On Saturday afternoon at three o’ clock, an oblique but gentle rain sprinkled my glasses as I gazed out upon a rectangle of turf, my pulse quickened by the drama that was sure to unfold as Little Common in merlot-red faced my newly adopted side, Saltdean United – The Tigers, playing in their away kit of purple and black stripes (tigers at a fancy-dress party).
In August, while squelching along a muddy track in the Lake
District, my friend, Simon spoke to me of his feelings of detached apathy about
the upcoming football season. Normally, the football-fast that fans are forced
to endure in a non-tournament summer create desperate hunger pangs for the
resumption of the sport we love, but this time, with the doors of Brighton and
Hove Albion’s Amex Stadium closed to us, the new season felt somehow unreal. I
can see the Amex from the window at the top of my stairs, the curve of its roof
bursting above the treeline, but when Brighton are playing home games without
me, it’s difficult to believe that the match I’m seeing on my television screen
is happening just down the road. If I’m not there living and breathing it, it
doesn’t quite feel like it exists.
How do I solve this problem? Well, live football is still
out there. You just have to plummet down the divisions to Step 3 of non-league
football. Step 1 is the Conference, the division below League Two. Below the
Conference, there is a National League North and a National League South and
that is Step 2. Anything below that is open to fans. As my wellies made
pleasant farting noises in the Cumbrian mud, I cast my mind back to think about
a team that held a soft spot in my affections and my thoughts immediately went
to Saltdean United. In the late ‘90s, for a couple of seasons, I used to report
on local County League games for the local paper, The Sports Argus. It was printed on cream paper which I think was a
nod to the famous Italian paper, La
Gazetto dello Sport. The internet was emerging, but was not yet the place
people went to for up to date information in the way they do today and so, the
edition of The Sports Argus,
delivered to shops on a Saturday evening was, for many, an opportunity to get
the scores from local football matches. What you got from me was a one-hundred
word match report of the first half of a County league match which I dictated
over the phone at half-time and on the back page of the paper would be all the
final scores. If a player scored a ‘worldie’ in the second half, it was
completely ignored in my match report. I was given £15 for my efforts (15p a
word) and got to enjoy a game of football at a time when travelling to watch
Brighton home games at Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium was beyond my means.
Saltdean was always my favourite place to go during this time for two reasons.
Firstly, the valley setting of the ground gave it a picturesque romance that no
other ground got anywhere near. Sheeps cavorting on the sharp inclines all
around were a pleasing backdrop to the game in front of me. They were also one
of the most exciting teams to watch: playing attractive football and almost
always winning. They’re the only club where I can still remember any of their
players’ names: Damien Dobbyn, a skilful midfielder who felt like a County
League Gazza to me; Jay Lovett, a floppy-haired winger who seemed to hurdle
full-backs’ lunging tackles like an impala and the young striker, Matt Allen,
who was rumoured to be on his way to Sheffield United but who ended up working
under the same roof as me at Legal and General.
Fast-forward to 2020 and my return to watch Saltdean has
coincided with another set of players that could challenge for the crown of
County League champions, something Saltdean narrowly missed out on back in the ‘90s.
My first visit, however, didn’t suggest the team had the potential that they
have since shown. In the 2018/19 unfinished season, Saltdean were 18th
out of twenty teams when lockdown struck and when I saw them lose their opening
game, an FA Cup tie against a much better Eastbourne Town team, 3-1, led by
their nuisance of a striker, Trevor McCreadie, I thought that a season of
struggle lay ahead and in the first few weeks of the season, there were
glimmers of good football, but the games they did win felt pretty fortunate.
They were solid defensively, but didn’t offer a great deal going forward and
the two wins they found were through penalties, a fortuitous own goal and
effective set pieces. Two wins, two draws and a loss in the opening five games
though meant that they were in the mix at the top of the league, slightly off
the pace of leaders, Horley Town.
I’d been enjoying it nonetheless as had Simon. Tuesday night
games, we went to on our own, but on Saturdays, we dragged along our children,
three eleven-year-old boys. One Tuesday night, we were in for a few treats as we
made the 35-munute journey to East Preston. Treat number one was the wonderful
burgers that EP served up. Treat number two was the generosity of their
defence. Treat number three was a whole host of new signings that Saltdean had
made. There were only a couple of recognisable faces in the starting eleven
from the opening day and Saltdean had clearly been ambitious in recruiting some
top talent. The two stand-out performers on that night were Reece Hallard, a
skilful winger with electric pace and that nuisance from Eastbourne Town,
Trevor McCreadie, the kind of player that you love to have in your team for his
tenacity, pace and potent finishing, but someone you’d hate to have against you
because quite simply, he’d properly wind you up. That night, he got himself
into a scuffle over nothing, got the opposition player-manager so furious that
he had to restrained and banged in a couple of goals. Hallard scored two that
night as well and Saltdean triumphed 8-0 and looked invincible.
A few weeks later, Saltdean have won every match, advancing
in the Sussex Senior Cup and FA Vase and clambering to the summit of the table.
Reece Hallard, for sure, has been the stand-out player, scoring six goals in
six games including the brace at East Preston. Trevor McCreadie managed to get
himself sent off the game after East Preston and had been on the side-lines for
every game since, but away at Little Common was his long-awaited return.
Having reached the top of the table, how would Saltdean cope
in the swirling Eastbourne wind? Would it be a leveller that meant Little
Common could terrorise the Tigers? Would Trev find the back of the net or would
he find himself in the referee’s notebook once again?
The 78 people present were in for another treat – well, a
treat if they were a Saltdean fan anyway. Trev was back among the goals: he was
first to react when the LC keeper spilled a long-range effort and he tucked the
ball into the bottom corner. Then, as the defence backed away from him like he
had a skunk down his pants, he unleashed a belter from thirty yards which
pinged deliciously off the underside of the crossbar and into the net, surely
the best goal I’ve seen at this level: 2-0. LC pulled one back before
half-time, but they’d had the substantial advantage of the wind in the first
half and now it was Saltdean’s turn to have the twelfth man: Gale Force 6. It
was another new signing, Harry Shooman’s turn to shine in this half and he
should be grateful that I no longer work for The Sports Argus and now bother with giving the reader second-half
detail. Left-back Shooman scored an improbable hat-trick in the second-half,
but to be fair to Shooey, he’s far more than a left-back. Despite Saltdean
playing a back four, he has the athleticism and energy to be always available
defensively and offensively, offering the team the solidity of Stuart Pearce
and the attacking verve of John Barnes. The other remarkable detail about his
hat-trick was that he scored them all with his right-foot, a close range finish
after a neat one-two, a powerful drive from the edge of the area and a
wind-assisted cross that swirled over the keeper. Our little cluster of five
fans were delighted with the result. The only man seemingly dissatisfied was
Trevor who was so, so desperate for a hat-trick himself and seemed personally
insulted that the left-back should have the temerity to score three. Trev kept
hustling, but when a goal wouldn’t come, he did the next best thing and
clattered through the back of a Little Common player and got himself a yellow
card.
I’ve loved my Saltdean adventure so far. I’d just wanted to
stand at the side of a pitch, chatting with a friend and enjoying a game of
football. I’ve got that, but I’ve also got the thrill of a title chase. I’ve
briefly exchanged words with the manager, enjoying the fact that I got to tell
him that he’d reached the summit of the league as a result of other goals going
his way before anyone else got the news in first. I’ve got into a couple of
mild and good-natured arguments with opposition players and coaches when I’ve
felt that they’ve overstepped the mark in their attempt to mislead the referee
and I’ve been there for the drama, not watched it from the comfort of my sofa.
The crowd noise has been real even if it’s mostly come from me.
Here's a photo from Saturday's match. You can see the five of us to the right in the background.
