Bostik Blog: The least convincing victory ever!

Imagine yourself living in The Netherlands, having a wonderful life with your wonderful wife, and a not-too-stressful 9-to-5 job. What would you do with your free Saturday? How about getting into your car and driving 200 miles to Calais to board the Channel-train, just so you can watch a random match in the FA Trophy? Well that’s what Luuk van Liesout has done- five times so far- as he follows his quest to take in a match in every round of the competition, ending in Wembley at Non League Finals Day on 20th May. His latest trip was to Coles Park, to watch Haringey Borough take on Leyton Orient. Here’s his story.

Before the start of this season, I’d attended ten matches all told on British soil. This campaign I intend to double that, after I came up with the ridiculous idea that I would attend a match in every round of the FA Trophy. Of course, my wife wasn’t at all happy with my plan, but she agreed as long as she could tag along as and when she wanted.

Up to now I’ve been to Ramsgate v Bury Town in the Preliminary round with a colleague, then my wife joined me for the three qualification rounds – Hastings United v Ashford Town, Lewes v Bishop’s Stortford and Braintree Town v Cray Wanderers – and my brother accompanied me to the First Round Proper match between Haringey Borough v Leyton Orient.

You must think I’m crazy to travel all the way from Holland to come and watch football here. On several occasions I’ve heard English football fans telling me that they’re fans of the Dutch football style. On that basis, then, why should I come to you? Easy- it’s because the English game provides qualities the Dutch game lacks; qualities such as pride, history and passion. There are exceptions, naturally, but in Holland most games are won by a decent passing game and good positioning of the players. Our attackers are trained to stay out of a duel, not to get into one. Just think of it, Bergkamp always had loads of space created for himself, and Van Nistelrooy timed his runs so that he ’d lost his marker before tapping the ball to the net. At the top level, and if performed well, it looks great; otherwise it tends to be slow, incompetent and boring. In England the tempo of the game is always set at something towards frantic. The tendency is for every ball to go forward. Okay, that doesn’t always make it pleasing on the eye, but it is generally interesting to watch. There’s barely a dull moment in a match – even in the lower leagues.

However, when I set off for the Haringey Borough v Leyton Orient encounter, I knew this would be a bit different. I knew this match would have a sort of Dutch vibe around it. And it starts with the ground. In my previous visits to Britain I didn’t plump for any old random game. I don’t care much for the Premier League – anyway, I can watch that on the telly way better than in the stadium. No, I want to see something special, something the telly doesn’t show. And that’s where the lower leagues come in. You can get much closer to players, the fans and the stadium.

Thus far in the Trophy, I have visited, among others, Pilot Field (Hastings United) and The Dripping Pan (Lewes), and both stadiums are a pleasure for the eye. Pilot Field is a historical ground, while the Dripping Pan is a renewed stadium but with still that old clubhouse next to it. Both have something to show off – large enough in size to be interesting, and yet the club is small enough to actually feel something of its culture. In Holland such grounds are very rare. Most of the clubs that are small enough to get to know them only have a main stand, without anything else. So when I went to look up some photos of Haringey’s Coles Park, I saw immediately it was a Dutch kind of ground. Only one small main stand, probably built in the seventies or eighties, plus an artificial pitch.

Why did I choose this match then? Well, as I said, I want to see something special, and this was a derby. Even better, a derby neither side could have imagined in their best or worst dreams a decade ago. Well, maybe as a fundraiser, but definitely not as an official match. So when I was doing my homework I discovered the O’s forum, and I read that they were afraid of losing. I noticed that this match really meant something. Of course for Haringey it meant something too, but the nervousness of the Leyton Orient fans gave it an edge.

The significance of this match was made clear once more on Thursday Dec 14th. Normally at this level it is not necessary to buy tickets up front, but when making one final check on the Haringey website I read that the final tickets would be sold that evening. It scared the hell out of me, so I called my brother, who’d be joining me, and explained to him we just might to have to find another match. He told me not to worry and that he’d try to contact the club. He is much more involved in all the social media than I am, and within a few hours he’d made contact with Liam, a regular at Haringey. Liam told us tickets would still be available on match day; on hearing that my heart reverted to normal speed!

Then finally on Saturday we were off to London. We travelled by car to Calais to catch the Eurotunnel-train as I’ve done three times before this season. And this road is boring. It takes us about an hour to get out of Holland, where we have some fine roads, and then the horror begins. Belgium’s roads are of lesser quality causing more noise. And in Holland you can look out over meadows and fields, whereas in Belgium all you can see is concrete walls; to top it all, it started raining when we arrived in Belgium. So grey roads, grey concrete and grey skies and a lot of grey noise – Belgium at its best. Luckily I had some good company, and we turned up the music. In England it was another 90-minute drive; with five hours on the clock we’d finally reached Wood Green. We parked the car, and walked to Coles Park.

Normally I’d start with taking a wander around the stadium, but there’s not really much to see here. We already walked a fair way up White Hart Lane, and to be honest it looked a bit dodgy at the end with the burned-down Self Storage right next to the stadium. So instead we decide to get our tickets and get to the clubhouse. When we walked in about 70 minutes to kick-off it was already packed with supporters from both sides. When we got to the bar to order some pints, we were recognised immediately. The barmaid Siobhan asked us if “we were the guys from Holland”. Apparently we had been in contact with her fiancé, Liam. Due to the crowd, it was a little too warm in the clubhouse, so we went outside to drink our beers. And that’s where we met the Haringey Borough Male Voice Choir. You could tell they were up for it, they told us a little bit more about the club, and the pity it was that their striker was suspended. Of course they were also flattered by our visit, and soon my brother and I had become the president and vice-president of the Dutch branch of the Haringey Borough Fan club. Mind you, we were also the only two members- we didn’t have to hold an election!

After the second beer we went to look for a spot around the pitch. We found one on the far side of the ground, and were pleased to hear some decent music; that’s something that, experience has proved, you don’t seem to get much of at English football grounds. In the Netherlands we are more used to either popular music from this era or music that boosts the noise levels. We also enjoyed the announcements from Club Secretary John Bacon. He sounded like a very kind, well-behaved sort of chap, and he asked us twice not to smoke or use any other kind of sparks around the pitch. When he ended his second warning with “so that is no flares at all, in fact”, we were crying with laughter. Although it wasn’t meant as humour, to us it sure was. Be sure to cherish this man. Just by his voice and the way he announced the game you can tell he’s the kind of person you need, so your fans know they’re home.

After this warning to match finally kicked off. A lot of Orient fans had found their ways to Coles Park, but instead of shouting the team forward, they were whining and moaning. They had every right to, Leyton were awful, especially the first half, but I didn’t expect that their fans would respond in this way. It is something I’m used to in Holland. When Ajax plays a relegation team, and they’re losing, you’ll get the same type of reaction. Slagging off their own players, without any sense of humour.
On the other hand, the Male Voice Choir of Haringey were hollering their best repertoire from the top of the main stand. And they also had every right to. Haringey were better in every way the first half. Orient had their chances, bHaringey played to win, knew where they could hurt the opposition, and whilst Orient played not to lose and didn’t seem to have a plan when they had the ball. Haringey could have been a couple of goals to the good at the break; unfortunately for them it was only 1-0.
In the second half, the Orient players and their fans had shaken off their Dutch auras. They played more opportunistic football, and their fans started to shout more, urging them to attack. For me, the quality difference between the two teams wasn’t as great as you’d expect, even in the second half, but you could see that Leyton knew they had to step up their game, and as the second half wore on, it seemed like Haringey became nervous of actually winning the match.

Clearances in the first half were picked up by the Borough attackers and midfielders, but this happened less frequently in the second half. Once the score became 1-1, the Borough midfielders were extra defenders and their strikers were both on separate islands. The pressure from the O’s became greater and greater, and although their fans were still not satisfied, they gained back the British humour that I love this country for.

When Mooney was about to walk to the sideline, a fan shouted, “As much as you want to go off, unfortunately it’s not you!” as he showed his discontent with his performance. Ten minutes to full time a thend pressure became too much, and the Borough goalkeeper misjudged a corner leaving the goal gaping, allowing Orient to score the winning goal. This caused a reaction from Haringey; all at once their midfielders were playing as midfielders again, and it led to some chances. Sadly they didn’t get the equaliser they were entitled to, certainly when you look at the match as a whole.

This was a great match, with Haringey Borough really asking questions of the ex-League side. We met some great people as well, and it was wonderful to see how much effort Haringey and Leyton (who arranged all of the stewards) had put in to this to make sure this fixture would be a success. Regrettably, the atmosphere was not as thrilling as the number of the crowd would suggest.

When you are with several hundred people supporting your team, and see that they’re in trouble, don’t moan and whine about it. Support them- surely, that’s why you’re there? This was something the Orient fans only realised after the half-time break. It is also the reason they were able to witness their “least convincing victory ever”, as one of their fans put it just before the final whistle.

I think this statement is spot on.