V’s Vs BHAFC U21s
‘We hope you enjoy this celebration of the Brighton and Hove Albion football community’ proclaimed the PA announcer - AFC Varndeanian’s Ben Graham - as the two teams walked onto the pitch.
The V’s vs BHAFC U21s in the Sussex Senior Cup, a routine second round tie that was anything but for the majority of the crowd, or the football club that has been proud to call Withdean its home for the past nine years.
My evening had begun in the Crown & Anchor reminiscing about a time when Withdean was the place we called home. A pub was that fairly rubbish back then, and despite numerous makeovers and glow ups, is now quantifiably worse; charging £7.50 for a pint of Madri (brewed by Carling in Burton, England) and £3 for a packet of crisps does not make a pub good, it just makes it expensive.
This was followed by a visit to the hallowed Sportsman, a place where drinks are reasonably priced but somehow, after all this time, still awkward to access; ‘we’ve run out of pint glasses’ said the man behind the bar. Just like the good old days. But it was nice to be back, surrounded by Erea badges and Donatello’s logos, Albion crests designed as a shield and not circular, seagulls flying to the left not the right. Apparel sourced not from Ebay but from wardrobes and drawers in people’s homes.
I took my seat in the stadium and to my left spotted Paul Rogers, and to my right Glenn Murray. Here and there I could see people I knew, and people I didn’t but still recognised. The Brighton & Hove Albion football community, as Ben Graham’s announcement so succinctly put it.
Where in this community do AFC Varndeanians (the V’s) see themselves I wondered? It was a pleasant surprise to hear the note of positivity and connectivity on the PA announcement, whereas some non-league clubs in the local area go out of their way to stress their disinterest towards, or in some cases, disdain, the Albion.
‘We definitely don’t see ourselves as competition for the Albion’ replied Ben Graham when I asked him this question ‘first and foremost we are about providing football to the people of Brighton and Hove. From a first team perspective we are very proud of our team and the fact we play at the Withdean with a squad made up of mainly local lads’. In addition to his involvement with the V’s Ben Graham, where time allows, is a home and away Albion fan.
V’s boss Law Edwards is also a matchgoing Albion fan and, on tonight’s evidence, way better at his job than the person Shannon Ruth faced in his previous fixture (Brighton 10, the other team 0). The V’s play in the Southern Combination Premier Division - step 5 of the non-league pyramid - alongside longstanding county league outfits such as Horsham YMCA and Saltdean United.
‘We will go into the game with a positive attitude and will look to compete and cause an upset,’ Law had stated in his programme notes. And whilst the upset didn’t materialise, thanks to Louis Flower’s early goal, perhaps the home team will take solace from the closeness of the scoreline and the general tightness of the match.
For the Albion, Charlie Tasker was quietly and efficiently excellent at full-back, Sahil Bashir lively on the wing, and Yussif Owusu stood out in the middle of the park. Plus the left-footed centre-half duo of Charlie Penman and, I think, Jacob Vickers. A feature of the Withdean era was the emergence of a succession of superb central defenders. Adam Virgo, Adam Hinshelwood, Joel Lynch, plus, just as the era was closing out, the greatest of them all, King Lewis. Perhaps it was a consequence of watching the game through a filter of Withers memories and historical context, but both of these central defenders looked like they could potentially step up to the first team in the near future.
Credit also to referee Lisa Benn (a WSL regular) who allowed things to flow where possible; can we have her in the Premier League please? The U21s are currently fourth in the Premier League Two table, and whilst this was a fairly experimental U21 team - with some players well below maximum age limit - they’re a talented bunch who should be targeting the Sussex Senior Cup as part of their development (and because it would be really fun to watch them lift the trophy).
The matchday programme also included notes from V’s captain Omar Bukleb ‘the majority of the boys are Brighton fans’ stated Omar ‘and are looking forward to testing ourselves against a strong Brighton set up’. ‘Tonight provides an opportunity for supporters of both clubs to reflect on the progress Brighton and the V’s have made since our respective moves from, or into, Withdean. I’d like to think this evening will be a celebration of all the things that our two clubs have in common, such as our community values, our city, and the Dunk brothers’.
Carl Dunk (Lewis’s brother) is V’s assistant manager, and the first-team physio (Keira Dunk) is another member of the family. The current first-team squad includes Paul Roger’s son Sam and Charlie Tuck, son of Stuart.
The V’s demonstrate their community values by organising teams and sessions for people of all ages in Brighton and Hove, Ben Graham explained ‘we provide football for over 300 players each week, from our three senior teams - and we are one of the only clubs in Sussex to still have three senior teams - to youth football, vets football, walking football and our social ladies team. Our teams play at the Withdean and also at the new 3G facility at Cardinal Newman School, so one of the only remaining central Brighton teams’.
The youth football aspect is particularly interesting. A couple of years ago the V’s entered into a formal partnership with Seagulls FC, to create an ongoing pathway from youth and junior football to senior football. Seagulls FC are a long-standing youth football club who currently run numerous age group teams, playing the majority of their home matches at BACA in the shadow of the Amex. But Seagulls FC are also the successor organisation to Junior Seagulls FC, which was the football playing arm of the Junior Seagulls. I was a Junior Seagull, you too probably.
You might have played for one of the Junior Seagulls age group teams and if so, you played for what has become Seagulls FC which is now a partner club of AFC Varndeanians.
In the years since the Albion departed Withdean a different Brighton-based non-league club - Whitehawk - have become reasonably popular, or at least it has become popular to be associated with them. A well-intentioned organisation run by people doing good work, no doubt. Lewes has also become a fashionable non-league destination, and Worthing FC are currently enjoying a great deal of success (and burgeoning crowds, fair play to them). A phenomenon explored in issue 3 of Dogma: ‘in the lower sections of the pyramid the more subtle forces of gentrification and selective borrowing are going on, muscling their way in armed with vintage PSG shirts and £8 pints of Punk Squirrel IPA’ wrote Dogma co-editor James William.
But really, if there’s a non-league club people should be supporting (financially and emotionally) when the Albion aren’t playing or fixture disruption makes it possible, it is AFC Varndeanians.
The programme carries adverts for the Golden Lion Group and Hills Sound & Vision. There are cuttings from the Evening Argus (dating back to the 1950s), and references to the Brighton & Hove District League and Patcham Place. This is deep, authentic, Brighton.
The V’s embrace and celebrate their proximity and connections to BHAFC. Unlike other local clubs who have attempted to position themselves as a better, purer alternative. There’s no craft ale (in fact there’s no ale at all due to licensing constraints), or loaded fries, or someone banging a drum. And that’s exactly the point.
Instead, thankfully, you will have the Sportsman and 90 minutes of football, and a club that you can approach and enjoy as something BHAFC-adjacent, a constituent element of the ‘Brighton & Hove Albion supporter community’. Or should you prefer, as a really interesting and historical non-league club in its own right.
What can people do to help?, i ask Ben Graham as the evening draws to a close and the tea bar is packed away ‘please, just come down to Withdean and support us’.