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Saturday, 7 February 2015

The final score suggests a fairly one sided affair todaybut there wasn't much between the two sides, certainly as far as general play was concerned. Burgess Hill took their chances though and defended superbly, a very organised side that seem to have what it takes to acquit themselves well at Step 3. 3-0 could have been 3-3 or 3-4 on another day, more of a story with full colour pictures to follow.

Elsewhere in the Isthmian South today good wins for Carshalton and Corinthian Casuals, as well as Whyteleafe who are shaping up to make the final play-off place their own (long way to go yet though...). Here are the results then:-

Carshalton 5 Folkestone 3 ; Corinthian Casuals 1 Faversham 0 ; East Grinstead 1 Ramsgate 1 ; Hastings 2 Three Bridges 2 ; Horsham 1 Chipstead 2 ; Hythe 2 South Park 0 ; Merstham 0 Herne Bay 0 ; Redhill 0 Whyteleafe 1 ; Sittingbourne 2 Walton & Hersham 1 ; Walton Casuals 3 Whitstable 1.

The defeat means we drop a couple of places in the league but the performance overall serves to reassert the view that our place in this league is merited.

Keep it Green

Allez les Verts!!

Friday, 6 February 2015

Really looking forward to the trip to Burgess Hill tomorrow, as I'm sure are the coaches and players too. Burgess Hill are having a tremendous season, they're still unbeaten in the league and not a lot of other teams at any level can say that.

They've only dropped points against 5 sides so far and the list of those teams might raise an eyebrow: Redhill, Horsham, Three Bridges, Whitstable, Hythe. The first 3 were back in August, the other 2 in November. They've only scored 4 more goals than us in the league and conceded 49 fewer.

The game is an opportunity for our lads to show their mettle, particularly with thoughts of a possible play-off spot in many minds, and the travelling squad suggests we could be in for a good contest:-

Tardif, Mahon (L), de la Mare, Mackay, Cochrane, Dodd, Winch (J), Steel, Black, Dyer, Loaring, Heaume, Rihoy, McGrath, Allen.

If you're travelling by train you need a ticket to Wivelsfield, not Burgess Hill (or ryde for that matter). The Llama Express will be trundling out of Victoria at 10.16, we expect to pick up GFC's only celebrity fan the Diggler on the way so feel free to bring your calendar along for the dirty one to leave his mark (then flog it on ebay).

Click here for your essential travel info.

Keep it Green

Allez les Verts!!

Tuesday, 3 February 2015

Disappointing to have a second postponement in a few days but good on South Park for consulting with the league, arranging a pitch inspection by the match referee last night, enabling him to make a decision based on what he saw and the forecast for the coming 24 hours. Think it's fair to say he made the right decision as well, been bloomin' freezing in central London all day, never mind the surrounding counties.

Somewhat surprisingly three matches beat the weather in the Isthmian South tonight, although East Grinstead and Redhill are probably wishing they hadn't. Results as follows:-

East Grinstead 0 Whyteleafe 6 ; Horsham 2 Tooting & Mitcham 2 ; Redhill 1 Ramsgate 3.

Meanwhile we departed Ormering Towers for a mooch around Euston, the hightlight being Buxton Brewery's Rednik Stout at the Euston Tap. Very moreish....

Keep it Green

Allez les Verts!!

Monday, 2 February 2015

Tomorrow, hopefully, we'll see a game of football at South Park. Their match on Saturday was postponed due to a frozen pitch and temperatures don't seem to have changed much since then. We're hearing mixed messages about pitch conditions so keep your eyes and ears peeled to social media and so on before you set off tomorrow.

Form wise they've lost their last 4, we've won our last 5 so the form book is with us. It's a Tuesday evening though so Tony Vance won't have a full squad to choose from and Strawbridge, Dyer, Mahon (L) and Dodd are unable to travel. One Eff and Cockers are available and Knock-Off Nigel Hutton returns after 3 months or so on the injury list.

The squad is, on paper, stronger than the typical mid-week travelling group we've seen this season. Three changes in a defence that was settling in nicely make for a challenge however. Here's the squad:-

Tardif, de la Mare, Cochrane, Mackay, Winch (J), Steel, le Prevost (E), Loaring, Black, Hutton, Rihoy, Heaume, McGrath, Allen.

These are the other scheduled Isthmian South matches tomorrow: Corinthian Casuals v Burgess Hill, Horsham v Tooting & Mitcham, Redhill v Ramsgate.

So fingers crossed for the weather in Surrey, although with reports of 'snow' in St Andrew's this evening the lads may not even make it off the ground.......

Bugger, the match was called off shortly after the above wass published due to the pitch still being frozen!

Keep it Green

Allez les Verts!!

Sunday, 1 February 2015

The mind boggles as to the level of communication between clubs and leagues in the lead upto a match being postponed. Yesterday saw an early pitch inspection, helpfully conducted after the plane had landed at Gatwick, which resulted in the m,atch being called off due to snow on the pitch.

The snow in question seemed to be of the Tate & Lyle variety (other brands of snow are available) and, bearing in mind there were several hours to kick off, there was no further dusting expected and the opposition was only a few miles up the road (having spent a few grand in getting there) the decision to postpone seemed a little hasty.

Intrepid explorer Craig McLoughlin visitied the ground later in the morning, still well ahead of the scheduled kick-off time, when the dusting had all but disappeared. Craig reported that he'd inserted a 6 inch peg into the ground and there was no evidence of a frozen pitch. OK, it was probably just a 3 inch peg but the result would have been the same.

The conspiracy theory espoused by some that this was a convenient way to get to to play our midweek team is clearly not one that we can endorse (!)...... Leagues do need to establish some ground rules regarding to pitch inspections though, along the lines of them being conducted at a time agreed by both teams at the very least.

It may well be that the timing of yesterday's pitch inspection was mutually agreed, in which case it's our own stupid fault. It was probably that Three Bridges arranged an early pitch inspection without being aware of GFC's travel arrangements. In which case the little bit of communication required to ensure mutual agreement would have saved the club a not insignificant amount of money. Then again, maybe the conspiracy theorists were right.

It's not the first time we've had a match postponed due to the weather when the team had already made it to the UK after all. Remember Egham a couple of seasons ago when a pitch inspection was held when GFC were on the way from the airport to the ground in the coach. The pitch, which was apparently fine on Friday and had nothing more than a spit on it overnight, was declared unfit, despite it looking fine to us and the home team (so they were keen to tell us). Anyway Egham got to play our midweek side, won the match and eventually the league title.

No doubt the conspiracy theorists will be keeping an eye on the weather in Reigate over the next few days (in the knowledge that South Park's pitch was frozen again on Saturday.

Not us at Ormering Towers though.

Keep it Green

Allez les Verts!!

A sausage, a wrap and a mild mannered janitor.

With the trials and tribulations of last season fast receding and o the back of three impressive displays, unbeaten against teams expected ...