That was the season that was...
by Vince Newman

Kew Colts endured a season without a single point, and against some of the best teams, suffered some heavy defeats, particularly earlier on in the season. Clearly therefore the overall standard of the team wasn't quite up to the Surrey Youth League. This was not helped by the loss of key players at the beginning of the season moving up to the first team. And It didn't end there as goalkeeper Jacob was called up a third of the way into the season, and his replacement departed after a couple of games, leaving us without a regular keeper. Jamie did well taking over, as did Ross and Luke when called upon. But it then meant we lost outfield players, so there was still a net loss to the team.

Colts should though take pride in some of their performances. They certainly didn't deserve to finish with zero points. Games against Samba and Claygate Royals should have certainly delivered points. Just a slither more resilience and we would have been harder to break down, and other games too would have been closer. Very often, good spells of play were soon undone by lapses in concentration.

As a team the side definitely improved in the course of the season, bar a couple of disappointing performances in the latter weeks. In those particular games we seemed inexplicably to lose our touch and our passes went astray. However the real improvement we saw, was in keeping our shape in front of a back four that very often held out well, and sustaining competitiveness for 80 minutes. The team maintained a good morale, never more evident than in our 0-2 defeat by top of the league Kew Park Rangers and Sheen Lions, who we matched for much of the game. So congratulations to the boys for keeping their heads up, for playing on and giving of their best, despite results consistently going against us.

Match by match: Another trip south, another disaster. We were on the menu at one of the stronger south division sides, Epsom Eagles Colts on 5 Apr. Apparently we were the fish dish. Another case of Real Madrid 8, Surreal Madrid, a fish.  See Match report. A week earlier, a disappointing day out in Dorking saw us go down 5-0 to one of the lower sides in south division, Dorkinian Youth. Management take responsibility for tinkering at the wrong time. Prior to that, letting in four fewer goals than last time we played the same team might seem an improvement, but it shows how far we’ve come that we were disappointed on 22 March not to do better against the side immediately above us in the division one north Table, Old Isleworthians Youth. A good contest on 15 March at one of the top division one south sides, Walton & Hersham, where we eventually went down 3-1.  Even the higher authority seems to conspire against the Colts. On 8 March, they were leading Claygate Royals Griffins 3-1 at half time when the heavens opened up pouring a deluge onto the pitch. The players tried to continue, but after Claygate got one back, the referee decided it was too dangerous to go on.  See Match report. We played the better football on our visit to Samba Youth, on 1st March, but the luck ran their way as they edged it 3-2.  In our match on 22 Feb, against the bottom side in Division One South, Links FC, we actually scored first but then conceded two soft goals before half time, and a third after the break as we tried to get back into it.  On 15 Feb, a better outcome to the earlier fixture against a strong side, going down 0-2 to visitors, the top North division side Sheen Lions, and matching our best result of the season. See Pictures. And although losing to local rivals, Kew Park Rangers Colts, on 1 Feb, again it was a better result than last time we played them. If a few things had gone our way, it may have been even better! See Vince’s Match report. That followed our first game of the New Year, on 18 Jan, when, for the first time this season, we gave the opposition goalkeeper a serious workout at AC Belmont. A couple of soft goals meant we were chasing the game, but still lots of positives. Our last match before Christmas was our best result of the season.  After a thrashing two weeks previously to Kew Park Rangers Colts, we held their A team to 0-2, including a goal less last 65 minutes. It shows the training is paying off as we’re starting to look like and play like a team.  It’s been a weather-plagued few weeks either side of Christmas. In 12 weeks, we’ve managed to play only five games. Worst result in some time came when local rivals Kew Park Rangers Colts beat us 1-10 on 7 Dec. Our previous match to that was on 16 Nov, when injury-hit squad went down 5-0 to the leading Division One North side, Sheen Lions. 

A visit to Stanley Park Dynamos on 2 Nov was not the ideal Cup draw especially with many players absent during the half term, and we came away with a loss. That followed a disappointing result at Old Isleworthian Youth, as we again were competitive for most of the match, before crumbling in the last 20 minutes. Before that, on 19 Oct, a closer match against Stanley Park Dynamos, our third encounter with a former Epsom and Ewell League side. We came back from a 2-0 deficit at half time to draw even, before they took control near the end. On 12 Oct, after again competing well in the first half, we surrendered in the second to Molesey Juniors, top team in Division 1 South. The previous week, we were in Surrey Cup action, going out to visitors Walton and Hersham Juniors, also of Division 1 Sth. Earlier in the league, our second experience of a former Epsom and Ewell league team proved as bitter as the first, where we lost 14-0 to last season’s EEYL premier division champions, South Park.  We’d already lost to their runners-up, St Helier by 2-12 in the season opener. In between, we went down 6-0 on a visit to local rivals, Kew Park Rangers, but a better display in the second half gave hope for what is likely to be a tough season ahead. More details in Match Reports.