About

November 29, 2025, and some time during the second half of my first game at Home Park, it was clear that following Plymouth Argyle was going to be anything but boring. 

It was that 3-0 loss to Northampton Town, of course.

Both sets of fans were singing “you’re getting sacked in the morning” at head coach Tom Cleverley, the star striker and sole source of goals had been sent off for an elbow and reacted by booting the ball into the stands and Pilgrim Pete had been given a talking by the referee for upsetting the visiting goalkeeper. 

Exiting the stadium and being serenaded by the strains of ‘Simply having a wonderful Christmastime’ from the Winter Wonderland next door, it felt very far away from Asia. 

While I hail from Blackburn, I had spent over 25 years writing about football in Asia and elsewhere, covering the game for The Guardian, BBC, New York Times, World Soccer, Associated Press, ESPN and others.

In that time, I interviewed some of the biggest names in the game such as Pep Guardiola, Cristiano Ronaldo and Nicky Marker (for my book on Blackburn Rovers winning the Premier League back in 1995 and, as older Argyle fans will know, Home Park was an important part of that journey), watched football in over 50 countries and sat in the press box at World Cup and Champions League finals.

So, how, I hear you ask, did I end up in the Gordon Sparks press box, with the smell of pasties (slightly different to the aroma of grilled squid in Seoul or satay in Kuala Lumpur) wafting up from the stand?

It’s thanks to CounterPress media. The New Pilgrim is the latest in a wider platform of networked outlets for regional sportswriters and content creators. This platform is being built with only two groups in mind: the creator and the community.

The plan is to come up with quality content whether it is news, features, opinion articles, interviews and more besides in an attempt to offer something different. 

When you read articles, there are no ads, no videos that must be watched, no questions that have to be answered.

When I write articles, there are no restrictions, no editorial control and nobody I have to answer to apart from the audience.

Last but not least, I believe that I have no biases, preconceptions (apart from preferring pies to pasties) or anything else. 

I come in peace, armed with nothing more than a laptop, a fresh pair of eyes and a slightly smaller waistline from climbing the hill from the Hoe to Home Park.

A new pilgrim, if you will.