Brentwood Town v Needham Market

Tuesday 25/01/2011

Inside the Clubhouse

A change in tact for the 3rd game of the tour.  Our first two games saw us visit the two highest placed teams in Essex in Non-League Football.  And the fact they were placed 1st and 2nd in the division when we stopped by, hinted that perhaps we hadn't yet seen the true nature of football at this level. 

So it was on a rather nippy, and increasingly wet Tuesday evening that we found ourselves pulling up at 'The Arena' to take in the delights of our first Ryman League Division One North game.  We were dropping two more tiers on the football pyramid for this fixture so because of that and the poor weather conditions, hopes were not high for a game of high quality. 

Entrance into the ground wasn't immediately clear but we soon discovered a single turnstile situated in the far corner.  Tickets were only £8.50 although you don't actually get a ticket, just a match programme to certify your arrival.  Chances of a high attendance were dismissed by the guy on the entrance as he pointed out that Arsenal had a home game that night.  This was confirmed by his method of jotting down on a scrap of paper each person that walked passed him that evening.  Still, we were eager, and were soon making our now customary pre-match wander around the ground. 

The players warm up

This didn't take long as there is only one main stand that seats 150 people, the rest is just a walkway, and in places a very muddy one at that.  I can confirm though that The Brentwood Centre Arena is the first ground i have ever visited with trees inside it's boundaries.  Interestingly, the players before the match could be found warming up on some empty playing fields behind the pitch.  Before long we headed to the clubhouse bar for a drink before kick-off.  Regular home support must be low as the barmaid presumed we were Needham fans, and indeed looking around we noticed the majority of fans there were dressed in the red and black of the away team. 

This fixture must have been a re-arranged game as the programme we had been given was from the end of October, meaning all of the information on the teams was somewhat out of date.  Not to worry though as due to our extensive research during working hours we were aware of the few big names there tonight.  Needham's main attraction was none other than former Manchester City and Northern Ireland International, Kevin Horlock.  At 38 he has now reverted to playing at left-back from a more familiar midfield role as well as taking on the job as Assistant Manager.  Not to be outdone on the international stakes Brentwood had one of their own.  Step forward Town and Montserrat striker Ellis Remy.  Granted Ellis' career at that level hasn't yet been as successful as Horlock's, as he has been restricted to just the 1 cap which resulted in a sending off and a 7-0 drubbing at the hands of that other huge footballing nation, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.  Still, Ellis has 12 years on Horlock so perhaps a huge performance tonight could thrust him back into the big time.

Before leaving the clubhouse i noticed a poster on the wall detailing a list of things that the club needed volunteers for.  The list contained some of the usual requests you may expect from a small club, such as asking for ball-boys, or people to help out as match stewards.  But number 4 was a personal favourite of mine, 'Can you lay felt on a port cabin roof', is all it said.  I'm not entirely sure if this was a request from the club or just a club official taking an interest in what the people of Brentwood are capable of in the DIY stakes.

As the game approached kick-off we made our way out to see the players emerge.  Brentwood's number 7 Steve Butterworth looked like he'd rather be anywhere else as he stood shivering with his arms folded in line to join the field of play.  Not much warmer ourselves, we headed into the stand to get a seat.  We opted for row 2 but were far too low down to guarantee a particularly good view, which was only worsened by all the posts and pillars between us and the pitch.  Looking behind us we discovered only 2 more rows, with very little difference in altitude, so before long opted to re-position ourselves elsewhere.

From kick-off the difference in quality compared to the Conference South was evident immediately.  It took all of 4 seconds for the ball to be played aimlessly long, and in the opening exchanges it appeared that only Kevin Horlock had the ability and confidence to get the ball down and distribute passes.  He did however seem out of place at left-back when not on the ball, and indeed his lack of pace and positioning proved crucial in the opener after 19 minutes as he was easily beaten by his man with the resulting cross headed in by Danny Dafter.

Going into this fixture, high flying Needham would have been favourites for the win, but to their credit mid-table Brentwood looked organised and resilient at the back.  With 30 minutes gone we'd by now found ourselves neatly placed between the two dugouts and the shock scoreline showed as the Needham manager's frustration began to boil over as he took it out on his players.  In contrast the Brentwood bench was quieter barring a few digs at striker Ellis, which was somewhat unfair in my opinion as he seemed to be holding the ball up well for his team-mates.  The guy's an international, he deserves a bit more respect!  How on earth he managed to pick up a red card on that fateful night playing for Montserrat bemused us, despite all the abuse and rough treatment from the opposing defence and his own management team the gentle giant never once reacted.

Besides the goal, there was very little else of note in a frantic first half of little quality.  The only highlight being when i took a photo as the game was in play with the Needham manager mistaking the flash of my camera with lightning.  As half time approached we noticed for the first time a lack of a stadium announcer, so were clueless as to how much extra time was to be added on.  The same applied when the teams returned to the field for the second half to the sound of the referee's whistle from the changing rooms.  We'd go on to be treated to another delight in the latter parts of the game when old fashioned substitute boards were used in favour of the new electronical ones.  I haven't seen numbers held up like that since the mid 90's.

Initially, the second half mirrored the first, Needham having the better of the play but Brentwood standing firm.  That was until the 63rd minute when Needham were awarded a penalty for hand-ball.  We rushed from our spot on the halfway line to get behind the goal for the taking of the penalty, arriving just in time to see it slotted home to the keepers right.  Straight from kick-off we were started to make our way back to our original spot and by the time we had arrived there Needham had made it 3-1.  Brentwood's players heads had dropped and their defending resembled that of a Sunday League team as they somehow managed to throw the match away by conceding 3 times in as many minutes.

For the remaining 15 minutes or so we headed behind the Needham goal in order to beat the queue's for the carpark at full time, but still had time to enjoy 2 more goals, first up a fourth for Needham with minutes remaining, before an injury time consolation from young sub Jacob Dingli, who pounced on a parried shot from the keeper who seemed to take an eternity to get to his feet after the initial save.

Parking: Free (Large Car Park)

Ticket: £8.50

Programme: FREE

Score: 2-4

Attendance: 88

Chelmsford v Bishop's Stortford

Chelmsford City v Bishop's Stortford

Saturday 22/01/2011

For our second game of the Non-League tour we opted for a trip back north to see Chelmsford City play.  It was fitting really because a week after seeing Braintree, it made sense to pop back and watch their local geographical as well as title rivals.  The real reason though was because of finding out that former Watford midfielder Paulo Vernazza was on the books of Bishop's Stortford.  Oh, how the mighty have fallen, for Vernazza was once a promising youngster on the books of Arsenal, and at now only 31 he seemed to be playing for a mid-table team in the Conference South. 



Bob's turn to pose in front of the sign -
just to prove i'm not actually going to
 these games alone!



Paulo Vernazza wasn't there.  Not sure why, wikipedia said he played for them, and everyone knows how accurate Wikipedia is.  Whats more, Bishop's Stortford's very own website had the great man as listed in their team.  But after buying a programme he was nowhere to be seen in it.  I was so perplexed by this that at half time I called Bishop's Stortford FC in search of an answer.  However, i was put through to the bar manager there and he didn't seem to know too much about First Team affairs.  He told me the man i needed to speak to would be at the game but would not want to be disturbed on the day.  Seeing as Stortford were already 3-0 down when i made this call, i decided to let the matter lie.

Less a shop, more a window that sells things

Venue for breakfast - the clubhouse

When at Braintree last week we turned up 15 minutes before kick off (would've been earlier if we hadn't have got lost) and left straight after the game.  This week we decided to get into the spirit of things a little further.  We also didn't want to miss the Wolves v Liverpool game at lunchtime.  So we headed to the ground for 12.45pm.  No such problems this week as there were signposts galore for the stadium, and what with the site being primarily for Athletics, found a huge empty car park within the grounds.  I know i started writing this a week ago but i think the idea of the blog was to make comparisons between the teams we see?  Well, Chelmsford immediately trump Braintree as they have 2 burger vans as opposed to one.  However they fall down on the sweets, just a mere table pitchside for sweets here.  What is it with Non-League football and sweets?  We opted to skip all these options and nipped into the clubhouse for an English Breakfast and a pint, all served up alongside a 3-0 Liverpool drubbing of Wolves. 

We just had time to have a wander around the ground before kick off, grabbing a cup of tea from a 10 year old girl.  They do get them working young up here.  The teamsheets had been handily placed in view at the first aid booth as well, although most of the players on it weren't actually on the matchday program.  Still, i jotted down the names as best i could and off we went to our place in the main stand. 




Home Support



Chelmsford is famous for the being the home of radio, but the players were not on the same wavelength as the fans as they opted to swap ends at the toss.  Cue humourous scenes of all the fans on the terraces (well, a standing platform) behind each goal having to traipse from one end of the pitch to the other in order to support their team from an attacking point of view. 

Away Support

Bishop's Stortford opted not to attack though.  Their main tactic throughout the game was to defend badly and give the ball away as often as possible.  The opening exchanges didn't reveal much though, especially as the sun was so low in the sky nobody in our stand could really see much.  But as the first half progressed, little Japanese winger Takumi Ake slowly came into the game and started getting a few balls into the box and it wasn't too long before midfielder Stephen Reed got on the end of one of them only for his effort to rebound off the post.  He didn't have long to wait for another chance though as the ball was only half cleared and as it came back in Reed cleverly flicked the ball goalwards and into the net.  Reed was to grab another with a superbly taken goal from the edge of the box just over 5 minutes before half-time.  Not a bad return from a man that only started the game due to a pre-match injury from team-mate John Martin.  And minutes before the break it was 3-0 as striker Billy Bricknell was played through to tuck it in under the keeper.  It looked as though he had held on to the chance for too long, but did well to hold the covering defender off before a low finish.

So it was 3-0 at the break.  Game effectively over.  Perhaps more interesting than the game itself was watching the ball boys in action.  Being surrounded by a running track everytime a shot was misplaced (which was fairly often), the ball would carry for miles.  From our lofty position in the stands we could see where the ball had gone, but the poor young chap by the pitch couldn't and we took great amusement in watching the unlucky fellow continuously running backwards and forwards looking for his prize.

The entertaining ball boy

Still, it kept him warm, which is more than could be said for us in the stands.  2 games in and i'm beginning to wish we'd started this in September, and not January.  Half time was a case of sitting and slowly freezing, made worse by an unknown delay to the second half.  I blame the referee for this, it may not have been his fault but to be honest he had such a nit-picky game i wouldn't be surprised if it was his doing that the teams took so long to re-enter the field of play.  It's not as if he made many incorrect decisions, he just wouldn't let the game flow, much to the frustration of one of the guys in the Chelmsford dugout whose expletives carried over to us despite the wind and the running track, and the long jump pit, and the fact we were sitting near the back of the stand.

Either the second half was less eventful or i just made less notes as my hands were too cold.  A bit of both probably.  Needless to say Bishop's Stortford were by now already beaten and looking dejected, their sole real chance coming from Ben Bowditch (former Spurs!) who should have done better than sky the ball over the bar from a neat cut back. 

A good crowd in the main stand

Chelmsford kept pressing though and what looked like a long cross from midfielder Matt Lock, swerved in the wind and caught the keeper off guard, only to strike the top of the bar and bounce to safety.  Perhaps it was no fluke though as minutes later the same player unleashed an absolute screamer from easily 35 yards out that clipped the underside of the bar on the way in.  4-0 with 15 minutes still to play. 

It has to be said that both teams were supported a lot more vocally than at the Braintree game the week before.  Stortford's fans consisted of mainly teenage chav's who bless the streets of most of our High Streets in the South East, but still, it was nice of them to make the effort.  And they did have something to cheer with literally the last kick of the game (that was actually a header) as Stortford grabbed an undeserved consolation.  I didn't see it though as we had decided to leave our perch in order to get back to the car quickly at full time.

Parking: Free (Large Car Park)

Ticket: £12.50 (for seating)

Programme: £2.50

Score: 4-1

Attendance: 883

Braintree v Lewes

Saturday 15th January 2011

Our first week of a brand new idea.  It's always exciting.  Most ideas don't get to this stage.  We were actually going to carry it out.  I'd been busy extensively researching all the local teams in the area (i went on Wikipedia), and had singled out two potential games for us to see.  It was between Canvey Island and Braintree.  As a child i would on occasion go and watch Canvey play with my Grandad, i also even played on their pitch once (we lost 9-2 and my sole meaningful touch was to hoof the ball over the bar and into the car park beyond).  So i was very keen on starting our journey there. 

But it's a Saturday.  And a Saturday means we had more time on our hands than usual.  So it made sense that Braintree be our first trip.

The trip to Braintree itself was straightforward enough, but finding the ground proved a little more difficult.  Braintree evidently don't seem to be overly proud of their team, as signs for the stadium proved elusive.  But after 30 minutes or so of driving around, soaking up the view of the town we eventually stumbled across it, tucked away within a residential area.

We had arrived at Cressing Road Stadium. 

We paid our £12 each for a ticket and excitedly bundled through the turnstiles.  Braintree Town typically get attendances of around 500 for their home games.  Well today, they would be getting 502.

We still had a few fleeting moment to have a quick browse around the ground.  Immediately to our left was the Board Room.  It was more of a shed, than a room, but still, that's what the sign on the door said. 

As i'm sure is the same with all football grounds up and down the country, Cressing Road came equipped with a Burger Van.  But what has already set Braintree apart from the rest in my eyes was the accompanying 'sweet shop van' parked alongside it.  Still, we opted for lunch and were delighted to discover that here you can order a Cheese Burger and Chips, all for £4.50.

After getting briefly blocked in as the two teams lined up to come out, we decided to head round to the one stand with seating to watch the first half in comfort.

We took our seats and were ready to enjoy our first 45 minutes of Non-League actions, only to discover a steward approaching us.  Perhaps he'd heard about our exciting quest and wanted to come over and wish us luck on our new venture.  Unfortunately not.  It turns out that if we wished to sit here we were required to part with another £1 for the priviledge. 

15.00 - As the game kicked off i should comment that going into this fixture, Braintree found themselves to be top of the Conference South, and were hosting a Lewes side that were struggling near the foot of the table.  And it showed.  All the early pressure in the opening 15 minutes came from the home side.  They forced a number of free-kicks around the edge of the Lewes 18 yard box, and indeed had two early goals chalked off, for offside and a foul on the keeper respectively.  It goes without saying really, that as non fans of the club we didn't really have a clue who any of the players were, and what with the lack of squad numbers at this level, using the programme didn't really help much either.  Still, we soon started to make out a few key figures, Paine at the back standing out for one, with a strong, confident display, despite the ability to lose the ball through his legs on more than one occasion.  Lewes' main man in the early exchanges appeared to be 'the human flick on machine' Paul Olima.  He did indeed get various parts of his body to many a high ball played in his direction, but unfortunately failed to get into the game in any other way, most low passes to feet seemed to bounce off him in various directions. 

Lewes best and only clear cut chance of the half fell to Olima, a free header for him after he manged to ghost in at the back post, but the big man seemed to lose confidence as the ball arrived and could only fluff it wide.  Minutes before half-time and it seemed as though we'd get the much awaited breakthough.  A penalty awarded to Braintree 5 minutes from the break for hand-ball in the box.  But Lewes 'keeper Chris Winterton produced a fine save.

The away support huddled behind the goal

So the teams went in level 0-0 at the break.  A cup of tea was in order as the temperature started to drop.  As we made our way back to the burger van we noticed a few Lewes fans.  8 of them in total huddled behind the goal they had just been attacking.  Due to the wind direction and the fact we'd forked out £1 for the seats, we decided to stay where we were for the second half.  It was interesting to see the Braintree fans though move from behind one goal, and to the other in order to support their team as they attacked the Lewes defence in the second half.  This also forced the 8 Lewes fans to relocate down to the other end as well. 

The second half produced more of the same, Braintree playing the majority of the football, and indeed took an early lead through top scorer Sean Marks (the guy who had missed the penalty and had two goals disallowed in the first half) on 47 minutes, who turned in from close range after a fine save from Winterton. To Lewes' credit they continued to look fairly solid and despite a clear lack of options up-front, were beginning to grow into the game.  However, the scoreline could've been greater were it not for a great perfomance from Winterton in goal.  He was beaten once more when a header from Jai Reason smacked against the post and across the goal mouth before being cleared.

Excitement did come in the form of Anthony Barness, former Charlton and Bolton right-back playing for Lewes.  He was captain and was surprisingly quiet, but his experience on the ball was telling as he showed constant composure when in possession.

The game more than satisfied the home support, who did eventually take to cheering their team on with a few chants mid-way through the second half.  It finished 1-0 to the home side, but not before the ball was lost over the fence on 6 seperate occasions throughout the match.

I think one huge positive from viewing this match in comparison with the Premier League was the flow of the game.  Firstly, the referee handled the game exceptionally well, and whenever there were a few feisty challenges, nobody made a meal of it but were back on their feet immediately, ready to get on with things.  A second plus point was the luxury of leaving the ground and not getting caught in any congestion leaving the stadium.

Over the course of the next few days we eagerly awaited the match report from both teams website.  Perhaps understandably Braintree Town got a bit carried away with their report.  Striker Marks apparently crashed the ball hom from close range, which was not exactly the case.  It seemed the losing team were more honest about the performance and pretty much summed the game up well, despite feeling the penalty was harshly given. 

Two days after the date of this blog the Lewes website announced the release of striker Paul Olima.

Parking: Free (plenty of off-road parking as well as a small unmade car-park)

Ticket: £12 (plus £1 for seating)

Programme: £2

Score: 1-0

Attendance: 535

Intro to the blog

This is a blog about visiting Non-League football teams in Essex.  There are two of us involved in this blog.  We are Pete, and Bob.  A bit about us first of all.  We have been on this earth since the mid-80's and in love with football since some time after that.  I (Pete) am a life-long Tottenham Hotspur fan, and Bob is a Bristol City man.  But above all, we love football, be it playing it, watching it, or talking about it.  Aside from following our beloved English teams, we are keen followers of the beautiful game on a global scale, keeping an eye on and watching as many games as we can from the top European Leagues, as well as some other minor leagues such as the A-League and I-League.  I even promise myself to make the effort to get into MLS soccer one day, but then i say that every season.

My quest in life is simple.  Visit a game of football in every country.  I am 26 now.  So far i've seen football in 2 countries.  England and Australia.  I also once went to a game in Wales but it was for the then known LDV Vans Trophy so it doesn't really count.  If we are going by FIFA nations then i have 206 more countries to visit. 

Bob doesn't have this goal, probably mainly because he has a girlfriend.  But we do share one passion, and thats to see as many different varieties of games as we can.  We touched on the idea of touring Europe for a week, and going to a different game in a different country each day.  But this proved to be too expensive, plus we were too lazy to plan it, and i at the time couldn't find my passport. 

So we scaled things down again.  Why not try and visit every Non-League team in Essex (our Home County)?  This seems more affordable and less time consuming. 

But what is the real purpose of this blog?

Well, the idea of watching Non-League games is to experience a different level of football and see the differences between non-league and the professional game to find out whether you get value for money and greater entertainment at higher levels of football, or whether it's just as good towards the bottom of the pyramid, at your local club for a quarter of the price.

Also, its an alternative to just sitting down the pub.

Pete