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’ clearly decided that getting a slightly earlier train, or being the first car out of the car park, was more important than staying until the referee blew the final whistle. Needless to say, those supporters who left early did indeed miss another goal. Okay, it was Leicester who scored it… but that’s not the point.

Of course, this isn’t a trait that applies only to Brighton supporters. It’s a criticism that you could label at ‘supporters’ of practically any professional (Premier League, in particular) club.

I guess there are times when, on a freezing cold, wet Tuesday evening, with your team getting hammered 5-0 and thoughts of another hour after the game spent standing in a barely-moving queue waiting for a train whirring through your mind, that I can just about understand those who decide to make a sharp exit.

I just wouldn’t do it myself. For a variety of reasons. Firstly, I’m extremely tight, so if I’ve spent money on something you can be damn sure I’m going to extract every pennies-worth out of my outlay. Secondly, I like to see what players are still putting a shift in even in a hopeless situation. Thirdly (and most importantly), it’s football, and you never actually know what’s going to happen next. That’s one of the most beautiful things about the sport we all love. It’s predictably unpredictable.

No more so was this in evidence than at the game I attended last night between Peacehaven and Langney Wanderers in the SCFL Premier Division.

Having arrived home from a few days away in the New Forest earlier in the afternoon, I’d decided that I wouldn’t be travelling too far to a game that evening. When I discovered that a couple of my mates were heading up the road to Piddinghoe Avenue for the Peacehaven game, I swiftly decided that that would do for me.

As regular readers of my blog may already know, Piddinghoe Avenue is a ground I’m very familiar with. Click here for more information on why, and for a description of the ground.

About the only changes from my last visit was the admission fee (up by £1 to £7) and the programme, which was a free folded sheet of A4 paper containing not much more than information on the visitors and a squad list for both teams. This was a shame as last season’s programme was up there with the best in the division.

Other than that, everything else was the same. To the point that the signage on the main stand is still missing one of its panels, some five months after my last visit!

As my friends and I entered the ground, it was good to see Mikey Llloyd, a former teammate of all three of ours for the Sunday League team we used to play for, named among the starters. Having become a father for the first time at the start of this year, he hadn’t played much towards the back end of last season, instead taking the admirable decision to spend more time with his young family. Having now realised, however, that the thought of spending quality time with the family sounds far more idyllic than the reality, he’s back playing again.

The match couldn’t have started much worse for the hosts. Less than a minute had been played when a sloppy pass in the home defence presented the ball to the hugely impressive Tyler Capon, and he made no mistake to give the visitors an extraordinarily early lead.

‘Don’t worry’, a Peacehaven supporter (a work colleague of one of my friends) quickly assured us, ‘we’re a second-half team.’

It soon became clear that they’d need to be. The early goal clearly knocked the home side’s confidence. Wanderers were on the ascendancy and the Haven defence was struggling to deal with the visiting attack – Capon, in particular. This is the first SCFL match that I’ve been to since foolishly making some pre-season predictions on how I felt each team in this division would perform. On this showing, my prediction that Langney would be battling for survival looks way off the mark. Sorry about that.

Although Peacehaven came close to grabbing an equaliser when Matt Cheeseman was unlucky to see his volley from 25 yards clip the top of the bar, it was no real surprise when Langney doubled their advantage halfway through the first-half. Another sloppy Peacehaven pass was seized upon by the Wanderers attack, this time by Max Hollobone, and although his shot from distance was certainly sweetly struck, I can’t help but feel Peacehaven ‘keeper Alieu Secka should have done better with it.
My two accomplices certainly thought so. It’s fair to say that neither of my friends were backwards about coming forwards when it came to pointing out which players they rated, and (more pointedly) which they didn’t. I’m naming no names here, though, that’s not what I’m all about.

At 2-0, my mate’s colleague was unperturbed. ‘We’re a second-half team,’ he repeated knowingly. ‘You’re such an idiot,’ was my friend’s response, albeit using slightly different, less polite, language.

Just before half-time, the hosts had a golden chance to pull one back, but Charlie Lambert could only steer his close-range half-volley across the goal and wide of the far post.

Langney came out at the start of the second-half looking to put the game to bed and Secka twice had to make good saves to stop the visitors getting a third goal.

Having ridden this storm, though, the hosts quickly began to assume complete control of the game. The introduction from the bench of the classy Cameron Wiltshire (who would later pick up yet another injury and have to be substituted) certainly swung the game in Peacehaven’s favour.

Try as they might, though, despite getting into a number of good positions, and winning a succession of corners, they failed to really test Dan Hutchins in the Langney goal. One corner did bring with it a huge penalty shout for handball which, with the aid of VAR (my phone) may have been given. That said, I’m not sure what constitutes a handball these days, so take a look at the video below and judge for yourself.

With the clock having ticked past the 80-minute mark, my friend’s colleagues’ comment that Peacehaven were a ‘second-half’ team looked to have merited the ridicule with which it had been met by my mate. Even more so as, as we made our way around the pitch to go and have a word with the recently substituted Lloyd (my friends weren’t happy with this decision), Langney scored a third. Substitute Simon Piper forcing the ball home from a goalmouth scramble. Game over. Or so everyone in the ground thought.

With the game having entered injury time, Lambert pulled back what at that point appeared to be a consolation goal. Langney failed to deal with a ball into the box, and the striker lashed the ball high into the net to at least bring some respectability to the score.

Then came a potentially key moment in the game.
Although no one thought it at the time.
Following the goal Wanderers’ defender Adam Davidson must have said something untoward to the referee and was promptly sin-binned (the first time I’ve seen this). Even the referee’s assistant turned to Peacehaven manager Mark Shutt (an old school friend) and commented that it was a bit late to have any bearing on the game now.

Wrong.

Two minutes later, the hosts scored again. Having defended stoutly all evening, the visitors had suddenly gone to pieces. Another ball into the box wasn’t dealt with and Bradley Bant smashed the ball into the net to reduce the deficit to one with about two minutes still to play.

And what an action packed two minutes they were. First the referee waved away appeals for a Langney penalty and then, from the ensuing break, yet another ball into the area wasn’t dealt with properly and, following a mini scramble, the ball looped high into the night sky. Reilly Grant reacted quickest and headed it past the shell-shocked Hutchins to secure the most remarkable (and frankly unbelievable) of points for the home side. The contrast of emotions between the two sets of players and benches was clear for all to see.

Three goals in injury time. No one would have believed it. And that’s why you should always stay to the end. You never know what’s going to happen.

On our way to the car, my friend’s phone beeped. It was a message from his colleague. ‘Told you we were a second-half team,” it read. There was no snarky comeback this time.
Enjoyed this blog post? Then you may be interested in reading my kindle book which recounts my 2018/19 groundhopping journey (take a look, it’s only 99p).