Mile End Stadium
FA Vase 1st qualifying round
September 5, 2015
Ground No 172
WELCOME to the best kept sporting secret in London.
Sporting Bengal United's aims, objectives and achievements are admirable. Operated by the Bangladesh Football Association, the club was formed in 1996 to encourage Asian football in London.
They're currently holding their own in the Essex Senior League, having reached the League Cup final last year and they've even had players called up by the Bangladesh national team. But, blimey, they don't make it easy for anyone trying to find them on a matchday.
The Mile End Stadium is a not insignificant facility. Essentially an athletics stadium, it once attracted 27,000 fans to a Blur concert and as well as an adjoining sports centre with a pool, gym and more, there are also five-a-side pitches, a hockey pitch and tennis courts.
But once you get off the tube at Mile End you're on your own. No clues.
It's not much better when you get there either. The abundance of sports bags, towels and goggles being carried by the kids in the queue should have given it away - I'd ended up in a queue for an afternoon swim before being directed to the entrance round the other side.
Even on that side you wouldn't have known there was a match on had you not been able to see right through the wire mesh fencing that surrounds the stadium. No signs, no billboards plugging forthcoming matches, no mention at all of this being a home of the beautiful game.
Opened in the 1950s as the King George V Stadium, it's pretty unremarkable to be fair. There's one main stand with wooden bench seating, hard standing around the pitch/track and that's it. The sports centre runs immediately behind the far side/straight but the modern high rise structures of One Canada Square and its Canary Wharf neighbours behind the end/bend to the right of the stand forms a far more striking backdrop.
I'm not a fan of football at athletics stadiums due to the obvious distance from the pitch. And with no operational Tannoy, the tea hut being a couple of vending machines in the reception area and the small crowd looking rather lost in its surroundings, the Mile End Stadium doesn't help itself. There wasn't even a half-time draw.
It wasn't a great game either, although the hosts looked stronger and sharper as the game wore on and cancelled out an early goal by Ramblers (or Rumblers as the programme would have it) to force extra-time and a replay thanks to a regal finish from Prince William (not the Prince William of course - he would have been watching the egg chasers at Twickenham I'd imagine).
But the fans - especially the lads in front of the ground who yelled "shooooooooooooot" every time a Bengal player got the ball - gave plenty of encouragement to their team.
As a project, Sporting Bengal United is marvellous and long may it continue. But as a matchday experience for the floating fan? It's certainly different. It's not non-league football as we know it.
But the young and enthusiastic fan base made this matchday experience stand out too, and that's something that would be very welcome at other grounds of a comparable level. Let's hope they get the secret out in the open!
They're currently holding their own in the Essex Senior League, having reached the League Cup final last year and they've even had players called up by the Bangladesh national team. But, blimey, they don't make it easy for anyone trying to find them on a matchday.
The Mile End Stadium is a not insignificant facility. Essentially an athletics stadium, it once attracted 27,000 fans to a Blur concert and as well as an adjoining sports centre with a pool, gym and more, there are also five-a-side pitches, a hockey pitch and tennis courts.
But once you get off the tube at Mile End you're on your own. No clues.
It's not much better when you get there either. The abundance of sports bags, towels and goggles being carried by the kids in the queue should have given it away - I'd ended up in a queue for an afternoon swim before being directed to the entrance round the other side.
Even on that side you wouldn't have known there was a match on had you not been able to see right through the wire mesh fencing that surrounds the stadium. No signs, no billboards plugging forthcoming matches, no mention at all of this being a home of the beautiful game.
Opened in the 1950s as the King George V Stadium, it's pretty unremarkable to be fair. There's one main stand with wooden bench seating, hard standing around the pitch/track and that's it. The sports centre runs immediately behind the far side/straight but the modern high rise structures of One Canada Square and its Canary Wharf neighbours behind the end/bend to the right of the stand forms a far more striking backdrop.
I'm not a fan of football at athletics stadiums due to the obvious distance from the pitch. And with no operational Tannoy, the tea hut being a couple of vending machines in the reception area and the small crowd looking rather lost in its surroundings, the Mile End Stadium doesn't help itself. There wasn't even a half-time draw.
It wasn't a great game either, although the hosts looked stronger and sharper as the game wore on and cancelled out an early goal by Ramblers (or Rumblers as the programme would have it) to force extra-time and a replay thanks to a regal finish from Prince William (not the Prince William of course - he would have been watching the egg chasers at Twickenham I'd imagine).
But the fans - especially the lads in front of the ground who yelled "shooooooooooooot" every time a Bengal player got the ball - gave plenty of encouragement to their team.
As a project, Sporting Bengal United is marvellous and long may it continue. But as a matchday experience for the floating fan? It's certainly different. It's not non-league football as we know it.
But the young and enthusiastic fan base made this matchday experience stand out too, and that's something that would be very welcome at other grounds of a comparable level. Let's hope they get the secret out in the open!
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