Attending any Leicester City home game taking place whenever I go back to the UK is very much a given but there was some other football on my radar this time as I had plans to take in a few other matches from much further down the football pyramid beginning with a local derby in my hometown.

Over the last few years, Harborough Town FC have risen through the leagues and are now in the seventh tier with an ever-growing fanbase. That was certainly helped by the epic FA Cup run a couple of years ago when played away at League One club Reading in the second round. They pushed them all the way before heroically going down 5-3 in extra time.

By contrast, neighbours Kettering Town FC have gone in the opposite direction. For a long time, they were often seen as the Conference club with the potential to reach the football league but unbeknownst to me (until last Autumn) they went through administration in the early 2010s and were relegated a couple of divisions.

Both Harborough and Kettering may be in different counties in the UK, but they are located within about 10 miles of each other. A fierce rivalry has emerged from playing each other in the Southern League Premier: Central league these days, and I was keen to get in on the action when they met on December 27th.

There was just one problem! This local derby was inevitably declared an all-ticket match with none available on the gate as is usual at their home games. I messaged my dad on the day they went on sale to see if he could drive down to the clubhouse in the evening to get a couple of tickets for us to go together. When he didn’t reply to me, I assumed he was unable or unwilling to do that. However, when I woke up the next morning, I was delighted to see a reply showing a photo of our pair of tickets.

Once I’d sent him the money, I said that it would be his birthday present which was even cheaper than expected as I completely forgot that his ticket was half the price of mine as he’s an OAP! My mum drove us down to Harborough Leisure Centre (a place I used to frequent very often back in the day) which the home ground is located behind.

Beforehand I really didn’t know what to expect and even thought The Beehive might just be a field with a small stand somewhere! It was certainly more impressive than we both expected and we even had to queue up to get in through the turnstile such was the fan demand to see this local derby.

Once inside we met up straight away with my dad’s friends Graham and Gina who very kindly gave me a lift to the previous day’s Leicester match as there was no public transport on Boxing Day.

We were stood just to the side of one of the small stands, a shed full of young fans singing their hearts out with a drummer adding to the atmosphere. Hearing them singing all manner of songs really did remind me of my earlier days of going to Filbert Street to watch Leicester. Singing a load of swear words and abusing opposition players and fans en-masse is great fun when you’re that age!

Harborough Town play in yellow but as I don’t have one of their shirts I thought I’d wear the top of my Japanese club who wear the same colour. I very much doubt a Kashiwa Reysol jersey has ever been worn in this part of the world! Given the Arctic-like conditions, it was almost instantly covered up once I’d taken my photo!

The two teams entered the fray from the clubhouse area behind the goal just ahead of the 3:00 pm kick off with Kettering in their away kit rather than traditional black and red.

A giant screen in the corner was something I definitely did not expect to see at this level of football. All eyes were on it just two minutes into the game when the home team got off to a flyer with a very early goal. A pyro flare was even let off in jubilant celebration in the aforementioned stand.

To my knowledge, the last time I went to a match with my dad in the UK was actually at Kettering’s old Rockingham Road ground in August 1996 for a pre-season clash with Leicester which they won 2-1. Watching Harborough and Kettering lock horns was a real throwback to the days when we watched football together in the pre-Premier League era which was a far more innocent time.

Further goals either side of half time saw Harborough stretch their lead to 3-0 as it became colder, windier and wetter amidst the drizzle. The home contingent among the crowd of 1,723 were happy though, especially bandwagon jumpers like me! The attendance was just three people shorter than at the FA Trophy 3rd Round match against Carlisle just a fortnight earlier.

The game seemed done and dusted but football is never that simple though and Kettering pulled one back to make it a nervier end than necessary.

They continued to put further pressure on the Harborough defence but the game was finished off for good in injury time as the home team made it 4-1. There was still time for a late consolation by Kettering, but we still left in a good mood having witnessed a club very much on the rise. I will continue to chart their progress from 10,000 kilometres (6200 miles) away.

Final Score: Harborough Town 4-2 Kettering Town

Once my dad had got tickets for that game, I messaged an old school friend called Karl who supports Kettering to see if he’d be present. He said he was unable to attend that one but after exchanging a few more messages it was agreed that I’d join him for a Kettering game at their home stadium on January 3rd. As a groundhopper, I later mentioned that I was thinking of going to watch Corby Town at home on New Year’s Day and he also said he’d been considering it too so that would be the first of our double header of lower league games.

Around lunchtime, Karl picked me up at Market Harborough railway station and drove us to Steel Park, the home stadium of Corby Town. We were there within ten minutes of leaving and the beauty of such lower league football is being able to park for free right outside the stadium.

Corby Town’s recent history has very much been one of a yo-yo club going between the lower echelons of English football with the sixth level being their highpoint thus far. They are now in the eighth division and really came to my attention last year when a YouTuber I watch went there to see them in the promotion play offs. 12 pounds was the cost of watching this Northamptonshire derby and was paid for at the turnstile.

The original 1:00 pm kick off was actually delayed by ten minutes allowing more people to get into the ground for this Northants derby. The attendance announced towards the end of the match was 867 which is around double the usual amount. Not bad for this level of football.

One good thing about watching lower league football is the ability to be able to move freely around the stadium to see the game from different vantage points.

Opponents Rushden & Diamonds had a rapid rise through the lower leagues of English football and even had a few years in the football league before demotion, decline and administration. They were succeeded by a phoenix club who now ply their trade in the eighth tier of English football.

The Corby faithful were silenced just five minutes into the match as the Diamonds headed home the opener. The Steelmen came close to equalising early in the second half but rued that miss as minutes later they were 2-0 down.

There was hope for the home side on 83 minutes when they converted a penalty awarded for a shirt pull. However, Diamonds put the game to bed in additional time to wrap it up.

Final Score: Corby Town 1-3 Rushden & Diamonds

We left promptly on the full-time whistle and was back home ten minutes later! Usually I’d probably just have left the ground at that time! Sadly, snowy conditions resulted in the Kettering Town home game being postponed two days later. There is always the chance of such things happening of course and I never assumed every match I planned to go to over the festive calendar would actually take place. I did get to attend five out of the six matches I’d earmarked for attendance though so that wasn’t such a bad outcome for that time of year.

Click here to read ‘3 Home Matches In 11 Days on My Big Return to Leicester Deliver Mixed Results!’

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