VS HERNE BAY
ISTHMIAN LEAGUE | SOUTH EAST DIVISION SATURDAY 13 DECEMBER 2025 | KICK OFF 3PM
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN FC
The Vistavis Community Stadium College Lane | East Grinstead | RH19 3LS
Tel: 01342 325885
BUZZ FROM THE NEST
Good afternoon and welcome to everyone who has made the trip from Herne Bay. Well, no one can accuse Grant and Andy from giving up on the season. They have made some cracking additions to the squad in the last couple of weeks (with more, hopefully to come) and although we suffered another defeat last Saturday, by all accounts the performance at Croydon Athletic was a whole lot better. Congrats to Dan Perry for scoring his first goal for the club. Hopefully there will be more to come.
Our managers have rebuilt the team twice since taking over but once they are happy with the squad and the understanding between the lads improves then I am confident good results will follow. With more than half the season left there is still plenty of opportunity to climb the table. A reminder that our home game with Jersey Bulls in a fortnight kicks off at 1pm. In the meantime, have a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas from everyone here at the club.
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).
Followuson:
FROM THE Dugout
On behalf of everyone at East Grinstead Town, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to you all for today's game against Herne Bay. We also extend our greetings to the players, staff, and fans of Herne Bay who have travelled to join us at the Vistavis Community Stadium. Results have been challenging, but we have seen huge improvements on the pitch. Our last game against AFC Croydon Athletic marked our best performance, resulting in a narrow 2-1 loss. Croydon sit third and will end up in the play-offs, and we pushed them all the way and should have gained at least a point.
The squad's performance and attitude were exactly where we need them to be. If we continue as is, we will start to turn things around. Debuts were awarded to Jordan Maguire-Drew, who had an excellent game; Dom Vose, who showed his quality on the ball and again had a huge impact; and Ridwan Euba, who showed his class and had an excellent debut. Steve Smith and Dan Thompson played their second game.
Blending five new players will take time, but I know the supporters saw a massive improvement. We have worked hard on the training pitch and team cohesion and spirit are very high. Everyone has written us off, including many trolls on social media who hide behind fake or anonymous profiles. I would ask supporters to ignore them and not respond. Without fuel, there is no fire. Don't give them the fuel. Being written off only drives us forward and incentivises us. There should be one more addition to the squad for Saturday, but as I write these notes the paperwork hasn't gone through yet, so I can't make an official announcement. Just to say everyone at the club, including the supporters, will be very happy to see him pull on the amber and black shirt. Scott Faber has left the club after a short spell with us. We wish him all the best at his next club. Let's support the team today and make it a memorable match. Your support has been tremendous, and great support always energises the players. Together, we can push for the result we need to kickstart the season.
Enjoy the match!
Grant&Andy
STANDINGS LEAGUE
FIXTURES & RESULTS
SEPTEMBER
21 Oct A Faversham
25 Oct A Sheppey United
28 Oct H Deal Town
NOVEMBER
Nov 1 H Hastings United
Nov 4 A Broadbridge
Nov 8 A VCD Athletic
11 Nov A Three Bridges
Sat 13 Dec H Herne Bay
Sat 20 Dec A Eastbourne Town
South East
Sat 27 Dec H Jersey Bulls Isthmian South East 3pm JANUARY
Sat 3 Jan A Sevenoaks Town Isthmian South East 3pm
Tues 6 Jan H AFC Whyteleafe Isthmian South East 7.30pm
Sat 10 Jan H Erith Town Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 17 Jan H Broadbridge Heath Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 24 Jan A Crowborough Athletic Isthmian South East 3pm FEBRUARY
Sat 7 Feb A Deal Town Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 14 Feb A Ashford United Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 21 Feb H Sheppey United Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 28 Feb A Hastings United Isthmian South East 3pm MARCH
Sat 7 Mar H VCD Athletic Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 14 Mar A Herne Bay Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 21 Mar H AFC Croydon Athletic Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 28 Mar A Erith Town Isthmian South East 3pm APRIL
Sat 4 Apr H Sittingbourne Isthmian South East 3pm
Mon 6 Apr A Jersey Bulls Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 11 Apr H Faversham Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 18 Apr A Merstham Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 25 Apr H Margate Isthmian South East 3pm
TEAM LINE UP
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN F.C.
Daniel O'Donovan n n
Kieron Pamment n n
Ridwan Euba n n
Dan Thompson n n
Steve Smith n n
Luke Leppard n n
Curtis Gayler (C) n n
Dominic Vose n n
Dan Perry n n
Jordan Maguire-Drew n n
Camron Lawson n n
Noe Vendrells Parcerisa n n
Arron Hopkinson n n
Omar Folkes n n
Scott Faber n n
Jhon Murillo-Castillo n n
HERNE BAY
Jordon Ababio n n
Joseph Alatise n n
Zaid Al-Hussaini n n
Hamilton Antonio n n
Alfie Bloomfield n n
Harvey Brand n n
Daniel Carrington n n
Gil Carvalho n n
Joseph Coleman n n
Alfie Cutbush n n
Scott Heard n n
Matty Holness n n
Jamie Lartice n n
Kamani McFarlane n n
Zuriel Otseh-Taiwo n n
Louie Procopi n n
Jaden Silcott-Brown n n
Steven Townsend n n
Joseph Tyrie n n
Will Underdown n n
Jared Williams n n
Rhys Wyborn n n
NEXT HOME MATCH
Jersey Bulls
Saturday December 27 2025
1pm
MATCH OFFICIALS:
Referee: Toby Carlisle
Assistant Ref: Emre Arslan
Assistant Ref: Albert Warr
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN HISTORY
PROGRAMMES FROM THE PAST BY LESTER MEDCALF
I’m going to talk about a couple of programmes for matches that took place in the past a couple of weeks before Christmas. We’ll start with East Grinstead v Sidlesham 22 years ago on Saturday 13 December 2003 in division one (the top division) of the Sussex County League.
Bruce Talbot gets things moving with his 'Buzz from the Nest'. He welcomes Sidlesham “for a match between two sides next to each other in the league table.” The table tells us that Sidlesham are in 14th place, while we are one place below them in 15th place. But we had played them down in Sidlesham a month or so before in the Sussex Senior Cup and had won 2-0 with goals from Dave Gellatly and an own goal.
Bruce also talks about our game on the previous Saturday at home to top of the table East Preston when he says “for an hour last week things looked pretty good” but thereafter East Preston took charge and scored three times to give them a 3-0 win.
We’re also told that all clubs at our level had just received a letter from the Football Association about the proposed changes that the FA were looking to make to promotion and relegation within non-league football. They were aiming to introduce the new rules in season 2005/06 - giving us time and reason to build a stand.
Onto the game against Sidlesham. A quiet first half saw nobody scoring but things changed after the half time break. A couple of minutes after the re-start our Phil Thompson took a corner which somehow nobody stopped on its way into Sidlesham’s goal to give us a lead.
A few minutes later there was an ugly clash which resulted in the ref sending off a player from each side - though we thought we had a video which showed our player (Kevin Wright) had not done anything wrong. Some ten minutes before the end of the game we had a penalty after a deliberate hand ball (which resulted in a sending-off and Sidlesham being reduced to nine players). Dave Gellatly took the kick which the Sidlesham keeper saved.
However, the referee said that the player who had been sent off had not left the pitch - and therefore the penalty was to be re-taken. Dave Gellatly made no mistake this time. There was still time for Steve Banks to head home our third goal and right at the end Sidlesham also scored. 3-1 to us.
DANNY DESTROYS HAILSHAM
Next we’ll have a look at East Grinstead v Hailsham on Saturday 12 December 2009, again in division one of the County League.
The three programme articles from the Editor (still Bruce Talbot), team manager (Steve Johnson) and chairman (Richard Tramontin) all lead with the same item. The Hailsham manager Ken McCreadie had been one of our coaches at the start of December (and at the start of the season he had been Hailsham’s manager - as he had been for a lengthy period of five years or so).
And all three of these articles also wanted to talk about the previous Saturday’s game at home to Wick - a great game by all accounts which had ended up at 2-2. One particular feature of that game had been one of the changes made by Steve Johnson during the game. With some 20 minutes to go and with Wick 2-1 up Steve moved centre-half Matt Crane up to the attack - and within a minute he smashed home our equaliser. And came close to winning the game in the last couple of minutes. The league table in the programme shows us in 16th place with Hailsham four places below us second from bottom. (Wick were third). I don’t remember being at the game and I certainly can’t remember how the goal scoring went - and there were a good number of goals being scored as we won 4-2. Danny Powell scored three of our goals with Luke Piscina also scoring.
TODAY'S VISITORS
Herne Bay were formed in 1886 and began life in the East Kent League, then having a short period in the Kent League before winning the East Kent League in four successive years between 1902 and 1906 returning to the Kent League as a result.
1953 saw the move to Winch’s Field. Over 1,000 spectators saw their first match at their new home; a 2 - 2 draw against Tunbridge Wells Reserves in Kent League Division 2. Within two years they lifted the Division 2 title, winning promotion to Division 1. In the 1957/58 season the club won The Kent Amateur Cup beating Bromley 2 - 0 in the final. The following season saw the Kent League fold and a move to the Aetolian League followed. The 1964/65 season saw another move to Division 2 of the Athenian League, where they enjoyed several successful seasons followed by promotion to Division 1 on winning Division 2 in 1970/71. A good run in the FA Cup saw the Bay reach the 4th qualifying round, where they lost to the then ‘mighty’ Margate in front of a record home attendance of 2,303.
At the start of the 1974/75 campaign the Club returned to the Kent League, and in the 1978/79 season they had good runs in the Cup competitions, winning the Kent Senior Trophy and losing to Sheppey United in the final of the Kent League Cup. The nineties were the glory years which saw the Club become the most successful and consistent side in the Kent League, winning four Kent League titles. The 1996/97 season was without equal in the history of Herne Bay and the Kent League. Within the space of four weeks the Club won the Kent Senior Trophy, The Kent League Division 1 Cup and The Kent League Championship. A unique treble at the time!
A complete change of management and playing staff took place after the 1997/98 season, with manager Tommy Sampson leaving the Club to take over the reins at Deal Town taking the majority of the established first team players with him. Nick Denly (father of England cricketer Joe Denly) received an unprecedented three manager of the month awards in his first full season at the helm.
A major grant was awarded to provide new perimeter fencing and refurbishment of the changing facilities and these works were complete prior to the start of the 2003/04 season when the club celebrated 50 years at Winch’s Field. Jason Lillis took over the reins for the 2004/05 season which proved to be very successful as Bay finished runners up in both the League and League Cup. Both the 2005/06 and 2006/07 campaigns proved to be very disappointing with several senior players, and Lillis, leaving the Club during the 2007/08 season.
In came Barry Morgan and the Club turned to youth with the introduction of several very good young players into the squad who formed the basis of the first team for the 2008/09 season. There was a 6th place finish. The Club introduced some influential experienced players and had high hopes for a successful 2009/10 campaign. After some strange team selections Morgan left in October 2009, with assistant Simon Halsey taking over. Bay went on to finish as runners-up in the league and won the Kent League Premier Division League Cup. The following season there was another Kent League Premier Division League Cup win and Herne Bay missed out on the League title on goal difference in the last few minutes of the last match where an own goal at Tunbridge Wells gave Hythe Town the title.
In season 2011/12 Herne Bay swept all before them, narrowly missing out on a Wembley appearance in the FA Vase and capturing the Kent League Premier Division title and promotion to the Isthmian League. After struggling in the lower regions of Isthmian League Division One South for much of 2012/13 Halsey was relieved of his duties in April 2013.
The 2013/14 season saw another new start for Herne Bay with Sam Denly (son of former manager Nick Denly) taking up the managerial reigns. Denly held the post for four seasons and used many local players who had come through the town’s youth systems. There were finishes of 18th, 9th 8th and 17th. Denly resigned at the end of the 2016/17 campaign and the majority of the squad moved on and the Club lost individuals who had over 2,500 appearances between them.
For 2017/18 Jermaine Darlington and John Embery were handed their first senior management roles, at Herne Bay, and had the basis of a young team which played exciting, flowing football that was well received but had a tendency to be inconsistent. After a mid-table finish in their first season things became more difficult the next year when money problems led to the loss of some key players. After being in the relegation zone early in the campaign things were being turned around when Darlington and Embery quit with Bay safe and six games of the season remaining.
By this time, it was a struggle money-wise and some of the older directors offered to stand aside if suitable replacements could be found. This opened the door for a consortium to come in led by rookie-Chairman Stuart Fitchie who was surrounded by fellow Directors who had many years’ experience of running a football club. He had appointed Ben Smith, who had led Canterbury City to mid-table finishes in the Kent League for the past four seasons, as manager. 2019/20 was terminated by Covid-19, with Bay in the final play-off position, and the following season was too ended by Covid, after just six league matches with Herne Bay in 10th place.
At the beginning of April 2022 Herne Bay were out of the play-off places but then a run of four victories and with fellow playoff contenders falling short Bay ended in third place and went on to win the play-offs and gain promotion to the Isthmian Premier.
13 league matches into the 2022/23 season, with the team one place off the bottom and five points from safety, after eight points from a possible 39, having chopped and changed the team, using 26 different players, and losing to the only team below, Ben Smith resigned. By the time that ex-Cray Valley PM manager Kevin Watson came in it was too late to stop the rot and Herne Bay’s brief flirtation with the Isthmian Premier was over. Fitchie had rarely consulted his more knowledgeable colleagues and whilst a new 3G pitch was laid many other ground improvements remained incomplete.
Chairman Stuart Fitchie left the club in March 2023, A new chairman, Matt Barman, and additions to the board were introduced at the end of the 23/24 season and they will now be taking the club forward, adding a new post 16 academy in partnership with Herne Bay High School to run from the 24/25 season
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