Rogerstone - Newport Fugitives Athletic Club

Rogerstone FC

Newport Fugitives Athletic Club

High Cross Road

Rogerstone

Newport 

NP10 9AE

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Ground Number: 1591

Friday 16th October 2026

Rogerstone 2-0 Newport Saints

Gwent County Premier

ROGERSTONE FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was established in 1890 and started life in the now-defunct South Wales League. They won the title three times and also finished as runners-up to Aberdare in 1900. They then moved to the Rhymney Valley League in 1905, winning Division 1 at the first attempt. This, in modern-day terms, eventually became the Cymru South, albeit in a more local form. The club went into abeyance for some time during the first half of the 1900s, reforming in the 1950s and playing in the Newport & District League. Around the 1980s, they moved into the Gwent County League. From 2000 until 2004, they played in Division 2, going down to Division 3 and winning the title during the 2004/05 season. They were relegated again in 2014, and this time their stay in the bottom tier would last longer. Rogerstone finished as low as 12th in 2017 but won the title the following season. It was an especially successful period between 2018 & 2020. They won Division 3 in 2018, then finished 3rd in Division 2 in 2019. This was renamed Division 1 that year, and Rogerstone won the title in 2020. There was then a break for the pandemic of two seasons. Although they've never troubled the top places since, they have maintained a top half finish since football returned.

Local cup honours include two South Wales Senior Cups, two South Wales Intermediate  Cups and the Gwent Premier League County Motors Cup in 2019. The large village of Rogerstone ist located near Newport, which has a population of over 10,000. The Welsh name Ty Du translates to 'black house' in English. The parish lies at the gateway to the Sirhowy Valley, north of Newport on the eastern side of the Ebbw River. It is bounded by the M4 motorway to the south, the Ebbw River to the west, the Henllys Vale to the east and the city boundary with Caerphilly County Borough to the north. The original settlement dates back to Norman times when Rogerstone Castle was built in the early part of the 12th century. The name is said to originate from Roger de Haia, the Norman Lord who was responsible for the building of the castle, the remains of which are reduced to a low bush and tree-covered motte adjoining the lower section of Tregwilym Road. The population increased with the growth of the tin, iron and aluminium industries which flourished near the South Wales coalfield. At one point, the village boasted the longest aluminium-rolling mill in Western Europe. The Tiny Rebel microbrewery is based in Rogerstone and opened its £2.6 million brewery and bar at the Wern Industrial Estate in 2017.

MY VISIT

I was super keen to go to a game on this Friday, having decided to miss out last week and there being no options for a new ground on Tuesday. The only question was where. My preference was Brimsdown, but they were unsure of whether they would be using their new ground or not. The backup was Rogerstone of the Gwent County League, a quick hop down the M4, although quite a distance. Sandwiched in between two Wycombe games, I needed some proper football to break up the complete mess at Wycombe created by our chairman Dan Rice. Employed by our rich owner, R*ce - sacked a good recruitment team and replaced them with spreadsheet bores who have wasted millions. He forced out club legend Matt Bloomfield, who created the best team in our 139-year history. A botched move to Harlington, leading to yet more money having to be spent on Marlow Road and a golf club. Two more failed manager appointments, and the third set to repeat the first mistake. New 'manager' Hounsell with this five-at-the-back nonsense, including Steeve Cook, who is totally past it. The entitled players, whining when Duff calls them out, think they are on easy street now, and it showed on Saturday. Add to the terrace being half closed due to lack of maintenance, and the club is in a sorry state for one so rich.

Everything was great train-wise on my journey home from my last hop at Crewe, a comfortable, peaceful and well-priced journey. Tech-wise, though, it was most frustrating; my photos took an absolute age to upload, and the mobile data had been slow all day. GiffGaff (using O2) had been a noticeable downgrade on Spusu (using EE) in the past few days. However, thanks to my new phone contract, I will have to stick with them for the next 17 months. At least it's not as bad as Vodafone and Three in previous experience, but frustrating all the same. The best thing was that the train went straight to Hemel, no need to faff about in Milton Keynes changing. I was pleased to get my blog up finally, by around 7:30. I was back at my car by 8.25 and home 30 minutes later. I had a couple of drinks in an attempt to wind down for bedtime ahead of an early start at work. I didn't get much sleep, under four hours, as I didn't feel sleepy. I woke at 3, tired at first, but an energy drink soon sorted me out. It was a typical Sunday, nice for the first 4.5 hours, but hellish once the families and their irritating offspring packed the store out. It was also a busy day, and I was asked to stay on past 12, but I had other plans.

 

WD Herons v Brewster Plumbing was my FA Sunday Cup game of choice, winning over a game at Winslow. Roadworks delayed my journey to Northwood FC, but I parked up around 1. I had chosen this game purely on a decent takeaway called Pizza Hot House. I had chilli chips and a Desi Spicy Pizza. The latter was by far the standout due to the interesting and very tasty addition of fresh ginger on the pizza. If only they had a branch in Wycombe. It was 20 minutes walk to the ground and a fair & 5 entry fee with paper ticket. Brewster Plumbing won 2-1 in a decent, competitive game. I was getting tired by now and, after going home and having dinner, was in bed by 7, getting around 7.5 hours of sleep.  That did me well ahead of Monday, and with Tuesday being my day off, it was my usual ten-mile walk to Wycombe and back, followed by the afternoon at home. It looked like a bit of a fallow period for new grounds. The nearest new one for me on Friday would be Penrhwiceiber Rangers, which would be about £60 in car costs on my own. The ground was a pretty one, best saved for a daytime game. Aberdare looked like an interesting town for pubs nearby, but I'd have to drive later. All in all, I was erring against it, although I hadn't made a final decision.

On Tuesday, it would be my 49th visit to Watchet Lane to watch Holmer Green v Chesham United in the Berks & Bucks Cup. Or should that be 46th, as three of the visits have been on an alternate pitch. That was a newly built 3G for the two later visits, but despite several requests, Futbology has not responded to my request to add it as a new ground. I am happy to count it as part of the same complex, but other users have had issues with the people that run it totally ignoring them. Compare that to their treatment of their golden boy PuffPuff, who they fawn over and arselick, give him loads of free merch and last week, something he asked for on the app took them six minutes to sort. Others have been waiting months or years for a response, even those volunteering to add fixtures to lower leagues for nothing but helping out other hoppers. It turned out to be a great night at Holmer Green in front of a decent crowd of 265. The hosts were 2-0 down with around twenty minutes to go and started to take players like top scorer Josh Peck off to avoid injuries. Nevertheless, they roared back to level at 2-2 and then 3-3 after going behind once more. Holmer Green finally beat a side four leagues above them in a tense penalty shootout in what was a great night for the club.

I was tired the next morning at 3 am for work, but my request for two days off in a row was refused. It's always an issue, as after a lie-in I don't feel sleepy until around midnight. I got through in the end, though and caught up on sleep the following night. It was a fairly dull end to the week with no Friday night football. Saturday was Wycombe Wanderers v Luton Town. The Hatters were a team that we had not beaten at home in seventeen attempts. The day started well enough with a walk down Wycombe and the discovery that they had Black Dragon cider on at Wetherspoons, which was very nice. It went downhill from there. My breakfast muffin took 37 minutes to arrive, although it tasted great as it was freshly cooked. It was around then that Wycombe Wanderers announced Tom Hounsell as head coach. Granted, he's done well as caretaker, but that was after Michael Duff did all the setting up and signings. He was a college friend of our chairman / grossly over-rewarded employee, Dan Rice, who has systematically destroyed the spirit of the club since he came in, forcing out club legend Matt Bloomfield and pissing millions up the wall on wasted transfers and a botched training ground move. His latest move is to employ a load of his mates from college, including Hounsell in the top job. From there on, the day was crap. A disappointing meal from Taco Bell, then one of the worst performances I have seen in my 991 visits to Adams Park. We were clueless and gutless in the 4-1 defeat to Luton, but it was all so predictable. I went home, drowned my sorrows, but was limited to a couple with work in the morning. A 3 am alarm and then an exceptionally busy Sunday. Although people were fine as ever, their dreadful, noisy children and the packed store were horrible. I was glad to finish at 12, not fancying football after, or indeed a revisit on Tuesday.

The rest of the week went by slowly with no game, and I was no closer to knowing where I was going on Wednesday, purely because Brimsdown themselves hadn't told which ground they would be using. I contented myself by booking a trip to Bucharest in November. My destination was confirmed on Thursday when Brimsdown confirmed they would be playing on the main Aveley pitch. I reckon it would cost them 50 - 100 people on the gate at least, but they were constrained by what Aveley had to offer. I made good progress planning for future trips. Following my advice, Colin sat out this one. We had a lot of expense coming up, and it would mean a detour at the end for me. Originally, I was only intending to complete the top three tiers in Wales, but it is such a great country, I may expand that to level four and beyond. That said, looking ahead to next season, Rogerstone may well be in the Ardal South East. It was the usual week at work with me looking forward to my time off. I had a couple of hours after work to relax before leaving for the game, going just after 3 as the traffic looked bad. It turned out to be the case, with it slow getting out of Wycombe, past Bristol and past Newport. An hour's delay in all, and I had to change plans. Instead of going to the Tesco to get some Welsh cider, I headed straight to my pre-match food place, the Tin Can Kitchen. Chilli cheese hot dog and fries came to £12.99. This was excellent, with spicy fries and a tasty hot dog. It was then to Morris for 5 bottles of Black Dragon. Finally, to the ground, with me parking up nearby. I paid £3 entry and also a keyring for £3 as I had eaten elsewhere and brought my own drinks. Entry was a bargain and I wanted to put a little extra into the club. I had around 15 minutes before kickoff to get some photos of the impressive ground.

 

Rogerstone were sitting in 2nd in the Gwent County Premier behind RTB Ebbw Vale. They were six points adrift but had three games in hand. They had won nine and lost two.  They had won five in a row, including a 1-0 win at Graig Villa Dino last time out. Newport Saints were in 13th place and had won two, drawn one and lost seven. They had travelled just over five miles from just southeast of the centre of Newport. They were unbeaten in three and had drawn 1-1 with Silfil in their last game. Newport Saints were solid at first, even having the first attack which came to nothing. Rogerstone tried and tried without really creating anything clear-cut. Their persistence paid off in the 20th minute when James Goodfellow swung in a looping cross from the left that Luke Thomas headed in at the back post. It was all Rogerstone, with the hosts well on top, but it was still 1-0 at half time. That doubled to 2-0 in the 48th minute, with Thomas turning provider and sending a ball across the area, which Connor Marsh rifled into the roof of the net from six yards. Ten minutes later, they had the ball in the net again, at least according to the fans behind the goal, but it was not given by the referee. There were loads more chances for Rogerstone and a couple on the break for Newport Saints, but no further goals. It had been an enjoyable evening, even if car costs for the trip totalled £59. I had a good run down the M4 and, despite stopping for petrol, was back well before midnight.

THE GROUND

THE FUGITIVES GROUND is a superb venue for the level and is better than a lot of Cymru South grounds. For a start, it is floodlit, with the pitch very well illuminated. Two sides have hard standing, and there is a large stand behind one goal that seats around 200. Of the remaining two sides, one is a raised grass bank, and one is flat grass standing. Inside the ground is a tea bar offering basic snacks and a reasonable range of merch, all at fair prices. Outside is a bar that looks very nice. A short walk away is a chip shop; further away is the excellent Tin Can Kitchen. There is plenty of parking near the children's centre opposite.

Crewe - The Excel

Crewe FC

The Excel

Crewe FC Sports Pavilion

West Street

Crewe

Cheshire

CW2 8SJ

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Ground Number: 1590
Saturday 3rd October 2026

Crewe 1-4 Allscott Heath

NWCFL D1 South

CREWE FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was established in 1998 and joined the Mid-Cheshire League upon formation. Starting in Division 2, they won promotion to Division 1 after they finished as runners-up to Trafford Reserves in 2000. They were relegated after finishing bottom of the league in 2005 and would spend two more years in Division 1. In 2007, Crewe joined the Cheshire League, starting in Division 2. By 2012, they had been promoted to Division 1 after finishing as runners-up behind Whaley Bridge. The division was renamed to the Premier Division in 2014, and Crewe recorded their best finish of 4th a year later. Last season, they finished 5th and were accepted into the North West Counties League.

Crewe made their debut in the FA Vase this season and lost 2-0 at Coton Green.  They are a three-star England FA Accredited Community Club that also operates as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The town of Crewe is more famous for the League 2 side Crewe Alexandra. Located in East Cheshire, the town has a population of 76,500. The town is best known as a large railway junction; for many years, it was a major railway engineering facility for manufacturing and overhauling locomotives, but is now much reduced in size. From 1946 until 2002, it was also the home of Rolls-Royce; the factory now produces Bentley cars. The most famous person from the town is actor Adam Rickitt, who played Nick Tilsley in Coronation Street from 1997 until 2004.

MY VISIT

For this Saturday, I knew that I'd be on my own. Colin and many other hoppers were on the Southern Combination Hop. I might have been tempted, but for scheduling reasons, it didn't work out for me. For some reason, the step 7 game is always scheduled at the standard kickoff time. I am sure there are reasons for this, but for me, I see the less experienced drifting to bigger games and the more experienced hoppers not bothering unless they've not done the other grounds. For me, I'd have put the step 7 in the morning when there were no alternatives. Either way, I prefer to go on public transport on Saturday. Westfield (Sussex), Crowle Colts, Immingham Town, Kinsley Boys, Bovey Tracey, Ilfracombe Town, Beverley Town and Bridport were the favourites. However, bad transport or obscenely overpriced trains put me off. I didn't want to do the NWCFL ideally, seeing as all the grounds will likely be on the hop in the next few years. But with no guarantee that I'll be able to go on the hop, I decided to take a chance. LNWR generally offer great value advances coming from Hemel, and I had used them before. Crewe is one of their main hubs, and so it made sense to go for Crewe v Alscott Heath. A return was secured for £17.60; fantastic value is a rare thing on the railways. I had backed myself into a corner a bit with an 18:12 train back, but at least it meant that I would get back at a reasonable hour.

After my trip to New Milton, I spent the evening at home, happy that I didn't have work in the morning. I chilled at home whilst getting my blog up. After bingeing on clips of the show on YouTube, I listened to Daniel Barnett's LBC Legal Hour on the radio. I then put on YouTube the Minder Episode 'Last Orders at the Winchester', hoping to get screenshots of Southall's old ground. It had a few faces I recognised, including Gavin Richards (Terry Raymond in EastEnders) and Geoffrey Richards (Sylvia 'Bodybag' Hollamby's husband in Bad Girls). I had a few drinks and had a decent night's sleep, waking at 6. With a lack of decent games at a new ground on Sunday, I was more than happy to revisit Uxbridge FC for Southall v Dorking Wanderers in the FA Cup. As well as being an enticing FA Cup tie, the club had made huge efforts to promote the game on social media, plugging it regularly on Twitter. Tickets were well priced at £10 for this Isthmian League South Central (step 4) v National South (step 2) side Dorking Wanderers game. I lazed about for a bit, watching TV until I got dressed and went out at 9. I walked down Wycombe, didn't really buy much and came back on the bus. I had lunch at home before leaving at 1.10. I met Colin, and we were at the ground by 1.40. Entry was £10, a pint of Strongbow was a fiver (with a £2 club glass), and a disappointing sausage and chips was £5. The latter was just greed on my part, but it killed time until kickoff.

Southall had won 2-1 at Deal Town and beaten Cobham by the same scoreline to reach this stage. Their record progress has been the FA Cup 1st Round, but the last time they did that was in 1955. They would be aiming to reach the 3rd Qualifying Round for the first time since 1979 during their brief tenure as Southall & Ealing Borough. Dorking Wanderers were entering the cup at this stage and had reached the 4th Qualifying Round on four occasions; last season was the most recent when they lost 3-2 to Aldershot Town. It turned out to be a cracking game. Dorking Wanderers were showing their class and moving the ball about nicely, as well as retaining possession. It was Southall who had the first real chance of the game, blasting the ball across the face of goal, but no one could get a touch. Dorking took control, and they took the lead in the 27th minute, Rogalski following up a goalkeeper parry. On the half hour, Southall got the equaliser through Makael Scott, fairly similar to the opener. Their lead only lasted a minute, though, as George Nikaj finished from close range to restore Dorking's lead. It was end-to-end stuff, but Dorking had the better chances. Southall were awarded a penalty on the hour, but it was saved well by former Orient keeper Glenn Morris. The hosts got their equaliser on 84 minutes, a mazy run and finish from Taylor Hayles to end an excellent game. The attendance was 606, and after dropping Colin off, I was back home at 6. The rest of Sunday and Monday, and indeed Tuesday, were all nothingness as I was winding down towards going back to work.

It was my 47th visit to Watchet Lane on Tuesday. It's always a pleasure to visit my local club, £8 for a night's entertainment. Sadly, on the night, Brook House were better than Holmer, a very good side, and they won 3-1. Saturday saw my 990th visit to Adams Park. The usual pre-match pints and food preceded Wycombe's fortunate 2-2 draw against Reading, given the balance of play. My final revisit was to Amersham Town on Tuesday; North Greenford thumped them 6-0, and the events on the field merited the scoreline. It was good to catch up with Colin and plan a small trip to Wales in late October. I was thinking of going abroad, but the prices of flights were stupid. That was due to the schools being out for half term, something I'd neglected to check when booking my holiday, basing it entirely on when Wycombe were not at home. Under normal circumstances. I could have changed it, but a quirk of my work's booking system is that it sends a code to your phone. It was tied to my old device that I'd sold two weeks ago. I tried to sort it on a work computer and was presented with a link to a form to reset the said details. Fantastic, I thought, but as soon as I tried to access the form, it asked for the self-same code that I was trying to reset. So I was stuck with my booked holiday for now and vowed to make the best I could of it. Aside from a wasted Monday, I think I've cracked it. I also finalised my plan for this weekend; sadly, the excellent-looking Tom's Tap would have to wait until a future visit.

It was a fairly dull week with work, the most notable thing being when a helpful policeman noticed that one of my lights was out at 4 am, something that was fairly simple to remedy that afternoon. I walked down Wycombe on Friday and had a couple of pints in Wetherspoons before getting the bus back. I spent the evening at home and went to sleep fairly early, not getting much of a lie in as I woke a couple of hours before my alarm. I stayed in bed until my alarm went off before having breakfast and leaving at 7.20. When I got to Hemel, the roads where I usually park for free were rammed, so I used my backup option, paying £3.50. The payment took an age to go through, but it issued a ticket eventually. As my train was leaving, it came through that payment has been denied, mysterious, so I made a note to keep that ticket in case of any problems down the line. My train was on time and nice and peaceful. The only downside was a 34-minute wait in Milton Keynes as I had to change trains. The second train was a few minutes late, but that didn't really bother me as I was looking to kill time in Crewe anyway.

 

I arrived just before 11 and had a look around the market and some shops before heading to my first pub. I was at the Belgian Hops Bar ten minutes before opening. Having been here before, I knew it was decent.  It was a popular place and I followed a large group in just as they were opening the doors. It was all stuff I'd had before, but not for ages. Cherry Chouffe is available in bottles at a few shops, but I always feel that it tastes better on draught. Being imported, it was fairly pricey, so I went for two-thirds for £6.60. It tasted good; I think I'd have to travel to Liverpool or Reading if I wanted the equivalent Delirium Red at the Ship and Mitre or Castle Tap, two equally brilliant pubs. That was good, then it was a pint of Gwynt Y Ddraig Ancient Warrior for my second drink. I was feeling pleasantly steamed after two strong drinks, just enough to take the edge off of life. The second drink was good, having not had it since walking to Oxford to raise money for the Wycombe Wanderers Trust in 2013 at the sadly missed priory. I was pushed for time after stopping back at the market for a Sri Lankan Chicken Devil and Rice, always keen to explore cuisines. Fairly costly at £13, it was nice. From there, it was just under an hour's walk to the Marshfield Bank House Wetherspoons, number 556 for me. A simple place; my chips took less than a minute, my Stowford Press eight minutes. I left at 2.30 and walked the fifteen minutes to the ground. I was there ten minutes before kickoff: a nice welcome, a free badge and £5 entry. The mobile signal claimed data, but there was no sign of it when I tried to check in.

 

Crewe were sitting 16th in the table. After a sticky start, their form had improved. They had won three and lost three of their last six, including a 6-0 thumping of Brereton Social last Saturday. Alscott Heath were in 11th and had won four of their last six. They were on a run of three wins in a row, including a 3-1 win at Market Drayton Town last Saturday. Two very quick goals, both around eight minutes and from close range, kept the scores level at 1-1 It was Ben Summers for Allscott Heath and Kyle Vickers for Crewe. On 24 minutes, it was 2-1 to Allscott Heath, an excellent free kick from Carl Rogers finding the corner of the net from twenty yards out. On half time, a thumping Edan Sears shot from the edge of the area made it 3-1 to Allscott Heath. A fair reflection, with Crewe restricted to chances on the break. It was all Crewe at the start of the second half; they kept the visitors pinned back in their own half but didn't create much. The hosts did have the ball in the net ten minutes from time, but it was disallowed for an infringement. On 85 minutes, Crewe got a penalty, but the tame effort was well saved by the visitors' keeper. Crewe still pushed, but to no avail. Allscott Heath made it 4-1 on the break in the 89th minute, a calm and composed finish from Jack Davies. I was pretty much sober now, so the walk back to the station via Farmfoods for some Irn-Bru dragged a bit. I saw some Crewe fans whose side had beaten Bristol Rovers 3-1, so the town seemed in a good mood. My train was waiting there for me when I got to platform 11 at 6 pm, having walked 23k steps and nearly ten miles on the day.

THE GROUND

THE EXCEL is very much a work in progress, but has a decent amount of potential. It is a 3G cage with only one side and one end available at the moment. There are two areas of cover but no seated stand at the moment. You can usually get a decent view of the action. The bar and cafe are outside the ground; these offer a reasonable range at fair prices. Otherwise, a standard Wetherspoons called the Marshfield Bank House is 15 minutes walk away, with other pubs the same distance in the other direction. There is plenty of parking. The ground is 2.5 miles from the station; when I checked, buses didn't really save much time but are available.