I went to see Whitehawk play St Albans City in the NL South on Saturday and kind of wished that I hadn't. North Street - one of the main shopping drags in Brighton - is closed, so buses were diverted along the seafront, which was hopelessly clogged up. We got to the ground just after kick-off.
All of which leads me onto the subject of that ground. It beggars belief that somewhere with rows of broken seating that hasn't been fenced off can be allowed to remain open, and that's before I get onto the subject of the bots of scaffolding just lying around all over the place. The last time I went there, they'd only just installed the seating so I was prepared to allow a little grace over there being stuff laying around, but that must have been three years ago and it's still laying around. Pity, really. It's such a beautiful view, nestled right in against the Downs, but it really is a shitty hodge-podge of a ground.
Apparently, half the teams in the NL South are losing their shit about needing to get promoted this season because of the inevitability of Billericay buying the title next year. There are only six points between first and tenth and most of them failed to win on Saturday, meaning that even a point away to a team with two from their first eleven matches of the season was enough to lift St Albans to third place.
Whitehawk were abject, but this was - according to a home supporter - the best they've played all season. They've just brought back serial Sussex non-league manager Steve King after the previous guy walked at the end of August. Their former president was imprisoned during the summer - reduced on appeal - for racially abusing a woman in a pub in Brighton. He's proclaiming his innocence and has said that he'll appeal to "clear his name", but nothing's happened regarding that yet and it came out during the trial that he'd picked up twelve previous convictions for varying types of violent behaviour between the ages of sixteen and twenty-six. Apparently he was the money there (he was Club President, but is no longer in that position). They've got a small bunch of "Ultras" who go there - drums, gay pride flags, all that - and I find it someone perplexing that they should have allied themselves to a club like Whitehawk. You'd think they'd be more at home at Lewes, or something.
All of which leads me onto the subject of that ground. It beggars belief that somewhere with rows of broken seating that hasn't been fenced off can be allowed to remain open, and that's before I get onto the subject of the bots of scaffolding just lying around all over the place. The last time I went there, they'd only just installed the seating so I was prepared to allow a little grace over there being stuff laying around, but that must have been three years ago and it's still laying around. Pity, really. It's such a beautiful view, nestled right in against the Downs, but it really is a shitty hodge-podge of a ground.
Apparently, half the teams in the NL South are losing their shit about needing to get promoted this season because of the inevitability of Billericay buying the title next year. There are only six points between first and tenth and most of them failed to win on Saturday, meaning that even a point away to a team with two from their first eleven matches of the season was enough to lift St Albans to third place.
Whitehawk were abject, but this was - according to a home supporter - the best they've played all season. They've just brought back serial Sussex non-league manager Steve King after the previous guy walked at the end of August. Their former president was imprisoned during the summer - reduced on appeal - for racially abusing a woman in a pub in Brighton. He's proclaiming his innocence and has said that he'll appeal to "clear his name", but nothing's happened regarding that yet and it came out during the trial that he'd picked up twelve previous convictions for varying types of violent behaviour between the ages of sixteen and twenty-six. Apparently he was the money there (he was Club President, but is no longer in that position). They've got a small bunch of "Ultras" who go there - drums, gay pride flags, all that - and I find it someone perplexing that they should have allied themselves to a club like Whitehawk. You'd think they'd be more at home at Lewes, or something.
Comment