So I took in a game between Hampton & Redmond vs Lewes in the Blue Squared South League. I was invited by Cricket journalist Lizzy Ammon & met a favourite blogger of mine Stuart Fuller from TheBallisRound his site will have a proper match review & better photos. Plus their friend Lee Deacon who knew everything Lewes.

Now I am not a football snob by any means, seen Scottish games from all leagues & Cliftonhill is worse than The Beveree ( Hampton & Richmond’s Stadium). So I was not surprised by the small stadium.

I enjoyed the atmosphere of it all, We stood for the whole game & although I am unsure of reintroducing it in the bigger stadia I enjoyed the freedom.

There were quite a few things that you don’t see in the higher leagues that I saw last night. There was the over weight home keeper who got abused by the away fans. The ref was terrible & got well & truly slaughtered for it. He spent what seemed an hour to restart the game from a throw in!

We lost three balls to the wood behind one of the goals, thankfully the old steward got them back. The Lewes fans seem to be all bloggers & some missed the  first goal by being on twitter. Then there was ‘The Alan Simpson’ named after the co-writer of Steptoe & Son, with Alan aged 81 was sitting there in an amazingly tall tammy hat! I always see celebs!

Then in the 2nd half I turn around & notice a sub going over to a fence away from the park, suddenly without warning his pants were down & he was relieving himself… Obviously I pointed it out to everyone but we were all too slow in getting the photo!

The game itself was actually just as impressive as the atmosphere. Their was an early goal for Lewes by my Man of the Match, Lyle Taylor, who took advantage of a poor mistake for the home teams left back. Taylor is a loanee from Bournemouth & you can tell he is from a better pedigree, as he held the ball up well, made intelligent runs & linked up with his teammates who sometimes were not on the same wave-length. After the early goal the excitement died out for the rest of the 1st half.

In the 2nd half, Hampton & Richmond came out with a flea in their ear from their gaffer, they were up for this game now. within the 1st ten minutes they were back on level terms & looked the better team. Lewes had lost their shape & their lead.

But then their composure returned, number 7 David Wheeler who was on the receiving end of harsh treatment in the 1st half, got on the ball more & started attacking with purpose. Then came the dramatic end!

With minutes to go a free kick was given to Lewes. The ball was played in, an overhead kick was attempted… Failed… sound back in the air & Grant Hall right back on loan from Brighton attempted his own overhead… Executed it perfectly & it was 2-1! Immediately the away team shouted out ‘Better than Rooney!’ It was great to be there.

The game ended & I was pleased for the away support, who were applauded by their players, still not sure if there were more players than fans but it was a very nice moment. I hope Lewes survive in the league but they will need to keep their loanee’s & I am not sure they will.

By the way as a footnote, Hampton & Richmond FC’s nickname is ‘The Beavers’ so I should be commended for not saying ‘Up the Beavers’ 0r ‘Eager Beavers’ Oops!!

Posted on February 17th, 2011 by scott
Filed under: Article