It starts with a win over the old rivals
The season started back in the autumn with a local derby against our rivals Dartford FC, the boys showed great resilience and spirit to come back from a goal down to snatch a 2-1 win in the dying minutes (Always good to beat Dartford on their patch!). An emphatic home win followed against a newly formed team (Beacons) and then we moved onto the League Cup first round. The Draw could have been kinder as we were drawn away against another team from our division and unfortunately although dominating the game throughout went out 5-4 on penalties.
Back to the League the following week where we suffered our first of only 3 defeats all season against a physical and organised Teviot team, the only game all season that I thought we never turned up, created very little and did not deserve nothing from the game. November saw us win 3 out of 4 League games and subsequently saw us sit proudly at the top of the A division, where we remained until our final game we played!
December, saw us continue our winning ways(racking up 25 goals in the process) and it also saw our very social parents enjoying what the Fleetdown clubhouse has to offer during the festive season (believe Steve Rose is still counting his bar takings from our team that month!!).
Great start to the New Year
The New Year arrives, and our first game of 2020 ends in a 1-1 draw against one of our promotion rivals, Long Lane, a fair result on reflection (with Mitchell scoring a great goal for us to equalise). We then proceeded to beat Bruins from Bermondsey and then thrashing Guru Nanak 5-0 and just as we were getting into full stride in February, tragedy struck and along came the high winds and rain, which meant three weeks without a game, not what we needed when chasing down the league title!
However, we returned, end of February to grind out a 2-0 win at fellow contenders, Greenways Aces, played on that carpet of a pitch at Kings farm!! The following week we had a tremendous result at Long Lane (played on an 11- aside Pitch) , winning 4-2, which effectively killed off their title aspirations.
Our final game of the campaign, saw us unfortunately lose 4-2 at home to a good Red Devils side, going 2 down in the first 5 minutes did not help our cause and although creating loads of chances in the second half, missing a penalty and their keeper putting in a MoM performance we just could not put the ball in the onion bag.
So close to a great end to the season
So, our season unfortunately finished there, with us lying 2nd a point behind leaders Ebbsfleet, though we had a game in hand and a better goal difference. We still had 7 league games to play and had to play Ebbsfleet twice (title deciders if ever I saw one!!) , though we will now never know!
Our league season summary at a glance:
Played: 15, Won: 11, Drew: 1, Lost 3
Squad as follows: Harry H, Harry J, Fin, Ryan, James, Mitchell, Luke, Sam O, Jack An, Jude, Jack Al, Sam N.
To summarise, an excellent season which could have ended in great style if we had completed the schedule, however, people’s lives are far more important than any football match, so stay safe and well, all.
Jon