North vs South. Take your Pick.

The best place to live if you want total access to football?

I’m from the north west of England, but have lived in the south east for around 25 years now. In a footballing sense, I’ve always felt spoiled down here, especially on the non-league level. It feels as though you can’t drive ten miles along any road without passing a non-league club. Sometimes a small town will have not one but two clubs.

Living here in eastern Kent, I can count at least a dozen clubs about a half hour’s drive away.

Ramsgate, Margate, Deal, Dover, Folkestone, Hythe, Whitstable, Faversham, Herne Bay, Canterbury, Faversham Strike Force, Maidstone, Ashford.

There are more, but I got bored counting.

The Isthmian Premier has 24 clubs packed into what must be the smallest geographical area of any at Step 3. Most are Kent or Essex, with a day trip to Chichester thrown in, and a lunchtime spent sitting in traffic on the way to Dulwich.

But on a work trip to Manchester this week I remembered how it’s not only the south east that enjoys this. The north west (and the north in general) has the same. To live in the north west, somewhere around Manchester, is to live slap bang in the middle of a treasure trove of local football.

I’m guessing I’m not the only man in his late 40s who gets a thrill when seeing distance floodlights or the roof of a main stand somewhere.ve more than one option…

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