...A Round-Up of Sorts

The new shelter at Andover New Street.

It's all over for another season. I've brought you more words and pictures, and you keep coming back to see whassup. I don't post about every match I go to, for my own sanity more than anything. I don't even take photos at every game - sometimes excitement has to come before art. But I do have a few pictures to spare from games that I didn't cover on here, so I thought maybe you'd like to see some? All of these photos were previously published on the HAH Facebook page. If you follow the blog on there, you'll be familiar with most of these, but not everyone is on Facebook.

So, would you like to see the new shelter at Andover New Street? Yes? Well, here it is, pictured in December last year. Plenty of places to stand under cover at the Wessex Premier's new boys. You'll never get wet at New Street.

Lymington Town at night.

How about a pretty picture of a church tower at night, taken at Lymington Town's ground in January? It rained that night. It rained every single day for three months...

Danny Phillips puts Infinity in to the cup final.

There was a league cup semi-final at Locks Heath in early February between Paulsgrove and Infinity. I'd seen top photographer Paul Paxford a few days before at Windsor. I asked him where the best place was to take penalty photos. He suggested behind the goal. He was right. The match went to a shootout, which Infinity won to send them in to the Hampshire League Cup Final.

Bush Hill go close against Sway at Hythe & Dibden.

The second semi-final was held at Hythe & Dibden a couple of weeks later. Bush Hill were cruising at 2-0 up with 15 minutes to go, but Sway came back to draw the game and win on penalties. They then beat Infinity in the final in May in what was a minor shock. I took this photo whilst stood on a raised platform behind the goal at the entrance end. Sway's number 7 heads off the line here. If that had gone in, it would have been 3-0 and game over.

The Mighty Havant & Waterlooville in action at Oxford City.

I follow the mighty Havant & Waterlooville when I'm not doing HAH. Here they are (in orange) at Oxford City's Marston Road in March. A hard-fought 1-0 victory for the Hawks.

Step art at Whitehawk at the Battle of the Hawks.

On Easter Monday, Havant & Waterlooville travelled to Whitehawk in East Brighton. They were possibly fortunate to come away with a 0-0 that day, but every point counted after 42 matches, as they finished level with Dartford, winning the league on goal difference.

The sun sets on Romsey Town's promotion hopes.

As clubs battled to finish their fixtures in April, one week it was possible to go to six matches in six days (a rare opportunity as there are very few Thursday night fixtures under normal circumstances). The week started at Romsey Town, who beat Laverstock & Ford 3-1 at the Bypass Ground. Unfortunately, a home defeat by Tadley-Calleva a few days earlier had put paid to their promotion hopes for this season. There's always next year...

Andover New Street's promotion party starting at Totton & Eling.

One team that never faltered - and surprised everyone - was Andover New Street. They were promoted after a 5-0 win at Totton & Eling. After being at (or near) the bottom of the Wessex since forever ago, no-one could begrudge them their success this season. Incredibly, they'll be playing in the division above neighbours Andover Town after the Portway side were relegated by the FA for refusing promotion to the Southern League.

Beneath the high rise at Team Solent.

My third game of this busy week was a Thursday night encounter between Team Solent and Alresford Town. Neither side had anything to play for, but it was an entertaining affair nevertheless. Alresford came back from two down to draw. They probably should have won.

Shock victory for Follands in their final home match.

The Friday night entertainment was at Follands (in yellow above). Rock-bottom, with one home victory all season, you would never have known they'd struggled as opponents New Milton Town were hammered 5-1. Most unexpected.

The home dugout at Fareham Town.

Blackfield & Langley won the Wessex this season. One of their final games was a visit to Fortress Cams, home of Fareham Town. It wasn't much of a fortress that evening as a visibly tired home team were easily beaten after they'd played approximately a zillion games in the previous fortnight. You can see the subs' shirts hung up in the home side's dugout at half-time here.

Paulsgrove rent the Front Lawn facility in Havant for their league match with Sway.

I don't think it counts in my season's match total if I only see half a game, does it? After watching the Hawks beat St Alban's City at Westleigh Park, I caught the last 40 minutes of a 4 o'clock kick-off at Hampshire FA's Front Lawn facility in Havant. It's a 4G pitch which was rented for the day by Paulsgrove for their Hampshire League game against Sway. The "home" club won that game fairly easily.

Ed Harris cadges a lift on Rory Williams' shoulders. This was an exciting moment, but not as incredible as what happened in the last minute.

Did I mention that I follow Havant & Waterlooville? And that they won the National League South to take their place in non-league's top division next season? Here they are celebrating their second goal against Concord Rangers on the final day of the season. 2-0 up against a team with nothing to play for? It's all over with an hour still to play, surely? Well, it wasn't, as the club from Essex somehow scored twice in the second half. Heading for the play-offs with a minute to go, Jason Prior scored with the coolest side-foot volley you'll ever see for the most exciting moment of 2017/18. There was a lot of leaping around right there and then, I can tell you.

One more post this season, and that will be the ever-unpopular roller round-up.

Win Some, Lose Some, Occasionally Gruesome...

Brockenhurst's stand, looking resplendent on a sunny August day.

You win some, you lose some, occasionally the goals against column is gruesome...

Welcome to part two of HAH's summer mini-series, wherein I've been compiling a whole bunch of statistics from the blog's first four and a half years. This time out, the focus is on some of the teams who have won one, lost one, maybe drawn one when I've been present. We've reached Mid-Table Land. No longer chasing taxis, although towards the bottom of this table, some will have been chasing their tails.

Horndean in the fog last winter.

The format of the table is the same as it was on the previous post. Two points for a win instead of three, as it seems fairer. Reading from numbers 34 to 23, we have:

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Pts/Game
34.	Aldershot Town	2	0	1	1	2	4	-2	1	0.50
33.	Bashley	3	1	0	2	2	4	-2	2	0.67
32.	Gosport Boro	3	1	0	2	3	3	0	2	0.67
31.	New Milton T	3	1	0	2	5	5	0	2	0.67
30.	Stockbridge	3	1	1	1	4	7	-3	3	1.00
29.	Blackfield & Langley	2	1	0	1	2	3	-1	2	1.00
28.	Cove	2	1	0	1	3	4	-1	2	1.00
27.	Brockenhurst	2	1	0	1	6	7	-1	2	1.00
25=.	AFC Stoneham	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	1.00
25=.	Liphook United	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	1.00
24.	Totton & Eling	2	0	2	0	4	4	0	2	1.00
23.	Horndean	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1	2	1.00

Gosport Borough's Sammy Igoe takes a free-kick beneath the speakers.

Let's have a look at each club's results when I've been present:

34. ALDERSHOT TOWN
Apr 2013 v Southend United (h) 0-2
Nov 2014 v Portsmouth (a) 2-2

33. BASHLEY
Sep 2011 v Hartley Wintney (a) 0-1
Feb 2012 v Leamington (h) 2-1
Feb 2015 v Wantage Town (a) 0-2

32. GOSPORT BOROUGH
Apr 2011 v AFC Totton (h) 0-1
Sep 2011 v Moneyfields (a) 1-2
Sep 2012 v Bideford (h) 2-0

I can't bear to look at Aldershot's result against Pompey - it still hurts that they went on to win the replay and become the first non-league club ever to knock the Blues out of the FA Cup. With their respective fortunes over the last few years being at opposite ends of the fortune scale, I would have expected Bashley to be lower, and Gosport to be higher, but here they are, locked together in HAH's stat table.

Will the ball never come down at New Milton Town?

31. NEW MILTON TOWN
Dec 2011 v Lymington Town (a) 5-1
Aug 2012 v Newport (IW) (h) 0-2
Mar 2014 v Andover Town (a) 0-2

30. STOCKBRIDGE
Mar 2011 v Petersfield Town (h) 1-1
Oct 2012 v Fleet Spurs (a) 3-2
Apr 2013 v Petersfield Town (a) 0-4

29. BLACKFIELD & LANGLEY
Jan 2012 v Alton Town (h) 0-2
Aug 2014 v Christchurch (a) 2-1

If I'd created this table at the end of 2011, New Milton would have stood proudly in second place after their 5-1 thrashing of their local rivals. Down to 31st after two defeats. Seems a bit drastic. Then we have the first two of many teams that have literally won one, lost one (and/or drawn one) when I've been present, averaging a point a game.

Turn left for Cove FC, right for Farnborough "Town" FC. Farnborough, north Hampshire's sporting hub.

28. COVE
Aug 2011 v AFC Portchester (h) 0-2
Sep 2014 v Chertsey Town (a) 3-2

27. BROCKENHURST
Mar 2011 v Bournemouth Poppies (h) 0-5
Apr 2012 v Hythe & Dibden (a) 6-2

25=. AFC STONEHAM
Feb 2015 v Liphook United (a) 1-1

Watching Brock seems to be a guarantee of goals...13 in two matches, not bad. It's about time I featured them again. Bring a calculator this time.

The only fun and games at Liphook were on the football pitch on this drizzly day in February.

25=. LIPHOOK UNITED
Feb 2015 v AFC Stoneham (h) 1-1

24. TOTTON & ELING
Sep 2012 v Weymouth (h) 2-2
Feb 2013 v Hayling United (a) 2-2

23. HORNDEAN
Apr 2011 v Hythe & Dibden (h) 3-1
Nov 2014 v Ascot United (h) 0-1

Totton & Eling are the only club I've featured more than once that have produced identical scorelines both times. I've featured five 2-2 draws so far. The most common scoreline has been a 2-1 home win (8 times), followed by 1-1 draws and 2-0 away wins (7 each).

An AFC Totton fan watches Totton & Eling's FA Cup draw with Weymouth from beyond the boundary.

More stats in a couple of weeks. SEVEN ALL-NEW PICS again as well!