Huge game - Brentwood Town host Southend United this weekend
(Image: ALAN EDMONDS)
By Chris Phillips@cjphillips1982Chief sports reporter.
BRENTWOOD Town’s FA Trophy clash with Southend United is the biggest in the Isthmian North club’s
history, according to director Steve Linton.
Town host the Shrimpers in a third round tie on Saturday.
And Linton cannot wait for kick off.
“We’re looking forward to it so much to be honest,” said Linton.
“For me personally, I would say it’s the biggest game the club have had.
“We’ve had play-off finals in the last couple of years which would’ve elevated the club onto that next level but if you’re talking about one match that’s going to grip the public then I’d definitely say this one.”
A sell out crowd of 1,500 supporters will be in attendance for the game.
And plenty of hard work has gone on behind the scenes to ensure the tie can go ahead smoothly.
“We’re entering new territory really and we’ve been joining the dots up as we go along,” explained Linton.
“The first decision was what did we want to do.
“Did we want to a put a lot of work and effort into it trying to get it at home or take the easy option and see if there was an option to switch it?
“We just felt that after everything we’ve done we wanted to give the people of Brentwood, the community and fans a day they would crave for and that’s to see the Arena full.
“It will be a great atmosphere.”
The club have held regular meetings to with local authorities and the police ahead of the game.
And they opted to cap the crowd at a level which would comfortably fit into the ground for the match which kicks off at 1pm.
“We’ve had meetings with local councils and there’s been a lot to think about,” said Linton.
“We’re based on a site next to the Brentwood Centre so we had to take that into consideration too.
“We found out they had an event on in the evening which is the main reason why the kick off was brough forward a couple of hours.
“We average 250 to 300 fans and on Saturday we have the capacity fixed at 1,500.
“If I’m honest we could probably accommodate a few more but we wanted to make it sensible and manageable.”
On the pitch, Brentwood go into the game sitting seventh in the league table.
And Linton believes it has the makings of an interesting game.
“Tuesday’s win against a good organised Heybridge side was a really good confidence boost ahead of Saturday,” said Linton.
“The players are buzzing for it and I think it’s going to be interesting.
“We play football. We’re not a big, physical side at this level.
“We like to play it on the ground so it’s definitely going to be interesting.”
And the tie will also act as a reward for the club’s efforts on and off the pitch in recent seasons.
“Myself and other people on the committee put a lot of work and effort into the last year or so to try and get the club nice and stable,” said Linton.
“We want to try and increase our branding of the club and we’re doing that bit by bit.
“The rest of it is done by what happens on the field.
“We’ve had a couple of fantastic performances in the FA Trophy and then the Hereford trip was unbelievable too.
“To then get the tie with
Southend, well we couldn’t have asked anything better than that.”
