East Grinstead Town v Three Bridges 16.09.23

£2:00

vs THREE BRIDGES

Saturday September 16 - Pitching In Isthmian League South East Kick off 3pm

THE OFFICIAL MATCHDAY PROGRAMME OF EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN FC 2023/24

EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB

The OHOB Community Stadium | College Lane | East Grinstead RH19 3LS

Telephone : 01342 325885

Website : www.egtfc.co.uk

CLUB MANAGEMENT

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

Vice Chair, Secretary, Club Welfare Officer

Committee Member, Safety Officer

Head of Youth Development

Committee Member, Youth Coordinator

Disability Welfare Officer, Bar Manager, Webmaster

Club Photographer

Media Manager & Programme Editor

Facilities Manager

Committee Members

Head of Recruitment

Brian McCorquodale

Barry Bryant

Jay De Vito

Andy Dodson

Stuart Gibson

Bruce Talbot

Andy Willis

Grant Hearn

Stuart Hedgecock

Matthew Wheeler

FOOTBALL MANAGEMENT Manager

Assistant Manager and Team Coach

Assistant Coach

Goalkeeping Coach

Physiotherapist

Kit Manager

U23 Managers & Coaches

U18 Manager & Coach

3rd XI Manager

U15s Manager

U13 Manager

U11

WELCOME TO EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN

A warm welcome to everyone who has made the short trip over from Crawley for today’s local derby.

It does seem a bit odd not to be playing this game on, say Boxing Day or January 2, but I’ve long since lost interest in trying to understand the vagaries of the Isthmian League fixture computer!

It’s not been the best of starts for us but we have got form on our side today as Bridges have never beaten us in the Isthmian League – needless to say we’d love that stat to be intact by 5pm today. Come on the Wasps!

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

Front cover: Darnelle Bailey-King in action against South Park on Tuesday. Photo

Drew Cooney

Ian Nichols

Steve Sargent

Darren Hadlum

Jamie Brownlie

Adam Robinson

Howard Wrate & Steve Coveney

Giuliano (Julien) Arucci

Paul Withers

Lewis McDonnell

Andy Dodson

Ted Symes

Payne

Up to and including August 29

by Stuart Gibson

MANAGER’S NOTES

Afternoon all and welcome back for our first local derby of the season.

This game means everything to me personally and is always the first fixture I look for when the schedule is released.

We couldn’t have had a more different start to Bridges, they are sitting top of the league after two wins and two draws having played one more game than us and we are still looking for our first points.

Tuesday's midweek Velocity Trophy game was an opportunity for us to rest a few, as we have five or six players now nursing injuries and we lost another in Tommy Summerfield in this game.

Creating lots of chances for the fourth game running we are still finding it difficult to convert these chances! I’ve reminded the lads in the dressing room these opportunities will keep coming if we play the way we have and the lads that pulled through for me and the team last year like Ben Aubrey and Max Walsh etc. will soon have a change of fortune in front of goal and the tide will turn. We just need to remain calm and believe in what we are doing.

The lads certainly won’t need reminding of what this fixture means to not only me and the rest of the management team but also the committee, the town and more importantly the fans!

Stick with us all, I can assure you the recent form hurts me more than anyone will ever know, but there will be no better

way to turn this blip around with a home win in the local derby.

Goodlucktous-Drew

Drew Cooney

Photo courtesy of Stuart Gibson

CHAIRMAN’S NOTES

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to East Court for this afternoon’s Isthmian League Soth East Division match against near neighbours

Three Bridges

I would like to extend a warm welcome to all our supporters, the Bridges’ players, management, officials and supporters as well as today’s referee Fabio Roque and his assistants Matthew Dyson and Pablo Aguilar Cabanes. I trust everyone enjoys their brief stay and our hospitality.

Jamie Crelin’s Bridges have started the season in top form except for an FA Cup glitch when they lost to Crawley Down Gatwick in a replay in the Extra Preliminary Round of the FA Cup. They are unbeaten since then having progressed in the TA Trophy and Velocity Cup and sit proudly on top of the League after 4 matches having won two and drawn two. Noel Leighton is their top scorer with 6 goals in their eight matches.

Drew Cooney and his lads will be looking to put an end to that run and kick-start Wasps’ season where we haven’t won since the Extra Preliminary Round of the FA Cup. Barring Tuesday night’s Velocity Cup match, performances have been good and we have created enough chances in every match to at least draw if not win but we haven’t made then count. Drew was far from happy on Tuesday evening and certainly let his players know as well as anyone in the vicinity of the dressing room! We are currently pointless after three league matches.

Today will certainly be a tough encounter besides the pressure of it being a local derby. Wasps won away and drew here last season and won both matches the season before.

We haven’t got a match scheduled for next Saturday, but we are at home the following Saturday 30th September when we host Ashford United. We then make the long trip to Horndean on Saturday 7th October, who we will

meet for the first time and the following Tuesday (10th October) not so far away to another newcomer to the Isthmian League, Broadbridge Heath (ko 7.45pm) who we last played in the then Sussex County League.

I’d like to say a sincere thanks to our supporters who continue to be wholeheartedly behind Drew and the team despite the frustration of recent results. I know it is truly appreciated and hopefully you will go home happy this evening.

I’d like to make another appeal for more volunteers on match days. Areas where we could really do with more support include bar, stewarding, turnstiles, media etc so if anyone wants to get involved, please speak to me or one of my colleagues.

Thank you all for coming along this afternoon 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

Photo courtesy of Stuart Gibson

FIXTURES & RESULTS

PROGRAMMES FROM THE PAST

I’m going to use a couple of programmes to tell you about games played in the past on today’s date. First up is East Grinstead v Seaford on Saturday 16 September 2006 with a rather young Drew Cooney – manager in 2023 - on the front cover. This was a match in division 2 of the County League. The programme is a very busy one with lots and lots to read and told us that we were no longer in the FA Cup or the FA Vase though the reports suggest that we really should have got through in both of these cups.

In the FA Vase away to Tunbridge Wells we had dominated the first hour and were leading 2-0 (goals from Simon Cassidy and Jez Tobin). But we let Tunbridge Wells back into the game and with a last minute goal they won 3-2. The FA Cup had seen us away to Hamble ASSC and we were OK with a 1-1 draw. Replay back here and for 80 minutes nobody had scored. But in the last few minutes our visitors scored three times while we managed just one, at the very end. And unfortunately one of the Hamble players broke a leg in those last few minutes. Both of our goals in these FA Cup games came from Simon Cassidy. Back to the Seaford match itself. The programme’s league table shows that both ourselves and Seaford had played five league matches, each of us having won two matches, drawn another two with just one defeat. The game saw a very busy few minutes in the middle of the first half. After some 20 minutes Seaford took the lead only for Tyrone Roberts to equalise two minutes later. But another couple of minutes and Seaford were back in front. And that was how it all finished. This run of poor results was then to lead on to our sacking of manager Bobby Smith after eight years in the job.

Coming rather more up to date we’ll talk about East Grinstead v Shoreham on Saturday 16 September 2017. We had of course played each other many times in the Sussex County League but this was an Isthmian League match. Shoreham had come second in the County League in the previous season with

Haywards Heath on top – and therefore Haywards Heath had been allocated a place in the Isthmian League. But they then had nine points deducted for playing an ineligible player and Shoreham took their place.

Matt Longhurst’s manager notes are a story of injuries galore. For example in our game on the previous Tuesday evening – away to the league leaders - we had lost two players pulling out during the warm-up and then 35 minutes into the game we lost both our centre backs. Inevitably we had many players playing out of their usual positions as we lost 3-0.

The league table shows us second from bottom with two draws and four defeats while Shoreham - with just one draw and five defeats - were bottom. And fortunately for us we were to have a much better afternoon as we won 72. Alex Gaggin got a couple of goals in the first half with Will Hoare also scoring. In the second half Will scored again as did Leo Mazzone and Marcus Elliott wasn’t going to miss out - so he added a couple as well.

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

Cover of the programme for our 7-2 win over Shoreham

League Latest

MANAGER OF THE MONTH

Steve McKimm has certainly hit the ground running at Cray Valley PM and they remain unbeaten in all competitions, but we’re focused specifically on the league and specifically on August, a month which saw them score an average of four goals per league match. It’s shaping up to be a fine season for the Millers, and already they have a trophy to show for it, as Steve is our Manager of the Month, courtesy of the lovely folks at Vita Risk Solutions. Congrats to Steve, and to the green hordes around him.

GOLDEN GLOVES WINNER FOR AUGUST

We’re off to the Cathedral City of Chichester, where we celebrate a side who didn’t concede a league goal during August. City have had a fine start to the Pitching In isthmian South East campaign, two 3-0 wins and a goalless draw to their name, and our plaudits go to keeper Kieran

Magee, who has kept that net in mint condition! Well done to Kieran and his fabulous defence.

DOUBLE SIGNING FOR ASHFORD

Our 30th September opponents

Ashford United have announced the additions of Kymani Thomas and Anthony Edgar to their squad. Forward Kymani was a big part of Herne Bay's plans last season, and then suffered a horror injury in a match against Horsham in February, a broken leg which he has done remarkably well to be back so quickly from.

A former West Ham United youth, Anthony Edgar also played for Bournemouth, Yeovil and Barnet during his professional career. He also spent time at Bishop's Stortford, Braintree Town, Woking and Hayes & Yeading United, before becoming part of the Cray Valley PM squad that won promotion and reached the FA Vase Final. He spent part of last season with Herne Bay.

Chris Alhassan goes past his marker against South Park

THREE BRIDGES

THREE BRIDGES - THE ISTHMIAN LEAGUE YEARS

Their first season in the Isthmian Football League South Division saw them struggle for much of the time. However, having been 10 points adrift at the bottom of the table in mid February, they went on a run of 11 matches that produced seven victories. It meant that they survived the drop, but their second season saw them struggle at times again but some key signings midway through the season helped them to 19th place.

The 2014/15 season saw an even greater improvement with a healthy mixture of youth and experience guiding them into seventh position and, whilst they were happy to score 94 League goals, they were less than happy about the 95 they conceded! They improved their defensive record in conceding 67 goals in season 2015/16 but only scored 59, hardly helped by long-term injuries to strike partners Allan Tait and Tony Garrod. With 66 points, they slumped to 14th position, although they only accumulated six points fewer than in the previous campaign!

Bridges maintained most of that season's squad for the 2016/17 campaign. However, with at least 11 first team players out injured by September, they had to use a lot of the U21s, Academy and U18s players and by November had lost 12 games in a row, drew three and won just one game. Towards the end of the season, they strengthened the squad but it was too late to avoid relegation. For the 2017/18 season, Bridges kept a few of the best of the players from the previous season and strengthened the team with more experienced players in the hope of promotion once again.

That season turned out to be an extremely tough one with every team wanting to beat us. However, Bridges accomplished what they set out to do by gaining promotion back to the Isthmian League having finished second place in the Southern Combination League Premier Division, just one point behind the winners, Haywards Heath Town, and despite having only lost three games all season.

After serving 25 years with the Club as a manager, Paul Faili stood down as First Team Manager for the 2018/19 season in order to concentrate on his role as Club Chairman, and handed the management reins over to Martin Dynan, assisted by Liam Collins alongside Keith George.

After losing eight out of 12 League games by the end of November, as well as being knocked out of all four cup competitions the future looked bleak for Martin Dynan. However, the team then went on an unbeaten run in December, but that didn’t last and Martin’s demise was inevitable by the end of February.

Paul Faili stepped in for the remaining nine games of the season and they finished 14 points clear of relegation in 14th.

Paul remained as Manager, ably assisted by Keith George and coached by Jamie Crellin who played for the Club for five seasons, but sadly had to hang up his boots after sustaining an ankle injury, having made 164 appearances for the Club.

2021/22 saw Crellin take over as First Team Manager.

This season sees Brannon O’Neill appointed as Assistant Manager following Danny Lee’s departure and Joe Kay joining as First Team Coach.

visitors recent league forM

Maecenas at mattis lectus. In ac tellus sodales, vulputate velit sed, ultrices urna. Nullam sed dolor lorem. Mauris sollicitudin diam a neque euismod, vitae varius mauris ornare. Aliquam erat volutpat. Fusce tincidunt tellus sed nunc suscipit aliquam. Sed in blandit sapien. Mauris nec tempor purus. Phasellus in libero finibus, auctor enim et, sollicitudin nisl. Morbi erat purus, accumsan in faucibus ullamcorper, iaculis quis tortor. Mauris eu ullamcorper massa, eleifend semper justo. Integer eros nibh, hendrerit sed justo quis, egestas vehicula ligula. Nulla sit amet urna a magna mattis iaculis. Duis pulvinar magna in velit facilisis euismod. Donec eu justo quis augue iaculis lobortis.

congue dapibus ipsum molestie. Praesent ornare consectetur ante sed sollicitudin. Proin auctor nulla mi.

Ever thought of volunteering to help your local football club?

In efficitur elit in est pharetra condimentum. Morbi nec sapien eget tortor viverra congue at eu metus. Ut tincidunt urna vel libero lobortis, ut sodales mauris egestas. Aenean ligula quam, molestie quis blandit at, scelerisque ac mauris. Nulla id mauris sit amet nunc maximus elementum vitae at mauris. Praesent non ligula egestas, rhoncus justo nec, pharetra lectus. Morbi nec enim mollis eros auctor pulvinar commodo ut augue. Mauris non leo mollis, tempor ex eu, ornare magna.

There are many different volunteer roles in non-league football and Isthmian League football clubs need your help with them.

Aenean vel tellus at felis cursus sagittis. Quisque posuere tincidunt turpis, sit amet posuere sapien condimentum ac. Sed gravida,

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

Pellentesque facilisis nunc non nisl sollicitudin, ut euismod enim molestie. Suspendisse potenti. Donec vitae nulla ut augue tristique luctus eu a dui. Sed in aliquam velit. Phasellus dignissim erat ut interdum aliquam. Nulla

Please visit Pitchinginvolunteers.co.uk to find out more

Photography by

Action from Tuesday's cup tie against South Park. Above, Tom Summerfield surges forward and, below, an athletic tip-over by keeper Mattie Pierson. Pictures by Stuart Gibson.

SQUAD STATS

TODAY’S Teams

VS

EAST GRINSTEAD FC

Matte Pierson (GK) c c

Tom Cadman c c

Cameron Reardon

c c

c c

c

THREE BRIDGES

Dan FERREIRA

c

c

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

c

c c

c c

c c

c c

c c

c c

c c

c c

c c

c c

c c

c c

Manager: Drew Cooney

Colours: Amber & Black

Bryan VILLAVICENCIO

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.

ASHFORD UNITED Saturday 30 September, 2023

Kick off 3pm

Referee: Fabio Roque

Assistant Referee: Matt Dyson

Assistant Referee: Pablo Aguilar

THREE BRIDGES

ROLL OF HONOURS

SUSSEX COUNTY LEAGUE: Division Two champions 2007–08 Baldwin Cup winners 1951–52 MID-SUSSEX LEAGUE: Champions 1901–02, 1936–37

Montgomery Cup winners 1911–12, 1912–13

SOUTHERN AMATEUR LEAGUE: Division Three champions 1931–32

SUSSEX RUR CUP: Winners 2003–04

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