Pitching In Isthmian Performance of the Month Awards, August 2022

August delivered some fine football, and a number of shocks. We’ve managed to honour both in this list!

Pitching In Isthmian Premier

Aveley have had a magnificent start to their Premier Division campaign, but for ninety minutes on Saturday 20th August it came to a shuddering halt, as Bognor Regis Town simply swept the Millers away. The Rocks were just irresistible, and fired home six goals to take what is still the biggest victory of the season so far. Nick Dembele, Alfie Bridgman, Nathan Odokonyero (2) and Isaac Olaniyan- and an own goal- made sure that the fans who had travelled up from the West Sussex seaside had a fabulous journey home.

Congratulations to all at Nyewood Lane, who take our first prize of the season.

Pitching In Isthmian North

Witham Town needed a relegation play off to remain in the Pitching In Isthmian North Division at the end of last season, but they’ve looked rejuvenated and revitalised by the experience. Chris Taylor’s men have started the new campaign superbly- sitting in fifth place in the North Division as we write, and with five wins from their six matches in all competitions.

Town were nominated twice for Performance of the Month, for their five-nil FA Cup win at London Colney and for their four-one League win against Wroxham. We’ve gone for the former, a match which saw Adam Vyse get a hat trick and Joseph Alatise add the other two, and we’ve a trophy on the way to the Simarco Stadium shortly.

Pitching In Isthmian South Central

The first day of the season saw Westfield travel to face Leatherhead, our title favourites and narrowly relegated from the Pitching In Isthmian Premier last season. The Woking side decided that they weren’t interested in reputations, and thoroughly trashed the Tanners on their own patch, defeating them by four goals to nil- and now they’ve got a nice trophy coming their way to remember the occasion by. Bradley Walsh gave the Tanners something to chase (sorry) with two first half goals, and after the break Nathaniel Mensah and Billy Oram added two more.

Field were actually nominated twice for this award, courtesy of their follow up to the Leatherhead match- another four-nil win over highly-fancied Basingstoke Town.

Many congratulations to all at Woking Park.

Pitching In Isthmian South East Division

The Emirates FA Cup regularly seems to see our sides drawn together in the early rounds, and the Preliminary Round delivered a Sussex derby, as Lancing were scheduled to meet Pitching In Isthmian South East rivals East Grinstead Town. In the league last season the Lancers took four points from six from the Wasps, so they must have been confident as their opponents arrived at Culver Road- but they soon found out that their confidence was misplaced. By half time, it was the Grinners who were grinning, Daniel Uchechi, Tahjae Anderson and Matt Daniel putting them three-nil up- and they added another immediately after the break, Daniel- who was playing for the Lancers last season- once more, making it four. The hosts did get one back late on, but it wasn’t much of a consolation.

Congratulations to the Wasps, who have had a fine start to their campaign, and now have a trophy to help them remember that fine start.

Pitching In is a Grassroots Sports Investment Programme launched by GVC, the multi-national sports-betting and gaming group which owns Ladbrokes and Coral. The partnership covers all three leagues that make up Steps 3 & 4 of the National Leagues System.

Pitching In has been set up with the objective of supporting, protecting and encouraging grassroots sports in the UK through a range of initiatives.

In addition to financial support, a key focus of the partnership will be to facilitate and encourage members of the community to become volunteers, and do some pitching in of their own. A Pitching In volunteering scheme will be established to link GVC’s Ladbrokes and Coral shop colleagues with their local clubs.

For more information on Pitching In please visit the website here.