WEST SUSSEX-BY-THE-SEA

It’s the first league game, of a season already like no other, and a trip to Shoreham to see them take on Billinghurst in the Southern Combination Division One (just below the Southern Combination Premier, cos every league apparently now needs a premier division). You always get a warm welcome at Shoreham from their co-chair Stuart Slaney who over the past few years has overseen gradual transformation of the facilities as well as soccer schools, networking events and more teams under the Shoreham umbrella.

A disastrous promotion a few seasons back saw a brief spell in the Isthmian League before two relegations on the bounce. Football is like no other business, where doing the right thing and not bankrupting your club can get you punished on the pitch by others that roll the financial dice. So it was good to see the club getting a break and winning £25,000 from the Buildbase funding scheme to spend on improving facilities to attract more youth and girls teams.

Both clubs had already fallen at the first FA Cup hurdle with the Musselman taking a 9-1 hammering away to a Alford who are no doubt Premier league material.

I was hoping they would get a few more than the 89 through the gate...surely there most be plenty of Brighton fans in need of their live football fix? For a fiver with a pint in hand we got treated to a feast of goals with Shoreham turning round a 3-1 disadvantaged to finish the game 4-4.

Just down the road, and things were looking bleak for very near neighbours Southwick.

What should have been a joyful renaissance when the club became supporters owned, instead saw them booted out of their ground and relegated to park football. In fact it is the park next door so close the floodlights peered overhead from their Old Barn Way ground which now resembled more of an old farm yard.

Over the years the council were happy to lease to owners who only cared about profits from the bar but not the football club. One ended up in prison for drugs while the most recent tenant walked away when the pandemic closed the pubs. The council then shut the place down saying it needed half a million quids worth of repairs. Er, shouldn’t the council have had a duty of care to look at their property occasionally? It seems such was their disinterest when they came to turn off the electrics they were told they couldn’t because of the phone masts on the floodlights – something they apparently didn’t even know the previous leaseholder had installed and pocketed the cash.

The new club were understandably unwilling to take on the previous debt but are willing to do the place up a lot cheaper than the quoted repair bill.

Meanwhile people who refused to set foot while the club was run by crooks are now their biggest cheerleaders – including local resident John Baine aka Attila the Stockbroker with the sort of contacts and campaigning nous that was key to getting the Albion back home to Brighton.

The club are certainty playing a blinder with their Bring Home the Wickers campaign. Nearly 200 turning up for a hard fought 2-1 win against Ashurst Wood in the Mid Sussex Championship (just below the Mid Sussex Premier). Most of last seasons squad including their manager were happy to drop down the divisions while Ashurst named 67 players in the programme - more than double what Southwick used to average at home! With local councillors and the local MP in attendance and seeing first hand the strength of feeling, hopefully it wont be long before a rebooted, rejuvenated club can get back to where they belong.