Bostik 17/18- a season in review: September

Here are our September highlights:

On the pitch

September dawned sunny, and with the FA Cup First Qualifying Round in prospect. We headed to Folkstone Invicta, and watched Neil Cugley’s men defeat Gary Alexander’s Greenwich Borough by the odd goal in five, whilst Horsham and Leatherhead got six goals of their own as they knocked out Ashford United and Cray Valley PM.

Billericay Town and Carshalton Athletic- including a hat trick from Mickel Miller- also found the net five times.

Elsewhere in Kent, Tonbridge Angels opened their Velocity Trophy campaign by smashing ten goals past a sorry Herne Bay side at Longmead, conceding only one in return.

Once we got back to League football, Billericay continued their good progress, with Leiston and Harrow Borough on their coat tails, whilst Worthing- who lost 5-0 to Margate at Bognor- had to come to terms with the fact that player-manager Gary Elphick decided to resign after this latest defeat.

Billericay remained top of the Premier Division as the month ended with more FA Cup action, whilst the Urchins held sway in the North and Whyteleafe, Lewes and Carshalton Athletic competed at the top of the South Division. The cup saw Burgess Hill Town knock out National League South side Wealdstone, whilst Heybridge Swifts and Haringey Borough also made their way to the Fourth Qualifying Round- they ended up playing each other- along with Margate, Leatherhead, Folkestone Invicta and Enfield Town. Billericay were to make it too, after a replay.

Our last #bostikmatchday feature of the month came from Surrey, as South Park entertained Chipstead.

Off the pitch

There was big news from Cray Wanderers, who held a public exhibition of their proposals to build a new ground at Flamingo Park- revised after London Mayor Sidiq Khan had kicked out their previous application after the local authority had approved it.

More South Division ground news came from Walton Casuals, who announced that they were about to return to the site of their former Waterside Drive home, now a new facility named the Elmbridge Xcel Sports Hub, and would take on Horsham FC there in the opening game on 9th September. Casuals manager Anthony Gale had a double celebration, being awarded Mitre Manager of the Month for August. The ground was to be officially opened at a ceremony a few days later, and we featured it here. .

Worthing began the search for a new manager. Owner George Dowell, in a candid interview, explained that Elphick effectively left before he was pushed, was scathing about the clubs summer transfer policy, but insisted that there was no crisis and he didn’t think that they’d end up in a relegation battle- how right he was, tempting back former manager Adam Hinshelwood from Hastings United later in the month to lead a rebel resurgence!

September also saw our series featuring supporters who had abandoned the dubious delights of the professional game to follow our clubs, featuring fans of Dulwich Hamlet, Canvey Island, Corinthian-Casuals, Lewes and Tonbridge Angels. You can find the first article here.