Groundhopping24

When the season draws to a close, it's such times I'm thankful for those European countries that play throughout the summer instead. Last season, I had the pleasure of ticking off some Irish football as I watched Drogheda United beat Galway United by a goal to nil on a mild and grey July evening. But of course, Ireland aren't the only nation to employ summer leagues. All the Scandinavian countries also do so bar Denmark, and so do the Baltics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. A Scandinavian trip, while tempting, was not something I was quite ready to break the bank for just yet, so I settled on a few days in Latvia with my partner before heading back to England for the summer.  On getting back to England, the plan is to show her the sights of Stevenage (all two or three of them), before beginning my six weeks of summer work in Canterbury. But before all that, a well-deserved break after another successful year of teaching, and the game of choice was a local derby between ...

 From meeting a man called Jurgen in Lurgan, to experiencing Conference League Fever in Ballymena, this whole trip has been something of a Dr Seuss book. In all fairness, it's likely to feel just as crazy by the time I'm at Belfast International Airport. What started in Cork and Cobh last Wednesday ends in Ballymena before a mad dash to the airport for a 6am flight back to Stansted on Friday morning. Suffice to say, I'll be sleeping my Friday away in an attempt to compensate for airlines and their ridiculous departure times (as well as Stansted's lack of any quick/direct Stevenage connection). And of course I'll be doing similar on the following Tuesday night before getting a 7am flight (seriously, get a grip airlines) from Gatwick to Ljubljana for another Conference League adventure involving Koper. But that's another story for another day. For now, our focus is on Larne, and the aim this summer given my flexibility is to see as many European ties in the qualif...