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VS SHEPPEY UNITED

ISTHMIAN LEAGUE | SOUTH EAST DIVISION TUESDAY 10 MARCH 2026 | KICK OFF 7.30PM

EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN FC

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

Tel: 01342 325885

WELCOME TO THE GAME

Good evening and welcome to the players, officials and supporters of Sheppey United. Our visitors are well clear of any relegation concerns and should be able to enjoy a stress-free last few weeks of the season. Our own battle to avoid relegation will end tonight if we lose to the Ites. So it's back to step 5 for the first time since the 2013-14 season although there is no guarantee we will end up back in the Sussex County League (or the Southern Combination League as its now known). If Hassocks make it two Sussex teams making the drop our location makes us prime candidates to switch to the Kent or Surrey equivalents at step 5. Incidentally, Lancing who went down from this league last season are currently bottom of the SCL with 15 points. A warning there for us we have to heed. Anyway, after last Tuesday's defeat to Deal let's hope for something better tonight.

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

Good evening and welcome back to the Vistavis Community Stadium for tonight’s game against Sheppey United. We welcome their travelling fans and officials. It is probably an understatement to say the past few weeks have been incredibly tough. First and foremost the results and performances have been nowhere near close to the expected standards. I understand this more than anyone and it is incredibly frustrating for me, the coaching staff, players and I'm sure you as well.

As you may have seen over the past few weeks we have reduced the squad and the run-in towards the end of the season will see us feature a number of our u18s, who will be given their opportunity for valuable experience and a chance to stake a claim in next season's squad.

It is obviously a steep learning curve for them but the more experience they get at this level the better it will be for them in the long-term. They all passionately want to showcase their talents and do well for the club and encouragement when they play can only help.

The rebuild starts now. Behind the scenes, my coaching staff and myself are working tirelessly preparing for the next 12 months as it is fair to say we all know our fate this season. To you the supporters, once again I understand and feel your frustrations and any frustrations you wish to vent I ask you do so in my direction and not the players, especially the youngsters.

The squad for the final ten games is young and they need your support and encouragement. We have a long-term strategy and we are a work in progress. But the ultimate aim is to deliver a squad that can challenge at the right end of the table next season. As always your support is massively gratefully received and we will be doing all we can to reward it with performances that show promise for the long-term in the next few weeks. Enjoy the game and get behind the boys.

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

28 Oct H Deal Town

31 Jan H Beckenham

14 Feb A Ashford United

17 Feb H Erith Town

South East

3 Mar A Deal Town

Tue 10 Mar H Sheppey United

Sat 14 Mar A Herne Bay

Sat 21 Mar H AFC Croydon Athletic

Sat 28 Mar A Erith Town

Sat 4 Apr H Sittingbourne

6 Apr A Jersey Bulls

Sat 11 Apr H Faversham

Sat 18 Apr A Merstham

South East

South East 3pm Sat 25 Apr H Margate

TBC H VCD Athletic

South East 3pm

South East 7.30pm

TEAM LINE UP

EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN F.C. SHEPPEY UNITED

Harry Howes

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

Harry Piper

Lewis McDonnell

Mason Saunders

Reegan Jeffery

Harry Bushell

Ethan Covus

Dominic Ogun-Foster

Max Marshall

NEXT HOME MATCH

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. We’ll start with East Grinstead v Peacehaven on Saturday 10 March 2001 though the programme says that it’s 2000. It was a Sussex County League division two match.

Bruce Talbot’s programme notes start by suggesting that “Wasps are drinking in the last chance saloon as far as promotion is concerned” especially after the previous Friday evening saw us losing 1-0 away to Shoreham. Bruce expects that the match against Peacehaven will be a real cracker - they had looked a good team when they beat us 3-2 in October and they have strengthened their squad since then.

Perhaps more important there is the news that there have been quite a few changes in the fixtures list which had been included in a recent programme. Some of the changes had been caused by the “bloody rain”. We were due to be installing new floodlights but the rain meant that the ground was too wet to work on. And we’d already had bad wintery weather over the last few months - we had played two games in each of November, December and February and only one game in January. We still had 15 first team matches to play.

I hope you won’t mind my talking about a couple of mentions of two of my sons in the programme? Son Daniel was at University in Warwick and so the number of times he could play for us was rather restricted. However the programme shows that he had played in fact a couple of games for our first team - and another two or three for our reserves and a couple for our third team.

And another of my sons Andrew gets a mention as the Daily Telegraph had spotted him playing national league hockey (for the East Grinstead hockey team) - he had played a couple of times in the football club’s reserves team. And it’s only fair that I should mention the son of one of our other 2026 helpers who also gets a programme mention - Alan Woolley’s son Scott Woolley was included in our team for this game against Peacehaven, having already played for the first team someeight or nine times.

Let’s talk about the game against Peacehaven. A look at the programme’s league table shows us in ninth place with Peacehaven in 3rd place. And a goal by our James Hylton just before half-time turned out to be the only goal in the game. We were later helped by a Peacehaven player being sent off in the second half. (And we didn’t play again until the middle of April!)

CHICK GOAL BEATS RINGMER

Moving on a few years we’ll have a look at the programme we produced for East Grinstead v Ringmer on Saturday 10 March 2012 in division one of the Sussex County League. Richard Tramontin’s Chairman’s notes start by telling us that he had missed our last two matches (the birth of his second granddaughter). This meant that he had missed seeing Tony Reid score four goals in one of the matches, a performance that Richard at first thought must have been a mistake. And then the second game he had missed was a Brighton Charity Cup match where we played poorly against AFC Uckfield and could have no complaints that we lost 3-1.

The defeat to AFC Uckfield also features in Team Manager Simon Funnell’s notes - “poor finishing” as well as “conceding soft goals."

In welcoming Ringmer to East Court we have a couple of “looking back” features against them. Firstly the match played in March 2005 - a time when we were close to being relegated from division one of the County League. It was a “match between the teams with the two worst scoring records” and so it was no surprise that nobody managed to score in a 0-0 draw. (And we were later relegated.) A look at the match in October 2010 on the other hand saw lots of goals, though those going into our goal outweighed those that went into Ringmer’s goal. We were never in the lead and Ringmer had gone back home with a 4-3 win.

It’s time to tell you about the 10 March 2012 game. The programme’s league table showed us in 10th place and Ringmer a few places below in 17th. We had lost 1-0 to them in the away match in October. And here at East Court Ringmer made a good start with a goal after some 30 minutes. (It was scored by Gavin Gordon, who had had a short spell playing for us at one time.) However the lead didn’t last long with Ben Chick levelling things up five minutes later. And for some while that looked like it. But after 75 minutes Tony Reid put us in the lead and then five minutes later a deflection from a shot by Ben Chick gave us our third goal. And another few minutes and Ringmer got themselves back in the game with their second goal. Fortunately that was the end of the scoring and we had won 3-2.