January 2022 began with a trip to a very wet Stangmore Park to see Linfield put six past Dungannon Swifts.
I then treated myself the following week with a trip to a match as a neutral, and to a ground I had never visited before.
Blanchflower Park was the destination, my first opportunity to check it out since it opened, to see Harland and Wolff Welders take on Annagh United in the Irish Cup.
Three days after that, it was off to Seaview for the County Antrim Shield Final between Linfield and Larne.
It was back to Windsor Park on the next two Saturdays for Linfield’s home matches against Ballymena United and Glenavon.
The month finished with two away trips for Linfield, to Cliftonville and Coleraine.
Wasn’t your 2020-2021 season supposed to start in late June or early July?
Remember, you had a trip to Bray booked as a base to try and get a ticket for a Last 16 match at Euro 2020?
Then there is Linfield’s matches in Europe and Pre-Season Friendlies.
And of course, the annual trip to Edinburgh in August.
Been a while since you were at Tynecastle, or did you go to Hibs or Edinburgh City?
In some parallel universe, yes, but in the real world, no.
Summer 2020 saw Coronavirus still on the rampage and football was either Postponed or Behind Closed Doors.
That meant I couldn’t get to my first match of the season until October.
I was unable to go to any of Linfield’s Pre-Season games, so 2020-2021 began for me at Wilgar Park, as a neutral to see Dundela take on Queen’s University in the County Antrim Shield.
In the build-up, I was slightly worried and anxious about arrangements, my first football match in seven months, but arrangements were fine and I had nothing to worry about. I even managed to get some nice shots.
The score, by the way, finished 3-0 to Dundela.
From Wilgar Park to Windsor Park, by now it was eight months since I was last there.
Although it was now an online scramble to get it, I managed to get my ticket for Linfield’s opening League match of the season, at home to Carrick Rangers, on the morning of the game.
Unfortunately, the new arrangements meant that you had to sit in a specific seat, as opposed to sitting where you like, which is a bit of an inconvenience as I am one of many (I see the same faces in both halves) who like to sit where Linfield attack.
My seat for this game was in the bottom of the North Stand. Not ideal, but I was just glad to be back watching football.
With stadium capacities reduced, I was unable to go to the match away to Ballymena the following weekend, but I did manage to get a Golden Ticket in the online scramble for tickets for Linfield’s match against Crusaders at the end of October.
Analogue Boy In A Digital World 