St Leonards Social 2 v 1 Wadhurst United

Saturday 14th January 2012
East Sussex League Premier Division
Tilekiln 2, Hastings
Admission and Programme  N/A
Attendance: 7
Match Rating: 3

Today I had decided it was time to watch some real grass-roots football again, and so I headed down to the south coast of East Sussex, for a game in the intermediate East Sussex League Premier Division involving the champions of the last three seasons, St Leonards Social.

The Tilekiln Playing Fields is located three miles to the north west of Hastings town centre, with regular buses running from the train station to the nearby Tesco Extra supermarket, a five minute walk away. The council owned Tilekiln is home to several clubs in the East Sussex League and consists of three football pitches. As one enters the complex from the car park, there is a functional and unattractive building - seemingly built primarily to resist vandalism - housing the changing rooms, with two of the pitches side by side, although separated by a cricket square, stretching away from the changing rooms, with a third pitch set at right angles to and below the second pitch furthest away from the changing rooms. St Leonards Social's home pitch is the middle one, Tilekiln 2. There are no spectator facilities and the pitches are open with no perimeter railing or rope - unsurprisingly it is a rather uninteresting, characterless and bleak venue for football. On the positive side, having the three pitches in close proximity meant that one has a choice of games should one get boring - the few people on the complex appeared to do just that, wandering between the games - and the slightly staggered kick-off times today meant that I was able to watch a little of the action in one of the other games during half time in the game I was focusing on.

Having won the East Sussex League for the last three seasons, although St Leonards Social are currently second in the table this season, there is little prospect of making it four in a row this season, as they are twelve points behind Hollington United - who have won all eleven of their games this season - and have played a game more. Former Sussex County League club Wadhurst United are currently battling against relegation, down in ninth in the eleven team league, although they are comfortably ahead of the bottom two teams.When the two teams met back in November in the league in Wadhurst, the match ended in a 0-0 draw.

On a chilly, overcast afternoon, it was not long before the home side opened the scoring, when a fast break allowed a one on one with the keeper, and the forward dinked the ball over the keeper, leaving a tap in from a few yards out for Terry Smith. St Leonards looked the stronger and more assured side as Wadhurst struggled to get a foothold in the game, and it appeared inevitable that St Leonards would increase their lead, although on the half hour Wadhurst had a great chance, when good trickery and patience created space and an opening, but the eventual low shot was cleared off the line. Right on half time Wadhurst did equalise, when a free kick from about 20 yards out was drilled low and hard by Matt Smith, taking a deflection which wrong footed the keeper.

Wadhurst could consider themselves quite fortunate to go into the interval on level terms, although the second half was much more even from the start, and Wadhurst had a period of about twenty minutes midway through the second half when they were bar far the better side and it looked inevitable that they would take the lead. However, they could not capitalise on their superiority, and it appeared that they would have to settle for a point. It ended up worse than that though, as just three minutes from time, St Leonards went back into the lead when a low cross was tapped in from close range by 44 year old Keith Miles, formerly of Hastings United and Eastbourne Borough, amongst many other clubs. Wadhurst never really threated to grab another equaliser and so it was St Leonards who claimed all three points.

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Photos of Tilekiln 3 (Rock-a-Nore 5 v 1 Old Town Athletic, East Sussex League Premier Division

Photo of Tilekiln 1 - Peche Hill Select II 3 v 7 Battle Rangers, East Sussex League Division 3

Wadhurst United 4 v 2 Ticehurst

Saturday 22nd October 2011
East Sussex League Cup Round 2
Washwell Lane, Wadhurst
Admission and Programme: N/A
Attendance: 65 (head count)
Match Rating: 4

I had originally intended to go to Chatham Town's game against Heybridge Swifts today, which would have completed the "set" of Kent senior football grounds for me. However, a delayed train meant I missed my connection and would not have arrived at Chatham train station until well after the 3pm kick off. Therefore I decided to divert to a game that I had considered as a possibility anyway, an attractive looking cup game, albeit at intermediate level, which would be a derby game between neighbouring villages.

Today would be a revisit to a ground I visited last season, a very pleasant rural village location, and a description of the ground can be found here.

All of the ingredients were there for an intriguing game today. The match would be between two clubs separated by just three and a half miles, with many links between the two clubs. There would also be a chance of a giantkilling today, with Wadhurst United in the Premier Division of the East Sussex League but have made quite a poor start to the season, with one win and four defeats from their opening five games, against Ticehurst, of the First Division, who have made a strong start to their season, winning four and losing the other of their opening five games. In the latest annual memorial match between the two clubs in August, Ticehurst won 4-1 at Washwell Lane.

On a bright, sunny but somewhat chilly autumnal afternoon, the match started off as would have been expected - at a high tempo. However, with just seven minutes on the clock, Ticehurst's task suddenly became a lot harder when they unbelievably had their top striker, Liam Bull, who has scored twelve goals in just 6 games this season after scoring 23 in 24 games last season, sent off for a second yellow card. Both yellow cards seemed very harsh - the first for not retreating from a free-kick but he barely had time to do so before the referee waved his yellow card, and the second picked up whilst he was battling his way towards goal with a defender. This did not seem to impact too much on Ticehurst's play, as the game remained even, and on 17 minutes, they hit the post with a header in a crowded penalty area. Wadhurst were then awarded an indirect free-kick was awarded deep inside the penalty area after the keeper was penalised for picking up a long range back pass, but the shot was blocked. With around half an hour on the clock, Ticehurst's task seemingly became mission impossible, when they had a second player sent off, their captain Calvin Bull, brother of Liam, again for a second yellow card, again very soft, and indeed the referee had a really poor game throughout, dishing out countless yellow cards that rarely seemed necessary in a competitive but not overly physical game, and he seemed to be completely out of touch with the level and spirit of the game. On 41 minutes, Wadhurst broke the deadlock when good approach play resulted in a shot being parried by the keeper, only for the ball to be tucked away by James Mitchell from close range. On the stroke of half time, Wadhurst were awarded a penalty thanks to a rather agricultural shove on the striker heading away from goal, and the penalty was slotted into the left corner by Nick Holland with the keeper diving the other way. No sooner had the game restarted and the half time whistle was blown.

One feared for Ticehurst, as several of their players completely lost their composure at the end of the first half in response to the shocking performance of the referee, and they conceded a third goal on 48 minutes, with a corner met by a simple downward header into the net by Lee Bates. Surely game over now, and Wadhurst now took their foot off the gas, playing a pedestrian passing game with Ticehurst looking completely beaten. However, out of the blue, the Wadhurst keeper carried the ball out of his area under pressure, and a free kick was awarded wide of the penalty area. The free kick was dinked in perfectly and met with a header that gently went into the net via the inside of the post on 55 minutes by Martin Richardson, for what was surely only a consolation for Ticehurst. Almost unbelievably, Ticehurst were very much back in the game five minutes later when they scored again, with a powerful drive by Richardson for his second of the game after an initial shot was blocked. By now, Ticehurst really had their tails up and an equaliser very much looked on the cards, even playing with nine men. However, with ten minutes remaining, Wadhurst finally put the game to bed when a peach of a curling cross from wide was headed perfectly into the top corner by Bates for his second of the game. Wadhurst went on to have plenty of chances to further extend their lead, most notably when they had a goal questionably ruled out for offside and had a shot blocked close to the line with the keeper beaten, but any heavier defeat would have been harsh on Ticehurst.

So it was Wadhurst who progressed to the next round, job done for them, but enormous credit to Ticehurst for making a real game of it despite being reduced to nine men in the first half - it was just a shame that an incredibly poor performance from the referee impacted so heavily on the game.

Wadhurst United 6 v 1 Hospital Social

Saturday 25th September 2010
East Sussex League Premier Division
Washwell Lane, Wadhurst
Admission and Programme: None
Attendance: 28 (head count)
Match Rating: 4

After only returning home from holiday in the early hours, what I felt like most was a football match in a peaceful and rural location, and a visit to Wadhurst in the East Sussex countryside fitted the bill perfectly. The last time I had watched Wadhurst was when they played in the Sussex County League for three seasons between 2003 and 2006. After two successful opening seasons in Division 3, the club then struggled to avoid relegation in terms of league placing, but resigned from the league anyway, and suffered a three division drop into the East Sussex League Division 2. After two seasons of consolidation, they have earned back to promotions as champions to reach the Premier League once more.

During their brief stay in the Sussex League, Wadhurst played at Sparrows Green Recreation Ground, however since their resignation they now play back at their spiritual home of Washwell Lane right in the centre of the village, about a half hour walk from Wadhurst train station, which includes a steep hill for about half the distance. Washwell Lane is a very pleasant, typically central village location for a football ground, completely peaceful and with sweeping views of the Sussex Downs in the distance behind one goal, a church and oast house behind the other, trees closely lining one length of the pitch with an old-fashioned (but recently given a paint facelift) building housing the changing rooms and covered standing on the other side. The pitch also has quite a major slope from one goal to the other.

Wadhurst have started the season well, winning three and drawing the other of their opening four games in all competitions so far. Hospital Social, a new club this season in the East Sussex League based in Eastbourne, opened their season with a 5-2 win, drawing their next game, but then losing their latest two games, including a 0-6 home defeat against Rock-A-Nore.

On an afternoon alternating frequently between bright sunshine and dark clouds, the game started evenly, with Wadhurst taking the lead, although within a couple of minutes Hospital Social equalised. Wadhurst went back in front and shortly before half time, extended their lead to 3-1 with a penalty. The game was seemingly as good as won within a minute of the restart when Wadhurst went 4-1 ahead, and indeed, Hospital Sports completely capitulated in the second half. Having already been reduced to ten men in the first half when an injured player could not be replaced due to no substitutes being named, Hospital Sports were reduced to eight men with an hour on the clock when another player had to go off injured as well as having a player sent off for a deserved second yellow card. With half an hour left to play and the visitors having completely thrown in the towel, Wadhurst could easily have notched up double figures had they had the appetite, however the game being too easy seemed to completely dampen Wadhurst's appetite and they only notched a further two goals despite wave after wave of attack against a completely dispirited defence.