The Isthmian Years- 1992-93

We began the 1992-93 Isthmian season without Woking for the first time in more than eighty years. The Cardinals, who had been a member since 1911, won the 1991-92 title by eighteen points and decided that they would take their promotion to the GM Vauxhall Conference- something which didn’t always happen, as you’ll see shortly. We also began life without Dagenham, who had joined Woking in the Conference due to their merger with Redbridge Forest. Harlow Town soon disappeared for the season, too, though not due to promotion of any kind of merger but because they couldn’t complete their fixtures- and Farnham Town similarly failed to take their place, which meant that Division One and Division Three were rather lopsided.

East Thurrock United, Northwood and Leighton Town were new to Division Three, as were Aldershot Town, a club formed after their forerunners Aldershot folded during the previous Football League season.

In the professional game, Leeds United entered the new campaign as League Champions for the first time since the 1970’s, their side, inspired by Gordon Strachan and Eric Cantona, finishing four points clear of second place Manchester United in 1991-92. Whoever lifted the title at the end of the new season would have a new trophy, however, as 1992-93 saw the introduction of the FA Premier League. Liverpool were FA Cup holders; they’d defeated Sunderland in the Final. Alan Shearer had just become the most expensive player in British football, joining Blackburn Rovers from Southampton for £3.6m.

Away from football, we’d just had rioting in Manchester, Bristol, Blackburn, Burnley, Huddersfield, Southwark and Peckham; Prince Andrew and Princess Anne had split with their spouses, John Smith had been elected leader of the Labour Party, and unemployment was up to 2.7 million. Some of these issues may have been connected.

Rhythm is a Dancer by Snap was number one in the UK Singles Chart, just ahead of Barcelona by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe, and the highest new entry that week had come from KWS, whose single Rock Your Baby had made its debut at number 14. The Albums Chart was led by Genesis, with We Can’t Dance, just ahead of Michael Jackson’s Dangerous and Welcome to Wherever You Are by INXS.

Isthmian League

The opening day fixtures on Saturday 22nd August 1992 were as follows:

Premier Division:

Aylesbury United 3-2 Carshalton Athletic
Basingstoke Town 2-1 Marlow
Bromley 2-3 Grays Athletic
Harrow Borough 2-0 Kingstonian
Hendon 2-1 Chesham United
Stevenage Borough 4-1 Bognor Regis Town
Sutton United 1-2 Hayes
Windsor and Eton 1-3 Enfield
Wivenhoe Town 1-1 Staines Town
Wokingham Town 2-2 Yeading

For some reason Dulwich Hamlet v St Albans City was played the following day, Sunday 23rd August, and ended five-nil to the visitors.

Division One

Boreham Wood 2-1 Abingdon Town
Lewes 0-1 Aveley
Billericay Town 3-2 Barking
Chalfont St Peter 2-2 Bishop’s Stortford
Uxbridge 3-2 Croydon
Heybridge Swifts 0-2 Dorking
Whyteleafe 5-1 Maidenhead United
Wembley 0-1 Molesey
Leyton 2-0 Tooting & Mitcham Utd
Purfleet 0-0 Walton & Hersham

Division Two

Worthing 2-1 Banstead Athletic
Ruislip Manor 4-0 Berkhamsted Town
Tilbury 1-3 Chertsey Town
Ware 2-2 Hampton
Met Police 3-1 Hemel Hempstead
Harefield Utd 0-3 Maldon Vale
Leatherhead 1-2 Newbury Town
Barton Rovers 1-1 Rainham Town
Egham Town 2-0 Saffron Walden Town
Hungerford Town 1-0 Southall
Edgware Town 4-2 Witham Town

Division Three

Tring Town 0-1 Camberley Town
Aldershot Town 4-2 Clapton
Flackwell Heath 3-4 Collier Row
East Thurrock Utd 1-1 Cove
Horsham 6-0 Feltham & Hounslow Borough
Epsom & Ewell 2-2 Hornchurch
Thame Utd 1-1 Kingsbury Town
Royston Town 2-2 Leighton Town
Bracknell Town 0-0 Northwood
Hertford Town 1-0 Petersfield Utd

In the Premier Division, Chesham United and St Albans City battled for the title until the very last day. On May 1st Chesham hosted Dulwich Hamlet, whilst City were at home to Sutton United. Chesham were already three points ahead and had a superior goal difference, so the outcome was far from unclear, but they made sure by walloping four goals past Hamlet without reply, whilst City could only draw two-two, allowing Chesham to finish the campaign five points clear. United scored one hundred and four goals, City one hundred and three, but United had by far the better defensive record. Chesham ended the season on an unbeaten run that stretched twenty three matches.

In the matches between the two, played on the 18th November at Meadow Park and on February 13th at Clarence Park, honours were shared. The match at Chesham finished two-two, the match in St Albans 1-1.

Both clubs were unable to take promotion to the Vauxhall Conference due to ground grading issues.

At the end of the season Staines Town, Windsor & Eton and Bognor Regis Town were relegated to Division One.

Our featured programme comes from a match between Chesham United and Stevenage Borough. Stevenage were in their first season in the Isthmian Premier, and would end the campaign in seventh place, but they were only with us for one more season as they took the title in 1993-94, took promotion to the Conference, and have never been back. The reason we’ve picked this particular match, however, is because it featured one of the best performances of the season- and one of the worst, as United ran out seven-one winners.

It took place on Wednesday 21st October 1992. Stevenage had actually started the season well but gone off the boil a little, coming into the match on the back of league defeats against Dulwich Hamlet (4-2) and Wokingham Town (3-0); whilst United were in superb form, undefeated in League and FA Cup since the opening day, when they’d lost narrowly to Hendon. That run had included a nine-one FA Cup Replay win over Boreham Wood, who at this point were in our Division One. That said, none of the seven hundred and ten people present would have expected what happened next; United walloped seven goals past their visitors, who did manage one in consolation- but it can’t have been much of a consolation. It’s unlikely that many Borough supporters will have picked up the phone to contact Diadora League ClubCall (48p per minute) after the match to hear more about it.

Division One

Hitchin Town won the title on the last day of the season by defeating Uxbridge two-one, a result which left them two points ahead of second place Molesey. Hitchin, the Moles and third place Dorking had been assured of promotion for quite a while, however, as although there were only four points between the top three there was a gap of a further nine points between Dorking and fourth place Purfleet. Lewes and Aveley went down to Division Two.

Division Two

Worthing charged to promotion- and the title. They won the league by four points from also promoted Ruislip Manor, with Berkhamsted Town forming the third of the promoted trio another seven points behind. At the other end, Southall and Harefield United- who rather coincidentally shared a ground- went down.

Division Three

Division Three was dominated by Aldershot Town, who took the title by eighteen points from Thame United and Collier Row, who were tied on seventy four points whilst the Shots had 92. The history section on the club website describes the season thus:

‘The “new” Shots began life in Isthmian League Division 3 and opened the 1992-93 season in a carnival atmosphere at the Recreation Ground against Clapton. Braces from Mark Butler and Steve Stairs secured a 4-2 win in front of 1493 fans, which was more than watched their predecessors’ last home game at the same ground.

Aldershot Town won their first 10 games and didn’t suffer their first (and only) defeat of the season until losing a league game at Clapton on January 2nd (at Clapton) in what was their 24th outing in all competitions. By then, they had broken attendance records at most grounds at which they had played, buoyed by a superb away following of around 1000. The campaign finished with the Shots as champions by a commanding 18-point margin, whilst strikers Mark Butler and Steve Stairs scored a combined total of 62 goals in all competitions.’

The League Cup was won by Marlow, who defeated Molesey 2-1 at Aldershot Town’s Recreation Ground.

FA Cup

As well as winning the League Cup, Marlow did wonderfully well in the FA Cup. They defeated Salisbury on penalties after a replay in the First Round, then despatched VS Rugby in a replay in the Second Round. The Third Round saw them draw Tottenham Hotspur, and after the match was moved to White Hart Lane on safety grounds Spurs triumphed by five goals to one. You can read more about that match- and look at the programme- by heading HERE.

Sutton United reached the First Round, where they lost two-one at home to Hereford United, Hayes went down two-nil at Brighton & Hove Albion, St Albans City fell two-one at home to Cheltenham Town, whilst Kingstonian took Peterborough United to a replay before losing one-nil.

Dorking also reached the First Round, falling three-two against Plymouth Argyle.

FA Trophy

It was a case of what might have been in the FA Trophy. Sutton United, who eventually finished the season in fifth place in the league, got to the Semi-Finals of the competition, and in the first leg travelled to face one of our former favourites, Wycombe Wanderers. Excellent Wycombe supporters site chairboys.co.uk describes what happened:

‘Sutton, managed by ex-Wanderers boss Alan Gane, stunned the expectant crowd by taking a 12th minute lead through a Peter Byrne header. Wanderers snatched an equaliser six minutes later when Steve Guppy curled a corner from the right straight into the Sutton goal at the near post. But Sutton struck again on 31 minutes when Simon Quail set up Steve Browne who shot past Paul Hyde from 20 yards. West and Aylott went close for Wycombe before the break but the Surrey side lead at the interval.

Kicking towards the Valley End, Wanderers equalised again on 51 minutes with a brilliant goal from the back. Guppy picked up possession near his own corner flag before playing a swift one-two with Aylott and then delivering in a ball that Steve Thompson headed against the inside of the post. The ball rebounded to Dave Carroll who netted with ease.

Isthmian Division One 1992-93

Again Wycombe went near to scoring again, West having the best chance on 74 minutes when he headed wide of a gapping net from a Ryan cross. Two minutes later United had taken the lead again when Vircavs made a rare slip at the back to let in Dominic Feltham who crossed from the left for Quail to dummy and Browne to finish at the right hand post.
So Sutton would go into the second-leg with a 3-2 advantage.’

So it was advantage Sutton for the second leg at Gander Green Lane. Or perhaps it wasn’t, as Wanderers boss Martin O'Neill masterminded a four-nil victory for his side, who were to go on and lift the Trophy.

Chesham United were our joint next best performers, reaching the Third Round where they were defeated by Sutton, and they were equalled by Grays Athletic, who held Gateshead at the same stage of the competition before losing a replay in the North East by three goals to nil.

Check out our Isthmian Archive site, here- that's where we got the table and much of the other information.