SALTDEAN PROMISE, EASTBOURNE FLARES

Saltdean United 1 Eastbourne Town 3

FA Cup extra preliminary round Tuesday 1st September 2020

Last time I went to Saltdean I nearly got hit by a tractor; this time round I was hoping to dodge the corona virus while satisfying my need for some live football after a five month forced abstention. But this wasn’t just any old match but a good old FA Cup knees up.

The first competitive game of the season. The extra preliminary round. Later than usual and on a Tuesday night.

Replays have been cut, extra time has been cut, prize money has been cut and capacities limited to just 300. Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t be a problem but with so many people denied their football fix including me (I support an elite club don’t you know, yeah Slough Town) it was obvious it was going to be a bumper crowd so I bought my ticket on line.

Especially as near neighbours and arguably the biggest team in Southern Combination Eastbourne Town were rolling into town along the coast road. Surprisingly, they had never met each other before in the Cup. The Tigers have never been past the 3rd qualifying round while Eastbourne have never got past the 4th qualifying.

Arriving by bus you get a panoramic view of the place, nestled into a valley with grand art deco buildings, including one that was once a Butlins camp and another that is now a community owned lido.

The football club is on the outer edge and entrance is along a dirt track towards farmers fields and the South Downs. With two small stands either side of the pitch there is also a massive grass bank giving spectacular views and a chance for some roly-poly celebrations if that's your sort of thing. 

Maybe I shouldn’t judge a club on its social media presence but its such an easy win and Saltdean had been busy on theirs. They’ve also been busy off the pitch. The place looked smart, the pitch in much bigger shape – and the game had sold out on line with an attendance of 235 rather than last seasons average of 66.

One of the newest clubs on the block, Saltdean were only formed in 1966 while Town are the oldest senior club in Sussex having been founded in 1881. The Saffrons has a listed turnstile block, while Saltdean have a table. My phone scanned a barcode and wanting to help clubs out in these driven-to-drink times I headed to the bar.

Within a minute of the game starting the Saltdean keeper, who had a great game, pulled off a top save. This set the tone for the next 20 minutes but slowly the Tigers started to compete. Then just after the half hour mark Eastbourne scored and their Ultras amassed behind the goal, finally found their voices, their drums and blue flares. Another goal just before half time and the Ultras were starting to dream of Faversham away in the next round.

Despite plenty of probing in the second half, the Tigers couldn’t find a way in until getting a soft penalty at the death. But then Eastbourne went the other end and got a third, queue more flares that put air and sea rescue on high alert.

Like any club that means business Saltdean have a multitude of teams behind them and their young cubs went through the Premier league song book behind the goal. One of the lads next to us admitted one was his little brother ‘Yeah he’s annoying and mouthy like that at home.’

This is certaintly going to be a season like no other and the last one was pretty out there. Three clubs had to pull out before a ball was kicked because of the virus. I will grab games where I can. In fact it feels like my football loving public duty that I should.

But the FA have missed a trick not distributing prize money more evenly especially this season, unconvincingly explaining that they cant do that as the big prize money makes the top clubs take the FA Cup more serious. Really? It hardly touches their sides but can throw a financial lifeboat for those that really need it. Just look at Chichester City and Maldon and Tiptree last season. But its more than that. When clubs like Eastbourne Town have Ultras you know that many football fans are turning their backs on the elite many of whom have just become money laundering exercises or excuses to sportswash their countries owners sins (‘yeah ok, so we behead our political opponents but just look at how much we have spent on a new striker for the club’).

What this pandemic has shown more than ever is that people want to belong, to be part of something. Up and down the country clubs like Saltdean United have an important role to play in being a big part of that community glue.