Soccer ground jumper record broken: Tony Incenzo completes lifelong non-league dream

Tony, who built a career as a radio sports reporter and is now a press officer for QPR, was so determined to complete the challenge that he went into work part-time this season to finally complete his adventure.

He also had to manage his personal life around his football trips, including marrying his wife in the summer to avoid matches.

In 2023 he was presented with a trophy to mark his achievement of attending every one of QPR’s home games for the past 50 years.

“I actually almost missed my daughter being born”, he says. “My wife is in hospital six days ahead of time, so I spent five nights sleeping on a chair in hospital and I kept thinking: ‘QPR will be home in a few days’.

“In the end my wife had the baby, then I ran out of the hospital in my car and made it to Loftus Road just in time.”

Tony’s love of watching football at all levels means he has attended games in some unusual circumstances, including well below even non-league.

“I got a special invitation to go into Feltham Prison in 2011 to watch a match as the only spectator,” he says.

“The prison team was in a league with companies with shift workers and obviously couldn’t play away games!

“I had to get there an hour before kick-off, my phone was taken from me, searched and then three prison guards took me and the team away through a nice little ground in the prison with proper dugouts.

“It was just after the London riots so the prison team was full of good young players and they won the game.”

There was no program or ticket to show for the trip and no halftime brew, but the exit was memorable.

“On the way out, some of the prisoners came out of their cells and started clapping for the away team because they lost the game,” says Tony.

“One of their guys replied ‘lost the game but at least we’re going home guys’ and we were then rushed out of there very, very quickly.”