Since moving to Sussex in 2024 it’s been pretty clear to me that in many residents’ minds the only game in town from a football perspective is at the Falmer stadium and begins and ends with Brighton and Hove Albion. But as in every part of the UK there are always alternatives.
Non-league football (below ‘League 2’ or the fourth division) is thriving, partly due to disillusionment with the predictability and high costs of attending premier league games. So, I made it my mission to investigate the community clubs in the Brighton area to see if there are other teams worth watching and even if one of them could become a serious long term ‘second club’ in the city. I started with two clubs in very different parts of Brighton.
Varndeanians FC
As the rain set in and the mist rolled across the natural amphitheatre around me, I thought for the umpteenth time how on earth this could ever have been a football league ground?
Roll back to 2008 and in Brighton and Hove Albion’s 9th season at the Withdean stadium they defeated a rising Manchester City in the League cup on penalties in front of almost 9000 people. The Brazilian photographer (who records all the local leagues) I spoke to on Saturday recalled a pitch invasion after the Seagulls’ victory and celebrations of the kind that today inevitably are described by sports journalists as ‘scenes’.
As I walked up to the ground on a miserable, rainy last weekend in November, passing parkland and the affluent suburb of Preston Park, it was clear that this Southern Combination Football League (SCFL) Premier Division fixture in the 9th tier of English football would not be attracting a similar attendance. The Withdean is tucked away up a steep hill, amidst woods and overlooked by affluent houses of the type that are positioned so no one can access them accidentally. However, on this occasion there were no streams of supporters or renditions of ‘Sussex by the sea’ to disturb them.
The ground is tantalisingly viewable from the train as it winds through tunnels towards Brighton and has a rich and varied history. Originally playing fields, then a tennis club, it held a Davis Cup international between Great Britain and New Zealand in 1936 and crammed in an unlikely 12,500 for an American football game in 1985. Prior to that there was a zoo attached and miniature railway, sadly now departed. The ultimate non-league football experience would be to arrive at a match on a tiny steam locomotive.
After WW2 it became an athletics venue and was famously the home track of local legend and Olympic gold medal winner, Steve Ovett. Then in 1999 Brighton and Hove Albion moved in, having sold their famous Goldstone ground and thus being forced to move to Gillingham and almost out of existence (which anyone who visits the Medway towns can empathise with).
They won the fourth and third division titles here and gained promotion to the Championship, before departing to their modern Falmer stadium and becoming improbable Premier league regulars.
As I trudged into the ground no trace of this period remained. The turnstiles were simply a table manned by cheery volunteers representing AFC Varndeanians, occupiers since 2015. The covered main stand, stretching the length of the pitch, held all the facilities available for spectators in 2025. To walk up to the stand, you have to cross the athletics track, whilst on the other side are the dugouts and a series of curious concrete steps, which technically could provide seating if needed.
It became clear that the stand, although only refurbished in the 1990s, had seen better days. Whole rows were made unusable by the resident pigeons, and quite a few seats were broken. Oddly the bar was directly behind the stand, but access was restricted from the stadium, so several people watched the game, pints in hand, through a mesh grill, like fenced in European Ultras, minus the balaclavas and flares.
The eerie eastern European vibe created by the dilapidation and running track was accentuated by the partly wooded grassy bowl that encircles two thirds of the ground, reminiscent of European stadiums like Dukla Prague or First Vienna.
The hosts, a former Grammar school old boys’ team (that Mr Ovett attended) were up against it today. The visitors, Haywards Heath, backed by 50 or so supporters, had won all 16 of their previous league fixtures and appeared to be champions elect of the SCFL. In contrast Varndeanians were bottom, having lost every one of their previous home fixtures.
However, as so often happens in football, the match, on a muddy surface, turned out to be a very hard fought and even affair. The V’s attacked Heath with gusto from the start, and only bad luck and some poor finishing prevented them from taking the lead.
Indeed, although the team contains players from all walks of life today, it’s as if they were playing for the old school tie, such was the verve with which they set about the game.
Despite Heath scoring from a fine finish before half time, this pattern largely continued, and the league leaders were slightly fortunate to return home with a narrow 1-0 win; their obdurate defending and excellent goalkeeping being the main difference between the sides.
As the approximately 80 paying fans trooped off into the night and the pigeons re-established their roosts for another week, once again the idea of several thousand people regularly visiting the site safely seemed ludicrous. The temporary uncovered stands that housed the majority of the supporters are long gone and I doubt many Seagulls fans mourn their visits here, but the stadium remains in use, and the home side surely deserve more patrons.
Whitehawk FC
Mention the Brighton suburb of Whitehawk to middle class people from Sussex, as I did prior to my visit, and you get a shake of the head and comments like, ‘I wouldn’t go there’.
The area certainly has a reputation, and the statistics back this up. In the bottom 7% nationally in terms of deprivation, picked out by the NHS as an area of health inequality, and with only 37% of young people gaining English and Maths GCSEs compared to 67% in the wider Brighton area, it clearly faces many social challenges.
One shining light amidst the gloom has been the reawakening of the local football club. Previously in the local and then Sussex leagues since their formation in 1945, they have flourished since businessmen John Summers and Peter McDonnell took over in 2007. A series of promotions saw them reach the heights of the National South (sixth tier) and they are now a well-established Isthmian league club (tier 7 of the football pyramid).
More importantly perhaps is their work for the community, establishing local hubs for youth football, and with the announcement of a redevelopment of their Enclosed ground that will in theory enable the stadium to become the second most impressive ground in the Brighton area. Whether they can attract sufficient numbers of fans to fill though is open for debate. Attempts to rename the club ‘Brighton City’ have twice failed due to League objections and fan campaigns, and they remain associated with one area of East Brighton, rather than with the city as a whole.
Since their mid-2000s renaissance the Hawks have however attracted a different type of supporter base. Stickers behind the goal show solidarity with Palestine and illustrate the Hawks have a number of friendships with the like of Dulwich Hamlet, Altona, St Pauli and various teams with a left wing or alternative following. Students from Brighton’s Universities and those who are disillusioned with the commercialisation of topflight football have swelled the usual ranks of locals.
Their ‘Ultras’ have a mantra that is, “anti-homophobic, anti-sexist, anti-racist”, and in a one-team city like Brighton with Green party MPs and a reputation for tolerance, this would seem like a good method of attracting support (as well as giving different community groups a much-needed voice).
A downside to these redevelopment plans is unfortunately the location of the ground. From central Brighton there is no train service to Whitehawk (it has no station), and the frequent but slow bus service winds its way along Georgian terraces, past the enormous Royal Sussex county hospital, and ironically the plush grounds of the elite private Brighton college (100% of whose students passed English and Maths GCSEs in 2025), before arriving in Whitehawk itself. Today’s bus is full of supporters from Whitehawk’s opponents, Welling, in Southeast London, who (myself included) correspond more to the traditional image of non-league football fans.
After exiting the bus and heading through the streets of a small estate – plastic bags, flasks of tea and in my case with a six-year-old in hand – you must cross the vast expanse of East Brighton park, which is simply not designed for pedestrians. Cars and taxis flash past as paths peter out and an uncertain conga line of visiting supporters picks their way through puddles of water, muddy verges and up grassy banks (in my son’s case).
A high vis-wearing steward seemed to indicate safety, but instead the sound of rugby watching parents and signage showed us that we had only reached the playing fields of the aforementioned Brighton College. With fees of between £25,000-55,000 a year you would assume the facilities on offer are pretty good, but high walls and hedges prevent outsiders from looking in.
What the gilet-wearing denizens of the rugger grounds would have made of the three youthful Whitehawk fans pushing each other in two abandoned shopping trollies, whilst regaling the Welling contingent with foul-mouthed banter is anybody’s guess. Perhaps segregating your children with money from this reality is why these schools exist in the first place?
After 25 minutes the Enclosed ground comes into view and immediately its charms and limitations are clear. Portacabin toilets, a post war prefab bar (but cheery and welcoming) and a superb view of the South Downs regale the senses, alongside the usual swearing and sweating as the players warm up.
One side of the ground has the original brick built main stand from the 1960s with an unusual standing section in between the seats. This is set back from the pitch, with a fenced off grassy area reminiscent of a racetrack separating spectators from the touchline. On the other side are the dugouts with the Downs stretching away up a steep bank behind them, but with no standing areas for fans. Above this is an overflow car park, in which two money-conscious Hawk’s fans sit in a car, like pensioners watching the sea in nearby Hove, before being instructed to move on by the long-suffering stewards.
At each end are ramshackle sections of the old temporary stands from the Withdean stadium. As the Enclosed ground sits on a considerable slope, these have a perilous feel as the wind whips across them. It doesn’t take much imagination to visualise them taking off across the Downs trailing rainbow flags and red scarves in their wake.
On this freezing December day, any shelter is welcome though and it’s clear that today’s game is not going to be one for the purists. Welling, onto their third manager of the season, are desperate for points as they try to reverse several years of inexorable decline from the National league to the relegation zone of the Isthmian Premier. The players’ numbers give a clue to their plight, as league rules state that no shirt can be re-used in a season.
As the debutant Bradley Sach flicks in a 3rd minute opener his celebration wearing number 54 shows what a meat grinder of a season it’s been for the visitors. Thereafter both teams struggle to keep the ball in play. Passes are overhit into the national park, tackles fly in and although Whitehawk hit the post it’s the visitors who go in at half time the more satisfied, and 1-0 to the good.
As we change ends during the interval the incredible dimensions of the slope become clearer. Not only is it a daunting height from end to end, there is also a discernible left-right slant. With the gusty wind now threatening to blow the Bovril from fans’ hands, Welling dig in and spend the second half with their backs to the wall.
Whitehawk, backed by their ‘Ultras’ banging drums and cow bells (a first for me), launch attack after attack on the beleaguered Wings goal. Only a combination of desperate defending, organisation and excellent shot stopping from on-loan Watford man Roraigh Browne keep the scores close.
Then as so often happens in football the momentum shifts, Welling make some substitutions, miss a couple of chances of their own, and then score a second on the break, sending their impressive away support (an estimated 150-175) into the sort of scenes that have been all too infrequent in recent years. Although the Hawks pull one back in injury time they can’t equalise and the South Londoners head into the perilous darkness of the park with a crucial three points.
As for Whitehawk, a crowd of 342, much swelled by the visitors, points to their ongoing struggles to attract the sort of fanbase they will need if they are to flourish at this level. The stadium renovations will help, but the location’s inaccessibility remains a problem. As is unfortunately the nature of the area.
It’s difficult not to warm to their aims and inclusive agenda though, and even if they don’t end up as Brighton’s second club, they will remain a vital community focus in a beleaguered part of the city.
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