Not the ideal weather for Swans

Storrington 0 Littlehampton Town 6, Southern Combination Football League Division One Cup Round One, Saturday 26^th October 2019

As with last week, my match selection for this weekend was made with more than half an eye on the weather.

Having endured on-and-off outbursts of rain for much of the past seven days, and with an absolute deluge forecast for Saturday afternoon, the obvious – and safe – choice would have been to go and watch a match being played on a 3G surface… Again.

However, having already visited all the local 3G surfaces, I was reticent to pay yet another visit to a ground that I’d already been to. After all, the whole point of being a ‘groundhopper’ is to visit as many different grounds as possible. It was only seven days ago that I revisited Lancing’s Culver Road ground, so I really didn’t want to spend a second consecutive Saturday at a ground I’d already been to.

Plans to head to an all-weather surface a little further afield were scuppered by wifey. She’d been invited (without me – not that I’m bitter or anything) to a wedding reception that evening, so I needed to have the car back to her by 18:15 at the latest.

Scouring the local fixture lists to take stock of my options, a plan began to form in my mind.  On the SCFL website, I noticed that Storrington were due to be at home to Littlehampton Town. This was an unexpected bonus. It hadn’t been listed on the normally ever-so-useful Groundhopper App (I’m assuming the SCFL Division One Cup doesn’t rate as a notable enough competition).

While Storrington play on a grass pitch, nearby Steyning (who play on a 3G surface) were also due to be at home. What’s more, they were scheduled to be taking on my home-town team Newhaven. Therefore, if I arrived at Storrington Recreation Ground to find the game had been called off, I would still have enough time to jump in the car and make it to Steyning to watch that game instead.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Ultimately, despite the heavy rain somewhat surprisingly arriving in Sussex almost right on cue at 14:00 (honestly, I’ve never known my weather app to be so accurate), the Storrington pitch was in pretty good nick. There was never any real danger of a postponement. Kudos here to the Storrington volunteer who was out drilling holes in the pitch prior to kick-off to assist the drainage.
Honestly, where would we be without these selfless individuals who give up so much of their time to make sure non-league football in this country continues to thrive? They all deserve our total thanks and respect!

I’d driven past Storrington’s pitch countless times over the years, situated as it is just off the main A283 which runs through the West Sussex village. This was my first actual visit to it, though. While the weather may have been more suitable for the bird which adorns the club’s crest, and from which the team takes its nickname – the Swans – than it was for watching football, I was still looking forward to the visit. It’s a ground that's been on my radar for a while now.

I arrived at the ground at just after 14:30 and parked in the Storrington Leisure Centre Car Park. Following a quick check at the gate to make sure the match was definitely on and to discover what the likelihood of it being completed was, I swiftly paid my £5 admission fee and entered the ground. I then picked up a free paper programme from the reasonable-sized clubhouse (they were being kept there to keep them dry – very sensible) before heading off to find somewhere dry to watch the game.

The Storrington Recreation Ground has one main covered area which is attached to a brick building which houses the aforementioned clubhouse upstairs, and the changing rooms and toilet facilities downstairs. Half of this area is made up of a small seated stand while the rest is given over to standing. I, like the majority of the few spectators who braved the elements, chose to stand.

One thing that I hadn’t really given any consideration to was the fact that this was a Cup match, so there was the potential for it to go to penalties (maybe with extra-time first, I wasn’t sure – in fact, I’m still not sure, what the rules regarding extra-time are for this particular competition).

The fact the game could possibly go on for an extra half-hour was something I only really thought about on my drive to the ground. Had the game ended in a draw, then the chances were that I would have probably missed the end of it.

In truth, though, I didn’t really see this outcome as being likely. Although, by sheer coincidence, I actually saw these two teams play out a 2-2 draw in Littlehampton last season, the 2019/20 Littlehampton Town team are a very different proposition. They are one of the leading scoring teams up to step ten in the non-league pyramid nationwide, and boast an impressive array of attacking talent, many of whom were playing in the SCFL prem last season.

Storrington, meanwhile, have endured a mixed start to the campaign and hadn’t played since the start of October – when they lost 5-2 to Arundel. The signs for the Swans didn’t look good.

Still, this is football, so you never know…

Except, on this occasion, I kind of did know. After a scrappy start to the game from both teams – not aided, of course, by the frankly miserable weather – from the moment Lucas Pattenden tapped George Gaskin’s pass into an empty net in the 15th minute, the result was never in doubt.

While it would be unfair to say that the Golds were utterly dominant in the first half – it’s not as though they carved out numerous goalscoring opportunities – it would be fair to say that the Swans never really looked like scoring. A couple dangerous corners aside, the visiting defence at no point appeared to be under any real pressure.

Therefore, Littlehampton’s second goal on the half-hour was met with an air of inevitability. Dan Hegarty rising highest to head home, following a goalmouth scramble that had seen the ball rebound off the bar.

Yet, with the score only 2-0 at half-time, the Swans entered the second half still just about alive in the game. I wasn’t safe from my extra-time dilemma just yet.

However, a change in Littlehampton Town’s formation which saw them go three at the back, thus allowing them to get even more of their myriad of attacking options onto the pitch, proved to be too much for the hosts.

Indeed, it was two introduced players who put the game beyond Storrington’s reach. First James McKernan added a third before Shane Brazil quickly tapped home a fourth with his first touch of the game. Extra-time threat averted.

Those two quickfire goals completely took the fight out of the Swans, with a few of their players looking like they’d rather be anywhere but on a soaking wet, muddy football pitch getting soundly thrashed. It was hard to blame them, really.

Still, to their credit they didn’t completely cave in. While Littlehampton were by now well on top, they were still being made to work to create opportunities. That said, had it not been for a series of good stops from Swans’ keeper Gary Elliott, the Golds’ margin of victory could have been even greater.

A fifth goal did arrive when, with just over ten minutes remaining when Dan Swain rose unchallenged to head home from a corner.

Even an injury to visiting skipper Ash Jones, which saw the Golds play the last few minutes a man down, couldn’t stem the tide and McKernan added his second of the game with just a couple of minutes left on the clock.   

So it’s Littlehampton Town who go into the hat for the next round of the Division One Cup. Judging by this display – and the depth of strength they appear to have in their squad – the Golds could take some stopping this season. Not just in this competition, but in the league itself.

It’s unlikely that Storrington will come up against opponents of this calibre too often this season. They’ll certainly be hoping that’s the case!

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).