VS SHEPPEY UNITED
ISTHMIAN LEAGUE | SOUTH EAST DIVISION SATURDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2026 | KICK OFF 3PM
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN FC
The Vistavis Community Stadium College Lane | East Grinstead | RH19 3LS
Tel: 01342 325885
THERE WERE SOME POSITIVES!
Good afternoon everyone, and a warm welcome to the players, officials and supporters with us from Sheppey United today.
Another dismal result on Tuesday. If you are trying to find positives - and in our current plight what else can we do? - if you took away the first nine and last nine minutes (including stoppage time) we only lost 2-1!
Andy, Ryan and Curt have struggled with player availability in the last couple of weeks and we have been far from full strength in the last couple of games. There was some encouragement, I felt, on Tuesday in the way we moved the ball but we can't gloss over the fact that - at present - we concede a lot of soft goals and don't really offer a consistent attacking threat. Andy and co. aren't writing off the season by any means and while the next few weeks will be used with next season's squad building in mind no one wants to see us getting pumped every week. Onwards and upwards!
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
Welcome back to the Vistavis Community Stadium for this afternoon's league encounter with Sheppey United, whom we welcome here alongside their travelling supporters.
It’s been a tough week on the pitch to say the least after our visit to Ashford United and our home game on Tuesday night against Erith.
The Erith game was hugely frustrating, as I felt we were the better side in the first half but we ended up going into the interval 3-1 down, and just before half-time we were reduced to ten men which summed up the extent of our luck at the moment.
After today's game that red card will see Luke Leppard serve a three-game ban and the unfortunate booking of our skipper Smithy will also see him serve a twogame ban in the upcoming matches.
Sheppey as always will be a tough test, and they themselves require some points as to not be dragged into the relegation dog fight. As for us we have to dust ourselves down and learn from our mistakes which recently always seem to be so costly. We had a positive training session Thursday night and now we will try to translate that onto the pitch.
As always your support means so much to myself and the boys as we navigate this tough period.
I hope you enjoy today's game
Up the Grin!
AndyWillis
SHEPPEY UNITED TheAwayEnd
THE ITES - THE LAST FIVE YEARS
The 2021/22 season was one Sheppey United will never forget not only was it our first on the newly installed 3G pitch but we won a never to be equalled four trophies.
The Kent FA finally arranged the postponed 2019/20 Kent Senior Trophy final for 1 February 2021 where we would face Corinthians who now played at Step 4 in the Isthmian League. We won the match 3-1 to lift the cup for the second time in five years.
In April we competed for the 2021/22 Kent Senior Trophy Final at the Gallagher Stadium, Maidstone against Hollands & Blair and won a tight match 2-1 to lift the same trophy twice in the same season.
The SCEFL Premier Division title was finally sealed on the final day of the season with a points tally of 102 compared to runners-up Chatham Town with 100. Then in May we would face Crowborough Athletic in the SCEFL League Cup final and won 5-1.
On winning promotion to the Step 4 Isthmian League, the Isle of Sheppey welcomed a level of football in the national non-league system unseen for 32 years.
In the past, that level was the old Southern League – Southern Division, and the highest Sheppey had ever finished in this was seventh. They did themselves proud in the first season back at this level by equalling that position of seventh, missing out on a top five and promotion play-off place by just two points.
The following 2023/24 season Sheppey ended seventh again, but this was overshadowed by an FA Cup run. The furthest Sheppey had ever reached in the cup was the sixth qualifying round (the round before Round 1 proper) in the 1920/21 season. That season, after the preliminary and two qualifying rounds, Sheppey were drawn away to the Southern League Premier side Merthyr Town. The long trip to Wales, against a side a level above, saw what had to be the shock result of the day after a 4-1 victory to Sheppey.
The next round sent Sheppey to another side a level above, Billericay Town from the Isthmian Premier. Another fantastic effort ended with a 1-1 draw, and after the same result in the replay, Sheppey won the penalty shoot-out. This took the club to the first round proper the first time in our history.
A home tie against the Football League 2 side Walsall was the reward and Sheppey even went a goal up. But in the second half Walsall’s experience and fitness finally overcame the gallant Sheppey, who had several players despite injuries but desperate to play, becoming worn down, and eventually ran out 4-1 victors.
STANDINGS LEAGUE
FIXTURES & RESULTS
21 Oct A Faversham
28 Oct H Deal Town
NOVEMBER
11 Nov A Three Bridges
17 Feb H Erith Town
Sat 21 Feb H Sheppey United
Tue 24 Feb H AFC Whyteleafe
South East
Sat 28 Feb A Hastings United Isthmian South East 3pm MARCH
Tues 3 Mar A Deal Town
Sat 7 Mar H VCD Athletic
Sat 14 Mar A Herne Bay
Sat 21 Mar H AFC Croydon Athletic
South East
South East
South East 3pm Sat 28 Mar A Erith Town
South East 3pm
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
South East 3pm
TEAM LINE UP
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN F.C. SHEPPEY UNITED
Ajae Patel
Luke Leppard
Steve Smith ©
Dan Thompson
Curtis Gayler
Dan Perry
Kieron Pamment
Tommy Seale
Tariq Richards
Omar Folkes
Tyler Grant
Leo Vowles
Jordan Maguire-Drew
Jerson Dos Santos
Harry Piper
Lewis McDonnell
Mason Saunders
Reegan Jeffery
Harry Bushell
Ethan Covus
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN HISTORY
PROGRAMMES FROM THE PAST BY LESTER MEDCALF
I have a couple of programmes to share with you for games played in the past on today’s date. I’ll start with East Grinstead v Sidley United on Saturday 21 February 2004 in division one of the Sussex County League.
Bruce Talbot welcomes our visitors with a reminder that we have already played them twice (and beaten them twice) since the season started. In the Sussex Senior Cup here at East Court we had beaten them 4-0 with James Horner scoring twice, Dave Gellatly once with one of the Sidley defenders helping us as well. More recently, in November, we had beaten them 4-2 in the away league match with goals from Dave Gellatly, Adam Simpson, Phil Thompson and another own goal.
Bruce also talks about our recent form with the previous Saturday’s 2-1 home win against Selsey - goals from Adam Dart and Steve Banks - making it seven league wins in our last eight league matches. But perhaps Bruce’s most important piece of news was that we now knew who we would be playing in the RUR Cup Final - it was going to be Three Bridges. The final would be played on Lancing’s ground but we were unlikely to be organising a coach for our supporters.
We had an interesting article in the programme looking at “Past Meetings” with our visitors from Sidley. As above we had been successful with our two wins so far this season in 2003/04. But the article showed that Sidley had otherwise enjoyed much more in the past. The most recent three seasons in which we had been in the same division had seen Sidley winning all six matches. You had to go back to 1989/90 to find us winning both matches.
A look at the programme’s league table shows us in fifth place while Sidley were in 14th. (There were only 19 teams in the league as St Leonards had dropped out.) Sidley had much of the early play, but then had a player sent off after about 20 minutes. A few minutes after the sending-off Adam Dart put us ahead and Kris Trevor doubled the lead a few minutes into the second half - and 2-0 was how it ended.
SNUFFED OUT BY WICK
Next up we’ll have a look at East Grinstead v Wick on Saturday 21 February 2009 again in division one of the Sussex County League.
Our new team manager Steve Johnson has the first piece in the programme and he starts with a brief summary of the team’s game on the previous Saturday away to Worthing United - his first game in charge. The game saw our first win for some while - more about the game later. However, Steve Johnson was more concerned to talk about players he had brought into the club and those players who were looking to leave us. New players he had brought into were John Sinclair and Luke Piscina - both would bring much to the club, especially John Sinclair. Among many looking to leave the club were Drew Cooney and Dave Gellatly - they may have left us back then but were both to return and give us lots in the future.
The match report for the Worthing United away league match tells us that Marc Pelling gave us a 10thminute lead, with Nick Sullivan adding to it just before half-time. The second half saw Worthing United enjoying the first ten minutes with two goals and they must have fancied their chances even more when our keeper Ray Collier was sent off - sent off for handling the ball outside our penalty area. Marc Pelling took over in goal and with ten minutes to go John Sinclair marked his first game for us by curling a free kick into the Worthing goal. And 3-2 was how it ended.
Richard Tramontin’s chairman’s notes talk more about our visitors from the Wick club. They were at the other end of the table to us in 4th place and were chasing Eastbourne United at the top. We were at the other end of the table in 18th place (20 teams in the league, including the above Worthing United who were in fact last).
We had played the away match at the beginning of November and Wick had beaten us 3-0. The home match was going to be a difficult afternoon for us and while we scored three goals - Richard Foyle, Luke Piscina and Simon Funnell - Wick managed to score five.
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Please visit Pitchinginvolunteers.co.uk to find out more
