Tag: Enfield Town

It was a cold, blustery autumn evening and as I made the short walk from Lewes railway station to The Dripping Pan, the welcoming if not quite palatial home of Lewes Football Club, and a sense of foreboding hung heavy in the back of my mind. There was the small matter of the thousand words on Coventry City that required a final paragraph to be written before it was ready to go live. Then there was the nagging suspicion that the rest of the world would be curled up on their respective sofas watching what I believe to be called a ‘feast’ of Champions League football on the television, a global party to which I’ve seldom felt particularly invited. And then there was the recollection of the last time I’d made the short and inconvenient hop from Brighton town centre to see Enfield Town play, a six-nil thrashing at Whitehawk at the very tail end of last year in the cold and pouring rain which was so dismal that I briefly started to believe in God just so that I could curse Him for an hour and three-quarters. On one of my musings at least, I was not alone. Lewes are one of the best-supported clubs in the Premier Division of the Ryman Football League, but last night it appeared that the locals, by and large, had better things...

It feels as though the new football season has started a little too soo this afternoon. A summer which had rather looked as if it might not arrive at all has settled to a ninety degree heat from which there is no respite, even in the shade. Even by the coast in Brighton, this is weather that simply makes you want to curl up and fall asleep. A handful of miles inland in Lewes, the oppressive warmth and cloying humidity mean that a degree of apathy is amongst the order of the day for the opening match of the Ryman League Premier Division season between Lewes and Enfield Town, whether we like it or not. This is two clubs that have already won a trophy each this season. Last month, Lewes beat Fisher FC to win the Supporter Direct Shield, whilst later on the same day Enfield Town beat Wrexham – albeit some way from a full Wrexham team – to win the Supporters Direct Cup. This is two sides owned by their supporters trusts, though they cam through different routes to get here. Lewes’ frequent financial difficulties before being eventually handed to the supporters of the club, whilst Enfield Town are the original protest club, formed by their supporters as a break-away after Enfield FCs chairman sold its ground without having a replacement. There is, therefore, a common...