SEEING the picture of the Sholing Reserves football team, and a rather dashing young goalkeeper, in Keith Hamilton’s Hampshire Heritage section in Wednesday’s Echo reminded me of the day many years ago that we discovered a football ground in the allotments.

As youngsters we played football near the allotments in Bitterne. One day a couple of mates said they had found a football ground complete with goals, nets, corner flags and a stand.

Now statements like this are usually taken with a pinch of salt. But we set off across the Bursledon Road and though the land of makeshift huts, runner beans and miserable old men telling us we shouldn’t be there until we did indeed reach an unbelievable sight.

Next to ripening tomatoes and piles of horse manure we found a chain-link fence, with a hole in it, and through it we could see a football ground complete with goals, nets, corner flags and a stand.

Wow. In we went and started kicking a ball about. Needless to say a rather excitable official soon emerged from the Sholing Sports clubhouse and we made a swift exit from the now redeveloped Birch Lawn ground.