|
We began our first season in the EEYL U15 Division One well and after three matches were looking down from the dizzy heights of the top of the League. Sadly it was just an illusion created by the luck of the draw. We then embarked on a losing streak, winning just one of our next 10 games, the low point coming on a rained-soaked December day on a mudbath of a pitch at top side Stoneleigh Athletic, where we were pummelled 13-2. After that, it was about improvement in the New Year, with close results against top half sides, then finishing the season with a string of wins over every team below us in the table to make sure of 8th place out of 12. A creditable performance in our first season, playing sides that had, in many cases, been playing together for many years.
For the whole of the second season, we never slipped out of the top three. We arrived at the beginning of December as top of the table, but we’d lost our captain and sweeper Tom Holmes to a dreadful hamstring injury which kept him out for 3 months. So it was no surprise we went down 2-0 to a strengthened Horley Albion, although we did manage to hold the coveted number one spot at Christmas. However, we always knew that the title favourites, Woodmansterne Hyde were lurking - they had loads of games in hand as a Cup run over Premier Division sides took them all the way to the final where they lifted the League Cup. An unexpected home loss in January to St Helier had probably wrecked our title aspirations, but we were still mathematically in the running in a monster March of five Sundays. It started brilliantly, with a 2-1 win over Woodmansterne, to inflict their first loss of the season and later at Horley, we played the second-placed side off the park for another 2-1 victory. However, two draws to lower-placed sides confirmed us in third place. Click on the link for more details of our U16 season.
|
