THE66POW: FORTHCOMING FIXTURES

Collectively, a combination of the weather, the stubbornest (and loooongest lasting) 'effing bout of a cold/flu/chest infection ever known to mankind, and an upsurge of increasingly time consuming work commitments, have ganged up on me of late, to decimate and all but wipe out my intentions football wise for the month of January.
But variety will always be the spice of my travelling life, and as such, I've just about managed to salvage and concoct a Plan B list of fixtures, this month and next, that encompasses the entire spectrum of the beautiful game in all of it's manifold, eclectic, multifarious and heterogeneous forms.
Of course this provisional itinerary is, as always, subject to any number of last minute alterations... and having seen the impending weather forecast for the next week or so, I'm fully expecting that a few more of my listed games will be called off any time soon.
A recent flood of postponements in the East Midlands (pun fully intended), has probably knackered my aim of visiting the four grounds in the EMCL that I've never been to before, as part my planned target of attending games of thirty previously uncharted (by me least-ways) territories before the end of the season, so that project will have to simmer on the back burner for the foreseeable future.
There is always next season, or the next one, or the one after that etc. etc.... and I've always said, that the moment that going to football matches merely becomes a number crunching and list making exercise, it would also mark the day that I need to find something else to do with my time instead.
Watching football just for the sake of it, has never been my thing... and it never will be.
I made the short journey to Forest Town on Saturday afternoon, to watch AFC Mansfield v Bridlington Town in the Northern Counties East League, Premier division, it was my first non league game for over four weeks and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of what was my 100th match this season.
Next weekend I will be taking in two FA Cup Fourth Round games, before hitting the non league trail with a vengeance again in February. I do have several probable and possible fixtures lined up for the blank dates and will update the details below in due course.
I hear told that the Lincolnshire League and CMFL are especially nice around this time of the year... and I'm long overdue a return to some of my old stomping grounds too.
Wrap up well and remember to get your flu jab in readiness for next winter kids, so that you don't get caught out like this silly big lump did.
Tue 23 Jan - Mansfield Town v York City - Central League (Reserves) - 1PM at Rainworth MW
Tue 23 Jan - TBC - 7.45PM
Fri 26 Jan - Sheffield Wednesday v Reading - FA Cup R4 - 7.45PM
Sat 27 Jan - Huddersfield Town v Birmingham City - FA Cup R4 - 3PM
Mon 29 Jan - Basford United v Kidsgrove Athletic - Integro NPL LC - 7.45PM
Tue 30 Jan - Gainsborough Trinity v Chorley - National League (North) - 7.45PM
Tue 6 Feb - Rossington Main v Rainworth Miners Welfare - NCEL LC R3 - 7.45PM
Wed 7 Feb - Lincoln United v Basford United - EvoStik NPL Prem - 7.45PM
Sat 10 Feb - Hallam v East Yorkshire Carnegie - NCEL D1 - 3PM
Tue 13 Feb - Mansfield Town v Newport County - EFL League 2 - 7.45PM
Fri 16 Feb - Newark Town v Collingham - CMFL North - 7.45PM
Sat 17 Feb - TBC
Tue 20 Feb - Frickley Athletic v Alvechurch - EvoStik NPL (South) - 7.45PM
Sat 24 Feb - TBC
Tue 27 Feb - TBC
Sat 3 Mar - Nottingham Forest v Birmingham City - EFL Championship - 3PM
Tue 27 Mar - England v Ukraine - UEFA U21 Qualification Round - at Bramall Lane - 6PM