After being thwarted by a rash of postponements, Steve Sharman heads ‘down the hill’ to watch struggling Heybridge Swifts take on league leaders Felixstowe & Walton in a game with significant implications at both ends of the Isthmian North league table.
January can be a bleak month. The home of Blue Monday (not the song), overly optimistic new gym memberships doomed to end up in the bin alongside failed resolutions, and the month in which many deny themselves even the solace of an alcoholic beverage, the year’s opener can sometimes feel like it lasts 31 weeks, never mind 31 days.
What better way to alleviate the January blues then, than watching 22 men in shorts chase a small spherical object around an artificial pitch, under the watchful eye of a man in black with a whistle?!
Today’s entertainment comes in the form of a game at the First Call Community Stadium, aka Scraley Road, that has ramifications at both ends of the Isthmian League North Division table. Heybridge Swifts, locked firmly in a relegation battle and on a fairly wretched run of form but buoyed by three points away at Mildenhall last time out and a host of new signings, take on league-leaders Felixstowe and Walton United, themselves on a run of form that can only be described in technical terms as ‘shit hot’ – unbeaten in eight, victorious in seven of those.
It’s a positively balmy ten degrees as I make the short drive to the ground under blue skies and scattered clouds of varying shades of grey, a welcome relief from the bitter cold wind and horizontal rain that sometimes sweeps in from the North Sea around here. Scraley Road is tucked away on the edge of town and is a neat set-up. The main car park gets full pretty quickly, but there is some on-street parking, and if you don’t mind dodging moon crater-esque pot holes and – during the winter months – no small amount of mud, there is extra parking down the track just past the main car park, towards the rugby club.
Today I park on the dirt track and head on foot to the ground via a shortcut through the trees. This takes me past the window of the home changing room, where Kanye West’s ‘All of the Lights’ is leading the playlist blaring through the glass. (Thanks, Shazam!) I enter the ground through the one open turnstile; on my left is a little hatch that doubles as a club shop of sorts, where pin badges and other assorted memorabilia can be purchased.
Standing with my back to the turnstiles, behind me and on my left is the clubhouse and bar that has a pretty good indoor area with Sky TV, a decent range of beers, and an outdoor zone with loads of picnic benches, which can be particularly nice in the warmer months of the season.
The Maldon Structural Stand, er, stands on the left touchline, whilst there is a small, covered terrace at the far end – the First Call Community Stand. The Mick Gibson Family stand runs along some of the right-hand touchline and is the oldest stand in the ground, complete with a low roof and old-skool benches.
Felixstowe have brought a decent away following down the A12, and why not? Formed in 2000 after a merger between Felixstowe Port & Town and Walton United, this season their team is top of the league, winning games, and scoring plenty of goals. However, as the season moves towards the business end, there are sure to be a few nerves creeping into the minds of the Seasiders’ supporters. With only one automatic promotion place available, winning the league is of paramount importance; in three of the last four seasons, Felixstowe have lost in the play-offs. After finishing 5th in the 2021/22 season and easing past Coggleshall Town in the semi, the Seasiders were beaten 3-1 by Canvey Island in the play-off final. Season 2023/24 brought similar heartbreak; after finishing third, the Seasiders were beaten on penalties by Bowers & Pitsea in the play-off semi-final following a 2-2 draw. The hat-trick of heartbreak was completed in the 2024/25 play-offs, where, after finishing second behind champions Brentwood, Felixstowe were beaten 3-1 at home by fifth-placed finishers Brightlingsea Regent in the semi-finals. With such a chequered recent play-off history, it’s easy to see why the Seasiders are so keen to finish top of the pile this time around.
The mood among the Swifts’ faithful is not so buoyant. Heybridge face an uncertain future both on and off the field; the spectre of relegation looms large on the fast-approaching end-of-season horizon, whilst financial constraints have forced consecutive managers to watch a veritable conveyor belt of players come and go. Although desperate for three points of their own to boost their survival hopes, a win against the league leaders today would do a huge favour for bitter rivals Maldon & Tiptree, who are locked in a two-horse race for the title with Felixstowe.
Like today’s visitors, Heybridge are no strangers to promotion heartbreak. Since being relegated from the Isthmian Premier at the end of the 2008/09 season, Swifts have gone one better (or worse?) than today’s visitors, having fallen in the play-offs four times. Semi-final defeats have come in 2013/14 (3-0 vs Harlow Town) and 2017/18 (2-0 vs Haringey Borough), but the most bitter pill to swallow came in the 2018/19 season. After defeating Aveley 2-0 in the semi-finals and rivals Maldon & Tiptree in the final on penalties, Heybridge were denied promotion via a lower points per game average than other equivalent level league play-offs winners due to pyramid restructuring, a decision still regarded with bitter resentment by those within the club. A play-off final defeat followed in 2022/23 against AFC Sudbury (1-0), and fortunes have arguably been on a downward trajectory ever since.
Remarkably, it is almost ten years since the Isthmian North league play-offs featured neither Heybridge nor Felixstowe; indeed, the last time neither made the play-offs was 2016-17. Given the play-off ever-presence of at least one of these sides – somewhat curiously – not only have the sides never met in the play-offs, but they’ve also never been in them in the same season! The sides seem to be locked in a cycle of conflicting fortunes, and this season the pendulum has swung firmly in favour of the visitors.
Back on the artificial surface at Scraley Road, the home side line-up in black and white striped shirts, black shorts, and white socks, whilst Felixstowe start in red shirts, black shorts, and red socks. The visitors make a bright start, moving the ball with a confident ease and attacking with the width and pace that has fired them to the top of the table. Most of the noise is coming from the Seasiders faithful, including a group of drunk fans behind the goal who spend a solid five minutes singing to their mate on the opposite touchline, their confusion at his lack of response only removed when they realise the guy they are serenading is, in fact, not who they thought he was.
EDITOR: Very disappointed in Steve for not getting video of these fans behind the goal 😉
The ‘all hate Maldon’ songs get an airing as a cracking through ball splits the home defence, only for home stopper and ex-Maldon keeper Tommy Dixon-Hodge to make himself big and block the one-on-one. It’s all Felixstowe and a goal feels like when, rather than if. However, Swifts are not just here to make up the numbers and have their first shot on target just before the 20-minute mark. The sun drops behind the houses that run the length of the touchline, the shadows stretching across the pitch lengthen, and the temperature drops enough for home gaffer Jason Maher to don a fetching black and white bobble hat.
Swifts have got a little more of a foothold in the game now, with centre-backs Eyituoyo ‘T’ Akinbulumo and Lewis Jaggs working hard and holding Felixstowe’s lively front three at bay. With 23 minutes on the clock, there’s a bit of a scramble in the Felixstowe penalty area. The ball falls to home winger Ramiah Mills, who drives an effort through a crowd of legs to bag his first Swifts goal and – somewhat against the run of play – give his side the lead.
The advantage lasts less than five minutes. Another through ball sees forward Ethan Garcia outmuscle Swifts’ full back Giani Ashley and take the ball in his stride, before rolling it into the corner to level the scores. Heybridge manager Maher is apoplectic on the touchline – he wants a foul, and his case is not without merit, as there was certainly a little more than ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ going on.
The action keeps coming, and Maher has another reason to rage on the half hour when his Swifts side force a corner but incense the manager by leaving a two-on-two on the halfway line. The ball is cleared, and the subsequent counter-attack sends forward Jose Santa De La Paz clear on goal and, with the Swifts’ goalkeeper stranded in no-man’s-land, De La Paz rounds him with ease but then somehow can only find the side netting with the open goal at his mercy.
Massive let off for the home side.
The decisive moment of the game comes moments later. Another ball through the middle causes chaos, and milliseconds after the Felixstowe striker lifts the ball past ‘keeper Dixon-Hodge, he is clattered by centre-back Akinbulumo. Although it looks for all the world like a genuine attempt to play the ball, former Leverstock Green and Bishops Stortford defender Akinbulumo – on his home debut – is shown a straight red card. Swifts are furious and with good reason; Akinbulumo has looked assured against a strong Felixstowe side, and his dismissal leaves a huge hole in the heart of the home side’s backline. Forward Samuel Adeyeye is sacrificed for another defender, and both the fans and the young winger are far from happy – the substituted player refusing to shake his manager’s hand as he stomps moodily to the bench. The resulting free kick is missed, and somehow, we’re still at 1-1.
Swifts are desperate to get to the break on level terms, but their resolve is broken with moments of the half remaining. Seasiders’ full back Toby Stevenson cuts in from the left and squares the ball across the box, where forward Sam Ford collects the cross, checks back inside, and finds the corner to give the visitors the lead.
The score stays 1-2 until half-time. It looks a long way back for Swifts now, at a goal and a man down, and even news that Maldon are trailing at Stanway Rovers at the break fails to draw much of a reaction from the home supporters (although delights the travelling fans). Talk in the bar at half-time is decidedly downcast, with fans questioning everything from the long-term stability of the club and the commitment of the players, to the competence of the manager following what they view as questionable tactics all season, and the removal of their brightest attacking spark today following the red card.
The players come out for the second half, the floodlights come on, and the guy in front of me in the tea queue – wearing, somewhat peculiarly, a black and yellow East Thurrock United scarf – helps himself to a clingfilm-wrapped cheese roll and a Bovril. I can almost taste the plastic on the sweaty slice of cheese, and with that sensation assaulting my taste buds, I go far less exotic and collect my cup of scalding hot tea just in time to see Swifts miss a great chance to level barely 30 seconds into the half. Moments later, Felixstowe left-back Toby Stevenson flashes a ball across the six-yard box, and I lay down my own version of the commentator’s curse by murmuring to myself, ‘Ooh, there’s more goals in this.’
Left-back Stevenson has had an interesting career; let go as a youth by Leyton Orient, the defender had a spell here at Swifts in the 2017/18 season before joining Charlton Athletic’s development squad. He made history on his Charlton first team debut, scoring a hat-trick in an 8-0 thrashing of Stevenage, and remains to this day the only Addicks player to score a treble on his debut, which by all accounts is a fairly spectacular claim to fame. The defender has since played for Dagenham & Redbridge, Bromley, Braintree Town, Billericay Town, and Chatham Town before joining Felixstowe in March 2025.
The Seasiders’ supporters, who have finally made their way to the opposite end and whose songs helpfully let us know how much rum they’ve been drinking, cause no small amount of amusement with their calamitous attempts to tie up a flag behind the goal. Amused by their own antics, the travelling fans finally get the flag in place to reveal a St George’s cross emblazoned with ‘IP11’ – the postcode covering Felixstowe – and ‘828 Squadron’, in reference to an incident that happened back in 1944, during the Second World War. Returning from a bombing mission over France, a Lancaster Bomber LM258 had taken heavy enemy fire and was heading for RAF Woodbridge, but lost the use of both engines. Faced with a choice of crash-landing on the town of Felixstowe or ditching in the sea, the 7-man crew opted to sacrifice their own lives to save those in the town by crashing into the waves – a sacrifice the town is keen to remember.
Back on the pitch, Felixstowe are very much in control. Skipper Billy Holland is quietly effective in the middle of the park, breaking things up, winning every loose ball, doing the ugly stuff with understated efficiency. Despite the visitor’s dominance, there is still only one goal in it which keeps the hope alive for the home supporters; perhaps in an effort to liven up what has been a fairly routine second half, Seasiders substitute Josh Hitter tries to score direct from a corner, an effort the Swifts keeper does well to keep out.
The referee eventually blows for full time, and the final score is Heybridge Swifts 1 Felixstowe & Walton 2. After an action-packed first half, the second half was a much more controlled performance from the visitors against the 10-man hosts. The victory keeps the Seasiders on top of the table, their lead at the summit extended after Maldon’s defeat at Stanway. For Swifts, however, the rest of the season will be a desperate fight against relegation to the Essex Senior League. Although the performance today will give them hope, hope doesn’t equate to points on the board – and that is what the Swifts need.
The moon is hanging low but shining bright over the trees behind the main stand as the players troop off the pitch and fans of both teams either head into the bar to catch the half five Premier League game or into the car park to make their way home. The battles at both ends of the Isthmian North look like they’re going down to the wire this season; on this showing, Felixstowe will head down the home straight in fine fettle, whilst Swifts face a struggle to stay afloat – on and off the pitch.
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