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Goole AFC - Unibond Northern Premier League It's now 2009! A Happy New Year to all FGIF readers and contributors. It's that time of year when players, officials and supporters everywhere hope that their clubs can achieve some success in the coming months. Will your team be able to sustain that great start and battle for honours come May? For others it may be a decent run and a bit of luck that is needed to avoid the dreaded drop. It certainly will be an exciting time! For the avid grounds enthusiast it can also be a test as our chosen matches may be affected by the difficult weather conditions that are commonplace during the winter months. Decisions...decisions. FGIF Senior reporter and top photographer Mike Latham certainly got lucky when the big freeze took it's toll on the New Year's Day fixture programme. Mike vividly describes the weather conditions in his TT report (www.footballgroundsinfocus.com/TT89120.htm): 'Lancashire was frost-ridden as a new year dawned and as the morning wore on the inevitable toll of postponements rose- even Southport, normally a banker in frosty conditions, falling to the weather. Desperate times and it struck me, as I worked my way through the internet, just how few clubs still make use of their web pages to convey important information and save endless ‘phone calls. Notable exceptions were Kings Lynn and Gateshead who both conveyed news of positive early morning pitch inspections.  ‘Go east’ seemed to be the message but I was conscious not to be stranded should an isolated game be called off at the last minute and decided to try and find a venue nearer to back-ups if needed. What a delight, therefore, it was to telephone the Goole secretary at midday.  He not only confirmed the game was on and the pitch soft, he was so enthusiastic and friendly in the course of a 30 seconds conversation that it made a trip to the VPG (Victoria Pleasure Grounds) un-missable'. The effort was well rewarded with a great game, a friendly welcome and the best meat pie on the circuirt! Thanks Mike for the superb report and photos (the first to be uploaded on site this year). Photo above: taken from Goole AFC v Stocksbridge Park Steels (Northern Premier League Div 1 South), 0-3, on 01/01/09 by Mike Latham