A Different Perspective

Years ago, I used to go to football matches as a neutral quite regularly,  usually on days when my team wasn’t playing or were away from home somewhere that I couldn’t get to. Nowadays I rarely go to matches that don’t involve Romford FC. For some people however, going to games without supporting either of the teams involved is how they watch all of their football; I’m not sure that I could do that, as a recent experience proved.

 

In recent years, the only non-Romford games that I have seen have been England v USA in 2018 (I was lucky enough to get a complimentary ticket, otherwise I doubt I would have gone), and the 2019 FA Vase and FA Trophy Finals between Chertsey Town and Cray Valley PM, and AFC Fylde and Leyton Orient respectively, but this week I took a trip to the seaside to see Eastbourne Town play Little Common in the Southern Combination.

 

Not being invested in the result, I was able to watch the game in a way I don't normally. It gave me a different perspective on the sort of incidents that may provoke a sense of injustice if they happen in a Romford match; it definitely makes me aware that no matter how impartial and reasonable I think I am when watching Romford, I am not!

The charming turnstile block, sadly not in use.

 

My main reason for going to watch Eastbourne Town play was the ground. The club’s home, The Saffrons, is also home to Eastbourne Cricket Club, Eastbourne Hockey Club, and Compton Croquet Club, while Eastbourne Bowling Club are next door, and the view beyond the bowling green takes in the Renaissance style Victorian Town Hall, built in 1886. The Saffrons was first used in 1884, and includes a beautiful turnstile block which dates back to 1914. It was damaged in a fire in 2004 but has been fully restored. Sadly, it isn’t in use – the actual entrance is a slightly more prosaic gap in the fence in the opposite corner of the site.

The view from the entrance with the Town Hall dominating.

For a Southern Combination League club (that’s five steps below the English Football League, nine below the Premier League) Eastbourne Town are quite well supported – there were 220 there for the game I saw – and have not one, but two groups, of ‘ultras,’ Pier Pressure and The Beachy Head Ultras (although neither were in evidence at the Little Common match), who have plastered the scaffold like standing accommodation behind one goal with the sort of stickers these groups tend to go in for.

The visitors, Little Common, hail from Bexhill, nine miles or so along the coast, but play their home games at Eastbourne United’s ground, and they were not without support on the night. Officially, the capacity at The Saffrons is 3,000 although it’s difficult to imagine that sort of number being accommodated comfortably and safely. It’s mind boggling to discover that back in the 1950s, for an FA Cup tie against Hastings United, 7,378 people squeezed into the place!

 

The game was entertaining without being especially engaging. As a neutral I felt somewhat detached because there was no jeopardy; because I didn’t mind who won, I didn’t really care either. Watching Romford play can be stressful at times, heart breaking sometimes, but thrilling and joyful at others. Supporting a team is emotional, watching a game uncommitted is a bit hollow.

There was no score at the break, but Eastbourne went in front in the first minute of the second half when a forward finished from close range after a good move down the right wing. Little Common equalised after a free-kick was deflected onto a post and the rebound was slotted home. Common then took the lead when a forward skipped past the last defender on the left and bent a shot past the keeper.

 

In the celebrations after Little Common’s second goal, an Eastbourne player ended up on the floor holding his head (I presume he was clobbered by an opponent; I didn’t see what happened), and a 21 man brawl broke out.

 

The scuffle - which came dangerously close to involving members of the crowd – was quite well handled by the referee and his assistants. When the dust had settled, one player from each side were sent off, although it could quite easily have been more.

 

Both teams seemed upset at having a player dismissed, although it was difficult to see why other than because of the perpetual sense of injustice teams feel when they have someone sent off, no matter how bang to rights the player is, and they were also equally aggrieved at a number of yellow cards that the referee had to issue as the sides became increasingly fractious as the game wore on. As a neutral, it seemed to me that the referee got those decisions right, although had the team in yellow and blue been Romford and not Eastbourne Town, who knows how I would have felt?

 

Eastbourne snatched a point with a goal from close range after Common failed to clear. Of the two sides, Little Common would have been the happier to have taken a point.

 

I had heard good things about the Eastbourne Town programme, having seen a number of cover illustrations online including a Halloween themed edition and one with a retro-style FA Cup Final cover, and the cover for the Little Common game was in anime style. Sadly, the cover was the best bit as the contents comprised a few photos and some stats, but nothing to read except for the history of each club.

Many people believe that the football programme is an endangered species, and more and more football clubs are producing online programmes instead of the traditional printed version. In these days when all the statistical information you can want is easy to find online and more up to date to boot, a programme needs to have something you can’t get online, some sort of unique selling point, and the cover apart, Eastbourne’s doesn’t really have that.

 

Well, that’s my view anyway, I guess there are equally people for whom Eastbourne’s programme is perfectly good, but given that it is well produced and looks attractive, the lack of original content seems a missed opportunity.

 

My evening’s football at The Saffrons was enjoyable enough, but it made me realise that watching football as a neutral is not something I’m bothered about enough to do on a regular basis anymore.