East Grinstead Town v Horndean: 23 April

Chair, Treasurer, Assistant Welfare Officer, 200 Club Officer Richard Tramontin

Vice Chair, Secretary, Club Welfare Officer Brian McCorquodale

Committee Member, Safety Officer

Barry Bryant

Head of Youth Development Jay De Vito

Committee Member, Youth Coordinator Andy Dodson

Disability Welfare Officer, Bar Manager, Webmaster Club Photographer Stuart Gibson

Media Manager & Programme Editor

Bruce Talbot

Facilities Manager Andy Willis

Committee Members Grant Hearn

Stuart Hedgecock

A warm welcome to everyone who has made the journey up from Hampshire for the first meeting between our clubs here at East Court. Well, with two games to go and both of them at home we can decide our own destiny this season. Win tonight and everyone can breathe easily. A draw or defeat for us takes it to the last game and the visit of in-form Sheppey United. Two chances, in our own hands. All up to us.

In isolation, the 1-1 draw at Merstham on Saturday was a decent point but having gone in front, and then had a second goal ruled out by a questionable offside, it was a sickener to concede in the 89th minute. We also lost Glenn to two yellows which means he will be suspended on Saturday, but can play tonight.

To be fair to Beckenham, if the season had even two more games to go they would fancy their chances of overhauling us. The incentive for us is to finish with two wins which would mean a 16th-place finish, perhaps a better reflection of our efforts since August.

Needless to say your support and encouragement tonight can make all the difference... COME ON THE WASPS!

Head of Recruitment

6Lancing 37196127065563

8Sheppey United371771374561858

7Herne Bay 3716101171601158

9Broadbridge Heath371310145654249

10Sevenoaks 37137176063-346

11Ashford United37143205579-2445

15Horndean 36127175770-1343

12Hythe Town 36127175366-1343

13Burgess Hill Town371011165870-1241

14Merstham 37118185769-1241

16Phoenix Sports3798205090-4035

17Littlehampton Town3797214575-3033

18East Grinstead Town3687214784-3731

19Beckenham Town3778225792-3529

20Erith & Belvedere3758242485-6123

Up to and including 20 April

MANAGER’S NOTES

Drew Cooney

We welcome everyone for tonight’s must win game against Horndean.

Unfortunately, we have had to leave it to our last two games of the season to secure our Isthmian League status but it is still in our own hands and we know two points will be enough.

Saturday’s cruel 1-1 draw against Merstham was a real hammer blow for me and the lads.

Glenn Wilson was ridiculously sent off on 86 minutes for a second bookable offence after we led the game and were fairly comfortable.

The sending off swung the game completely with Merstham then scoring pretty much straight away and a couple of minutes from the final whistle.

It was a tough one to take but the boys left everything out there and as I said to them our target was to remain unbeaten until the end of the season and they are on target to do that.

A win, as we all know, will be much better and hopefully we can try and freshen a few of the lads up for tonight’s game. Another injury to the squad means Ollie Spinks looks to have finished his season but we aim to have Henry Sinai and Terriq Hall-Anderson back for tonight.

I’ve asked before and I ask again, please get behind the boys tonight and on Saturday and we thank you all for your support as we try to finish the season

strongly.

Horndean have had an excellent first season since promotion so we know we will have to give 100% and hopefully being at home will help us.

Drew

Photo courtesy of Stuart Gibson

CHAIRMAN’S NOTES

Good evening everyone and welcome to East Court for tonight’s penultimate Isthmian League South East Division match of the season against Horndean.

May I firstly pass on my heartfelt condolences on behalf of everyone at the club to Steward Ward on the passing of his father, Brian. Brian was a true hardy Wasps fan and started supporting the club even before I got involved 27 years ago. Our thoughts are with Stewart and his family.

I would like to extend a warm welcome to all the Horndean players, management, officials and supporters on their first visit, and hopefully not their last, to the home of East Grinstead Town and to today’s referee Ciaran Fidler and his assistants Joshua Plumb and John Pike. I trust everyone enjoys their brief stay and our hospitality.

Like all Wasps fans, I was hoping that we would have entered this week knowing we were definitely safe from relegation, but decisions don’t seem to go our way. A very dubious offside decision on Saturday at Merstham ruled out what looked like a perfectly good Matt Weaire headed goal in the 75th minute from a Connor Tighe free kick which would have put us 2-0 up. Then, skipper Glenn Wilson was shown a soft second yellow card in the 87th minute and to make matters worse, from the resultant free kick, ex-Wasp Charlie Greenwood equalised for Merstham, and we only came away with one point. Remi Onabanjo was also desperately unlucky when his strike hit the crossbar.

So we now need two points from our last two matches to be safe should Beckenham Town win their final match on Saturday away at Burgess Hill. Coming into tonight’s match we are two points ahead of Beckenham with a game in hand and they have a two-goal better goal difference. A win tonight would see us safe.

It would be ideal for Wasps, if we could replicate

our 3-1 win in October at Five Heads Park. Ironically if tonight’s visitors had not lost to Beckenham on Saturday, we would have already been safe.

On Saturday, Michael Birmingham’s Horndean will also have a massive influence at the other end of the table when they host Cray Valley, who are playing Hythe Town tonight, which is their game in hand over league leaders Ramsgate, who they trail by a goal difference of one.

We are at home again on Saturday for the final game of the season, when we host Sheppey United.

Thank you all for coming along this evening and whatever the outcome of the match, I trust everyone enjoys their visit to East Court and I wish you all a safe journey home.

Enjoythematch,

RichardTramontin(Chairman)

Photo courtesy of Stuart Gibson

PROGRAMMES FROM THE PAST

Helped by the programmes that were produced I'm going to talk about a couple of games played in the past on today's date.

First up is an away match Steyning Town v East Grinstead on Wednesday 23 April 2008 in division two of the Sussex County League. The programme was a pretty good read and its club notes get us underway when it talks briefly about Steyning's most recent three games in April - ‘a mixed bag of results’ - and one of these April matches had been our home match against them. And a significant match that home game turned out to be for us. We had won it 2-1 (I don't know who scored) –which meant we had become the division two champions and so gained promotion to the County League's top division one.

So the Steyning programme's league table also made good reading for us. We were top with 74 points – only two defeats - while the second-placed club Rustington were nine points behind us. (With our near neighbours from Lingfield in third place.) Including the match in Steyning we still had four games to play (one of which was away to Rustington)nobody else had more than two games left. There were 18 teams in the league and Steyning were in 11th with two games left. The programme continues its good news for us by listing all of our results for the season to date - league and cup - our two league defeats coming at Lingfield on Boxing Day and then at Peacehaven.

So did Steyning become the third team to beat us? No, they didn't - though we didn't win either. It was a 1-1 draw (but I don't know who scored for us).

Next up we have a look at the programme for East Grinstead v Pagham on Saturday 23 April 2011 in division one of the County League. That was the Saturday of the Easter weekend and the programme also covers the match that will follow on Easter Monday morning when Crawley Down came to East Court. Manager Tony Beckingham has over the last couple of weeks taken our team round much of southern Sussex for four consecutive away

matches – to Arundel, Sidley, Eastbourne and Wick. He reckons they must have come close to doing more miles than Phileas Fogg did in his 80-day trip round the world! The four games had seen one win (Eastbourne), one draw (Wick) and one defeat (Pagham) with the fourth match (Arundel) being abandoned – not sure I ever found out why it was abandoned. We do get a full match report of the 1-1 draw against Wick which was notable for goals being scored in the first few seconds (Wick) and in the last few seconds (Peter Cooper for us)

The programme's league table shows us in seventh place with Pagham three places above us. We had played the away match in August and had lost 3-1 (Liam Baitup scored our goal) and here in April we were to lose 2-0. It is a bit unfair if I make no mention of the Easter Monday part of the programme because our near neighbours Crawley Down were on a high. They had already come top of the league with six games still to play - and as well as the Easter Monday game (which was a 1-1 draw) we still had to play the away match.

LESTERMEDCALF

CLUB NOTICE

Supporter Behaviour

In the last few years the club’s supporter base has grown and Drew Cooney and the players truly appreciate the vocal backing they get home and away at every match.

Unfortunately, we received isolated reports of bad behaviour and foul language at home games last season. Those complaints have grown significantly this season and at the fixture against Three Bridges earlier this season foul and abusive language was directed at match officials and opposition players and objects thrown onto the field of play.

Not only is this totally unacceptable, it is against the ground and league regulations and is forcing fair-minded supporters to stop coming to matches because their enjoyment is being spoiled by a small number.

Verbal warnings by committee members are not having any effect and if we allow this anti-social behaviour to continue there is every likelihood of a sanction from the league and or the FA.

We appreciate the vocal support for the team, but we also have to protect our reputation as a familyfriendly, community club proud to represent East Grinstead.

As a result, any under-16 attending home games will have to be accompanied by an adult, who will be responsible for their behaviour.

Also, abuse of individuals and excessive foul language will not be tolerated. Offenders will be removed from the stadium and will receive a ban and, if applicable, season tickets will be rescinded with no refund offered. The club will not hesitate to call upon assistance from Sussex Police if required.

Conor Tighe lines up a free-kick against Beckenham.

HORNDEAN

The club was established in 1887 and played their first match on 27 October against Red Star from Havant. They initially played at Blendworth Hill before moving to their current ground.

The club only played friendly matches until World War One, after which they joined the Waterlooville & District League, They won the league title in 1926–27, 1929–30, 1930–31 and 1931–32. They went on to join the Portsmouth League, winning Division Two in 1953–54. They were later promoted to the Premier Division, which they won in 1968–69, 1969–70 and 1970–71.

In 1972 they moved up to Division Four of the Hampshire League. By the mid-1980s they had reached Division One and became founder members of the Wessex Football League in 1986. The Deans struggled to make an impact on the league and in nine seasons never once managed to finish in the top half. After finishing bottom of the league in 1994–95 they were relegated back to the Hampshire League, where they remained until rejoining the Wessex League as founder members of the new Division Two in 2004.

In 2010–11 they were promoted to the Premier Division after finishing as runners-up in Division One. In October 2015 long serving manager David Carter left the club and on Portsmouth Academy Coach Craig Pearce and Simon Chamberlain were appointed as successors. Pearce and Chamberlain took the team to fifth place, Horndean's highest ever position in the Sydenham's Wessex premier league at the time.

The start of the 2016–2017 season Horndean FC saw the arrival of Michael Birmingham, Dutchy Holland, Jason Mann, and Matthew Driver. The season finished with Horndean in sixth place in the Sydenham's Wessex Premier division. The 2017-2018 Season saw the first team finish in fourth and in 2018-2019 second, its highest ever position in the Sydenham's Wessex Premier League.

The following two seasons were curtailed due to the COVID pandemic, before Horndean recorded another strong season, ending the 2021/22 campaign in fourth place.

The 2022/23 saw the Deans make history with a League and Cup double. The club's first Wessex Premier title since joining as founding members in 1986 was secured on the final day of the season in a 1-0 win over Portland United. A club record attendance of 1,359 watched on when Zack Willett headed a late winner as Horndean were crowned champions. Just two weeks later the Deans won more silverware in the form of the Portsmouth Senior Cup, after defeating Fareham Town on penalties in the final at Fratton Park. The double was complete.

GROUND

Horndean play their home games at Five Heads Park. The ground was fully enclosed in 1981. In 1986 a 50-seater stand was added and a new building housing changing rooms and hospitality facilities was constructed inside the ground, to meet Wessex League standards. Previously the changing rooms had been in the social club, on the other side of the car park. A new turnstile shed was installed along with a decking area for spectators ahead of the 2021/22 season.

The club's promotion to the Isthmian Football League for the first time ever meant significant upgrades were made to Five Heads Park. The ground would be rebranded as the Stanley Chase Stadium and improvements came with a new seated stand, relocated tea hut and committee rooms as well as new dugouts with an additional covered standing area constructed in between. The existing tea hut and boardroom would become the club's management office and physio/ media room.

visitors recent league forM

April 20Beckenham (a)

L 1-3

April 16Ashford United (h) W 2-1

April 13Merstham (h)

April 11Sheppey United (h)

April 9Phoenix Sports (h)

L 1-3

L 2-5

D 4-4

April 6Broadbridge Heath (a)D 1-1

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The Trident Leagues and Pitching In’s online Volunteer Hub is the place where you can find opportunities and contact your local football club.

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Please visit Pitchinginvolunteers.co.uk to find out more

Photography by

Action from the 1-1 draw against Beckenham shows Ryan Green, above, winning a header and Omar Folkes fending off an opponent. Photos by Stuart Gibson.

SQUAD STATS

EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN HORNDEAN

Matte Pierson (GK) cc

Cameron Reardon cc

Ryan Green cc

Michael Wilson cc

Matthew Weaire cc

Glenn Wilson © cc

Connor Tighe cc

Kiye Martin cc

Max Walsh cc

Darnell Bailey-King cc

Terrique Hall-Anderson cc

Matt Daniel cc

Oliver Cash (GK) cc

Tom Cadman cc

Jerson Dos Santos cc

Omar Folkes cc

Harrison Parker cc

Alex Andrade Filipe cc

Adonai Dacruz cc

Bobby Dunn cc

Zack Lamont cc

Brasley Kauzeni cc

Oliver Spinks cc

Oluremi Onabanjo cc

Camron Lawson cc

Manager: Drew Cooney

Cameron Scott cc

Robert Taw cc

Cade Dyer cc

Ethan Robb cc

Matthew Kellet-Smith cc

Chad Field cc

Harry Jackson cc

Aaron O’Brien

cc

Tommy Scutt cc

Zackary Willett

cc

Daniel Sibley cc

Liam Callaghan

cc

Jafer Muhammad kier cc

Rudi Blankson

cc

Brandon Miller cc

Jordan Pile cc

Colours: Red

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

Saturday 27 April SHEPPEY UNITED Kick-off: 3pm

East Grinstead Town FC is an unincorporated association /members club and a Community Amateur Sports Club (reg no CASC 02270).

ROLL OF HONOUR

SUSSEXCOUNTYLEAGUE:

DivisionTwochampions2007–08

BaldwinCupwinners1951–52

MID-SUSSEXLEAGUE:

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: CIARAN FIDLER

Colours: Amber & Black HORNDEAN

Assistant Referee: JOSH PLUMB

EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN ........ vs

Assistant Referee: JOHN PIKE

Champions1901–02,1936–37

MontgomeryCupwinners 1911–12,1912–13

SOUTHERNAMATEURLEAGUE:

DivisionThreechampions 1931–32

SUSSEXRURCUP: Winners 2003–04