2024: My year as a Mitre
- Non-League Glos
- Jan 2, 2025
- 14 min read
2024: My year as a Mitre
2024, to put it lightly, has been a year to remember. Kayte Lane has hosted some historic fixtures and the club’s trajectory continues to rise week on week and game after game. Across the club there are things to celebrate, be it new additions to the club’s family or certain matches against certain former Football League clubs. My involvement at Kayte Lane has only increased with the year starting off tweeting Development games and ending as programme editor following the first team home and away. It was my first full year with the club and one I very much enjoyed, so here’s a little write-up on my year as a Mitre.
Author’s note: if you’re only really interested in the first team then skip to July :)
JANUARY
My 2024 began three days later than normal as I didn’t attend a football match until the third when I travelled over to Worcester to see Worcester Raiders face Roman Glass St George at the 12,000 capacity Sixways Stadium in the Premier Division of the Hellenic League. It was within the Hellenic Leagues that most of my work with the club would take place with my role running the social media accounts for the Development side at Bishops Cleeve, working under Devs manager Alex Cheal in Hellenic Division Two West. The first game of the year was an “away game” against Cheltenham Saracens Reserves held at Kayte Lane on the 12th of January. It also featured one of my favourite matchday graphics with a parody of “Never Mind The Bollocks” by the Sex Pistols, with the Devs winning the game 4-0! Eight days later came my next Cleeve game which saw the Devs beat the University of Bristol 2-1 at Kayte Lane, this time featuring a match day poster based on Jurassic Park, one of my all-time favourite films. Chealy trusts me when it comes to social media so I’m allowed to pretty much do what I want and what I want is to make parodies of famous film posters and album covers, there’s proper strategy and all that stuff behind this but the main point is it’s fun, plus it works. Away from the Mitres, I watched six matches in five different places, these being the aforementioned Worcester Raiders, Cheltenham Town, Bolton Wanderers (the first time I ever went to Pizza Hut), Derby County, and Longlevens while my first visit to Kayte Lane was actually to see Smiths Barometrics beat FC Lakeside 5-0 in Division One of the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League.
FEBRUARY
February, like January, only featured two Bishops Cleeve games, both featuring the Development team, courtesy of the almost odd scheduling for our league which saw the Premier Division play-offs start before the regular season ended, and the Development team play twice a month with every game of the year played at Kayte Lane so far. It kicked off on Friday the second with a development derby against Evesham United, the Mitres won 3-0 with goals from Alfie Townsend, Harry Davis, and Ethan Rose (now at Cirencester Town) in front of 55 fans before our first loss of the year came against Gloucester City Development who ran out 5-3 winners. I’d watch a total of seven games in February, four of which were at Whaddon Road while the other was a 1-0 win for Gloucester City against Scarborough in the National League North. This was of course the second half of the 2023/24 season when I still had a season ticket at Cheltenham Town meaning that their games would often take priority over Cleeve, rest assured this is no longer the case and I consider myself a Cleeve fan first and a casual Cheltenham watcher (for a myriad of reasons with relegation quite far down the bottom of that list). Myself and my friend also spent most of February travelling around the UK watching The 1975, flying and training to the likes of London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leicester, and wherever else we fancied, this meant there wasn’t much time for football.
MARCH
March consisted of 11 football matches with only one involving Bishops Cleeve, this being a 1-1 draw with Tuffley Rovers Development as I’d missed our other scheduled match in March - a 7-1 win at Evesham United Development. I’d visit nine different football grounds in total, belonging to Cheltenham Town, Worcester City, Malvern Town, Bishops Cleeve, Roman Glass St George, Slimbridge, Pershore Town, Gloucester City, and Fairford Town with Bishops Cleeve and Gloucester hosting two games each. Cleeve was, of course, the Tuffley match but also the Cheltenham Association Football League Senior Charities Cup semi-final between Montpellier FC and …. Montpellier FC 2nd XI. Unsurprisingly, Montpellier’s first team won that game 8-0. Gloucester’s two games came on the same day with the Tigers facing Brackley Town in the National League North before Truro City hosted Slough Town in the National League South, doesn’t make much sense does it? I’d have to rack the brains of a fair few people to find any other ground to host both the National League North and South on the same day.
APRIL
I promise this does get interesting soon. I went to 15 games in April, of which two featured Bishops Cleeve’s Development side with the first being a 4-2 loss to eventual champions Fairford Town Reserves before we lost 1-0 on the road at Rissington Road, home of Bourton Rovers aka the club without a first team. April began with a trip to watch Cheltenham Town against Exeter City featuring one of the poorest refereeing performances I’d seen for a long time, Chalford 4ths then lost 6-0 to Longlevens 5ths in the final of the GFA Primary Cup North at Kayte Lane before Worcester City beat Roman Glass St George in the Hellenic Premier Division though this game was hosted at Sixways rather than their usual, waterlogged, home of Claines Lane. Then Cleeve hosted Tuffley on the Friday and the following day I’d travel into London to see Leyton Orient beat Cheltenham in League One then Peterborough United beat AFC Wimbledon at Wembley in the Papa John’s Checkatrade Bristol Street Vertu Motors Paint Milk Cup Trophy final. Then there were trips to Whaddon Road, Aston Villa (vs. Lille), Weston-Super-Mare, Bourton Rovers, Stratford Town, Malmesbury Victoria, Stevenage (where Cheltenham would be relegated and Jamie Pardington would become a pseudo-legend), back to Wembley for Bromley v Solihull Moors, and finally back to Kayte Lane (but you’ll have to wait a second for the last two because they were in May). Hidden among the ground hops was another trip to face Gloucester City for, somehow, my first viewing of Bishops Cleeve’s first team all year. It was the final of the GFA Senior Challenge Cup and a game the Mitres deserved to win but would eventually lose on penalties.
MAY
May began with a last-minute trip to Wembley when I decided to go to the National League play-off final the day before, eventually ending up in Leicester after the game, with this being the first time I’d attended a game at the home of football and not seen the team I had opted to “support” win. Bromley won the game on penalties and Solihull would later return to the national stadium for the FA Trophy final which they would also lose. A trip to Slimbridge followed with Worcester City losing on penalties to Corsham in the Marsh Challenge Cup final before the season was rounded out on the grass pitch behind the astro at Kayte Lane with Bishops Cleeve B beating Falcons Reserves in the Cheltenham League Division One with the standout moment being a Falcons player trying to beef with someone’s mum. It was my first experience watching the 15th tier and is featured in a book that hopefully I will one day finish.
JUNE
Nothing really happened in June, there was no football. But…this is when I was asked to start working with the first team as well having seemingly impressed with my Development work. So, as Anakin Skywalker says in Revenge of the Sith, this is where the fun begins.
JULY
Pre-season! Football is back, and what a start for the Mitres. My first game as a “first team related media person” was the opening warm-up game when we hosted Slimbridge AFC at the Everyone’s Energy Kayte Lane Stadium, a team for whom I used to scout, and a game which we won 5-2. I didn’t do much proper work in my first two games, this being the first half of that, as it was more of a see what’s what sort of time. This was followed by a 7-1 loss to Cheltenham Town for which I wrote an article about players who had played for both which was never used, although I may post it on here if there is interest. The main takeaway from this game is that it was wet. Very wet. And the night ended with karaoke at Roxy’s so…yeah. My first game in control of the Twitter (almost known as X) was a rampant and rather impressive 4-1 win over Gloucester City on Friday the 12th of July, the day before I went on holiday to Cornwall which was good timing. The following Saturday I’d made the reverse trip of one I’d make later in the season as I travelled from Cornwall to Kayte Lane for a last minute friendly against Walsall Wood (who have since folded) with a much rotated Mitres squad losing 6-3, I missed the first 15 minutes but thankfully Matt was there to get
things started and I took over once I arrived as the journey took almost five hours.
The following Tuesday brought one of my favourite Cleeve games to date with a trip to Claines Lane to face last season’s run-away Hellenic Premier Division winners, and perhaps one of the greatest ninth-tier teams of all time, Worcester City. This was a team that knew how to win and didn’t seem to know how to lose, so for Paul Collicutt’s side to beat them 5-1 in their own backyard was quite something. This was followed with a 1-1 draw against Taunton Town and I ended the month watching the B Team beat Leckhampton Rovers 5-4 in a 135 minute match. If you’re interested in my groundhopping then I’ll add that I saw Slimbridge draw 1-1 with a strong Forest Green Rovers side at Thornhill Park before Littleton beat a Leamington side of some sort of age group 3-0.
AUGUST
This began with a double header featuring the Development side in an early kick-off against Chalford AFC at Kayte Lane, which I didn’t cover, before we rushed down to Highworth Town for the Mitres opening game of the season in the Emirates FA Cup. In all honesty I’m not sure I’d have foreseen what this competition would bring but Aaron Evans-Harriott’s 78th minute winner had knocked over the first domino. I followed this up with a 5-0 win for the Development side at Moreton Rangers where, of course, both Bishops Cleeve and Newport County used to call home. I actually missed Cleeve’s first home game of the season due to having a few friends from uni come to town to watch Cheltenham v Newport in League Two, I thought it may be a tad rude for them to come all this way and say “sorry lads, I’m busy”. Cleeve lost 1-0 before we travelled down to Yate Town for a 2-1 loss to the league’s favourites. The Under 18s began their FA Youth Cup campaign with the visit of Odd Down (Bath) with the 4-3 win being live tweeted by myself on the main account to help push our one club mentality before the first team then hosted Lydney Town and ran out 4-0 winners in the FA Cup.
Then came the first Development game of the season as Tytherington Rocks Reserves visited for their first ever game and featuring our first ever Development match day programme (this is some foreshadowing for any English teachers out there) with the Devs winning the game but later having the points removed due to an admin error, though the appeal against this is still to be decided. The day after, the Mitres got their first win of the season with a 1-0 win against Bemerton Heath Harlequins on the 24th. This was followed by a 3-0 win at Malvern Town which I missed due to being at Windsor & Eton v Windsor FC. If you’re wondering why I did this, it’s because I was at Reading Festival on Sunday and had plans in London on Tuesday so made a little holiday of it all! The final game of the month was a 1-1 draw against Velocity Wessex League side Laverstock & Ford with Ethan Dunbar salvaging a draw to take it to a replay at The Dell. And for the groundhopping enthusiasts among us, I also went to West Ham United, Maidenhead United, Cirencester Town Women, Cheltenham Saracens (for my first ever Hellenic One game) and Smiths Barometrics.
SEPTEMBER
This is the month I’m sure everyone has been waiting for. It’s the big one. Yes, this is the month where I watched Abbeymead Rovers fourths against Barnwood United thirds in Division Six of the Stroud and District League! Oh and it also started with the FA Cup draw which revealed that the winner of the replay between Laverstock & Ford and Bishops Cleeve would be hosting Torquay United…no big deal.
The month started well, I live Tweeted our Ladies’ FA Cup upset at Cirencester Town before we beat Laverstock courtesy of a very late Bryan Stalley strike to set up the biggest game in the club’s history, with Laverstock perhaps being the biggest win in the club’s history. The Under 18s then beat Bristol Telephones in the FA Youth Cup before the Development side won 4-1 at Easington Sports Development in the Marsh Challenge Cup. The club was going through an incredible cup run throughout the teams with the first team then winning 2-0 at Willand Rovers in the FA Trophy and the return journey seeing Colly suggest a matchday programme for Torquay and Head of Media and Communications Dan Ford suggesting that I be the one to do it. The day after Willand brought my first session with Cleeve’s walking football team (I scored twice!) before I watched our Sunday team lose to Welford-on-Avon in the Evesham Sunday league before our Ladies drew with Cheltenham Saracens Women featuring many of the players I used to coach at Cheltenham Town. Midweek trips to see Hartpury University against Longlevens and Bristol Boys Reserves against Seymour United Reserves brings us nicely to…
Bishops Cleeve against Torquay United. And needless to say…Bishops Cleeve 3-0 Torquay United. Everything about this day was incredible, and I’m not sure if it will ever be topped. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve watched the highlights of the game and I don’t think I’ve managed to make a programme since that hasn’t mentioned the result, oh and I’m now the main programme editor for the club so successes all round. The whole club cup run we had going on dissipated a bit when I went with the Devs to Hardwick Playing Field for a 4-3 loss to Tytherington Rocks Reserves before the Under 18s were knocked out of the FA Youth Cup by Bath City at Kayte Lane and the first team were then knocked out of the FA Trophy by Melksham Town. I was then able to watch our new Women’s Development side for the first time with the Ladies Devs beating Stoke Lane Athletic Women 4-1 before the men’s Development side travelled to the University of Bristol for a borderline insane game of football. The Under 18s then beat Slimbridge, the A Team beat Southside Star, and the first team drew with Alex Horne’s Chesham United sans Jay Malshanskyj, while September was rounded out with a trip to Villa Park for a WSL game against Tottenham Hotspur. What a month Green Day would have missed!
OCTOBER
Spooky season began with a terrifying ordeal - a trip to Whaddon Road (I’m kidding of course) where Cheltenham beat Accrington 2-1 continuing my perfect record of seeing the Robins not lose during the 24/25 season which lasted all the way until the 29th of December when Notts County’s wheelbarrowed their way into town. The 2nd of October brought an 8-1 win for our Under 18s before I went over to Cardiff to see Sea Girls on Friday the 4th, followed by a train to Bath to rendezvous with Kim and Johnny to see the mighty Mitres win 5-1 at Larkhall whose ground is absolutely beautiful and where you can get some incredible chips. It sits atop a hill, surrounded by other hills, with the journey up an unpleasant one but the reward for doing so making it worth it. It was the grand opening of their new stand and pitch but I can’t think of any club you’d want to play on a new astro less than Bishops Cleeve. It’s our element, our forte, and we won convincingly. This was followed by a replay defeat to Chesham (Alex Horne was apparently there but I couldn’t see him) which was absolutely freezing and also awkward to get to as well as being our second attempt at the journey, a 0-0 draw with Cribbs, sumptuous 3-0 win over Tavistock, 1-0 loss at Bideford, a big 1-0 win against Falmouth, and a 4-2 win against Cinderford followed. I also saw the A Team lose to Stroud United and Cheltenham draw with Bradford before beating Hartpury in the FA Youth Cup. Had we beaten Chesham, we’d have hosted Yeovil Town with two days notice. We’d have managed it but that would have been unimaginably stressful. Doing an entire programme in two days, including getting it printed, wouldn't have been easy.
NOVEMBER
Westbury was our first destination for November, a 1-0 loss was the outcome. The Ladies lost at Cheltenham Civil Service the day after and on the Monday I went to WWE at the O2 Arena, followed by a trip to and win at Cribbs in the GFA Senior Challenge Cup. A mammoth trip and shift came next as I was the only member of the Media and Comms team to travel down to Cornwall where we lost 2-1 to Helston in a game which I think we could have won. I did get a nice new cup though! Our next game made the headlines after Mousehole were denied a late winner at Kayte Lane due to their shot bouncing off the inner wheel and the officials thinking it hadn’t gone in, before we scored an even later winner through Monty New with practically the last kick of the game. I saw the Ladies lose to Gloucester City then travelled down to Bristol Manor Farm for another of my favourite Cleeve games which brought an almost perfect performance to make up for the absolutely freezing temperatures with a 2-0 win. I watched our Under 18s lose to Shortwood United the day after but then witnessed our Devs beat Newent Town Development 9-0! Newent had a famous onion fayre that dates back to 1253 (well, as famous as an onion fayre can be) so I did what any normal admin would do and themed the poster and programme for the game around Shrek, because ogres have layers of course, and the Newent lineup featured a Glibraltar international! Our game on the 23rd of November was rained off, if you remember the big storm we had, so Matt and I went to watch our A Team at Dowty’s, where my old team used to play, and we got very, very, very wet. But Cleeve won so that made up for it! If you haven’t been keeping up with our A Team’s antics then I recommend you do, they’re flying at the top of the league and are always an exciting watch. The month ended with a 0-0 draw against Willand.
Off the pitch I became an official winning trainer at Cheltenham Racecourse as I supported James Allen throughout the day with the A Team/B Team player winning Sue Ryder's Mascot Gold Cup!
DECEMBER
Ho ho ho my merry Mitres and welcome to the end. It seems that Santa’s elves had an overstock of goals so brought them all to Kayte Lane as I witnessed 27 across my six matches, four of which involved Bishops Cleeve with 19 going in down the Lane. The month began with a 4-4 draw against Thatcham Town, with the Mitres having gone 4-1 up, before the Development side lost 3-4 to Gloucester City Development in a rather stressful encounter for myself as I was being assessed on my offerings for my MA and had to make all the graphics and the programme from scratch. It was all themed on Love Actually and looked rather nice in my humble opinion. We then lost 1-0 to Exmouth Town which I followed with a midweek groundhop to Stonehouse Town where a pint costs only £2.50. Smiths Barometrics then lost to Whaddon United (they ground share at Kayte Lane in case you weren’t aware, that’s why I’m often there) with a trip down to the Cockrams next to see Cleeve win 3-0 at Shaftesbury in perhaps my favourite away trip with any team. From discovering that the seats recline on the Cheltenham Town coach to singing “he’s gonna sell you a chicken”, it all went very well. Boxing Day was also incredible as we won 4-0 at local rivals Evesham United in our derby but then lost 2-1 to Yate Town to round out the year. Oh well…the rest of it had been incredible.
I very much enjoyed my 2024, be it in the stands, in the bar, or on the coach. I suppose I now have at least 20 more people to invite to a wedding and stag do that my mate has already planned for me despite being single, and have found myself settled in a club like never before. Up the Mitres and come on 25’.
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