My Name Is Chris — And This Is Why I Follow My Local Non-League Club

Chris · East Grinstead Town

“FOOTBALL IS NOT A TELEVISION SHOW. DOWN HERE IN NON-LEAGUE… THAT’S THE BEAUTIFUL GAME.”

The club in question is East Grinstead Town FC. But before I get into that, a little backstory.

Growing up, I wasn’t much of a football fan at all, but I was always overhearing conversations at school about clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. Back then they were the big four, and the majority of people in my school year supported one of those teams even though they weren’t from those areas — with a couple of Crystal Palace and Brighton fans dotted about, of course.

In the end, I just got bored of being asked who I supported when I didn’t have an answer. So I went with the easy option at the time: Chelsea.

Yes, yes — glory hunter! But over time football became more and more a part of my life. Every single day I became almost obsessed, watching as many matches as I could and learning about players, managers and clubs, past and present.

Fast forward to 2018, when I met my best mate Kieran in a new job.

One week I asked him what he was doing at the weekend and whether he fancied going out — you know, being young lads, we wanted to go and have a drink. He told me he was off to watch “the Grin”. What do you mean? That’s when he told me we had a local non-league football club. Bear in mind I was 20, 21 years old at this point — and I had no idea we had one.

So came Saturday morning — January 6th 2018, to be exact. Four of us went in the car, stopping off at the services to grab beer and food for the journey to Hythe Town. My first real football away day.

At the ground I met a couple more of the Grinstead boys, some of whom had been going to watch the club for over a decade. I heard stories about players and managers we’ve had, and a bit of the history of the club. At full-time we’d lost 3–2 — but that result aside, I absolutely loved it. I fell in love with it.

And since then, it’s only ever been Grin.

I kept going to as many matches as I could on my weekends off — even pulling sick days just to go and watch them, which I still do from time to time, because that’s how much it means to me. It’s not Premier League standard, it’s not Champions League quality, but it’s football at its rawest and most real. It’s a level where you can get close to the players, stand where you want, have a drink at the ground — and afterwards you’re sat there having beers with the players themselves.

We’ve had some incredible fixtures in the time I’ve been supporting the club. My favourite has to be the FA Cup tie at home on a Tuesday night against Worthing, when Leigh Dynan was our manager. I’m pretty sure Worthing hadn’t lost a game that season at that point — they were flying in the division above — until they came to us. 1–2 down, 2–3 down, 3–3… the game had everything. And after all of that, we beat them on penalties. I’ve never experienced such emotion, jubilation and relief in my life.

That fixture sits alongside plenty of others: the derby-day wins against Three Bridges; beating champions-elect Ramsgate at home to become one of only two teams to beat them in their title-winning campaign; the 3–2 against Whitehawk that knocked them out of the play-offs; and the trip to Fleet Town when we were 1–0 down in the 70th minute, came back to win 2–1 in the 85th, and got the coach home with the players afterwards, singing karaoke and forgetting about all your problems for a while.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been some very bad times too. Last season, for example, when after 13 years in the Isthmian South East we were relegated in quite horrific fashion — and plenty of other disappointing cup exits and seasons besides.

But one thing that will never change is my love for this football club, the happiness it has given me, the sense of belonging and a real second family. That’s what it’s all about. You can keep your half-time shows at the World Cup, your state-owned clubs, all the politics and money-driven rubbish we see now at the top level of the game.

Football is not a television show.

And down here in non-league… that’s the beautiful game. It’s a level gaining more popularity all the time — clubs with higher attendances, bigger exposure, and communities coming together to support their local.

And that is why I love my local football club.

The Grin This Season

Relegated from the Isthmian South East last season after 13 years at Step 4, the Wasps have opened their SCFL Premier campaign with one point from three games — a 0–0 draw at Haywards Heath followed by 1–0 defeats to Guernsey and Crawley Down Gatwick — and are still waiting for their first goal. Full coverage in Dougie’s SCFL Premier round-up, earlier in this issue · Next up: a Peter Bentley Cup trip to Jarvis Brook, Tue 25 August.

First published in Dugout News, Issue 002, Sunday 16 August 2026. Republished here in full.