THE OFFICIAL MATCHDAY PROGRAMME OF EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN FC | SEASON 2026|27 | ISSUE NO 2 | FREE
SOUTHERN COMBINATION FOOTBALL LEAGUE | PREMIER DIVISION SATURDAY 15 AUGUST | KICK OFF: 3PM
VS CRAWLEY DOWN GATWICK SOUTHERN COMBINATION FOOTBALL LEAGUE | PREMIER DIVISION SATURDAY 15 AUGUST | KICK OFF 3PM
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN FC The Vistavis Community Stadium College Lane | East Grinstead | RH19 3LS Tel: 01342 325885
WELCOME TO EAST COURT Good afternoon and welcome to Crawley Down Gatwick, for the first meeting between our two clubs in a number of years. One feature of our fixture list this season is, of course, the surfeit of local derbies, and by this time next month we will have played Crawley Down again and Forest Row - and there's also a Peter Bentley Cup tie at Jarvis Brook which is only a few miles down the A264 - to also come before August is out. It was great to get our first win of the season last Saturday and progress in the FA Cup with a comfortable 3-0 success against Bexhill Town. There wasn't a great deal difference in our performance from the Guernsey game, where we played well and were very unlucky to lose 1-0. Anyway, we have another home game this Tuesday against Wick, kick off 7.30pm - see you then.
OWNERSHIP STATEMENT In accordance with the Football Association's Rule 2.13 (publication of ownership) in relation to Step 1 to Step 6 Clubs within the National League System East Grinstead Town FC is an unincorporated association / members club and a Community Amateur Sports Club (reg no CASC 02270).
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EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN F.C. VS CRAWLEY DOWN GATWICK
FROM THE
Dugout Welcome back to the Vistavis Community Stadium and we extend a warm welcome to today's visitors, our neighbours Crawley Down Gatwick. It’s been a fair few years since this derby reared its head so it will definitely make for entertaining viewing! After the opening day fixture against Haywards Heath Town in which we took a well deserved share of the points, we then went on to lose our opening home game against Guernsey in frustrating fashion. A missed penalty and a highly dominant performance which saw us have 77% possession - all we lacked was a goal. Result aside I was extremely pleased with our performance. We were quickly back at it last Saturday with a very convincing 3-0 win over Bexhill United in the FA Cup, a brace from man of the match Kieran Pamment and Pezza getting off the mark was all part of a performance much closer to what I expect us to produce moving forwards. Guernsey’s penalty has been the only goal we have conceded and defensively we look very strong. Haywards Heath failed to notch a strike on target, Guernsey's penalty was their only chance and against Bexhill another sound defensive display gave us a second clean sheet. I believe our defensive prowess coupled with our attacking ability is going to make us one of the most exciting sides to watch this season. Today's visitors Crawley Down Gatwick will be a tough test as they are well organised. They started the season well with a 1-1 draw away at a strong Newhaven side and followed that up with a 3-2 defeat to heavily fancied Roffey by way of a last-minute penalty. Write them off at your on peril is very much my view of today's opponents. Derby days always make for a pulsating game as both sides will go at it in order to gain the local bragging rights - at least until we meet again next month! Your support has been unwavering and immense for the lads so far - keep it going. I hope you all enjoy today's game. Up the Wasps!
Andy EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN F.C. VS CRAWLEY DOWN GATWICK
LEAGUE
STANDINGS
SOUTHERN COUNTIES LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION TEAM
PL
W
D
L
F
A
GD
PTS
1
Roffey
2
2
0
0
11
2
9
6
2
Eastbourne United
2
2
0
0
9
2
7
6
3
Guernsey
2
2
0
0
4
0
4
6
4
Bexhill United
2
2
0
0
4
1
3
6
5
Newhaven
2
1
1
0
3
2
1
4
6
Haywards Heath Town
2
1
1
0
2
1
1
4
7
Hassocks
2
1
0
1
6
3
3
3
8
Pagham
2
1
0
1
5
3
2
3
9
Midhurst
2
1
0
1
4
2
2
3
10 AFC Varndeanians
2
1
0
1
4
4
0
3
11
2
1
0
1
1
2
-1
3
12 Wick 13 Crawley Down Gatwick
2 2
1 0
0 1
1 1
3 3
6 4
-3 -1
3 1
14 Horsham YMCA
2
0
1
1
3
4
-1
1
15 Billingshurst 16 East Grinstead Town
2 2
0 0
1 1
1 1
2 0
3 1
-1 -1
1 1
17
2
0
1
1
2
5
-3
0
18 Lingfield
2
0
§
1
3
7
-4
1
19 Lancing
2
0
0
2
0
6
-6
0
20 Little Common
2
0
0
2
1
12
-11
0
Seaford United
Forest Row
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN F.C. VS CRAWLEY DOWN GATWICK
Crawley Down Gatwick F.C. The Haven Centre, Hophurst Lane, Crawley Down, West Sussex. RH10 4LJ Founded 1993 (Merger of three Clubs), Colours: Red Shirts, Red Shorts, Red Socks Crawley Down Gatwick FC have made a remarkable rise from parks football to the Ryman League in less than 20 years. The club was only formed in 1993 but have enjoyed the type of success many could only hope for in their short history. In 2011 Sussex County League title success and promotion to Step 4 Football was followed by an appearance at the AMEX in the Sussex Senior Cup Final in 2012. 1983-95 Delving back into the history books to 1983, Crawley Down United could be found nestled in Division Six of the Mid Sussex League. By 1988 the club had risen to Div One, winning three league titles and finishing runners-up on two occasions. After three seasons in Div One they won promotion to the Premier Division as runners up to Lindfield. 1993/94 culminated in a merger of four local sides and adopting the name Crawley Down Village they finished third in the following season. 1994/5 they claimed their first Premier Division title by a massive margin of ten points from 2nd placed Wealden. 1995-2003 In 1995 the Anvils joined the Sussex County League Division Three. In the first season they finished second and found themselves making an even swifter move into Senior Football. They also reached the final of the Intermediate Cup. The first two seasons in Division Two provided much sought after consolidation but in the 1998-99 season they finished in a promotion position but only to be denied a place in Division One because they could not persuade Mid Sussex District Council to allow the installation of floodlights in time. The following season they thought they had finished in a promotion spot again only to be thwarted by a late decision to award Lancing three extra points after Mile Oak had fielded an illegible player. The next four seasons were not so easy for the club with changes of management and they finished no higher than 11th in that period. The 2004-07 era was better as they finished tenth and fifth and In the Division Two Cup, they reached the semi-final stage two years running. 2006-07 was a struggle only staying up after an outstanding finish to the season loosing just two of the last 14 matches. Cup form: Q/F of the Sussex RUR Cup and the Div Two Cup. 2007-08 was a massive year for the club as the culmination of 10 years’ hard work behind the scenes paid off with the Anvils given the go ahead to upgrade facilities. Floodlights, hard standing and stands followed and were in place for the start of the new season. The Team finished 6th and reached the semi-final of the John O’Hara League Cup. In the FA Vase they reached the 4th round losing away at Brockenhurst. The Anvils also entertained Brighton & HA in the Sussex Senior Cup. By now, the club were gaining momentum on and off the pitch and they finally won promotion to Div One with a third place finish. 2009-2010 Many expected the Division One new boys to struggle but they defied the odds to enjoy a tremendous season, finishing eighth in the league and enjoying good cup runs in the FA Cup and FA Vase as well as reaching the League Cup Final. 2010-11 Proved to be the most successful season in the club’s history as the Anvils won the County League Division One and promotion to the Isthmian League by a margin of 15 points as well as winning the RUR Cup. They reached the semi-finals of both the John O’Hara and the Sussex Senior Cups where they lost to Blue Square prem side Eastbourne Borough. 2011-14 Saw the Club compete in the Isthmian South for the first time and the Club set about building a team to compete at this level, finishing in 15th place and also getting to the Sussex Senior Cup Final at the AMEX, losing out in the last minute to Ryman South Champions Whitehawk. A name change to Crawley Down Gatwick FC was approved highlighting the wider area to which the Club is now associated. 2012/13 Season started remarkably well with the team topping the Ryman South table through to November but finally finishing in 13th position. Forced Manager changes meant a massive dip in form in 2013/14, which saw the Anvils end up second to bottom and relegation. 2014/15 The Club rejoined the Sussex County League, unfortunately a 2nd relegation followed to the newly named Southern Combination League Div 1. 2015/16 saw the revival of the side under Paul Cooper as the rebuilt Anvils challenged at the top all season, finally finishing in 2nd place to Haywards Hth Town and 14 points clear of 3rd placed Oakwood to gain promotion back to the Southern Combination Premier Division. 2017-23 Back in the SCL Prem the side continued its improvement finishing in a midtable position and reaching the RUR Cup Final in that first year. The following season they achieved a midtable finish and a PB cup Semi final. James Day took over the side from 2018-19 and did well in his first season as the side finished in 9th place with 57 points. 2019/21 Covid dominated and the League was abandoned with CDG in 6th Pos. 21-22 the team again ended mid table and a run to R3 of the FA Vase. 22/23 Proved to be a very good season with The Anvils finishing in 2nd place behind Broadbridge Hth & losing out on promotion to Isthmian side Sutton Common Rovers in a play-off. 2023/24 Anvils finished in 9th position with 60 points. A reasonable season but a lot of injuries. U18’s took the headlines with a County Cup Final win v Whitehawk and champions of the Southern Combination League North Division.
FIXTURES & RESULTS
Date
Venue
K/O / Score
Haywards Heath Town Guernsey Bexhill Town Crawley Down Gatwick Wick Bognor Regis Town Jarvis Brook Hassocks Forest Row
SCFL Premier SCFL Premier FA Cup extra prelim SCFL Premier SCFL Premier FA Cup prelim Peter Bentley Cup SCFL Premier SCFL Premier
0-0 0-1 3-0 3pm 7.30pm 3pm 7.45pm 3pm 11am
A A H A H
Crawley Down Gatwick Lydd Town Pagham Eastbourne United Little Common
SCFL Premier FA Vase 2 qual SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier
3pm 3pm 7.30pm 3pm 3pm
A A H A A
Seaford Town Lancing Billingshurst AFC Varndeanians Roffey
SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier
3pm 7.45pm 3pm 3pm 3pm
H A H
Haywards Heath Town Guernsey Horsham YMCA
SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier
3pm 3pm 3pm
A A H A
Newhaven Hassocks Lancing Lingfield
SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier
3pm 3pm 3pm 11am
H A H A
Midhurst Forest Row Seaford Town Little Common
SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier
3pm 3pm 3pm 3pm
H H H H
Old Varndeanians Roffey Bexhill Town Eastbourne United
SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier
3pm 3pm 3pm 3pm
A A A A H
Billingshurst Pagham Wick Midhurst Lingfield
SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier
3pm 3pm 3pm 3pm 11am
A H A
Bexhill United Newhaven Horsham YMCA
SCFL Premier SCFL Premier SCFL Premier
3pm 3pm 3pm
H/A Opponents
Att Scorers
AUGUST Sat 1 Aug Tues 4 Aug Sat 8 Aug Sat Aug 15 Tues Aug 18 Sat 22 Aug Tues 25 Aug Sat 29 Aug Mon 31 Aug
A H H H H A A H H
560 277 Pamment 2, Perry
SEPTEMBER Sat 5 Sep Sat 12 Sep Tues 15 Sep Sat 19 Sep Sat 26 Sep
OCTOBER Sat 3 Oct Tues 6 Oct Sat 17 Oct Sat 24 Oct Sat 31 Oct
Newhaven FC
Horsham FC
NOVEMBER Sat 7 Nov Sat 14 Nov Sat 28 Nov
DECEMBER Sat 5 Dec Sat 12 Dec Sat 19 Dec Mon 28 Dec
JANUARY Sat 2 Jan Sat 16 Jan Sat 23 Jan Sat 30 Jan
FEBRUARY Sat 6 Feb Sat 13 Feb Sat 20 Feb Sat 27 Feb
MARCH Sat 6 Mar Sat 13 Mar Sat 20 Mar Sat 27 Mar Mon 29 Mar
APRIL Sat 3 Apr Sat 10 Apr Sat 17 Apr
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN F.C. VS CRAWLEY DOWN GATWICK
TEAM LINE UP EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN F.C. Harry Howes Curtis Gayler Nick D'Arienzo Alex Malins Nathan Cooper Charlie Harris Ollie Starkey Shay Leahy Dan Perry Tegan Freeman Kieron Pamment Mason Saunders Steve Smith Shea Cascoe Rogers Omar Folkes Joe Stone Max Marshall Rasheed Alaka Josh Mandrha Luke Leppard
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CRAWLEY DOWN GATWICK Joshua Alder Michael Belli Alex Bellingham Max Bradley Joshua Brown Harley Byrne Ethan Cumming Regan Davis Will Harley Liam Holden Njagga John Callum Kilkenny James Laws Oli Leslie Ben Martin-Coward Alexander Rainford Joshua Rapson Mike Spence Andre Stewart Alex Tidy Beau Walters Rhys White Billy Wraight
NEXT HOME MATCH
MATCH OFFICIALS:
Wick
Referee: Rob King Assistant Ref: David Smith Assistant Ref: Peter Lindsey
Tuesday August 18 7.30pm
This matchday programme was created online: www.matchday-programmes.co.uk
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EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN
HISTORY PROGRAMMES FROM THE PAST BY LESTER MEDCALF We are going to have a look at a couple of programmes from the past for games played on more or less the same date as today’s 2026 match. First up is East Grinstead v Bexhill on Saturday 14 August 1993 in division one of the Sussex County League. Peter Cadman, our chairman at the time, is full of positives in his notes. He is delighted “to be able to write the first article for this season’s programme as we are now back in the top flight of Sussex football after an absence of 14 long years.” He goes on to say how appropriate it is that we are playing Bexhill because they are the team we played in our very first game at East Court in 1967 - Bexhill were then the reigning County League champions (and were to beat us 3-0). In addition Peter told us that he had been the club manager in that last season in the first division. Manager Mark Arnold and Programme Editor Stewart Ward - Stewart we still see and hear from time to time - also write very warmly about the promotion and the work being done to get us ready for the start of the new season, with lots of people giving their time and effort. A number of pre-season friendlies had been played though we had been mainly unrecognisable from one game to the next. However we had produced a comfortable win against Crawley Town reserves. A look round the County League clubs tells us that only three of the first division clubs now had no floodlights. But a couple of comments rather surprised me - “Few will miss Midhurst now they have gone down” and “The demise of Haywards Heath." The programme for our next home match included a match report of the game against Bexhill. It had not been a great game. We had however made a reasonable start and after some 20 minutes we took the lead. A free kick taken by our Alan Lester somehow found its way back to him in the Bexhill penalty area and he fired the ball home. A few minutes into the second half and Bexhill equalised only for us to quickly score a second goal with a header from Steve Norris. Bexhill rather dominated the rest of the second half but we managed to hang on for a 2-1 win.
CLEVER TREVOR TOO GOOD FOR PAGHAM The second programme for a game played in the past in the middle of August is for East Grinstead v Pagham on Saturday 16 August 2003. And it’s another first league game of the season. Bruce Talbot was our chairman at that time, as well as being responsible for the programme, and was therefore pleased that we had gained promotion at the end of the previous season, even though we had finished third in division two of the Sussex County League. He pointed out that hard standing path round the pitch had been built so that spectators would have “no more muddy shoes.” However, there was one piece of work that did not get provided - the seatings in the stand. Rather than one set of 106 seats in the existing stand, the plan was to put in two stands of 53 seats opposite the existing stand. (And of course these two lots of 53 seats have never been built. Instead the seating was eventually built in the sensible place you will see today behind the dugouts). Team manager Bobby Smith had been in charge for five years (and had played for us for many more years before his managerial role) and of course was very pleased with the promotion, and he was also pleased that “our reserve team would make their debut in the Sussex League’s reserve premier division.” And we’d just received news of the FA Cup where we had been drawn away to Slough Town, who played on Windsor & Eton’s pitch. The week after that we would go to play AFC Newbury in the FA Vase. The programme had some pen pictures of the Pagham players but otherwise there wasn’t much about them. So I'll tell you what happened in the match - a match which went very well for us. After some 30 minutes Kris Trevor put us ahead and just before the ref blew for half-time he doubled the lead. And 10 minutes into the second half he completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot and 3-0 was how it ended.
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN F.C. VS CRAWLEY DOWN GATWICK
Harris looks for space. Photos: Stuart Gibson
MATCH ACTION
BEXHILL BEATEN AS LONG WAIT FOR A HOME WIN ENDS Nathan Cooper (top pic) clears the danger in an unconventional way and, below, Charlie
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN F.C. VS CRAWLEY DOWN GATWICK
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