VS HASTINGS UNITED
ISTHMIAN LEAGUE | SOUTH EAST DIVISION SATURDAY 31 OCTOBER 2025 | KICK OFF 3PM
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN FC
The Vistavis Community Stadium College Lane | East Grinstead | RH19 3LS
Tel: 01342 325885
EDITOR'S CHATTER AND WAFFLE
Good afternoon and welcome back to the Vistavis Stadium and a Sussex derby (of sorts) as welcome Hastings United. Needless to say a quick glance at the table shows the importance of today's game. Lets hope both ourselves and Hastings, who are also under new management, can start making progress in the right direction soon. Tuesday's result against Deal was obviously disappointing but I thought the visitors were one of the better teams we've seen this season. There were positives for us, I thought. We looked a threat from set-pieces (scoring a great goal from one) and were definitely more solid at the back. I am sure Andy and Grant are working hard to improve us in other areas. Our next three games are away but with two relatively short trips among them hopefully we will see plenty of the Grin Army.
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:
ClubManagement:
Chair & Treasurer: Richard Tramontin
Secretary & Vice chair: Brian McCorquodale
Senior Football Officer: Steve Norris
Head of Recruitment: Matt Wheeler
Commercial Manager: Steve Norris
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 Hastings United.
We also extend greetings to the players, staff, and fans of Hastings United FC who have made the journey to join us at the Vistavis Community Stadium.
Tuesday's narrow defeat to Deal Town saw a massive improvement from every department, both on and off the pitch.
On the pitch, the players bought into our system and executed the plan very well. We felt we deserved a point from a team that will compete in and around the playoffs. We have only trained twice, and it was great that the players executed the plan and also understand the position the club see itself in.
Our focus is on points and climbing out of the relegation zone. The squad trained well on Thursday, and we are totally focused on three points. I hope the supporters can see the effort and the hard work the players are putting in. These are the standards we expect from players every time they put on the shirt. We are building a team that the town and its supporters can be proud of.
One new addition to the squad from Tuesday is Tom Unsworth. Tom previously played for Kingstonian and Whitehawk and is included in the squad for today. We all welcome him to the Wasps' nest.
The squad is taking shape, and we are working diligently to bring in new faces that will enhance our team and align with our ethos and objectives. Please be patient, and we will make announcements as soon as we have finished the paperwork.
Let’s support the team today and make it a memorable match. Your support has been tremendous, and great backing always energises the players. Together, we can push for the result we need. Enjoy the match!
Grant & Andy
Grant&Andy
STANDINGS LEAGUE
FIXTURES & RESULTS
12 Aug H Three Bridges
SEPTEMBER
20 Sep H VCD Athletic
OCTOBER
18 Oct H Ashford United
21 Oct A Faversham
25 Oct A Sheppey United
28 Oct H Deal Town
NOVEMBER
Sat Nov 1 H Hastings United Isthmian South East 3pm Tue Nov 4 A Broadbridge Heath Isthmian South East
Sat Nov 8 A VCD Athletic Isthmian South East 3pm Tue 11 Nov A Three Bridges Isthmian South East 7.45pm
Sat Nov 15 H Merstham Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat Nov 22 A Margate Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 29 Nov H AFC Whyteleafe Isthmian South East 3pm DECEMBER
Sat 6 Dec A AFC Croydon Athletic Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 13 Dec H Herne Bay Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 20 Dec A Eastbourne Town Isthmian South East 3pm
Sat 27 Dec H Jersey Bulls Isthmian South East 3pm
JANUARY
Sat 3 Jan A Sevenoaks Town Isthmian South East 3pm
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
Daniel O'Donovan
Joseph Stone
Camron Lawson
Tariq Richards
Callum Donaghey
Luke Leppard (C)
Arron Hopkinson
Scott Faber
Dan Perry
Kieron Pamment
Leo Vowles
Jhon Murillo-Castillo
Tommy Seale
Omar Folkes
Gabriel Darby
Dawid Przybylo
Tom Unsworth
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN HISTORY
PROGRAMMES FROM THE PAST BY LESTER MEDCALF
I’m going to talk about a couple of programmes for matches played in the past on today’s date. I will start with a programme produced nearly 30 years ago - East Grinstead v Folkestone Invicta on Saturday 1 November 1997 in the first round of the FA Vase. We had beaten Bracknell 2-0 in a preliminary round away match in October.
Bruce Talbot, in his programme editor role, reminded us that this will be the third time in the last three years that we had been at home to the team from Folkestone in one of the FA competitions. Last year it had been in the FA Cup and in the year before it had again been in the FA Vase. And we had lost both of these previous matches.
Very simply we had not been a very good cup side over the years with many more defeats than wins. One win that Bruce did mention was an FA Vase match away to Whitehawk in 1987. We had won the match 2-1 with one of our goals coming from Steve Norris.
The programme has a match report of our most recent game at home to Selsey in the Sussex Senior Cup - and you can probably guess who won the match. Yes it was Selsey who went home with a 2-1 win. They even scored our goal when one of their players headed the ball into his own goal. Back then we were in division two of the Sussex County League and we were doing okay with seven wins, one draw and just a couple of defeats. We also have the league table for the Kent League and Folkestone Invicta were sitting on the top with ten wins and 3 defeats. Even if we were a rather more successful cup winning team we would probably have struggled to beat Folkestone. They went home with a 2-0 win.
I ought to mention that later on on that Saturday we held our 1997 Fireworks Display - on the pitch! It’s been a few years since our last Fireworks evening but they were always an important part of our year.
Moving on a few years we’ll have a look at the programme for East Grinstead v Whyteleafe on Tuesday 1 November 2016 in the Isthmian League.
The previous Saturday had seen us playing Phoenix Sports in the FA Trophy and the various articles in the programme all say much the same thing. The game wasn’t great to watch and though we had won five of our last seven games we came nowhere near playing as well as we had done at times in that run. And one or two of the match officials’ decisions also came as a surprise, especially with the three penalties that were given, one of the penalties to us and two to Phoenix with all three taken successfully.
The programme welcomes our Whyteleafe visitors and in particular that they had recently changed their manager, who had introduced some new players. They had shown a distinct improvement in recent games.
The league table in the programme shows us in 17th place and Whyteleafe a couple of places - but just one point - higher with 24 teams in the league. We were to have a bad evening with Whyteleafe beating us 7-2 - our two goals both from Tashi Jay Kwayie. We were about to go on a bad run with five defeats in our next six games.
WASPS HANDED A BAD DEAL
Pictures from Tuesday's game show Scott Faber getting us level and, below, Dan O'Donovan claiming a cross. Photos by Stuart Gibson.
MATCH ACTION
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