Thanks very much for visiting The 94th Minute and checking out my blogs of my travels around the Welsh leagues (and beyond), as well as blogs on other subjects involving the world of football. Any feedback, potential improvements that could be made to this site, or any games I should come and watch would be greatly welcome, so please leave a comment at the bottom or tweet me using the Twitter widget on right hand side of the page if you have any ideas.
My name is Clint and I am a groundhopper from Flintshire in North East Wales. I decided to create this blog to give a record of my experiences visiting these grounds in the hope of both promoting the teams to other football supporters, and also give information to any groundhoppers who wish to visit the grounds for themselves in the future.
Here’s a few FAQs I have been asked whilst this site has been up and running:
Q: Why did you start groundhopping?
Well I did a charity multi-ground visit a couple of years back where myself and a group of mates visited all 12 teams who founded The Football League. Once I had done that, I became hooked and wanted to visit more grounds and try to achieve a personal aim of visiting 100 grounds in total (I like to set aims like that for myself).
Over the past few years I have become more interested with non-league and Welsh league football in general (supporting my hometown team Holywell Town) due to the Premier League becoming far too detached from the ‘grass roots’ of football. Therefore I wanted to watch more ‘proper’ games of football with clubs who appreciate the fans much more and play for the love of the game! Plus it also gets me out and about visiting towns I haven’t had the chance to visit previously, so I am exploring the area a lot more and feeling happier because of it!
Q: Why is the blog called “The 94th Minute“?
My first blog was called “Clinternational Football“, which despite a nifty play on words was never a long term name for a blog. So when I moved over to WordPress I decided I needed a new name that had a bit more ‘pizazz’ about it. Alternative names were going to be “Flat Cap Brigade” and “Half Time Oranges“, amongst other more awful names which don’t deserve the light of day. In the end I was inspired by a match that sticks in my mind which I was lucky enough to see live!
Holywell Town played Conwy United in the final of the FAW Trophy way back in April 2011 at Rhyl’s Belle Vue ground. The Wellmen were 2-0 down with a couple of minutes and injury time to go, however two penalties on the 89th and 92nd minutes equalled up the match, until they popped up with the winner on….yep you’ve guessed it….the 94th minute to win the cup for Holywell! So the title of the blog is an ode to that glorious day!
Q: What inspired you to go groundhopping?
Well the above mentioned multi-stadium tour above was my first foray into the world of groundhopping, however I was inspired by a number of sources. Firstly reading all the excellent groundhopping blogs such as Lostboyos and Gibbo’s 92 certainly gave me encouragement to go and explore the grounds in North Wales, however two books were the catalyst and inspiration for my groundhopping adventures.
‘Football Grounds From The Air’ by Ian Hay
‘Got To Do The 42’ by Martin McNelis
Ian Hay’s excellent book detailing superb photographs of various British football grounds made me want to visit them in person, however Martin McNelis’ book was probably the main culprit for my passion. Reading about how Martin travelled around Scotland visiting every SPFL club made me want to both follow his own journey, but take my own footballing journey around Wales’ various football leagues. It is also his style of groundhop writing which formed the foundations to my groundhop blogs before I developed my own evolved style. So thank you Martin McNelis, you are my inspiration for groundhopping! 🙂
The 94th Minute 