NW London 2 v 2 Clapton CFC

Saturday 19th February 2022, Kick-off 19.45
Anagram Records Trophy Quarter-Final

Coles Park, Haringey

Admission: £6.00

Programme: £1.00

Attendance: 40 (rough head count)

When the fixture details for this match was announced a few weeks ago, I was not alone in putting this one in the diary and very much looking forward to it. The evening kick-off would make it ideally suited to double up with a 3pm kick-off elsewhere (in my case, at The Valley), and the match was appealing, with NW London having big ambitions to climb the pyramid, and Clapton CFC with their (in)famous large, loud and colourful support. Unfortunately, that excitement spectacularly died in midweek for the vast majority of Clapton CFC fans and some groundhoppers too  when an admission fee of either £6 (when purchased in advance) or £8 (on the gate) was announced, resulting in a rather unseemly spat between Clapton CFC fans and the NW London Twitter admin, with the Clapton fans resolving to boycott the game, a stance gently supported by their club. Truth be told, I did initially baulk at the prospect at the admission myself, given that this was a game between two clubs in the Step 7 Middlesex County League Premier Division, where games are almost always free admission, or at most a nominal amount requested as a donation. It would be a fair assumption that a relatively high admission fee was charged with the opponents in mind - either an attempt to secure a bumper pay day, having already moved the game from their usual home ground at Brickfield Lane (home of Hadley) to a ground closer to their opponents, or to deter the majority of the Clapton CFC fans from attending, whose passionate “ultras” style following would make the game more like a home game for the visitors, and their support has been known to cause problems for host grounds. If it was the latter, it was a partially successful strategy. I eventually decided to attend, as I appreciated the rare opportunity to take in a Saturday evening game, hiring a ground does cost money, and in the grand scheme of things these days, £6 is not a lot of money.

So at the conclusion of my disappointing afternoon game at The Valley, I made my way to North London, via the train to London Bridge, bus to Liverpool Street, train to White Hart Lane, and finally another bus to just outside Coles Park, home of Isthmian League Premier Division outfit Haringey Borough and current tenants New Salamis, of the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division, arriving just over an hour ahead of kick-off. So I made use of the clubhouse bar, before making my way into the ground shortly before kick-off. There have been no noticeable changes to the ground since my last visits in 2018 during the ConIFA World Cup tournament. Most of the facilities are along one side, with a green and yellow coloured stand located just inside the entrance providing an excellent elevated view of the action, despite a few narrow supporting pillars along the front. Beyond the half way line is a fairly long stand made of corrugated iron covering a couple of steps to stand on. A burger van is located between the two stands, but was not open today. There is just hard standing around the rest of the ground, and while it is not a ground of aesthetic beauty, but it serves its purpose well enough.

Clapton's supporters were true to their word in that they would not enter the ground in protest at the admission fees, but instead a sizeable number pitched themselves behind the perimeter fence in one corner, chanting virtually non-stop and waving flags throughout the game, even when the opposition scored. It was rather ironic with their boycott that, as it turned out, paying admission was kind of voluntary anyway, with at least four unattended doors left open around the ground, although the Clapton faithful seemed happy in their position and continuing to make their protest throughout.

Both clubs are pushing hard at the top of the Middlesex Premier League. With the top six clubs separated by just three points, NW London are in fourth place, following ten wins and four defeats from their opening 14 league games, but with games in hand on all clubs above them, and only two points adrift of leaders Brentham with a game in hand, they are well placed to challenge for the title and/or achieve promotion, for which they have applied. Clapton CFC are one place and one point above NW London, but have played three games more. When the two clubs met in the league back in late September, Clapton CFC won 5-3. Both clubs received walkovers in the previous round of this competition.

On a dry but chilly evening, in front of a very sparse crowd inside the ground (instead of several hundred that would probably have been in attendance were it not for the Clapton boycott), this was a game of two halves, with NW London having the better of the first half, in terms of both possession and chances, and they opened the scoring on 31 minutes after they were quite surprisingly not awarded a penalty when the keeper clattered into the forward, but the ball spilt away to team mate Toby Daniel, who struck the ball home into an unguarded net.

The second half was greeted with fireworks and flares being set off in the Clapton corner. But although Clapton started the second half on the front foot, it was NW London who doubled their advantage on 57 minutes, when the ball was drilled low across the keeper and inside the far post by Daniel for his second of the game. But Clapton pulled a goal back on 65 minutes, when the ball was launched high from their own half and with two Clapton forwards bearing down on the keeper, Arthur Wright delicately lobbed the ball over the keeper and into the net. And Clapton equalised on 74 minutes when the ball was looped into the box, and Julian Austin got his head to the ball to send it looping above the keeper and dropping down over the line and into the net. Both sides then created some very decent chances to win the game in the remaining minutes, but both keepers pulled off some very good saves, but there were no further goals and the game went straight to a penalty shootout to decide who would progress. 

After NW London took the first penalty, both sides scored their first three, but then NW London saw their fourth struck just wide of the left hand post, and when Clapton scored their fourth, they looked likely to progress. But then after NW London scored their fifth penalty, Clapton saw theirs saved, and a repeat in the sixth round of penalties ensured that it would NW London who would claim the semi-final spot. It is not the Clapton CFC fans' style to be quietened by losing a game, and indeed more flares and fireworks were set off shortly after the final whistle, and after initially being approached by some of the NW London players, no trouble ensued fortunately, and they were soon replaced by the Clapton CFC players going over to show their appreciation for the support.