East Grinstead Town v Sevenoaks Nov 12 2023

A warm welcome to everyone who has made the (relatively) short trip from Sevenoaks for today's fixture. After a disappointing run of results, it's important that we try and stop the rot although it won't be easy. Sevenoaks got all the way to the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup last month and have continued that form in recent weeks.

The league is so tight this year. After beating Three Bridges we were on the cusp of the play-off places. A run of poor results later and we now find ourselves with only a few points between us and the bottom four.

I don't imagine that situation will change all season, but we've proved already that we can compete with the best in this division - and the squad is still the same. Onwards and upwards! We're back here in three weeks for the visit of Beckenham Town.

East Grinstead Town FC is a registered Community Amateur Sports Club.

Up to and including October 25

MANAGER’S NOTES

We welcome everyone for today’s games against Sevenoaks Town.

We have had a tough run of games of late and today's will be up there with Ramsgate and Whitehawk. Although they got off to a slow start due to a good run in the FA Cup, Sevenoaks have proven of late to be up there with most as favourites for the league.

They are blessed with plenty of depth in their squad with a good mix of experience and youth and I have no doubt will be in the top three or four come the end of the season.

Last week's defeat to Faversham was a real blow because, on paper, it looked a decent fixture for us. From past experience in my playing days Faversham has never been an easy place to go and we weren't helped by a complete rebuild of their squad in the days prior to our visit.

The team we played last Saturday is a team full of experience at this level and several levels above. We conceded two soft goals from set pieces and when we did finally manage to get ourselves back in the game at 2-1, we got caught on the counter and in fairness didn't really deserve anything from the game.

The lads have been told in no uncertain terms that this small run of bad results is not good enough bearing in mind the amount of effort Ian, Steve, I and the other backroom staff put in. We know as a club we are somewhat below what

DREW COONEY

other clubs can offer financially but we proved with the good start we had to the season that we have a squad that is more than capable of competing with anyone in this division.

But we have to find a way of being far more consistent week in week out and that is the challenge for every one of us.

As ever we need the support of all the fans today, so please back the players today and let's make sure this is the start of a productive month for us.

Good luck to us! Drew

CHAIRMAN’S NOTES

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to The OHOB Community Stadium for today’s Isthmian League South East Division match against Sevenoaks Town.

We extend a warm welcome to Harry Hudson, his players, staff, the Oaks’ officials and supporters as well as to today’s referee Fadi Mansour and his assistants Ryan Calver and Philip Jones. We trust you all enjoy your short stay and our hospitality.

Our visitors’ victory at Faversham on Tuesday evening moved them up to fifth spot with 17 points from 11 matches. Top scorer Ryan Gondoh sealed the victory in the 79th minute following Solomon Baugh’s equaliser 13 minutes earlier after Faversham had taken the lead in the third minute. Our defeat there against the Lillywhites on Saturday sees us nine places below Sevenoaks in 14th although the gap is only four points albeit Wasps have played one more game.

Since their unexpected 1-0 home loss to Corinthian in the middle of last month, the Oaks have won four and drawn one and are 3rd in the form guide over the last six matches behind Chatham and Ashford United.

Drew Cooney will have been disappointed on Saturday suffering our fourth consecutive loss following two wins against Three Bridges and Lancing. We all need to stay positive, and I know you will all continue to get behind the lads. Drew, Ian, Sarge and all the squad will be looking for more of what we know we are capable of this afternoon, against stern opposition. The League is very tight – as I said earlier, we are only four points below fifth place but also only six points above the bottom two.

We meet Lancing again for the third time this season on Tuesday evening – we travel to Culver Road (ko 7.30pm) in the Sussex Senior Cup. Wasps have won both our previous encounters, an away win in the FA Cup and a

home win in the league. Let’s hope for a hattrick. We are away for the following two Saturday league fixtures at Corinthian and VCD Athletic.

Jay De Vito’s Under-18s are in action here tomorrow morning in the Sussex Youth Cup against AFC Varndenians (ko 11am) and again on Tuesday evening in the rearranged League Cup tie against Lewes (ko 7.30pm).

Andy Willis’ and Grant Hearn’s Under 23s then host Carshalton Athletic here on Thursday 17th November (ko 7.30pm) in the Isthmian Development League.

I would like to thank you all for coming along this afternoon and whatever the outcome of the match, I trust everyone enjoys their visit to The OHOB Community Stadium and I wish you all a safe journey home.

Enjoy the match Richard Tramontin (Chairman)

AUGUST

06-Aug- Hollands & Blair H FACupe 143 1-0 Pierson F.Walsh Straker Unwin Green Wilson Daniel 1 Briggs Cornwell Uchechi M.Walsh Anderson Cascoe- Newman 13-Aug-2022 Chatham Town H PISEdiv 216 1-0 Pierson F.Walsh Straker Unwin Parker Wilson Daniel Briggs Anderson 1 Cornwell M.Walsh Uchechi Perana Preece-Placid 16-Aug-2022 Cray Valley A PISEdiv 90 0-1 Pierson F.Walsh Straker Unwin Parker Wilson Daniel Briggs Anderson Uchechi Price-Placid Cornwell M.Walsh Abie 20-Aug-2022 Lancing A FACupp 147 4-1 Pierson F.Walsh Straker Unwin Parker Wilson Daniel 2 Briggs Cornwell Uchechi 1 Anderson 1 M.Walsh Clarke Preece-Placid 27-Aug-2022 Ashford United A PISEdiv 286 2-2 Pierson Clarke Straker Perana Parker Wilson Price-Placid Briggs Cornwell Uchechi M.Walsh Daniel 1 Abie 1 Folkes 29-Aug-2022 Haywards Heath Town H PISEdiv 270 2-1 Pierson F.Walsh Straker Unwin Parker Wilson Daniel 1 Briggs Cornwell Uchechi Anderson 1 Foakes M.Walsh Price-Placid

SEPTEMBER

03-Sep- Beckenham Town H FACup1 245 2-2 Pierson F.Walsh Straker Unwin Parker Wilson Daniel 1 Briggs Cornwell Uchechi Anderson 1 Foakes Price-Placid Cascoe06-Sep- Beckenham Town A FACup1 198 1-3 Pierson Clarke Straker Unwin Parker Wilson Price-Placid Briggs Folkes Able M.Walsh Daniel 1 13-Sep-2022 Wroxham A FAT1q 131 1-4 Pierson F.Walsh Clarke Unwin Cooney Wilson Daniel 1 Briggs Anderson M. Walsh Price-Placid Cascoe- Abie 17-Sep-2022 Sheppey United H PISEdiv 236 0-1 Pierson F.Walsh Straker Unwin Parker Wilson Price-Placid Briggs Cornwell Uchechi Anderson M.Walsh Folkes Perana OCTOBER

01/10/22 Burgess Hill Town A PISEdiv 453 0-1 Pierson F.Walsh Straker Unwin Parker Wilson Daniel Briggs Cornwell Uchechi Anderson Price-Placid Perana M.Walsh 08-Oct-2022 Lancing H PISEdiv 237 2-0 Pierson F.Walsh Straker Perana Parker Wilson Daniel 1 Briggs 1 Cornwell Price-Placid M.Walsh A.Clarke Anderson Abie 11-Oct-2022 Three Bridges A PISEdiv 149 3-2 Pierson F.Walsh Straker Perana Parker Wilson Daniel Briggs 1 Anderson Price-Placid M.Walsh Cornwell Clarke Unwin 15-Oct-2022 Ramsgate H PISEdiv 1-3 Pierson F.Walsh M.Walsh Perana Parker Wilson Daniel Briggs Anderson 1 Cornwell Price-Placid Uchechi Unwin Sargent 18-Oct-2022 Leatherhead H VT1 119 1-1 Pierson Clarke M.Walsh Unwin Parker Garner Everett Abie Folkes Cascoe- Newman Price-Placid Williams Akabuogu Buchanan Sargent 22/10/22 Whitehawk A PISEdiv 351 0-2 Pierson F.Walsh Straker Perana Parker Wilson Cornwell Briggs Anderson Daniel M.Walsh Everitt Price-Placid Cascoe29/10/22 Littlehampton Town H PISEdiv 185 0-1 Pierson Garner Straker Perana Parker Wilson Daniel Briggs Anderson Uchechi M.Walsh F.Walsh Folkes Everett NOVEMBER

O5/11/22 Faversham Town A PISEdiv 17-Sep 1-3 Pierson F.Walsh Straker M.Walsh Parker Wilson Daniel Briggs Anderson 1 Uchechi Price-Placid Everett Unwin Cornwell 12-Nov Sevenoaks Town H PISEdiv 19/11/22 Corinthian A PISEdiv 26-Nov VCD Athletic A PISEdiv

DECEMBER

03/12/22 Beckenham Town H PISEdiv 10/12/22 Sittingbourne A PISEdiv 17/12/22 Hythe Town H PISEdiv 26/12/22 Haywards Heath Town A PISEdiv

JANUARY

02/01/23 Chichester City H PISEdiv 07/01/23 Chatham Town A PISEdiv 14/01/23 Cray Valley H PISEdiv 21/01/23 Faversham Town H PISEdiv 28/01/23 Sevenoaks Town A PISEdiv

FEBRUARY

04/02/23 Corinthian H PISEdiv

11/02/23 Littlehampton Town A PISEdiv

14/02/23 Three Bridges H PISEdiv

18/02/23 Lancing A PISEdiv 25/02/23 Burgess Hill Town H PISEdiv

MARCH

04/03/23 Sheppey United A PISEdiv

11/03/23 Ramsgate A PISEdiv 18/03/23 Whitehawk H PISEdiv 25/03/23 Ashford United H PISEdiv

APRIL

01/04/23 Hythe Town A PISEdiv

08/04/33 Sittingbourne H PISEdiv 10/04/23 Chichester City A PISEdiv 15-Apr Beckenham Town A PISEdiv

22/04/23 VCD Athletic H PISEdiv

APRIL

PROGRAMMES FROM THE PAST

Looking back to games played on 12 November in the past I’ll start with a Sussex County League division two match East Grinstead v Midhurst & Easebourne on Saturday 12 November 2005. The programme’s front cover shows Simon Tadman and his golden hair. We had already played a couple of games in November and the programme has two good full reports on both of those games, alongside warm comments in both the editor and chairman’s comments. A 5-1 win at home to St Francis in the Sussex Senior Cup in what was St Francis’ first ever visit to East Court. And perhaps even more special as it had been manager Bobby Smith’s 43rd birthday - which Matt Thorpe celebrated with a hat-trick. Rather more difficult had been the match away to Steyning on Guy Fawkes Day. On the half hour Phil Thompson scored what turned out to be the only first half goal. But straight into the second half Chris Day hauled back one of the opposition who quickly got back on his feet and rounded Dave Tidy to score. Chris was given a red card and surprisingly the referee didn’t allow the goal to stand – giving instead a free-kick just outside our penalty area. Justice was done when the Steyning player who had been fouled took the kick and curled it in. Twenty minutes later it got even worse as Steyning took the lead. Fortunately we retaliated immediately and Adrian Bell levelled things up and then 10 minutes later he put us in front before, right at the end, Barry Leete made it safe with our fourth goal. While all this was going on chairman Richard Tramontin tells us that he was back here at East Court with a number of other helpers getting everything ready for our Guy Fawkes Fireworks display –some 2,500 people watched it.

Onto the Midhurst game. The programme’s league table shows us in eighth place with Midhurst a couple of places below. A cracking first half saw us leading 3-0 with goals from Adrian Bell, Simon Tadman and Adam Dart –though Midhurst pulled one back at the very

end. And straight into the second half Midhurst had a penalty . Be nice to say that Dave Tidyin his 200th game for us - saved it but he got nowhere near. But fortunately for us we made sure of the win when Barry Leete scored right at the end. Another 4-2 win.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

On Tuesday 12 November 2013 we had an RUR Charity Cup match against Horsham YMCA. We had already played them twice – a 0-0 draw in the league and a 5-1 thumping by them in the Sussex Senior Cup.

The programme was a simple 4 page issue with Sam Schaaf perhaps closing his eyes on the front cover. However there was a bit of a bonus as you also got the programme from our league match against Lancing which had been weathered off on the previous Saturday.

The pitch for the postponed match had been fine at 8am but it then rained heavily for the next 5 to 6 hours.

The programme for the Lancing match rather oddly shows Dave Gellatly wearing white shorts rather than our usual black ones – looks very strange.

The one bit of news in the 4 page insert was that we would receive £50,000 from Budweiser Club Futures to pay for a number of facility improvements – we were one of 8 clubs to receive such an award with one of those 8 going on to receive a further £100,000.

The match? Just one goal in it - half-way through the second half it went Horsham YMCA’s way. We could of course now concentrate on the league.

If you have had your memories jogged by this piece then I’d be happy to hear from you at lestermedcalf@btinternet.com.

SEVENOAKS TOWN

Sevenoaks Town FC was originally formed in 1883 and they were founder members of the original Kent League, but they left after just one season and wouldn’t return for another 110 years.

There are few existing records of the club during that era, but it is known that on 26 April 1893 they played Royal Arsenal, who were at the time the only professional team in the South of England, with over 1,000 spectators watching the game.

In 1906 the club, now known as Sevenoaks Town, became one of the founder members of the Sevenoaks League. In 1951 Town amalgamated with another local club, St. John’s United, and became members of the Kent Amateur League (Western Region), which they won on two occasions. In 1984 the Kent Amateur League was re-organised as the Kent County League and Sevenoaks were the first Premier Division champions, a feat they repeated in seasons 1995–96 and 2002–03.

After over a century playing in almost exclusively amateur leagues, Sevenoaks applied for promotion to the semi-professional Kent League after winning the 02-03 title. Their first season in the county’s senior league ended with a respectable 11th place and included a memorable victory away to former Football League side Maidstone United, when they recovered from a 3-1 half-time deficit to win 4-3.

The move to senior level also meant Sevenoaks were eligible for FA competitions. Their first appearance in the FA Vase came in 2004-05, when they lost 2-1 at home to Deal Town. Their longest run in the competition came in the final season they were eligible, 2017-18, when they made it to the third round proper before losing 3-1 away to Thatcham Town.

Since achieving promotion to the Isthmian League, Town have switched to the FA Trophy. In their first ever match in the competition in 2018-19 they beat former Conference side

Grays Athletic 4-2 before losing 2-1 away to Dorking Wanderers, who went on to win the Isthmian Premier Division, in the first qualifying round.

In the FA Cup Town’s best performance came in 2016-17 when they took Chesham to a replay in the second qualifying round and although they’ve yet to meet Football League opposition, one of their most memorable ties came in 2008-09 when they held Folkestone Invicta to a 4-4 draw at Greatness Park in the preliminary round.

Town led 2-0 and 3-2 but were trailing 4-3 in stoppage time when a free-kick from Dwayne Gibbons earned them a replay, which they eventually lost 4-1. After a decade during which their highest league position was sixth in 2009-10, Town appointed the former Dartford and Tonbridge player Micky Collins as manager for the 2014-15 season.

Having previously won the Kent League title with Erith & Belvedere, Collins oversaw four seasons of progress, which saw the club rise from 16th to eighth, fifth and third in 2016-17, during which they also won the Premier Division Cup. In 2017-18, having installed a 3G pitch, they won what had since been renamed the Southern Counties East League for the first time and promotion to the Isthmian League coming tenth, their highest ever position on the pyramid.

TODAYS Teams

EAST GRINSTEAD FC SEVENOAKS TOWN

Matte Pierson

Fintan Walsh

Tariq Straker

Lewis Unwin

Harrison Parker

Glenn Wilson

Matthew Daniel

c c

c c

c c

c c

c c

c c

c c

Andrew Briggs c c

Miles Cornwell c c

Daniel Uchechi c c

Tahjae Anderson c c

Max Walsh c c

Thibault Abie c c

Omar Folkes c c

Aaron Clarke c c

Reece Price-Placid c c

Shea Cascoe Rogers c c

Oliver Cash

c c c c c c c c

Manager: Drew Cooney

Colours: Amber & Black

Referee: Fadi Mansour

Jordy Ndozid

Start Sub

c c

Karn Miller-Neave c c

Bentley Graham c c

Matthew Weaire c c Lexus Beeden c c

Fumnaya Shomotun c c

Joseph Bingham c c

Freddie Parker c c

Bradley Wilson c c

Joshua Bohui c c Rian Bray c c

Ryan Gondoh c c

Solomon Baugh c c Ben Cheklit c c

William Hoare c c

Manager: Harry Hudson Colours:

The Isthmian Football League strongly supports the FA statement that there should be a zero tolerance approach against racism and all forms of discrimination. Accordingly any form of discriminatory abuse whether it by reason of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion and belief, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, sex and sexual orientation or any other form of abuse will be reported to The Football Association for action by that Association.”

The FA 0800 085 0508 Kick it Out 020 7253 0162

The Isthmian League and all Member Clubs in the League are committed to promoting equality by treating people fairly and with respect, by recognising that inequalities may exist, by taking steps to address them and providing access and opportunities for all members of the community.

NExT HOME GAME

BECKENHAM TOWN

Saturday, December 3, 2022 Kick off 3pm

TODAY’S OTHER GAMES

Chatham Town vs Ashford United Cray Valley PM vs Littlehampton Town Haywards Heath Town vs Chichester City

Lancing vs Burgess Hill Town Ramsgate vs Three Bridges

Sheppey United vs Corinthian

MATCH OFFICIALS

Assistant Referee: Ryan Calver

VS Fin A l sCORe

EAST GRINSTEAD FC

Assistant Referee: Philip Jones

VCD Athletic vs Faversham Town Whitehawk vs Hythe Town

SEVENOAKS TOWN

This matchday programme was created online by www.matchday-programmes.co.uk