VS VCD ATHLETIC
ISTHMIAN LEAGUE | SOUTH EAST DIVISION SATURDAY 7TH MARCH 2026 | KICK OFF 3PM
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN FC
The Vistavis Community Stadium College Lane | East Grinstead | RH19 3LS Tel: 01342 325885
Good afternoon and welcome to the players, officials and supporters of VCD Athetic. Our visitors are hovering around the relegation zone so it's an important game in their battle for survival. Our own battle to avoid relegation will end today if we lose and Erith Town win with ten games of the season still to play. 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 Tuesday's defeat to Deal let's hope for something better today. How about a first Saturday home win since November 2024?
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 Afternoon and welcome back to the Vistavis Community Stadium for this afternoon's encounter with VCD Athletic. 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.
VCD ATHLETIC TheAwayEnd
THE LAST 30 YEARS ...
In 1993, Martin Ford joined the club as manager and, in season 1995/1996 a unique cup treble was achieved with wins in the Kent Intermediate Shield, Kent County League Cup, and the Erith Hospitals Cup. Season 1996/1997 then saw the club win the Kent County Premier Division title for the first time in their history, and by a record 15 points. Senior status was awarded that same year and a successful application was made to join the Winstonlead Kent League where, in their first season in modern times, VCD Athletic finished in a creditable ninth place. The following season saw the club begin a groundshare with Thamesmead Town, finishing up in seventh place but also reaching the final of the Kent League Cup, where they lost 1-0 to Deal Town in a closely fought match. Deal at this time were assembling the side that was later to win the FA Vase at Wembley.
A season later the club went one better, beating Faversham Town 4-0 in the final to bring the club a first ever senior trophy, and the season after that the club made its third consecutive cup final appearance when they reached the final of the Kent Senior Trophy. However, they narrowly missed out on more silverware when they went down 10-9 on penalties to Whitstable Town. The club eventually spent five seasons as tenants of Thamesmead Town before Lordswood FC kindly took their place for two seasons. Then the club embarked on a one year term with near neighbours Greenwich Borough, and despite the handicap of having to ground-share, VCD were consistently one of the league's strongest members during their time in the league.
The club reached the final of the League Cup in 2002/2003, but on the day there was no celebration as VCD were comfortably beaten 2-0 by Cray Wanderers. The following season was a disappointment as far as the cups were concerned, but a creditable third place was achieved in the league. Further cup success followed however when, in season 2005/2006 the club reached the final of the Kent Senior Trophy for the second time. Having suffered a loss in the first final on penalties, there was a reversal of fortune this time when, after having drawn 1-1 with Tunbridge Wells at the end of extra time, the VCD players held their nerve to win the penalty shoot-out 3-1. During 2005 the long awaited news the club wanted to hear finally arrived when planning permission for floodlights and the development of the Oakwood ground was granted by Bexley Council. This, together with a substantial grant from the Football Stadia Improvement Fund, part of the Football Foundation, enabled work to commence early in 2006. The pitch was levelled, rotated 90 degrees and re-laid. New perimeter paths were laid, along with perimeter fencing to enclose the pitch. Floodlights were erected in June 2006, at the same time that work on enhancing the changing rooms also began. The spectator stand was re-sited and extended, and further additions included a new raised hospitality area situated to overlook the pitch, and a new tea bar adjacent to the popular members bar. At the end of the 2007 season Martin Ford resigned as manager, and the club are grateful for his vision and enthusiasm over the years that took VCD from being a Kent County League side to one that was always around the top of the table in the Kent League, and on his departure the club had just reached the last 16 of the prestigious FA Vase for the second consecutive season. Head coach Dean Frost took over as caretaker manager, and under his guidance the club obtained runners up spot in the league, narrowly missing out to Whitstable Town, and then the following season Paul Foley was appointed manager of the first team, with Dean Frost reverting to his former position of head coach. Under their stewardship the club finished runners up once more. A year later, the club finally won the Kent League Premier Division title together with the Kent Senior Trophy, culminating in the long awaited promotion to the Ryman Football League.
The first season was a success with an eighth place finish, but the club were left stunned when the Ryman League deemed ground issues warranted demotion, and despite an appeal to the Football Association, the decision was upheld and the club went back to the Kent League. Manager Paul Foley resigned to join Chatham Town, taking virtually the whole team with him, and the club appointed former reserve team manager Ricky Bennett his replacement. Under his leadership VCD achieved third place in his first season, and the season after the team was also challenging for honours and, but for a disappointing end to the campaign we certainly would have given Herne Bay a closer run to their title. Once again third place was attained but this time we had the added bonus of winning the Kent League Cup, beating Corinthian 2-0 in the final. We also lifted a second trophy with a 3-2 victory over league champions Herne Bay in the Kent League Challenge Shield which gave the club a pre-season boost. Midway through season 2012/2013 Ricky Bennett left the club due to outside pressures, and in his place the club secured the services of Tony Russell, previously manager of Erith Town FC, who joined with his assistant Ray Powell. With most of the players leaving with the previous manager the club was in disarray, but a side was quickly formed by the new management, and a magnificent record breaking run of 17 victories and 2 draws in the last 19 league fixtures enabled the club to once more gain promotion to the Ryman Football League Division 1 North. Starting as favourites for relegation, the club had a stunning run, winning the first15 games and heading the table for all but a couple of weeks throughout the campaign, and on the last day of the season, sitting in 2nd place the Vickers defeated Romford FC 6-0 while leaders Witham Town could only draw their last game which saw us secure the title by a point, taking the club to the Premier Division, its highest ever level in the pyramid. The club struggled for a lot of the season, spending most of the time in the relegation places but winning the last 6 games saw us climb to safety, finally finishing in 18th position to maintain our place in the division.
Manager Tony Russell immediately resigned, joining Cray Wanderers FC in Division 1, taking his entire side with him but the club acted quickly to secure the services of Keith McMahon as new First Team Manager. Keith came with a wealth of experience having taken neighbours Thamesmead Town from the Kent League to the Ryman League Premier Division but, with no players at the club and only a few weeks to the start of the 2015/2016 season Keith was up against it from the beginning in trying to assemble a side to compete at the higher level. He worked tirelessly and brought in some excellent players, but despite some good performances we were unable to find the consistency needed in the Premier Division and were relegated back to Division 1 (North).
STANDINGS LEAGUE
FIXTURES & RESULTS
21 Oct A Faversham
28 Oct H Deal Town
11 Nov A Three Bridges
24 Feb H AFC Whyteleafe
Sat 28 Feb A Hastings United
MARCH Tues 3 Mar A Deal Town
Sat 7 Mar H VCD Athletic
South East
South East
Tue 10 Mar H Sheppey United Isthmian South East
Sat 14 Mar A Herne Bay
Sat 21 Mar H AFC Croydon Athletic
Sat 28 Mar A Erith Town
APRIL
Sat 4 Apr H Sittingbourne
Mon 6 Apr A Jersey Bulls
South East 3pm
South East 3pm
South East
South East 3pm
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. VCD ATHLETIC
Harry Howes n n
Luke Leppard n n
Steve Smith © n n
Dan Thompson n n
Curtis Gayler n n
Dan Perry n n
Kieron Pamment n n
Tommy Seale n n
Tariq Richards n n
Omar Folkes n n
Tyler Grant n n
Leo Vowles n n
Jordan Maguire-Drew n n
Jerson Dos Santos n n
Harry Piper
Lewis McDonnell
Mason Saunders n n
Reegan Jeffery n n
Harry Bushell n n
Ethan Covus n n
Dominic Ogun-Foster n n
Max Marshall n n
Mason Whitnell n n
Harry Lawrence n n
Arron Archibald n n
David Ozobia n n
Ben Fitchett (C) n n
Mo Kamara n n
Ezra Ikebuasi n n
Alfred Evans n n
Reece Deakin n n
Cameron Andrews n n
Henry Griffin n n
Zachary Jakubowski n n
Sinnkaye Christie n n
Thomas Deighton n n
Ernie Cheeseman n n
Gael Kileba n n
NEXT HOME MATCH
Sheppey United
Tuesday 10 March 2026
7.30pm
MATCH OFFICIALS:
Referee: Ollie Kaya
Assistant Ref: Ronnie McGibbon
Assistant Ref: Emre Arslan
EAST GRINSTEAD TOWN HISTORY
PROGRAMMES FROM THE PAST BY LESTER MEDCALF
We’re going to have a look at a couple of programmes that we produced for past games played close to today’s match. I’m going back a few years for the first of the programmes - East Grinstead v Broadbridge Heath on Saturday 8 March 2008 in division 2 of the Sussex County League. Team Manager Steve Norris gets things moving, especially as “it is nice to be back at East Court after a month on the road during which time we have managed to cement our position at the top of the table.” We had avoided defeat in the five league matches we had played in February - though Steve was disappointed that, despite playing our best football in our recent League Cup semi-final against Ringmer, we had lost that Cup match 3-0.
The programme has a page giving us more information about those five league matches. Our best performance had probably come against local rivals Crawley Down with a 4-1 win - Michael Belli scoring twice plus Liam Bull and Tobi Hutchinson. Wins also came against Pease Pottage (2-0) and Storrington (1-0) while there were draws against Southwick (0-0) and in last Saturday’s game v Sidlesham (2-2 after we had been 2-0 down at half-time.)
Chairman Richard Tramontin welcomes our visitors to East Court and reminds them that this will be the third time we’ve played them so far this season, though the first time at East Court. We had played Broadbridge Heath in the Sussex Senior Cup beating them 6-5 after extra time (our goals from Daniel Sullivan 2, Marnie Neville, Tobi Hutchinson, Ben Burns and Simon Tadman) and then later in the away league match when a single goal from Tobi Hutchinson was enough.
And then we have something we don’t see very often in our programme - one of our helpers Geoff Harris has just reached his 80th birthday with a reminder that “I have lost count of the times I have painted and decorated the club house”. (Geoff was to die a couple of years later.)
The programme’s league table shows us on top with 19 wins, 3 draws and just a couple of defeats. Broadbridge Heath were having a bad time, having picked up just one point since Christmas. But for a long time it looked as if Broadbridge Heath would be taking another point home despite being under pressure for most of the game. However with a couple of minutes to go Tom Saunders kept the points for us at East Court with the winning goal.
DRAW AT HOME TO SELSEY
Next we’ll have a look at the programme for East Grinstead v Selsey on Saturday 8 March 2014 in division 1 of the Sussex County League. This was to be the season in which we won promotion to the Isthmian League. Much of Chairman Richard Tramontin’s notes are about our pitch. We had been due to play at home on the Tuesday evening but heavy rain had caused the game to be postponed. (A full programme of matches had been set for that evening but only two were played.) But our under 18s and reserves had been able to play home matches on the next two evenings.
After the weekend we were having the pitch vertidrained and we needed to have 19 matches played on the pitch in the next five weeks before some serious pitch work could be started.
We have a match report of the previous Saturday match away to Lancing - a game which included a match official’s decision that we disagreed with. With a couple of minutes to go to half-time and the score still 0-0 our keeper saved a shot from one of Lancing’s players. The linesman at that end put his flag up and so the ref went over to see him. The linesman was absolutely sure that the ball when caught had been over the goal line - and therefore a goal had been scored.
We had chances in the second half to equalise but with a few minutes left Lancing were to score again - no disagreement with that - and 2-0 was the final score.
Back to the Selsey game. The programme’s league table showed us in fourth place with Selsey ninth. We had played the away league match in November and nobody had scored. Here at East Court for a long time it looked as if it would be another goalless match. But with some 15 minutes to go a free-kick to us on the edge of Selsey’s penalty area was curled home by Matt Geard. However Selsey were to equalise five minutes later and 1-1 was how it ended.
Ever thought of volunteering to help your local football club?
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The Trident Leagues and Pitching In’s online Volunteer Hub is the place where you can find opportunities and contact your local football club.
Please visit Pitchinginvolunteers.co.uk to find out more
