About Me

As well as running You’re Supposed To Be At Home, I pay the bills by using a mixture of my day job as head of International SEO at a small marketing firm (which sounds more impressive than it is), and run my own sites as well on the side. As such, I feel that, whilst I’m not the best writer in the world, I know a few bits and bobs on how to SEO and market a website.

Disclaimer

In writing this, I am going to suggest a few tools and services I use. First off – I use the same tools or service. I do not suggest anything that I don’t use or recommend myself. However: a few of the tools are affiliate links. As such, if you click the link and purchase: I get some cash. If you don’t like that, simply Google (or Bing, I prefer Bing!) the tools in question. They’ll turn up and I won’t get a penny. That is fine!

My chosen choice for blogs is WordPress

Setting Up The Blog – What Platform To Use?

There are two main platforms in which to begin blogging – WordPress and Blogger. Blogger is a service run by Google which allows a lot more for free. WordPress is a free service as well, and is open source, which means that anybody (yours truly included) can develop themes and plugins and release them onto the market. Many of the top themes and plugins are free. However, whilst the software is free, if you don’t have a domain name or hosting space, you will have to settle with WordPress.com hosting. Whilst free – WordPress.com hosting is a lot more restrictive as to what you can or cannot do on it.

For the purposes of this tutorial, I would suggest signing up with WordPress.com. Pick a theme and start blogging. Also at this point, I’d suggest signing up to Twitter and interacting with the Twitter community as well. Make sure your twitter handle is as close to the name of your blog as possible.

2 Weeks Later – Go Self Hosted

Are you enjoying blogging? Enjoy writing about football and want to take the next step? Well the next step is to go self hosted. Self hosted requires a little bit of investment, though less than many people think – you can get a blog self hosted for less than £50 a year. In going self hosted, it has the following benefits:-

• Full Control – Your hosting will allow you to control and manage the blog effectively. If WordPress.com or Blogger.com were to ever go down or change their terms and conditions, then you will be fine.
• You Legally Own Your Own Content – A worrying trend in Blogger.com services is that Google technically owns your content. I’m not a lawyer but reading through their terms and conditions that is what is suggested. In self hosting, you will own your content and you can do what you want with it.
• You Can Start Earning Money – The main drawback of free services is that you cannot earn cash for your hard work. In self hosting, you can do what you want with your hosting. Including earning some cash.
• You Are Perceived to be Bigger – A domain name ranges from 99p to £10 a year. I generally trust bloggers that aren’t wordpress.com or blogspot.com domains a lot more.
• You Are Boosted in Search Engines – Although we won’t be looking too much as search engine traffic in this guide, having a self hosted blog does boost your search engine traffic.

What You Need To Be Self Hosted

To become self hosted, you need two things. A domain name and a hosting provider. Your domain name is the www.[something].[something] you use to access your site on the internet. Your hosting is a computer permanently attached to the internet in which you place your files to access them (in this case, your WordPress files).

Recommendations

Hosting Recommendation – Hostgator

All of my websites are hosted by Hostgator. This US hosting firm use great servers and are rarely down. Secondly (and more importantly) their technical support is second to none. Quick and knowledgeable, any issues I have had have been sorted within 24 hours. Most issues are solved there and then. I couldn’t recommend enough.

Click here to visit Hostgator’s Website.

Domain Name Registrant – Each to their Own!

There are plenty of domain name registrars out there.  As such, many of them are similar. However, I use a combination of 123-reg and Godaddy for my domains.

Click Here To Visit 123-Reg’s Website

Click Here To Visit Godaddy’s Website

The 3 Sentence Guide To Getting Your Domain Pointed At Your Site

When you sign up to Hostgator you will receive login details with your username, password & your nameservers. Log into your Domain Registrar (123-reg or Godaddy), find your domain name & find the option to “change DNS” or “change nameservers”. Change the two nameservers on your registrar to the Hostgator Nameservers mentioned in sentence one.

The 1 Sentence Guide To Getting WordPress Installed On Your Hosting

Read This.

Chosen Logo Designer - Blog Design Team

Getting A Logo Designed

The easiest way to stand out from the blogosphere is to get a logo designed. You can either do it yourself, or here are some cost effective ways of doing it:-

• Fiverr.com – I’ve known a few bloggers to get a logo designed by fiverr.com. It’s a bit hit and miss (often I’ve known bloggers to get 4 or 5 logos designed on this, and pick the best), but if you fancy an uber-cheap way to get a logo designed by somebody other than yourself, use this.
• Blog Design Team – I’ve used this multiple times & recommend it. Quick, easy, simple, multiple revisions. A proper logo designed by some great graphic designers in the Philippines for less than a night out. Superb.

Click Here To Visit Fiverr.com

Click Here To Visit Blog Design Team

Picking A Theme

I recommend designing a logo before picking a theme as in doing so you get an idea on what colour scheme you wish to use for your blog, and your theme. Many bloggers design their own logo and shell out for a theme. I recommend the opposite. With a little bit of searching you can find a great theme for nothing.

WordPress Free Themes Directory

Recommended Free Themes – WordPress.org Repository

To find a theme for free, I recommend checking out the WordPress.org Theme Repository. That contains themes that are certified clean (many WordPress themes aren’t clean, read this post so you know why).

The One Sentence Guide To Installing Free WordPress Themes from WordPress.org

Read This.

Recommended Paid Themes – None Really

There are plenty of great paid themes. However most simply aren’t worth the money. You’re more saving time rather than getting access to many new features. However two that I recommend are Genesis Theme Framework (highly recommended) and WooThemes (slightly recommended). However for most bloggers I’d stick to free themes.

I would suggest you avoid Thesis. The code is bloated and much of the functionality that should be Plugin driven are theme driven.

Click Here To Visit Genesis

Click Here To Visit WooThemes

Plugins

Plugins are fairly straightforward. They are ways in which you can expand WordPress’ functionality with extra features. For most blogs, you’d want a selection of these. They are easy to install and, by and large, easy to use.

The One Sentence Guide To Installing Free WordPress Plugins from WordPress.org

Read This.

Recommended Plugins To Install

I recommend you install the following plugins:-

• Yoast WordPress SEO – Will be discussed in this tutorial. The best plugin out there for Search Engine Optimisation.
• Yoast Google Analytics – Allows easy integration of Google Analytics which will be discussed later.
• WP Email Capture – (disclaimer, this is my plugin) Allows you to capture email addresses so you can send out newsletters (will discuss more later).
• Akismet – (comes pre installed). Prevents comment spam. This is a must.
• Twitter Tools – Allows you to automatically tweet new posts to your twitter account.
• Contact Form 7 ­– Allows the easy creation of a contact form. Useful for advertising enquiries/guest blog enquries.
• Tweet Old Post – Periodically tweets posts from the archive to your site. Good for maintaining a level of interest even when you are not able to tweet.
• WP Super Cache – Does some cool stuff in the back end of WordPress which means that if your site gets a lot of hits, then the speed of your site isn’t affected. Recommended, even if you aren’t sure what it does.
• WordPress Database Backup – Backs up your WordPress Database & emails it to you, good in case things go wrong.
• Digg Digg – Adds social media buttons to your posts, allows posts to be easily shared.

Google Analytics can see where your visitors came to your site from

Install Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a piece of software that allows you to track your visitor numbers within the site. It’s a free piece of software and extremely powerful. To install Google Analytics, first you need to create an account on Google Analytics, which is linked to your Google Account. Once you’ve done that, do the following:-

• Click on the “Admin” button located at the top right hand corner of the screen.
• Click “New Account” and create a new account, filling in the relevant details.
• Once done, click on “New Property”, give it a name, place your URL in the “Website’s URL” and then click “Create Property”.
• Then log into your WordPress account & go to “Settings > Google Analytics”. Authenticate your account with your WordPress installation, and then link your WordPress account with the correct Google Analytics account. Click “Update Google Analytics Settings” and you’re done!

Install Google Webmaster Tools

The next thing you must do is set yourself up with Google Webmaster Tools. This gives you an overview on how your site is performing within Google, what it thinks the main keywords for your site are. It also crucially lets you know if your site has been hacked or is distributing malicious software & will let you resubmit the site to search engines. It’s very useful in letting you know how Google sees your site.

There are two ways of getting your website verified within Google Webmaster Tools. First you need to login to Google Webmaster Tools with your Google Account details you either have or created in the previous step.

When you have done that, click on the “Add a Site” button to add your site to Google Webmaster Tools, put in your site URL within the box that appears and you’ll be given a choice on how you’d like to verify your site. Click “add a meta tag”. Copy the meta tag.

The location of the Meta Tags in Google Webmaster Tools

In your WordPress Administration, click on “SEO”.  At the bottom there is a box entitled “Webmaster Tools”. Paste the copied meta tag into there. Click “Save Settings”.

The Box in Yoast WordPress SEO where to place the Google Webmaster Tags

Automate Website Backups

It is important to back up your blog. Fortunately it’s easy to schedule the backups. To begin with, click on “Tools > Backup” in the WordPress Administration.

Scroll down to “Schedule Backups”. Click the button next to the frequency of backups you are after (weekly is great), check all the boxes on “extra tables to backup”, and enter your email in the box above Schedule. Click Schedule and you’ll have backups set up, emailing you copies of your backup!

The Scheduled Backup Box

 Congratulations! You Now Have A Blog!

Congratulations, you now a great blog and a platform for sharing your thoughts a bit more seriously than before. Now what to write? Well, anything you want. However in the next part I will share ways in which I get posts written, including structuring your football blog, scheduling posts and jotting down ideas at matches quickly and easily. Check back in next week for the post, or sign up to the newsletter to get it into your inbox next Friday. See you then!

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So this is my season in review 2011/12.

I sat here writing this still supporting a Conference North side, although it was a little nail-biting towards the end. It was a position that Colwyn Bay shouldn’t have been in after being on 42 points at the end of January. Nevertheless, a late season wobble, coupled with an incredible set of results saw us dragged into a relegation battle. After a late season rally, we survived on merit. It was a victory made all the sweeter as the team was largely the team that achieved promotion to the Conference North, with a couple of additions. Any spare budget was spent getting the ground upgraded to Conference North standards. By jove we did that too!

So we go into season 2012/13 with confidence. On paper it appears to be a tougher league with a lot of tough teams (Halifax I believe will be the team to beat. Chester, Guiseley & the losing playoff finalist will challenge as well), but hopefully we can put together a decent, mid table Conference North side. For that I will be happy!

And now, onto my end of season awards!

Best Away Day for 2011/12 - Bishop's Stortford

Favourite Away Day

Three days out stuck for me. The first was Gloucester City. A huge ground (they play at Cheltenham), in a nice part of the world and with a great set of fans that I follow on Twitter was great. Altrincham was fun as well as it was a non-league powerhouse, in the easiest ground for me to get to in the league, and meeting some great Altrincham fans (including Jack, who we took under our wings for the game).

However, in terms of the day, my favourite trip was Bishop’s Stortford. Mainly for the pre/post game. Having to get a train at 9am was completely alien to a fan who’d consider Clitheroe a huge away day previously was a novelty. Also spending the day with a good friend of mine was fun. The newness of the Conference North, and ending up drinking in Leicester Square, going to a Casino, and failing miserably to chat up a Polish girl with fantastic breasts. It felt remarkably big time. We are Colwyn Bay, and we are Conference North.

Favourite Match - Altrincham

Favourite Away Match

Seeing Witton Albion produce an amazing display to beat Spennymoor United in the FA Cup was definitely a highlight. They have a fantastic setup, and should be well set for Evostik Premier League. The game away at Stalybridge Celtic was a great performance, though helped with an early sending off, though the Nuneaton Town performance was a crucial point as well. Although it was a losing effort, the 3-2 defeat to Hyde was a cracking match.

In terms of performance and entertainment though, the match against Altrincham was my match of the season. A match that saw us stop a slump, Frank Sinclair’s last minute winner, and 7 fricking goals. Not a day for defences, but a great win against a non-league big boy.

Most Emotional Away Day

A special award, but the trip to Bramall Lane was an emotional day. The first home game for Sheffield United since the death of their former player & manager Gary Speed. Just wished I visit in happier times.

Worst Away Day

Boston United. Though probably wasn’t as bad as what I originally wrote, Boston United was not exactly the most friendliest away day I’d been on. Should’ve got 3 points there, beyond a fantastic goal.

Worst Away Match

A couple of games you’d notice I’ve been on but not talked about. Nuneaton was a nice day and a great performance (I just got a wee bit drunk and forgot to take any photos. Whoops!), but another game was Workington. Nearly in tears on the way home after a wet, dismal day and a drab performance. Plus Adele was on the radio as well.

What Of This Blog?

And yes, what of this blog!

Well towards the end of the season I did struggle keeping it updated. As such I am looking for a few people to help with the load and guest post (click here if you want to guest post). There are a few new grounds for me to visit. As things stand, next season I am due to visit:-

• Chester (though I have been to The Deva Stadium before, when they were Chester City)
• Corby Town
• Hinckley/Darlington (I think Hinckley will probably be repreived)
• Brackley
• Droylsden
• Kettering Town

There will possibly be one more as well, depending on the playoffs. Coupled that with FA Cup & FA Trophy and possible away days, then we could have around 8/9 posts on this here blog.

Over a season, that’s not many!

So – assuming I don’t get any more guest bloggers, this blog will be quieter next season than last. Also I will also be going away less next year (it became very expensive towards the end!) – but should be going to the majority of away games for Colwyn Bay, as well as a few other grounds if I’m bored.

There’s one game that is definite, the Olympic Football that I will be covering. I’ve an idea on how to keep the blog ticking over in the summer. I need to write it though (I’m locking myself in a pub to write it!). Thanks to all the wonderful fans and people I have met in the last 9 months. It’s been a journey.

In Newbs We Trust.

Come on the Bay!

Rhys Wynne
(@ystbah)

Gainsborough Trinity – 2

Colwyn Bay – 0

Football Conference North – 31^st March 2012

What….you didn’t believe Sunday’s post, did you?

A football blogger, in one of his other pursuits (the church) wrote recently “It has been proven recently that when man has nothing else for comfort, they get comfort from God.”. I am not the most religious person in the world, so can’t really get comfort from God. However I do get comfort from omens, omens that were most needed on the trip to Gainsborough.

In truth, Colwyn Bay have been frustratingly dismal recently. After an amazing January and a February that started promising but petered out, March has been abysmal, needing the Bay faithful nervously looking over their shoulders at the dreaded “R” word. At the time of writing, upgrading the ground for the Conference North level of football is looking promising, however the team isn’t quite yet mathematically safe. Barring a massive collapse and the substantial cushion beneath us deflating, we should be okay. However, one the former is occurring, and the latter, well, let’s just say we don’t want to rely on the latter.

However, we haven’t played badly. Solihull should’ve been a point bar an amazing strike (more of which in a later blog) and Corby was a frustrating 1-0 loss. Unfortunately, it’s the time of the year where moral defeats count for nothing, and you crave 91^st minute goals off the arse of the opposition centreback.

All in all, a trip to Gainsborough Trinity, who were pushing the playoffs, wasn’t exactly the most welcome. As such, I began looking for omens.

Gainsborough had picked up points liberally and were pushing the playoffs. The team, an ex league side, were dangerous opponents. Opponents vanquished at the reverse fixture early on in the season at the Bernabay.

That’s Omen 1.

I left my house and headed to Picadilly Station. I just missed my first train, a trip via Doncaster to Gainsborough, instead I had to get a train via Sheffield 40 minutes later. To pass the time, I headed into the amusement arcade at the station and off the princely sum of one English pound, I won £70 out of the fruit machine. If I ever “jack a fruitie” (to use insider terms for winning Jackpot on a Fruit Machine) on a Saturday, Colwyn Bay win (I refer you to Stalybridge Celtic).

Colwyn Bay struggled to defend corners.

That’s Omen 2.

I jumped on the train and got myself sat down next to some Oldham lads. The guys were off to watch OIdham play Notts County, and were in a similar situation to us – 10 points off the drop, mid table, with a handful of games to go. “You’ll be fine!”, they said with the kind of confidence you can say when you haven’t spent £70,000 and worked your hands to the bone building a ground to meet Conference North standards. I informed them that I had been to Oldham before, to watch the preseason friendly via Blackpool. I didn’t mention the fact my camera got confiscated.

Halfway through the journey, one of them spoke to another guy on the train, who perked up when I mentioned Stocksbridge Park Steels. The fans were Chorley fans, of which we shared stories about useless players we shared, and generally had a chat on how the season was going. They were ironically the same fans I chatted to on the way to Eastwood Town about 3 months ago. A game that we won.

That’s Omen 3.

After rushing to the final train, I arrived in Gainsborough, where I met up with the Bay contingency in a pub called the Elm Cottage. It was nice enough, the building was lovely, but there was an uneasy “non mathematically safe” air to the game today. An air that wasn’t going to change, we thought, at final whistle. Nevertheless, we shared some stories with the locals, including one who was scarily into architecture, who said that Gainsborough Trinity’s ground was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in the country.

After a couple of pints we headed into the game. The ground was your typical Conference North ground, with plenty to it yet a little haphazard. I headed to the corner of the ground to the club shop (which was a portable building), before heading to get some food.

The food is worth a paragraph on its own. Although I’ve tasted better pies and better chips, they were easily the nicest whole plate of food I’ve had at a football ground. The pies were a work of art, large chunky steak pieces, perfectly cooked with just a little too much gravy, in a solid crust. The chips were proper thick cut potato chips, that were amazingly cooked. Comments on the curry sauce and the peas echoed this. Gainsborough Trinity may not have a lot, but their food is exemplary.

Allan Collins chased down every ball for Colwyn Bay

The kick off came (Gainsborough’s walk on music is “The Eye of the Tiger”), and although Colwyn Bay attacked early, Gainsborough took the lead after 5 minutes. Connor Roberts, who pulled off an amazing safe to keep the game level seconds before, pulled off a great stop to keep the game level from the resulting corner. However the ball was headed in by Luke Waterfall at the far post, and Gainsborough took the lead. Although Colwyn Bay pressed for an equaliser but never really threatened, and on 35 minutes, the seagulls conceded a free kick on the edge of the penalty box.  Luke Holden hit the bar with the shot, and the ball wasn’t cleared. Andrew Boyce scored a headed tap in to put the home side 2-0 up.

Half time came, and we experienced Gainsborough’s club house. It was nice enough, but it had the air of a clubhouse that would exist should there be an apocalypse, with large, school dinner tables in rows. Nevertheless, the beer was excellent, with a couple of great local brews. One of which, Titanic, I have been enjoying in Manchester recently.

The second half was a bit dull in truth. Colwyn Bay didn’t look like wanting to win, and Gainsborough seemed happy to rest on their laurels. Matty Hughes, who was rushed back for the game, was injured (which isn’t good for our run in), and Frank Sinclair got more than his fair share of light-hearted taunting because he is, well, Frank Sinclair, but beyond an amazing chance right at the death for Gainsborough to make it 3-0, there was nothing in the second half. Final score, Gainsborough 2-0 Colwyn Bay.

Results kind of went our way, but we could’ve used a win. With me, sat in a train as I write this, drinking extortionately Spitfire Ale bought from Sheffield train station, I realise something.

Omen’s are for losers.

Cash Spent – £160.23

Items Bought – 3

31st March 2012

One thing you will notice about me on Twitter is that I have a bot. Don’t complain, but every so often it digs up an old post from the archives, and posts it to the twitter feed. It works quite well and gives me a little more traffic. Anyway, I tried version two of the plugin, which allowed me to tweet about a football match (in my case, Gainsborough Trinity vs Colwyn Bay) effectively without actually being there. You see, one of my friends (April) asked me if I’d accompany her to the Trafford Centre, Manchester’s premier shopping outlet. Walking around a shopping centre with my fashion concious bretheren, how could I possibly refuse?

I woke up at 6am, excitingly waiting for the 2:10pm tram from Old Trafford to Stretford, I was so looking forward to my visit to the Trafford Centre with April. The 8 hours before setting off dragged, as watching Saturday Kitchen and then Football Focus just seemed to slow down the march of time. Eventually, after a light lunch of Ryvita & Cream Cheese, we headed off to the Trafford Centre.

The centre kindly puts on a bus between Stretford Metrolink & The Trafford Centre, so we hopped on the bus and entred the centre through Selfridges. What a heavenly place, with everybody looking around for clothes and shoes to purchase. Apologies to the Llanelian Road main stand on a Satruday afternoon in May, but I’ve found my new heaven.

We browsed around the shops mutliple times and didn’t get bored, it was fantastic! We headed around Hollister, which despite reports to the contrary, was not full of bellends, Topshop (Twice), Burtons (Three Times), All Saints (Five times) and H&M – before spending a good hour looking around the Lacoste Shop, which is easily my favourite. The walk was aided by ample cash machines from where I could draw out my money, and plenty of places to get light refreshments.

I needed something more substansial, so headed to the Great Hall for some food. After picking up my favourite food (who could turn down a McDonalds?), we sat down to discuss the day over a gorgeous burger and chips. What made it better was that with a promotion I also won a free apple pie! What are the chances?

With a celebration in the air we decided to not go home just yet, so we headed to the amusement arcade for a game of Dancing Stage Euromix. With classic tracks such as Mambo No 5 and Boyzone’s “So Good”, it ate a fair few of our collective pound coins. We had just enough left to go to the Odeon Cinema, buy some popcorn, and enjoy a romantic comedy – my favourite type of film! It was laugh out loud funny yet so sad, and in the end I wasn’t sure my tears were of joy or laughter. Fantastic!

Tired, we left the Trafford Centre, and I was left to reflect on the day. I am so glad I didn’t go to Gainsborough Trinity vs Colwyn Bay, as non- league football has nothing on the Trafford Centre. Those who say it’s a soulless attempt at rampant commercialism are sadly mistaken. Go as soon as you can!

Pointless Newsflash for you all: Up until recently, I had never been to Birmingham.

I’m not entirely sure why, just with most of my friends, family and work priorities spread between England‘s North West, Yorkshire, Wales and London, I had no need to go to West Midlands. Nothing personal, just never had the need to go. Besides, Birmingham was close, I could go when I could no longer afford to go to far flung destinations such as Thailand, couldn’t I?

well, yes I could, as this season and the promotion to the Conference North had forced my hand. A trip to Gloucester saw me glimpse the first view of Birmingham from the train, but the trip to Solihull would actually see me step foot in the UK’s second most populace city.

Solihull's Ground was Fantastically Quaint

It was alright, only saw the small walk between the train stations, as whilst New Street is the bigger station, Moor Street serves the odd London train. I took a photo of the bullring, and then headed off to Solihull for Colwyn Bay‘s visit to Solihull Moors.

The second youngest football club in the Conference North (behind FC Halifax Town), Solihull Moors was formed due to the merger of Solihull Borough and Moors Green. The new club took Moor Green’s position in the Conference North and became a solid Conference North side at the level.

After a weak start of the season, Solihull recovered and were safely in mid table when I visited, and were looking strong at home. Colwyn Bay on the other hand, had slipped a little from pushing the playoffs at the end of January. A dismal February that saw a few big losses (and a huge win against Bishop’s Stortford) saw us slip a little down the table. Very mid table. So a rather uninspiring clash presented me on my trip to Damson Park.

I arrived at Solihull Station and was surrounded by hundreds of other fans that were also in Claret and Blue. Unfortunately, the Seagulls doesn’t have a large Birmingham fan club, but instead these were Aston Villa fans waiting for the fan bus to Villa park. There was no such bus for me, instead a taxi ride to Damson Park. Which was lovely, as the chap was fascinated in why I made the journey to watch the game.

Solihull's Keeper Jasper Singh had an absolute blinder.

I pulled into Damson Park with a warning of the clubhouse being outside the ground. It was, but luckily you can head out at half time. After sitting down to watch a bit of the rugby with a pint of cheap Canadian Lager (unfortunately, as lovely as Solihull’s clubhouse was, it’s beverage choice wasn’t the best), I had an odd conversation with a local in Solihull Moors’ clubhouse:-

“Hey Mate”, this Brummie chap said to me, “who’s that team?”
“Colwyn Bay FC.”
“Never heard of them.”
“Ah this is the first season in the Conference North, we play Solihull Moors today.”
“Never heard of them either.”

After facepalming myself, I received news on the second feature on Damson Park – that the burgers are reportedly the best in Non League. A huge claim. Whilst pie’s are largely eaten at football matches so you know where the best ones are (Glossop North End‘s), burgers usually compete with restaurants, so your tastebuds compete with higher quality burgers. As such, the Solihull Moors burger, whilst not bad, it doesn’t beat the burger I had in Cubs 49 Bar in Chicago, Illinois. After finishing the burger, I headed to watch the game.

Colwyn Bay started brightly, coming off a good win against Bishop’s Stortford, and playing with confidence. But peppering the goal with shots from Karl Noon, Fraser McLachlan and Michael Lea saw saves from Jasper Singh, who was Solihull’s standout player in the first half. Solihull – whilst breaking well – created very few chances, and whilst Colwyn Bay had okay chances, the best came on half time where Rob Hopley, through one on one, hit the ball square against the advancing Singh.

Bay pressured, but couldn't find a way through.

The second half though saw Colwyn Bay struggle to get out of the blocks, and slowly Solihull came back into the game. Although Metcalf wasn’t threatened between the sticks, it was with 10 minutes to go that he was left flapping at air with a sweetly struck shot from Junior English to put the home side ahead. Junior was rather harshly sent off towards the end of the game for a second yellow card, but it was too late for Colwyn Bay to capitalise.

Overall a moment of brilliance decided the result. Frustrating day for Colwyn Bay fans, and the train home wasn’t the most comfortable! Nothing against Solihull though, hope to visit again next year.