No Dr Feelgood factor for Lewes
“”You have to have the rain before you can have the rainbow”
In just 24 hours I would be walking along Santa Monica Pier in SoCal as us surfers know it, the sunshine on my face and the sand between my toes. You can’t beat a bit of winter sunshine to recharge the batteries after Christmas. And as if I needed any more incentive to go I had the promise of a date with the not too shabby Natalia Velez to look forward to.
But first I had a date with one of Essex’s finest – Canvey Island who were visiting the Dripping Pan for an early doors game against The Rooks. Early doors because of Brighton’s cup game versus Newcastle United just down the road at 5.15pm. Thanks to the Ryman League seeing sense, and the Essex side happy to leave Lakeside an hour earlier than normal, Lewes stood a chance of a decent crowd. We littered the Toon websites, forums and Twitter feeds with invites and promises of pints of Dog, Jimmy Nail look-a-likes and Lewes wearing a special one-off black and white striped shirt just for the day. Not strictly true but would they really notice after tucking into a few pints of Harveys?
Our cause had been helped no end by the efforts of the Guardian’s sports team who plugged the game via their Fiver email, eulogising that :-
“At this quaint little ground, you’ll be allowed to stand up, smoke your gills out, watch entertaining Brazil-circa-1970 style football, eat delicious modestly priced organic burgers and lorry back refreshing pints of the local brew Harveys all at the same time”
Thanks to some opportunist sales techniques that would have shamed a time-share salesperson in the Canary Islands I had managed to convince The Guardian’s Barry Glendenning as an owner a few weeks ago. Yes, he had been worse for wear; Yes, he was distracted by Sarah Hot Scores and yes I may have told him that by being an owner he was entitled to certain perks that weren’t strictly true, but Pressganging is not illegal (I think) in the 21st century. One man’s Richard Branson is another man’s Asil Nadir. Barry was making his first visit to the Pan and we were determined to make his visit a special one. After all, since he thrust the £30 in my top pocket back in December, “our” team had won three, drawn four and lost four as well as seeing the manager depart. Investments can go up and well as down as I reminded him when he asked for a refund.
Canvey Island, the Gulls, the pride of Park Lane. Lewes had already beaten the Islanders earlier in the season and what they could do with a moral boosting win today. Performances had been good, but a lack of goals was becoming a real worry. Five goals in the last six wasn’t a fair return for the effort, but add on the fact that three had come from penalties and you see the issue. Last Saturday the team lost 5-1 at Margate. Lewes shots 8, Margate shots 8. On Wednesday night the woodwork and a bobble in the six yards area stopped two certain goals. Today there was to be no excuse. It was win or bust….well not exactly that traumatic but we are hyping this up for the Guardian remember?
This was my third trip to Lewes in just four days after the Sussex Senior Cup match on Wednesday and then the Fans Forum on Thursday where we had batted away all questions fired at us from the fans. Now was the time for us to live up to our promise of Barcelona-esque football.
Lewes 1 Canvey Island 2 – The Dripping Pan – Saturday 28th January 2012
“You will win nothing with kids” One of the most famous understatements uttered by a pundit. Alan Hansen may have had to eat his words back when Sir Alex Ferguson blooded the likes of Scholes, Beckham and Giggs at Villa Park in August 1995, but since then how right he has been. Lewes today were forced to field a very young team as injuries ravaged Simon Wormull’s squad. The manager himself was even forced to play himself for the final thirty minutes, turning back the years with some of his visionary passing.
I can only imagine the mood in the Wormull house when the sick notes arrived this morning. Kamara – hip injury. Robinson – hamstring. Hamilton – foot. Hustwick – neck strain. These four are the Lewes back four. Any club would struggle to cope with such a situation. A major reshuffle saw Charlie Leech and Jack Phillips in the starting line up as well as new signing Jack Walder in the centre of midfield.
One good bit of news was that the Rooks had ditched the white shorts – going down the full Rosseneri look of red and black – Canvey opting for Crystal Palace away circa 1989. It was the yellows who started the stronger of the two and thankfully keeper Rikki Banks was in good form. With Lewes’s recent goals coming from the boot of Paul Booth it didn’t take a brave man (me) to predict he would be the first goalscorer, although Eddie Freemantle refused to take my tenner, reminding me that as a Director I was not able to place a bet on my team. Sure enough, a minute later Paul Booth rose and headed home a Nanetti cross to put the Rooks one nil up.
The second half saw Canvey well on top and it was no surprise when Jason Hallett scored in the 51st minute. We weren’t used to conceding a goal before the 90th minute so the crowd were stunned into silence. Everyone was confused. What to do? Well, how about the player/manager bringing himself on…Wormull stripped off and within a minute had played a trademark cross field pass to Nanetti. Every touch was greeted with a cheer. Could he win us the game and roll back the years?
Alas no. Canvey got stronger as the game wore on and with twenty minutes to go Bradley Woods-Garness smacked a loose ball home to give the Essexmen the three points. The thirty or so Canvey fans went home happy, having enjoyed their day out in the sunshine whilst the Rooks fans had to scratch their heads wondering what the team had to do to get that break and three points.
With the rain out of the way it was time to prepare for the Rainbow. Natalia Velez was sure to ask about the result. Don’t worry – I will take this one for the team. Until I return I bid you a fond farewell.
EL GRANDE ISLANDE PARADISO CLASSIO – Concord Rangers 1 Canvey Island 0
I am a very goal driven person. I religiously write down what I want to achieve in my little black book that I carry around, making sure that my objectives are SMART (an acronym familiar to those who have gone through formal management and leadership training) and that I regularly review them. They are split into personal, work and of course football. You see I see football as part work part personal so it is only fair I have a category especially for it.
My broad football aims this season were based around Non League football. Sure, I still had a “commitment” to the 92 Club in terms of new grounds at Morecambe and Chesterfield but they would be for later in the season. Winter in Morecambe is not the most hospitable places as I remember from two years ago when we saw Luton Town there. But I wanted to “tick off” the Blue Square Premier, South and then venture down into the heart of Non League football in the South – The Ryman League.
Slowly but surely I had visited grounds on my travels this season and commenced the “plan of attack” on a lovely hot day in July at Canvey Island. Having never been on the “Island” before, Danny and I couldn’t resist a little peak into their neighbours, Concord Rangers ground. We drove down a road that Terry and June would have been proud to have called “Chez nous” before a set of floodlights popped up like one of those houses that wants to receive every TV channel in the world with a huge aerial. We had a wander around, peering over the wall before a chap armed with a circular saw asked if he could “help us”. This man was Cliff Larkin, and he genuinely wanted to help up. Cliff is the Chairman’s brother-in-law as well as being hugely proud of what this little club had achieved and recanted the tail to us like Peter Ustinov would have done on Jackanory.
First question was why the club were called “The Beach Boys”? Surely they couldn’t always be Good Vibrations down on the Island…OK I will stop that now. Well, the club date back to the glorious summer of 1966 when every boy wanted to be Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore and Nobby Stiles. A chap called Steve Lant formed a team on the Island and they played on a pitch next to Concord Beach. Hence the nickname.
The team then joined a number of leagues including the fantastically named Vange and District League where they won all the honours under the Essex sun. A move to Saturday football came in 1979 and a few years later they managed to secure some land in Thames Road and started developing the ground as we see it today. Progress on the pitch was swift and within a few years they had won all the senior honours there were to win in Essex, and got as far as the quarter finals of the FA Vase.
The big step came in 2008/09 when the club finally joined the Ryman League North after winning the Essex Senior League. Joint managers Danny Scopes and Danny Cowley built a team to survive it is fair to say, but amazingly finished in 5th place. This gave them a shot at the play offs and after beating East Thurrock, thanks to a goal by local legend Danny Heale (do you see a theme emerging here with the names?) they reached the final where they lost on penalties to Waltham Abbey.
The club never expected to get this far and so disappointment was turned into ambition and last season they finished in 2nd place, dispatched East Thurrock again and made no mistake in the play off final beating Enfield Town to gain promotion to the Ryman Premier, and more importantly the first time to meet their neighbours Canvey Island in a competitive game.
This game was eagerly anticipated for the 27th December but the freezing conditions put pay to that. So it was rearranged for mid-February, just when we would be heading back from our 5 day northern roadtrip. On a night of Ryman league derbies (including the Buy v Lowestoft and the Walton derbies), this was the pick of the lot. We actually had two options on what game to go to. Billericay Town and Concord Rangers both on the way home, and both in striking distance. So I went to the God of all decisions. Twitter. I asked which one I should go to, and within minutes I had my answer:-
“Could an access all areas and guaranteed player/management interviews sway your decision? Also unlimited tea/biscuits?” Direct from the horses, well press officers mouth at Concord. In truth he had us at unlimited tea.
The game was dubbed by Concord as El Grande Islande Paradiso Classico – certainly more glamorous than the Oil Derby I had seen it referred elsewhere. This was all about local bragging rights, pride and above all points as both teams came into the game within relative striking distance of the play offs.
The traffic down from Lincoln was kind and the 153 mile trip saw us pitch up in Thames Road at 7.45pm exactly. It was manic down the road as the usual 150 odd crowd had been boosted by nearly 500% for the first competitive meeting of the two clubs. A bargain £9 for myself and the two little Fullers PLUS a programme is top value in anyone’s book, further endearing ourselves to football at this level.
Concord Rangers 1 Canvey Island 0 – Thames Road – Tuesday 22nd February 2011
In truth it was a crap game, with few chances but typical of a game with so much more than the points at stake. Both teams wanted to dominate the midfield and so the tackles flying in where of the robust nature. The Canvey fans, probably making up at least 50% of the crowd were vocal, aiming some light hearted abuse at the home fans as well as the viewing public from the adjacent caravan park.
It was great to see so many people in the ground. Young, old, blues and yellows they all crammed into the small main stand and hugged the barrier around the pitch. As part of my bribe to keep Littlest Fuller happy I had purchased her a new Hello Kitty for her collection (now up to 23), which she insisted we included in as many pictures as possible from the evening.
Half time came with neither side actually creating a clear cut chance, and the start of the second period saw both sides make changes. The home fans all of a sudden found their voice, well the 7 year olds who played football on the pitch at half time did.
“Oh Concord, is wonderful, oh Concord is wonderful…It’s full of crisps, hammy and Concord, oh Concord is wonderful” The joys of innocence eh!
Canvey came the closest to opening the scoring after 73 minutes when a fantastic save from Concord’s keeper somehow kept out a goal bound effort, and they can probably feel aggrieved that the final chance of the game fell to Concord substitute Claude Seanla who poked the ball under luminous orange Canvey keeper Russell in injury time to take the three points, the bragging rights and probably a huge Spanish-inspired trophy.
Our journey hope was a simple 30 minutes and whilst technically it wasn’t in the north, it was north of where we live and north of the Thames and so we are classing it as the final leg of the epic Northern Roadtrip. Over a 1,000 miles, 9 counties, 4 games in 3 leagues with 10 goals and 3 red cards. Who wouldn’t want to see a movie?
For more pictures from the historic game please click here.
DOWN BY THE JETTY – Canvey Island
Some 30 miles from the centre of London in an easterly direction you will find Vange Creek which separates mainland Essex to the alluvial island known as Canvey Island. Formed from silt in the Holocene period on a bed of old red sandstone the island actually sits below the mean sea level meaning that it is highly vulnerable to flooding (look who got an A in O-Level Geography). Canvey Island today sits almost like its own little community, facing the Isle of Sheppy across the water, and just downstream from the Oil refineries of Isle of Grain. Hardly the best panorama in the world, but who cares. Any place that has a 17th century pub featured in Great Expectations called the Lobster Smack is good in my books, which we of course decided to visit in the course of our research and found a jolly decent place, although the website did give it a Waetherspoons feel (“We sell wine!”) which it certainly isn’t.
Canvey Island is today home to not one, but two teams playing at level 7 in the English game. Last May, Concord Rangers won promotion to the Rymans Premier League with a win over East Thurrock United and thus resurrect two Christmas derbies with their more famous neighbours Canvey Island FC. On a hot sunny day with trees for a perfect rural backdrop where could be better to watch a game? (more…)
ONE MORE STEP – Dartford FC
The next few weeks could be pivotal moments in the history of Kentish football. For far too long Gillingham have held the monopoly as Kent’s only league team but that could soon change. Whilst Ebbsfleet fight with relegation after the glory years of the Myfootballclub.com ownership fade away there could be a challenge both from Dover Athletic who are poised for a play off spot to reach the Blue Square Conference after a long absence, as well as from Dartford who are just one game away from promotion to the Blue Square South. Of course it is more than possible that Dartford may find themselves next season with local derbies against Ebbsfleet (should they be relegated) and Dover (if they fail to progress in the play offs). Good times indeed.
The Fuller family have a long tradition of supporting Dartford as a second/third team. As part of an article I have been researching about “My first game” my brother regaled me of a couple of classic stories from the early 1970′s when Dartford were in their golden period, including the club’s one and only visit to Wembley in 1974 for the FA Trophy final where they lost 2-1 to Morecambe. They also won the Southern League in that season which entitled them to apply for a place in the Football League, but with so many other clubs ambitions under the old “re-election” system they did not get enough votes for promotion.
The following season they played a strong Wimbledon team in the Southern League which included Dickie Guy in goal (who was later to find fame in saving a penalty in a cup game versus Leeds United) and a certain Dave “Harry” Bassett who was sent off in a 2-0 defeat. So what was special about this? Well it was the club’s third game in four days over the Easter period! The following season the club reached the first round of the FA Cup and lost narrowly at Watling Street to Plymouth Argyle. However one story that he remembers from the season was a game versus Grantham Town when fed up with the stick he was getting from a particular home fan, the away goalkeeper hurdled the fence around the pitch and chased the fan into the car park, whilst the game carried on for a couple of minutes in his absence.
The decline of the club in the 1990′s has been documented in detail elsewhere and the part played by Maidstone United’s move into Dartford’s Watling Street ground. But after a significant period in the wilderness, sharing grounds with Erith & Belvedere (technically sharing with Welling United), Purfleet (now Thurrock) and Ebbsfleet (or Gravesend & Northfleet as it should be known) they returned to a new purpose built state of the art stadium in the town in 2006. The ground has won a number of awards for its futuristic design and use of “green” methodologies – in fact fashion designer Wayne Hemmingway once described the stadium as “the best in the country”.
So after a steady rise up the lower non-leagues the club finished 8th last season in the Ryman’s League Premier. However, this season things could not have been better for the most part. They climbed to the top of the table after the second game of the season and have stayed their ever since. Apart from a little wobble post Christmas their form has been imperious and promotion as champions was odds on. They are without doubt the biggest team in the division, and will also make a serious challenge next year in the Blue Square South both on and off the pitch.
We had been down to Princes Park before, in March 2007 just a few months after the stadium opened when they beat Croydon Athletic 3-0 in front of a few hundred. But after the annual TBIR garden spring clean (which included breaking a £500 lawn mower) I was given permission to head off to their game with Canvey Island for being such a good boy.
At exactly 10 miles from TBIR and just 17 minutes down the road it was one of the easier grounds to get to, and after leaving home at 2.15pm I was in the bar enjoying a cold pint less than half an hour later.
Dartford 2 Canvey Island 1 – Princes Park – Monday 5th April 2010
With the sun shining at last the locals had come out in force and took their place behind the Canvey goal but it was the away fans who made the most noise early on, spurred on by some indecision in the Dartford defence. It is often the case that teams who for so long have dominated the league start to doubt their own ability with the finishing line in sight and this was the case for long periods in this game.
And consequently it did not come as a surprise when Canvey took the lead from such indecision when Greg Cohen smashed the ball home after the Dartford Keeper, Andrew Young had failed to clear the danger. The away fans (of which there was no more than 20) when wild…”We’re going to win the league”, “You only came to watch the Canvey” and my favourite “Sh1t ground, no fans”.
As the half progressed the referee Mr Harris seemed to want to get involved more and more in the game – but not in a proactive way. He showed little consistency, seeming to give every decision to the away team in a tetchy first half. Canvey played a flat back line with an offside trap which whilst effective was crap to watch. My view is that the offside law should be scrapped at this level to make games more entertaining.
Half time came and Dartford trudged off with a need of an injection of confidence. Manager (and Director) Tony Burman made some changes bringing on Rob Haworth who was soon booked for “persistent fouling” which was impressive considering it was his first challenge! Dartford continued to struggle until the 68th minute when Danny Dafter (name of the day, closely followed by Canvey’s Gabriel Fanibuyan) was allowed to run unchallenged through the Canvey defence before his pass found Danny Harris and is miss hit shot fooled the keeper and the ball rolled into the net. Game on!
With news filtering through that Kingstonians and Sutton United losing, Dartford sensed blood and went for the kill, finally starting to put the Canvey defence under pressure, and with 12 minutes to go Ryan Hayes crossed to the back post and Elliot Bradbrook stormed in to head home.
The home fans, of which the 1,319 was bigger than every game bar one in the Blue Square South and North, and bigger than three games in the Blue Square Premier including local rivals Ebbsfleet United. They left licking their lips at the prospect of promotion with a win away to second placed Kingstonians in a few days time. Welcome back Dartford!
For more photos from the game click here.
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