I have unfinished business with Saltdean United. Last season, with the doors of Brighton and Hove Albion’s Amex Stadium closed to me, I went in search of live football and was drawn back to an occasional haunt of my teenage years: Saltdean’s idyllic Hill Park. In the late ’90s, I got a call from the Sports Argus in the middle of the week, telling me where they wanted me that Saturday. Although Saltdean involved two bus rides - a three-hour round trip from my home on the Knoll Estate - it was still my favourite place to go. The football was good as they fought for the Sussex County League First Division, eventually missing out by three points to Burgess Hill Town. It wasn’t just the football though. The valley setting gives the ground a unique and calming feel. Some grounds feel almost oppressive and claustrophobic while there is none of that at Hill Park with the matches feeling like they’re in a grand and natural arena overlooked by sheep gambolling in the fields. Before the game starts, I sometimes recline on the slope reading a paperback with the sounds of nature combined with the thud of footballs being thwacked around the pitch in preparation for what is to come. What could be better?
That runners-up spot Saltdean achieved back in 1999 is the highest the Tigers have ever finished and last season, it looked like history was about to be made. They’d started the season sluggishly and erratically, scrapping out a couple of wins, but dropping points in drab draws as well. Then one day, I turned up and the team had been dramatically overhauled. It was as if the old players had evaporated into the air like at the end of Avengers: Infinity War and in their place, some superhumans had emerged. I drove over to East Preston with low expectations unaware of the transformation, but those expectations were rapidly fertilised with Miracle-Gro as Saltdean ran out 8-0 winners, went on an unbeaten ten-game run and climbed to the summit of the Premier Division. What could go wrong? Well, the answer’s pretty obvious. It’s the thing that has blighted all our lives for the last seventeen months.
The second lockdown was announced and it looked highly improbable that football at this level would continue. As with all the government announcements, everyone knew what was coming well in advance and with this knowledge, Saltdean took to the pitch of Hill Park for the last time against Eastbourne Town back in March. Their talismanic striker, Trevor McCreadie was so frustrated that he took it out on a defender’s ankles and the referee flourished his red card. It was a symbolic moment. We were all being shown the red card by COVID-19, all of us banished from the pitches we love. Trevor trudged from the pitch and we trudged to our homes.
And so the season was curtailed, Saltdean having only completed fourteen of their games and though they were top, there was no title, no celebrations, just a long wait, but now that wait is over and the Tigers have roared into the season, devouring the opposition as if they are legless antelopes. On Saturday, they dispatched Uckfield 3-0 at their place. I had a 60th birthday party to attend and had to rely on Twitter updates to follow the game. Following County League football is only really meant to be done in person, but those three little pings on my phone that punctuated the party gave me confidence for the season ahead.
Last night was the real deal though. I was back in the valley, a bar of Cadbury’s Whole Nut clutched in my hands, an excitement bubbling away in my heart. Saltdean’s team hasn’t changed much from last season, but there were three new players in the starting eleven, Callum Saunders playing just off the striker, having recovered from a lengthy injury, Tom Caplin, a composed and classy presence in the centre of midfield and George Taggart, a slippery winger. Let me try a brief bit of insightful football analysis, adopt a pretence that I am able to discuss football knowledgeably rather than emotionally. The centre of midfield was a position in constant flux last season with many players dipping their toe into this most challenging of positions. I often felt that someone who could combine the combativeness of a gladiator with the soft touch of a fine artist would complete this Saltdean team and last night, Caplin made me wonder if he was the Marcus Aurelius/Claude Monet hybrid we’d been waiting for. He showed an ability to crunch into challenges in an uncompromising fashion and combined that with an artist’s creativity and finesse when the ball was at his feet earning him a deserved Man of the Match bottle of bubbly.
The opponents on a humid, although rapidly chilling, Tuesday evening were Hassocks and it was quickly clear that Saltdean were going to be utterly dominant, keeping the ball for long periods of possession and snaffling it away from Hassocks with quick and effective pressing whenever their opponents briefly had it. They took the lead early when Reece Hallard drove the ball low through a crowded penalty box after it had pinged off the crossbar from a corner. Hallard doubled the lead with an overhead kick, again being the quickest to react to a loose ball in the area.
At half-time, Trevor emerged, taking to the pitch at Hill Park (in a competitive fixture) for the first time since that depressing day back in March and the goals continued to flow. Caplin was ready to put the finishing touches to the masterpiece he’d been creating all game and swung the ball into the top corner from the edge of the box. Then it was Trev’s turn, rifling the ball unerringly into the bottom corner. Kieron Pamment, scorer of two goals at Uckfield at the weekend, added to his tally for the season, curling in an effort from just inside the box and then it was back to Trev to complete his brace - his fifth for the club in less than dozen appearances. 6-0!
What a start to the season! Nine in goals in two games, none conceded and back at the top of the table again. And on Saturday… it’s the glory of the FA Cup - the Extra Preliminary Round starts at Hill Park at 3pm.
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