Bostik matchday: Shoreham flex their mussels as the new season approaches

For much of the summer the goings on at Middle Road, home of Shoreham FC, resembled a south coast soap opera. After leading the Southern Combination Football League for much of the season the Musselmen had been overhauled during the final month, eventually finishing in second place to Haywards Heath Town. Yet even as the final whistle sounded on the final day there was doubt about who would actually win the title and attain promotion to the Bostik League. Heath forward Melford Simpson, signed in late March, had a ten pound unpaid fine and subsequent suspension hanging over him from his time with Fisher, and Heath, unaware of this, had played him for all of the run-in. Three hearings later, with first the FA, then the SCFL, and then the FA once more, left Heath deducted nine points with Shoreham taking their place as champions. The decision making process took nine weeks, and left the Musselmen entirely in limbo.

Joint Chairmen Stuart Slaney and Ralph Prodger can laugh about it now, but at the time it was anything but funny. Indeed it was, as Stuart describes it, “like a real life version of Eastenders. We couldn’t plan for more than two months. We couldn’t even sign players; everyone wanted to know which league we were in and we couldn’t tell them, and nobody would commit on that basis.”

Manager Sammy Donnelly has spoken about giving youth a chance, and for a long period during May and June he’d have had little choice as that was all he had. But since promotion was confirmed- the Championship Trophy was finally presented on 24th June- the club have confirmed a number of signings, including striker Evan Archibald- scorer of 26 goals for Eastbourne Town last season- James Broadbent, Andrew Dalehouse and Alex Laing, who spent much of last season with title rivals Heath. They now have a squad that they are happy with, although Ralph admitted that they expect “ a couple more signings before the season starts.” But youth is very important to the club, who run sixteen sides below the first team from Under 18 down to Under 8.

“The first team now pays for itself,” explained Stuart. “We’ve not gone mad- the wages haven’t really gone up even though we’ve been promoted, we set a budget and we keep within it. When I first took over the club it was running at a loss, and I insisted that we had to run it as a business. That didn’t necessarily make me popular but it was the right thing to do. We had a five year plan to get ourselves into the Isthmian League, and we’ve done it in three. The youth teams are our future, though- three of them are already exceptional and we hope that in the long term we’re bringing those lads through into the first team. We don’t want to have to go and find players from all over London and the south coast when we can grow our own. The manager already has three Under 21’s in the first team squad, and we’d hope that there will be at least three members of the first team squad who’ve come through the youth ranks every year.”

Today’s match, with North Division Witham Town, was the first pre-season friendly that Middle Road had hosted. The ground looked improved from previous years, with the main stand cleaned up and rebranded, a new covered seating area constructed behind the far goal, new branding on the covered standing enclosure behind the near goal and the clubhouse as welcoming as always. Ralph confirmed that the work was almost done, “all we need to do now is widen the path at the far side, and that will be done by the end of August.”

Outside the clubhouse the rain had just started to fall, and Witham Town supporter- Isthmian Supporter of the Year- James Beardwell was standing under a large umbrella filming his side warming up for one of his famous video blogs. He had already displayed his large collection of flags behind the goal- he was later to have to move the entire set as his side decided to kick the other way after winning the toss- and by this point, he explained, he’d already been in Shoreham for four hours, having arrived about half past ten. Apparently the fish and chips in the town centre were very good, and he was extremely pleased with the set of Musselmen memorabilia he’d been gifted by Stuart upon his arrival, but he really wanted to talk about the football, and once he started he sounded like a wizened old manager. “We’ve looked inconsistent so far, winning one, drawing two and losing one. But it’s just about fitness, really; the results aren’t important at this stage.” Witham did look rather fitter than you’d expect, given they’d spent the previous evening sampling the delights of Brighton.

By the time kick off came around Middle Road was beginning to resemble Middle River. The rain seemed to have set in for the afternoon, and the players resembled waterlogged rodents before five minutes had elapsed. Happily, however, the weather didn’t initially reduce the quality, and we soon had a pulsating game.

It was the away side who made the early running, and they went ahead in the ninth minute. An excellent cross from Elliot Ronto left the Shoreham defence flat-footed, and allowed Lance Atkins to head home. Ronto, it must be said, was the stand-out player of the first half, with excellent set piece delivery and a fabulous array of passing, and might have been man of the match but for the fact he only played for half of it. Indeed he was so good that you could almost forgive him his man-bun.

Almost.

The Musselmen drew level eight minutes later. An energetic run down the right from Alex Laing ended in an excellent pull back to George Rudwick and, unmarked, he was able to pick his spot. Laing was also the architect of the goal that put the home side ahead in the 34th minute, charging into the box with Witham full back Liam Whips at his heels. Sadly his attempt to whip the ball from the Shoreham winger ended with referee Steve Hughes pointing correctly at the spot. Laing picked himself up to drive home the penalty- although Witham keeper Lewis Moore was very unlucky not to keep it out.

The equaliser came five minutes before the half time break, and it was a thing of beauty. Town number ten Tommy Robinson timed his run to perfection to leave the defence flat footed and poke the ball past the despairing dive of James Broadbent, but in truth the praise should go to team mate Tyler Corlett, whose gorgeous pinpoint pass made the strikers job much easier. The interval arrived with no further goals, and with James and one single Shoreham supporter both auditioning for the next series of X-Factor in the solo male category.

The second half had less to admire, and was indeed a little niggly throughout. Both sides remained energetic, but the flow was regularly interrupted by both fouls and substitutions, and as such became rather less enthralling. There were still highlights, however. Town substitute Jacob Gyebi ran at the Shoreham defence on a number of occasions and was only kept off the scoresheet by an excellent save from Broadbent, but it was Laing, once more, who did the damage, cementing a man of the match performance by charging to the byline before delivering a pin-point pull back to Tom Burton with five minutes to go, the striker making no mistake to put the Musselmen ahead once more.

Asked about his hopes for the season, Stuart Slaney was both philosophical and realistic. “We hope to stay up this year. We need to find out what the league is about and consolidate. Perhaps after that we can look to push on, but we’re not going to underestimate the challenge. There are some very, very good sides in this league.”

It’s difficult to take evidence from a pre-season friendly that can then be applied to the actual season, but on today’s performance Stuart’s Shoreham might actually turn out to themselves be a good side in this league. And, from a North Division perspective, Witham Town weren’t short on quality either. You’d have expected that both managers will go home fairly satisfied.The supporters undoubtedly got their money’s worth too.

And enough rain to last them until September.