After the disappointment of watching good free flowing attacking football from Leyton Orient on Tuesday, I had decided that this weekend I would give the football a miss and do some domestic chores. Apparently the house needs cleaning now and then – well Michelle says so, and as she is coming down to stay in a couple of weeks, I felt the need to delouse the house.
Well, that lasted till about 5 minutes after I had started cleaning. Ok, when I say cleaning, I meant thinking about starting it when I had finished surfing the net. Ok, if the truth be known I never got as far as even thinking of doing the cleaning. I mean a little bit of dirt never hurt anyone did it?
So, surfing the net and I look at The Non League Paper and their excellent fixture guide and settle on Harlow Town FC at home to Redbridge in the Rymans League Division 1 North. Its only about 20 miles from my home and easily reached via the M11. Redbridge are based near to my home, having bought Barkingside’s ground and are now Barkingside’s landlords. It is a relatively local game for both teams.
Harlow is an “interesting” place being a new town built around an existing small town. This is a little bit similar to Milton Keynes, but minus the cows.
Driving along the road to the ground, it was interesting to see the Rugby Club and the Cricket Club are off the same road. There is also a Greyhound Stadium next to the football ground. A real sporting conglomeration. The ground is signposted off the main road and the first thing you notice is there is lots of parking available free at the ground. Its not just on road parking, but specifically built parking spaces at the side of the ground. This is a nice touch and welcome as the ground is over a mile from the town centre and not served by any major bus routes.
After parking the car, the first thing I noticed was what appears to be a very large main stand. Given Harlow have an average crowd of under 200, I never expected to see such a big stand. As I hadn’t been here before, I did wonder if this was a sports centre that Harlow Town shared.
Round the corner were the turnstiles.There were 2 turnstiles here and 2 at the other end of the ground, but only 1 turnstile was needed to get everyone in. There was an interesting sign on the turnstiles.
If this is applied, then one wonders what the game will be like. I’ve never seen a football match without a ball before.
Admission into the ground if £10 which is steep for this level of football, but it does include a match programme providing they have not run out. An interesting approach. The programme has a nominal face value of £2 but I am not sure who would be paying for one given they are included with the admission price.
Through the turnstiles, the first think you see is a small Astroturf area for children to play football on. It is fenced off from the main pitch. A good idea to keep kids amused during the main game?
The ground itself consists of the main stand referred to above and a relatively large terrace opposite it. The remainder of the ground is hard standing surrounded by grass. The ground it self is very neat and tidy and is without a doubt one of the smartest non league grounds at this level. It is obviously a relatively new development. In fact, the ground is only 7 years old. The pitch is an artificial one. I have always been against such pitches till I saw Spennymoor play on Durham’s pitch 2 seasons ago. They have improved massively since the mid 1980s when QPR, Luton and Oldham amongst others used them in the Football League.
The one immediately noticeable thing about the pitch here was the amount of “sand” or similar substances that were on the pitch. In parts the pitch was black as a result. The corner flags were also rather different. They were not fixed into the ground, but consisted of a weighted flagpole.
Jumping ahead to the game, the pitch played very true. Indeed, it allowed players to use skill, and was a true contest between the teams with the pitch not producing uneven bounces or bobbles. I would definitely be happy to see games played on artificial pitches like this every week.
As I said before, the ground is impressive. There is a decent tea bar, and a licensed bar at the ground with Sky TV etc. The main stand itself appears to have been designed with some form of corporate entertaining in mind. There is a directors lounge at the back of the stand.
The game itself was an interesting affair with Harlow looking the more skilful side, but they repeatedly failed to take their chances. It therefore came as no shock when Redbridge’s giant of a centre forward scored from a near post header towards the end of the first half. They then doubled their lead after a comical series of events. Firstly Redbridge were awarded a penalty after a trip in the area. This lead to lots of pushing and shoving between the player fouled and the player penalised. This was right in front of the referee. After he restored order, the player penalised, the Harlow captain continued to argue with the referee and refused to listen to him. The referee booked both players, which seemed a little bit lenient on the Harlow player. He commits a foul, he then strikes an opponent and shows dissent to the referee, even after being booked. The Harlow player got the same punishment and he “only” struck the Harlow player after he was shoved first. It seems the original foul and the repeated dissent went unpunished.
Redbridge then managed to miss the penalty, but immediately afterwards, a cross was put in and the Harlow keeper flapped at it gifting a goal to Redbridge. 2-0 up away from home at 1/2 time and surely looking forward to an away win?
The second half saw Harlow gradually control the game. They however came as close to going 3 behind as they did to closing the gap. Then a breakthrough and Harlow pulled one back. Then in the 90th minute they managed to get an equaliser. It was not undeserved, but it did not seem as though it was coming. A draw was a fair result.
I need to make a mention of the Harlow Ultras. It seems that along with telephone masts in football grounds in the London area, all non league clubs have their own group of Ultras. The Harlow Ultras numbered about 20 and whilst they did make some noise, the majority of it came from a siren device which was set off after each goal Harlow scored. They however added a bit of atmosphere to the game and were clearly enjoying themselves. This needs to be encouraged. It will entice others to games if they see it as being lively.
One final observation of the ground today was that although it was a great set up, there was a distinct lack of groundside advertising. There were 2 boards from Macron the sportswear manufacturer, 2 boards from a company called Platinum Sports Management, one proclaiming the club were proud to be associated with the Variety Club (charity) and the obligatory board of the League’s Sponsor. Given the number of firms in Harlow, it is a poor show. The club need to get the local businesses on board to act as sponsors or at least to advertise at the ground. It is not easy, but faint heart never won the fair maiden.
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