TT No.48: Stephen Harris - Wednesday 5 September 2007; Essex Senior League; Eton Manor 1-0 Southend Manor.                                     Att: c.36.  Admission £6; Programme issued; FGIF Match rating 3*

View matchday images  01 02 03 04 05 06 07 Historically, Eton Manor are a Hackney/Leyton club and their Wilderness ground (or the site of it anyway, under the Olympic developments) is just ten minutes walk from my house.  Unfortunately they have not played there for more than 20 years and have led a nomadic life, now based miles away in Tilbury.  Tilbury is, by my limited horizons anyway, one of the grimmest and most depressing towns around.  But I haven’t been to Chadfields for years and some nice things have been written about Eton Manor’s current team, so last night I decided to pay them a visit. The stadium is one of the very few signs that Tilbury has once seen better days.  For this level of football it is an excellent venue and it is a shame that it is so underpopulated on match days.  Tilbury FC themselves don’t draw much of a crowd, and Eton Manor are definitely the second team here.  This game attracted fewer than 40 spectators and there were no refreshments available, the tannoy was not used and toilets in the ground were firmly locked (although it was possible to access the clubhouse at half time).  The ground was formerly a greyhound track, and this is evident in some of the layout, particularly in the way the stands are set well back from the touchline.  The west side is covered along its full length, the middle third being occupied by a low mid-1990s brick and breeze-block stand containing about 170 red, plastic seats – although many are now broken and unusable.  This is flanked on either side by 7 or 8 steps of covered terrace.  The ends are open, with just 3 or 4 terrace steps and some high fencing to catch stray balls.  The main eye-catching feature however is the distinctive stand on the east side.  This unusual structure has about 150 seats at first floor level, on top of the dressing room block in a tightly enclosed space with ten support columns along the front.  You might be excused for thinking it is an ancient structure, but in fact it dates only from 1972, and it is good to see that it has been renovated since my last visit.  Unfortunately, this stand was not in use for last night’s game.  Another distinctive feature of this ground is the tall, sturdy, white fence which surrounds the pitch. The chairman of the Essex Senior League wrote in last Sunday’s papers that this is the best Eton Manor team he has seen for many years.  In my view they are still only a side showing promise and have a handful of very gifted players who are not yet playing effectively as a team. Numerous attacking moves came to nothing because the forwards seemed reluctant to pass to each other.  Enough chances were created for Eton Manor to win handsomely, but in the end only one was converted.  For Southend’s part, their goalkeeper played well, but they seemed to lack discipline, were constantly caught offside and seemed to think this was the linesman’s fault rather than a fault of their forwards’ positioning and concentration.  Quite an enjoyable game to watch though. A basic match programme was issued free on entry.  In fact this was just a photocopy of the League’s weekly newsletter, supplemented with a teamsheet – the gateman assured me that a more in-depth programme was “usually” produced.

contributed on 06/09/07