Bostik Matchday: Stuck in the middle with Amoo

By Ian Townsend

The FA Cup comes to Whyteleafe- the competition and the ubiquitous tin foil and cardboard imitation. Erith Town came too.


The FA Cup is special to Non-League football supporters and Non-League clubs. When the mainstream media tell you that the romance of the cup is dead (obviously in between listing the occupations of the players in a patronising manner whenever one of our clubs manages to draw a professional outfit), what they actually mean is that the romance of the club is dead amongst clubs for whom only the collection of money and finishing in the top four is important. Apart from Arsenal, obviously.

Drop below the top four divisions of the English football pyramid, and the romance could still fill bottles. The dream remains. It isn’t about money- although heaven knows most of our clubs could do with some- it’s about the chance of glory; the chance of a bigger stage on which to play, the chance to be a giant killer. Today, at Whyteleafe, it was the supporters of Erith Town who were facing the giants and hoping for an upset.

Obviously, in that context, the term giant is relative. Although The Leafe are certainly growing (no Gardeners World type pun intended), and may well be dark horses to make an impact at the top of the South Division this year.

Whyteleafe panorama

Whyteleafe panorama

Whyteleafe, for those of you who have never been there, is perhaps a suburb of Croydon the way that Croydon is itself a suburb of London. Only nicer. And with none of those enormous office blocks that look as if they were designed by a small child with limited blocks of Lego and limited imagination. It’s kind of in the centre of nowhere, has almost as many railway stations as it has shops, and Church Road is- as you might imagine from the name of the club- surrounded by woodland. Trees to the left of me, more trees to the right, here I am- stuck in the middle with Amoo.

That’s Jerry Amoo, by the way- player of the year last season for Kings Langley in the Evo Stik Southern Premier, and scorer of his first Whyteleafe goal on Tuesday night. But more about him later.

An hour before kick off and the clubhouse was quiet. A screen on the wall above the burger bar was showing Manchester United versus Swansea, and to the left of that had been placed a signed montage of Ryan Giggs photographs; but before you make the old joke about Manchester United fans all coming from Surrey, most of the remaining football memorabilia lining the walls was Crystal Palace related. Something else that was Crystal Palace related was Roy Jones, a home supporter who explained that he’d been a steward at Selhurst Park for many years but since retiring had swapped the delights of the Premier League permanently for the far more delightful surroundings of Church Road.

“I used to come here when Palace were away. Now I come to every home match and I have a season ticket. It only cost me seventy five pounds- last year I had to buy Palace tickets for a friend and they made me buy four and a membership, and it came to nearly one hundred and eighty quid. Who can afford that?” He left the question hanging in the air, but everyone around just looked back in aghast silence. “This is a lovely place to watch football- the people are friendly, the clubhouse is nice, and they are improving the ground with an extra set of changing rooms and a conference centre.

Jerry Amoo

Jerry Amoo

I’m going to try to get to some away games this year, too. I’m looking forward to watching Whyteleafe Reserves on Bank Holiday Monday; or Chipstead, as other people call them.”

You’ve worked out what the local rivalry is, haven’t you?

Roy was quite expressive about his hopes for Whyteleafe this year, and he wasn’t alone. There was an air of optimism about the place, talk of expansive passing football, praise for the work of manager Leigh Dynan, and a belief that this might be the year when the club exceed their best ever finish of 5th place in the South Division. Results so far have borne that out, the season starting with a 1-1 draw at title favourites Greenwich Borough last weekend before a 3-0 thrashing of VCD Athletic on Tuesday night. Perhaps the combined ranks of supporters from other clubs that placed them in 9th in our prediction table don’t know what they’re talking about.

The FA Cup hasn’t really been the kind to them in the past, however. There has been but one notable FA Cup run and that happened in 1999, when they reached the First Round proper for the first and only time, eventually losing to Chester City in a replay after drawing the first match 0-0. Last year they got as far as the Second Qualifying Round before losing to Welling. But the man with the tin foil FA Cup bedecked in a green and white scarf looked confident.

Erith Town’s FA Cup record was far worse. They beat Rochester United 5-0 in a midweek replay to get here, and according to Phil of FA Cup Factfile it’s six years since they last got further than the preliminary round.

And he would know. He’s so obsessed with the competition that he has had his house remodelled to look like one of the towers of the old stadium- and keeps a white horse in the front garden.

Not really. Although perhaps we shouldn’t be putting ideas into his head.

Whyteleafe quickly took control of the game, and that man Amoo looked impressive, but his contribution was initially overshadowed by teammate Sam Clayton. For the first forty minutes almost everything the home side did that was worth watching came from his cultured feet. He made himself space for a shot which was deflected in the 6th minute, and six minutes later it was his intelligent through ball that set Amoo haring towards goal, his shot well saved by Adam Molloy. In the 18th minute Clayton repeated the trick, setting Jordan Wilson free, but again the keeper came to the rescue. Amoo then made the next chance for himself, charging at the defence, twisting and turning like the dancing fish statue that the Erith players probably drove past on the way here, but once more Molloy was down to save.

When the breakthrough finally came, two minutes before half time, Molloy again almost came to Erith’s rescue. A ball was played across the box towards the far post and everyone missed it, allowing it to end up at the feet of Amoo. He had to react quickly but the keeper charged out and beat away the shot with his face. Sadly as he lay, poleaxed, all Shawn Clement-Peter had to do was find an empty net with the rebound, and this he did, expertly. Soon afterwards the referee blew the half time whistle as an away supporter berated his assistant for “not stopping the game after the keeper got a head injury.” The Assistant explained that he hadn’t seen the incident. We can exclusively reveal that he looked nothing like Arsene Wenger.

The interval came with sunshine, and soon a large number of small children were holding ice-pops and kicking a football around the training pitch adjacent to the stadium. All was well with the world; at least until the home side came back out. Clayton was missing- and much of their good play went with him.

Erith were immediately a team transformed. Suddenly they seemed to have more time, more space, more belief. Ryan Golding, their number nine, almost got through but was denied by Matte Pierson. The Leafe keeper then made another excellent save, diving full length to keep out Danny Gannon, and suddenly the balance of the match had turned. Whyteleafe came forward, but their neat passing work tended to come to naught and Molloy was untroubled.

The home supporters were uncharacteristically quiet. This wasn’t really because of the performance, however; as Chris the club secretary observed, “many of those normally here are on holiday or watching cricket.” The holiday was understandable, but cricket when there is football on? Who on earth would do that? Certainly not Mark, Adam and Dan behind the goal.

Asked about their hopes for the season, there was some dispute. “I’d be happy with ninth,” explained Dan, who was attempting to talk and write the match report at the same time. His colleagues were astounded. “Ninth!” This was Adam. “How can you be happy with ninth? Surely we can make the play-off’s?” Mark agreed. “If we can’t be optimistic after two games of the season, when can we?” However it wasn’t long before Adam was suggesting that the cup was a distraction and they should concentrate on the League; the seventieth minute of the first cup match of the season, in fact. He was joking, it must be explained, but Erith had just equalised. The goal had been coming, and on the balance of play it was deserved.

A ball across the box evaded the home defence, but it didn’t evade striker Golding. He rose, leaving the players around him static, and powered a header goalward. There was little the keeper could have done.

Whyteleafe finally remembered what they were good at. The problem was that the player who had been best at it- Clayton- was no longer on the pitch. The game needed someone who could spray the ball around, but although it had lots of hard running and neat little passing triangles it had nobody who could supply a killer pass. An Erith defender blocked a shot from Wilson, another blocked off Amoo when another dangerous cross came in, but it was only five minutes from time that Leafe looked like regaining their lead, when a free kick from Ross Elsom had to be brilliantly turned over by Molloy. By this point the Leafe faithful were already planning for the Tuesday night replay, whilst singing the praises of a day out in Ramsgate “because of the micro-pub and air raid siren- although we don’t really want to hear the air raid siren because that means we’ve conceded a goal.”

Three minutes of added time came and went, and both sides remained in the FA Cup. Erith supporters celebrated as if they’d won, and whilst that was understandable there is a long, long way to go. Well, thirty miles and at least ninety minutes, anyway.

Linda Smith, the late comedian perhaps best known for her work on Just a Minute, came from Erith and said of the town, "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham." Here’s hoping that Whyteleafe won’t enter Erith next week and commit FA Cup suicide; but if they do, then the world won't end.

Roy was correct. Whyteleafe is indeed a lovely place to watch football. The people are indeed friendly. And- just whisper it- there does seem to be enough about the team to believe that they can challenge at the right end of the South Division.

A village club from the outskirts of Croydon in the Bostik Premier? It isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

Where next?

The Bostik League Show- with Saturday round up and Jake Robinson's Goal of the Season! Video highlights and interviews from Lowestoft Town v Worthing courtesy of Back Of The Net- and a wonder goal from Billericay Town's Jake Robinson- head up this weekend's round up
Bostik to Bostik: Transfers for week ending 19th August 2017 Here are all of the Bostik to Bostik transfers for the last seven days, for your information.

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