Skip to main content

An early taste of FA Cup magic


Haywards Heath 0 Lancing FC 2, Emirates FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round, 11th August

While it may only be the opening weekend of the new Premier League season, it’s already FA Cup day in non-league world. Well, lower non-league world anyway.

To celebrate the magic of the FA Cup (which still very much exists for clubs at this level), I’ve decided to cross the East Sussex border and visit my first non-Southern Combination Football League ground of the new season. Albeit not by much. In either case.

Based in West Sussex, but located fairly close to the East Sussex border, Haywards Heath Town were last year’s SCFL champions and will this season ply their trade at a higher level in the newly formed Bostik South East Division.

This is my first visit to the Hanbury Stadium and my first impressions, as I drive towards the ground and spy the main stand (pictured), are good.


Things only improve as I reach the ground and upon enquiring where I should park am told you pay your entrance fee (£8 for adults) there and then park pitch-side. Literally pitch-side. The welcoming is friendly and I get a further bonus when I am told that there will be no charge for my two young children. This also happened at Saltdean in midweek, and it’s great to see these clubs doing all they can to encourage more youngsters to attend their matches. Seriously, if you love football, have young kids, and are on a tight budget, then get yourself down to your local club. It’s well worth it.

The match-day program (£1) was also extremely well produced, and packed full of information about the home-team, with a couple of pages set aside for the visitors, Lancing FC, as well.


Taking a seat in the main stand, it has to be said that the tannoy system was quite loud. Not that I’m complaining. The music I heard was good (Foo Fighters) and the sound at least went someway towards drowning out the incessant questions from my two young companions.

One of the first things my eldest pointed out to me as we waited for the match to begin, was that the Haywards Heath number 9 looked quite big. He was talking about a player named Melford Simpson. Anyone who has seen Melford play before will realise that my son’s observation was something of an understatement. It’s akin to say that Neymar occasionally might spend more time rolling around on the floor than strictly necessary. He’s huge. I instantly find myself wondering how the Lancing defence will cope with the aerial threat that he must clearly possess.

Having witnessed a seven-goal thriller a week ago, and a 3-2 comeback from 2-0 down on Tuesday night, I’m hoping for more goals galore today.

Mu hopes are raised just over a minute in, when SCFL-Premier side Lancing are awarded a penalty which is duly dispatched by Charlie Pitcher (see video). A goal already and less than two-minutes played. The signs are good.

Unfortunately, the signs lied. The rest of the half is fairly scrappy. Heath look a little off the pace (this is their first competitive game of the season, and Lancing’s third) and despite getting in down the sides on a couple of occasions, the final ball is often poor and there is nothing for their big striker to feed on.

Lancing are happy to play on the counter, and their number 7 (Jack Langford) is a constant source of problems. Unfortunately, he looks like he might have played a bit too much foot golf over the summer and still be a little confused by the target he’s aiming for. One skewed shot smashes into the corner flag and stays in play, while another ends up not too far away.

Aside from a couple of penalty shouts for Heath (which could have been given) and another for Lancing (which also looked touch-and-go) not much else happens in the opening 45 minutes.

It’s the same in the second-half, too. Heath certainly have more of the ball, and look to go more direct, trying to exploit Simpson’s flick-ons, but they still struggle to create clear cut opportunities. They have one, possibly two, that they really should convert, but the Lancer’s remain largely untroubled and still look dangerous on the break.

And so to injury time, when the game is finally put to bed. The super-speedy Langford is set free, holds off two challenges, and this time makes no mistake with his finish, to send the lower league side through to the next round.

And this season, FA Cup progression really means a lot to non-league teams. As noted in the program, the winners in this round receive £2,250 from the FA (the losers get £750). This is far more than in previous seasons, and the amount is only increased the further in the competition they get. A massive amount of money for teams at this level, and something that will ensure team’s give their all to progress as far as they can.

The magic of the FA Cup is alive and well and I, for one, am looking forward to the next round of action in a few weeks’ time.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Peacehaven’s late show proves why leaving early is a no no

Peacehaven and Telscombe 3 Langney Wanderers 3, Southern Combination Football League Premier Division, Tuesday 20 th August 2019 One of my biggest bugbears when attending live football matches are ‘supporters’ (and I use that term loosely) who leave the game early to ‘avoid the traffic’. It’s something that I used to see all the time when I took my Brighton-supporting eldest to the Amex Stadium on a fairly regular basis a few years ago. One game that particularly sticks in mind was a match against Leicester. The visitors were leading 1-0 with about five minutes left when a Leicester player was sent off. Suddenly, and somewhat inexplicably, a plethora of people sitting around us stood up and started shuffling unapologetically towards the exits, obviously eager to get a march on those foolish enough to actually stay around until the end of the game. I just don’t get it. Never have done. Never will do. There was still plenty of time for late drama, but these ‘fans’ clearl

Groundhopping away from home

Bootle FC 3 Charnock Richard 1, NWCFL Premier Division, 21 st August 2018 When, a few months ago, the parents of the Withdean Youth team that I had coached for the past eight years clubbed together to buy me a tour of Anfield, my wife viewed this as a great opportunity to take a few days away with the kids during the summer holidays. What she hadn’t banked on back then was my new hobby of Non-League groundhopping. Therefore, with the tour booked, and our dates away confirmed, I started looking into possible matches that we could attend. You can probably imagine the better half’s excitement when I informed her of my plans. Surprisingly, however, she didn’t turn down my offer for her to tag along me and the kids. Following some half-hearted research (never been a strength if I’m honest), I noticed that North-West Counties Football League side Bootle FC were  scheduled to be at home on the Tuesday evening that we were due to be in Liverpool. The name Bootle struck a chord with

Hartley Wintney offers ideal stop-off spot

Hartley Wintney 1 Merthyr Town 1, Southern Premier League, 29 th September 2018 Okay, so I’m well aware that last week’s blog post may not have painted me in the greatest of lights. That I came across as something of a hopeless unromantic oaf. I know this due to the admonishing looks and angry shakes of the head that I’ve received from some of my wives’ friends in the school playground during pick-up time this week. Yet fear not. This weekend I made amends for the errors of last week. For on Friday night I took my wife for a romantic night away to watch a show. Kid free! Not that this meant there was to be no groundhopping this weekend. Oh no! On the other half’s suggestion – yes, really – we decided that on the way home on Saturday afternoon we would stop off and visit a ground that I wouldn’t usually be able to get to due to travel logistics. Now I like to think that this offer was one born out of her undying love for me, yet I strongly suspect it was more likely a