Southwater 2 v 1 Charlwood

Saturday 18th March 2023, Kick-off 14.00

Southern Combination League Division Cup Quarter Final
Southwater Sports Club, Southwater
Admission: Free
Programme: None
Attendance: 137

With yet another rail strike on today, I would need to drive today, in order to visit a new ground. Not feeling like driving too far, I narrowed my choice down to two clubs within about an hour’s drive, at Southwater and at Hawkinge Town, tempted by both clubs regularly producing printed programmes, and with decent clubhouses. Persistent rain overnight and into the morning caused many games in the south-east to be postponed, including the game at Hawkinge, and so I headed westwards, to take in my penultimate ground in the Southern Combination League.

The Southwater Sports Club is located to the north west of the rapidly expanding village of Southwater, with the club’s current facilities opened as recently as 2019. And very impressive, well maintained and easy on the eye the complex it is too, with a lane leading from the passing road past a cricket field to a more than adequately sized car park. A footpath from the car park leads to the clubhouse, which is bright, sizeable and modern inside, with a very decent range of drinks available, including three cask ales. The path then leads down a slight hill and up the other side where, just beyond the Downs Link footpath and a hedgerow, two football pitches are located side by side. The main pitch is to the left, and is roped off along one length, with no hard standing. Spectators are not really intended to access the other three sides, although a reasonable view can be bad behind one end from the footpath, while a path leads around the  outside of mesh fencing behind the other length and end. That other length has advertising and club signage attached to the cage fencing, and there are permanent dugouts in place, which are decorated in club colours, and these give the place more of a football ground feel to it. For today at least, a barbecue was located by the entrance to the pitch offering hot dogs. While the ground is basic, it is a an attractive, tranquil and relaxing place to watch football at, although a bumper crowd was in attendance today, providing quite a good atmosphere and community feel. And while an awful lot of work would be required to upgrade the ground sufficiently to host Step 6 football, the pitch is of excellent quality, sufficiently so that League Two Crawley Town use the Southwater Sports Club’s facilities for their training sessions. Southwater do usually produce printed programmes for their games, but not today unfortunately despite advertising that there would be, with the reason given that the printer had broken. A shame, given the bumper attendance today.

In just their second season at Step 7, following elevation from the West Sussex League presumably based on the club’s facilities than sporting merit, Southwater are doing well in the league this season, up in fourth place, following eleven wins and four draws from their 22 league games, and fourth is probably as high as they can realistically wish to finish, with a seven point gap to third placed Capel, albeit with a game in hand, and with four games left to play. They are in remarkably good form though, winning their last seven league games. a run which follows four straight defeats. Charlwood have experienced significant changes to their club in the last year or so. Following achieving relative fame through the excellent "Bunch of Amateurs" series, which followed the club with excellent footage of their games, on and off the pitch, throughout a season, Charlwood struggled when their manager Peter Barkley left, an ageing squad was not easily replaced with no youth or other teams fielded by the small village club, and it looked very likely at one stage that Charlwood would have to fold. They were saved when an agreement was entered into with Three Bridges FC, whose ground Charlwood would share from this season onwards, and many of Three Bridges' younger fringe players would be available to play for Charlwood. It was a solution that really seems to suit both parties, albeit that Charlwood have surely lost much of their identity as a result. And after a third place in the league, and winning the League Cup, last season, Charlwood were down in eighth place in the league, following nine wins and two draws from 21 league games. And although they won last Saturday against Rottingdean Village, their form before that had been poor, losing their previous seven games. In the league encounters between the two clubs, Charlwood's home match ended in a 2-2 draw back in September, whilst Southwater won theirs 1-0 in late January.

Although the weather was mild throughout, it was certainly changeable, with fine drizzly rain at the start of the game giving way to bright sunshine in the second half. After kicking off seven minutes late for some reason, Southwater started the game on the front foot, and in the sixth minute, they came close to opening the scoring when the ball was played forward, drawing the keeper out, and the Southwater player struck the ball towards goal, but was blocked by a defender, sending the ball tantalisingly spinning a few yards out from goal before being cleared. But they did take the lead on 16 minutes when the ball was crossed in low from the right, and Ben Lewis tucked the ball home from a central position. The home side continued on the front foot, albeit not being to create many real chances, but they held their narrow lead at the break.

The second half continued in much the same vein, and Southwater doubled their lead in the 50th minute when the ball was played forward and with the keeper slightly out of position, Luke Brodie drilled the ball home. It was increasingly looking like Southwater would canter towards a comfortable victory, as they created a few other chances to further extend their lead. But as the game reached its conclusion, Charlwood did come back into the game, perhaps as Southwater eased off somewhat, and the visitors gave themselves a glimmer of hope in the 89th minute when they pulled a goal back, following a run down the right, the ball was crossed in low and swept home from a central close range position. But time was against them and they could not threaten an equaliser in added on time, and so the holders would exit the competition today, leaving Southwater for a semi-final date at Bosham.