Steyning’s 3G offers respite from bickering

Steyning Town 0 Horsham YMCA 0, Southern Combination Football League Premier Division, Saturday 2^nd November 2019

I won’t lie. There are some days when I wonder why I’m doing what I’m doing. Not many. But some all the same.

This morning was certainly one of those days. As I sat at home, listening to the rain lashing against the window panes whilst watching tree branches being blown at quite unnatural angles by the gusty wind, I must admit that I did consider swerving attending a match this weekend.

The radiator was on, the house was warm and Soccer Saturday had just started on the TV.

The nine games that I had been potentially thinking of going to watch had all fallen foul of the weather and the clear temptation was to spend a rare Saturday afternoon at home in front of the box.

Sounds bliss, doesn’t it?

However, no sooner had I settled down into my chair, coffee in hand, to listen to Jeff Stelling and the gang, did I suddenly remember something. Something important. Fantasy and reality very rarely match-up. At least not in my house.

Barely had I taken a sip of  my coffee did my two children start bickering with each other. I’d been sat down for less than five minutes!

My blissful afternoon in front of the TV simply wasn’t going to happen.

Another quick look at the local fixtures revealed a couple of local options for matches being played on 3G surfaces: Eastbourne Borough vs Dartford in the National League South and Steyning Town vs Horsham YMCA in the SCFL Prem.

Okay, so I’d been to both grounds before, but I wasn’t too bothered. I just needed to get out of the house!

Ultimately, I plumped for the Steyning game.

Borough groundshare with another SCFL side – Langney Wanderers – and as I haven’t actually seen Wanderers play at Priory Lane yet, I figured I’d like to keep that particular revisit in reserve for a weekend when the tenants are playing at home.

My plans nearly unravelled at the last minute when my eldest son, somewhat surprisingly, announced that he wanted to brave the elements and come with me. This, of course, prompted the youngest to want to come as well. One of them I could put up with – particularly the eldest who tends to be a bit more focussed while watching matches, But both of them… well, I may as well have just stayed at home in the warm.

Thankfully, the youngest had a party to go to this evening and as we wouldn’t have got back in time to get him there for that, we had a legitimate reason not to take him. Potential problem averted.

We arrived at the Shooting Ground at just after 14:45, parked in the nearby school and promptly paid £6 to get in (there was no charge for the boy).
Unfortunately for printed programme fans such as myself, Steyning no longer produce such a product, instead choosing to go solely digital.

In fairness, it’s hard to argue with the decision when, as the man on the entrance gate explained, it saves them £50 per game and they’re doing their bit to save the planet. Somehow, I got the impression that the former reason was the main motivating factor behind the decision… but still!  

For an overview of the ground, take a look at the post outlining my previous visit to the Shooting Field last season.

Having won promotion last season, Steyning Town have made an extremely solid start to life in the SCFL Premier Division and ahead of this game sat in fifth place. With every other match in the league having been postponed, a win would have taken them third.

Visiting YM, however, who were actually one of my tips for the title in my pre-season predictions, have had a disappointing start sitting close to the bottom than the top.

Thankfully, by the time kick-off arrived, the rain had largely stopped; although the wind was extremely strong and it was obvious from the outset that free-flowing football was going to be at a premium.

From the off, the match panned out in the way the league table had suggested it would. Steyning looked the more confident, attempting to pass the ball around, while YM seemed happy to soak up the pressure and look to hit their hosts on the break.

It was certainly Steyning who seemed to adjust to the blustery conditions better, keeping the ball on the ground against their more direct opponents.

In the first half, YM a looked to use the wind at their backs to their advantage by getting the ball behind the Steyning backline as quickly as they could. All too often, though, passes were overhit and the ball would run harmlessly through to the Barrowmen’s goalkeeper, who had a largely trouble-free afternoon.

While it would be unfair to suggest that the visitors had to withstand a bombardment of opportunities from the hosts, decent chances certainly arrived at regular enough intervals during the 90 minutes for Steyning to have won the match comfortably (a few of these chances can be seen in the videos below, courtesy of my son, the budding cameraman.

The home sides’ two speedy wingers and the physical presence of Tiago Andrade up front certainly caused the visiting defence some uncomfortable moments. Too often, though, Steyning’s final ball either wasn’t quite good enough or an attacker would dither too long before shooting, leading to the opportunity disappearing. Committed defending from the visitors was also a contributing factor to the hosts being unable to make a breakthrough.

As the second-half progressed, and half-chances continued to come and go for Steyning, some of the crowd (myself included) did start to get the feeling that maybe the visitors could snatch a goal on the break. However, in spite of some decent counter attack opportunities, they were unable to really test the Steyning keeper at any time.

That being said, it’s not as though the YM keeper had to produce save after save. He didn’t. It was certainly a game that seemed to lack a bit of composure in the final third. Undoubtedly, the wind didn’t help matters in this respect.

Ultimately, the game finished goalless and, to be frank, it won’t live overly long in the memory.

Still, I can’t really complain. Of the 70 matches (thanks Groundhopper App for keeping count) that I’ve attended since the start of last season, this is only the second 0-0 draw I’ve seen, the last coming way back in August 2018; so I was probably due one.

And, anyway, at least I got to escape an afternoon of adolescent bickering.

 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).