Well, what a day of football that was. Depending on your personal affiliations and soccer priorities, you could get swept up with the Mighty Black and Greens recording a third consecutive final day win which means they extend their stay in the top tier of Welsh football to a 33rd season. Or maybe VAR is your thing? Nottingham Forest and Coventry City have opinions. Liverpool went back to the top of the Prem. Leverkusen equalised in the 99th minute to stay unbeaten. Lewes, champions of the women’s game, lost and will be relegated. Or, here, you could watch a team joyously get over the line to become champions against hard-working opponents whose reward was the bittersweet knowledge that a heavy defeat today won’t damn them – they are finally safe from relegation. There was a lot going on. What an afternoon.
The last time I saw a match decide a title, I peppered my report with Yesterday’s Hero references. No need for that today because there was no need for anyone to do an Adam Faith monologue about turning running into winning. Newhaven know it all already anyway. This was win twenty in the twenty-one league games they’ve played. The only team who could catch them – Bromley, their final opponent still to come – have made the mistake of going 15-1-2 from their eighteen completed games. It’s fine margins in Division One South of the London & Southeast Regional Women’s League.
There was, as there always is, a wind blowing across the Little Common ground that was Bexhill United Ladies’ home for the day. It blew its chilly gusts from behind one goal to the other. With the wind at the backs, Newhaven essentially had all the early pressure. The only negative for them was a brutal but accidental that saw a player from each side leave the field, their heads wrapped in bandages but, thankfully, both seemingly able to engage in conversation. Once play restarted, the visitors and would-be champions scored three goals pretty quickly before Bexhill regrouped and asserted any kind of pressure of their own.
Three nil at half time became five nil at full time. The second half was slightly more even as the wind helped Bexhill counter but Newhaven’s defence mopped up most things before there was any threat on goal. As well as adding two more, Newhaven struck the woodwork a few times and forced a few stops including, I think, two goal-line clearances. They more than deserved the win and, with it, the title.
And on that full-time whistle the celebrations could begin. A more than decent crowd comprising a sortie from that town at the end of the world, a few Bexhill regulars, and another selection from women’s football clubs in the area, gave them the applause their season deserves. And they got to shake some fizz and do some proper cheering round a flag – although not in the goalmouth as the nets were already being taken down. There may be glory but there is also the practicality of wanting to get the hired pitch back into appropriate condition.
So, that was football on Sunday 21st April. I already knew Aber were safe because I was refreshing the life out of the Sgorio feed. What I didn’t know was that VAR insanity was about to arrive in the Premier League and Cup semi final. For all that those matches sometimes feel a million miles, and several more millions of pounds, away from those like this at Little Common Rec, it is all the same game. A maddening game. A game that you somehow freeze to your bones in April watching. And that leaves you smiling anyway. Football, you beautiful bastard.
The camera was there. It took some photos. They are here.
Jon's Place 