Certainty in an Uncertain Season
Parkway v Sholing | Match PreviewBy Mike Parrish
Weather, postponements, and financial pressure continue to frame the non-league winter. Parkway’s visit to Sholing arrives with rare assurance, and a reminder of what is at stake beyond ninety minutes, writes Mike Parrish.
Across the Southern Premier League South, recent weeks have followed a familiar pattern. Inspections, postponements, and busy revisions to the fixture list have shaped the calendar, as grass pitches across the division have once again found themselves at the mercy of a winter that offers little flexibility. It is a scenario repeated time and time again, yet no less disruptive for its regularity.
For many non-league clubs, the effects stretch well beyond simple inconvenience. Games lost to the weather are games lost at the gate, and with them vital income that sustains squads, staff, and day-to-day operations. While the costs of running a football club remain constant, the opportunities to offset them now arrive sporadically. Fixture secretaries juggle rearrangements, players train without rhythm, and boards wait for Saturdays that never quite come.
Those with access to artificial surfaces are spared much of that uncertainty. For others, significant off-season investment in grass pitches can be undone by January and February conditions that planning alone cannot overcome. The difference is not one of care or commitment, but of resource, and it has become increasingly visible as the season progresses.
Parkway have felt those realities in recent weeks. Last weekend’s home fixture against Berkhamsted required another late assessment, with work carried out on the surface whenever the weather briefly relented. Despite further rain overnight, the game survived, offering relief long before kick-off. The afternoon itself delivered more than reassurance. A disciplined 2–0 victory extended Parkway’s improving run, blending hard work with moments of quality that have too often been elusive this season. Three successive league wins would be the narrative, along with a move out of the bottom three ahead of a demanding spell.
That context travels with them to Hampshire.
Saturday’s destination removes one variable from the equation. Sholing’s 3G surface ensures the fixture will be played, a certainty that has become increasingly notable at this stage of the campaign. Parkway arrive with confidence restored, buoyed by recent away successes on artificial pitches, though fully aware of the challenge that awaits.
Sholing remain firmly in the play-off picture, sitting just outside the top five and still well placed to apply pressure as the season develops. A postponed fixture last weekend preceded defeat at Bracknell Town and draws against Berkhamsted and Gloucester City, yet the quality within their squad and the consistency of their campaign point toward a competitive finish.
In ordinary circumstances, this would stand comfortably as an intriguing contest in its own right. Yet it arrives during a period where the wider conditions of the game continue to frame the narrative. While attention elsewhere is drawn towards the Premier League title race, managerial debates, and familiar headlines, the lower reaches of the pyramid persist in quieter circumstances, shaped by weather patterns, financial realities, and the simple challenge of getting games played.
It is here that prominent voices within the game might pause to observe what is unfolding. For many towns and cities, non-league clubs are not a footnote to the footballing conversation, but its foundation. They remain meeting points, shared identities, and sources of continuity within their communities. Their sustainability, often tested in the winter months, carries significance that extends well beyond league tables.
Saturday’s match at The Mortgage Decisions Stadium will take place. That, in itself, feels worthy of note, and perhaps of wider consideration.
Parkway Partners
