So why does this exist.

2 years ago my son and I embarked on what I viewed as a right of passage, an introduction to the game I love. They call it the beautiful game (although it often is anything but that). We live too far from the team I supported since I was a boy to make the commitment to regular visits, so instead decided on a journey I'd heard on a few podcasts.

An FA Cup journey where we would select a match from the extra preliminary round. We would then follow the winners of that match into the next round and so on through the rounds. This will mean we could travel anywhere across England and Wales. I know, so what right?

Well it's all a little more challenging for us, then my son was 6 years old and a SWAN (syndromes without a name https://www.undiagnosed.org.uk/) and has complex medical issues, he is also a wheelchair user and prone to sudden and often serious health downturns. The thing was we had a great time we visited a heap of grounds across the south of England and Wales and thanks in particular to some fabulous support from the disabled supporters association of Newport County made it all the way to a quarter final.

Last year was one of those years (the kind we try not to focus on too much) and we couldn't do it again.
So this year I'm determined, he's more stable, though now we carry an oxygen tank and has a diagnosis, the type where you try to remember the order of the jumble of letters and numbers the doctors tell you but doesn't really mean a lot. We are going to go again and this year I'm going to try and explain what its like for a dad to take his disabled son to watch the game he loves.

What can you expect? An idea of what the facilities are like, not a wow this tiny 7th tier ground has no disabled facilities but an honest assessment of what our matchday experience was like, the food, the welcome, the support the things we all hope for when we embark on trying to entice our kids into the sport we love, an idea of the match and the journey to and from the grounds and the standard of facilities en route.

So its a journey of a sports mad dad inducting his kid/s into the world he loves and hoping they bite and the trials and tribulations that come along with it.