I generally have a list I put together at the end of the previous month or beginning of the next with rough ideas where I want to end up on a Saturday afternoon or Tuesday evening.
It’s never set in stone because something else can always catch your eye and makes an intriguing case instead. I try not to watch the same teams too frequently because you don’t want to be reading about groundhog day week in, week out!
I do also have a list set aside that I add to with clubs that I would like to get a visit in to, always for a variety of different reasons. It might be someone’s invited me there, the food looks rather exceptional or something else I’ve seen normally on social media or in conversation intrigues me.
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Tuesday night was one of those latter list visits. I had originally planned to head to the Enclosed Ground, home of Whitehawk FC, this weekend as they host Cray Wanderers and an opportunity to catch up with all at the Wands.
But, with a couple of my fellow SNLF podcast guys making their way across Brighton I changed destination to leave Saturday up in the air (and still up in the air come Friday morning as I write this).
A free entry or reduced entry match is something I don’t think non-league delves into enough. I know there are rules around how many you can schedule in a season but sometimes it can work along with other offers.
Hosting Lewes again after the derby match was abandoned at half time on Boxing Day, the Hawks went for the free entry to all and a bucket collection for Alzheimer’s Disease, 636 were in attendance, double their season average and hopefully a few return this coming weekend.
Contrasting form for the pair going into the match, both sides needing a win, however. If you’ve never been to the Enclosed Ground, then there is a slope Barnet’s old Underhill ground would have been given a run for it’s money, a great leveller and certainly one thing you see less and less of the more grounds you visit.
Given what was needed for both it was a very scrappy first half, and both sides seemingly not wanting to over-commit despite The Rooks having the downhill advantage.
Neither side seemed to want to get the ball down and play, the quality was short and not surprisingly we didn’t see a goal in the opening half.
Kicking down the slope seems to have it all about the home side which isn’t at all surprising and they certainly adapted better to the second half. Harry Bridle, on loan from Gillingham, opened the scoring on 54 minutes, a really smart finish and his second arrived on 75 minutes, an excellent header from a corner to double the Hawks lead.
Only then did Lewes seem to click up the gears a little, but they didn’t find the net until the final minute when Tolu Ladapo halved the deficit but too little too late and the home side clinched a second win in four days.
That contrasting form by the end of the game read only two defeats in their last ten games for the Hawks and moving four points clear of the relegation zone whilst the Rooks have just a single win their last ten matches which is why you can see the win was going to be important for both sides.
Having led the table for weeks at the beginning of the season and now sitting only three points in front of Whitehawk somehow they need to turn it round again. On the opposite side Shaun Saunders has done a fantastic job since returning to the Hawks but will know the job is nowhere near done yet.
Bridle was certainly the pick of the players, lively, and a nuisance to the Lewes back four, they’ll certainly be looking for him to get the goals to keep steering them away from the bottom four and to safety.
As mentioned a couple of my fellow SNLF podcasters were there also, Ryan Gayler has become the media face of the Hawks and is putting out some fantastic content for them, look out for a bit with me going out on Friday evening, links coming below.
Gaz was also there with his Arundel playing brother Jack and also managed to drag Pete Clarke along too, nice to have a little contingent there to mull over the action.
You can find the content Ryan puts out here on Instagram and also here on Twitter/X.
