Our South East weekend starts tonight

Our action starts this evening, as we head to the Enclosed Ground to watch Whitehawk take on Hythe Town.

It’s rather remarkable that either the Hawks or the Cannons are about to gain promotion to Step Three. Head back just twelve months and the sides were placed sixteenth and seventeenth in Pitching In Isthmian South East, tied on thirty nine points, both staying out of the relegation play off spot then occupied by Lancing by a three point margin. The turnaround masterminded by Shaun Saunders and Steve Watt since then is nothing short of incredible.

For almost all of the campaign, however, we’ve expected the Hawks to be one of the four sides contesting the play offs. After all, only on three match days out of thirty eight have they found themselves outside of the top five, and even then with games in hand over the other play off contenders. It is an entirely different story for the Cannons. If we were to look back to Boxing Day, Town had just lost to promotion favourites Ramsgate and were down in sixteenth place, only one point above the bottom four. Fast forward to Tuesday night and there they were, defeating the Rams on their own patch to clinch a Play Off Final place, and winning their seventh consecutive match-a run which has seen them concede three goals. If the Hawks had hosted the Cannons in the early part of the campaign they’d have been firm favourites. Now? It looks far too close to call.
The Cannons travelled to the Enclosed Ground on Saturday November 12th, and a goal at the end of each half from Joe Shelley and Joel Daly gave the hosts three points. The last time they met, however, at Reachfields on January 28th, a Liam Smith goal just after the hour mark gave three points to the Cannons- and since then, Hythe have lost only three times.
We’ll have a report shortly after the final whistle. Whether that will be at around a quarter to ten, around twenty past ten, or nearer eleven o’clock, who knows! Kick off is at 7.45 PM.

Now, we look at the other end of the table, and we start at Oakwood, with that most local of local derbies as VCD Athletic welcome Phoenix Sports. This is a match which is normally one of the highlights of our Isthmian season, but one which has been missing from our calendar of late following Sports relegation to the SCEFL at the end of the previous campaign, and one which is likely to be missing next season too as only one of the two will find themselves at Step Four.

Vickers fall from the heights has been spectacular if uncomfortable to watch. In the early part of the campaign they climbed as high as second, and as recently as mid November were still in the top five, so their plunge from fifth to seventeenth was anything but expected and anything but pretty. With only two wins from their last ten they aren’t in the best of form, but they’ll need to find their A game on Saturday afternoon, as their local rivals have had a fine season at Step Five. Ending the campaign in second place, two points behind champions Erith & Belvedere, Sports adapted quickly to life after relegation and will be confident that they can limit their Isthmian break to only one season. With only one defeat from their last twenty matches, they have every reason to be confident.

Haywards Heath Town were amongst our promotion favourites after last season’s fourth place, but it has been a disastrous campaign for all at Hanbury Park. An end of season run in which delivered one win from their last ten matches sealed their fate, and Jay Lovett will have to pick his charges up after their hammering at Hythe on the last day, as they have only one chance to salvage their season. Heading in their direction is not another Sussex side, but a side from Essex, Redbridge, who finished in second place in the Essex Senior League, five points behind champions Enfield.

The visitors left our ranks in 2017, but have had a fine season as they look to climb back to Step Four. With only five league defeats all season, they’ve lost only twice this year, and qualified for their second Cup Final of the campaign with victory over Woodford Town in midweek.

Kick off for the matches at VCD Athletic and Haywards Heath Town is at 3PM on Saturday.

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