Three Reasons For Leatherhead Fans To Be Cheerful

Last night Leatherhead lost their fourth game out of four back in the Premier Division at last season’s Division 1 South rivals Met Police by the odd goal in 3. Personal experience suggests to me that Tanners fans will be feeling pretty bleak this morning about what they’ve seen and what their prospects are for the rest of the season. In the midst of such a start to the season, it is nigh on impossible to see any light at the end of the tunnel, any sunshine through the clouds, any sign of Wally in the picture of the fairground. In actual fact, there are plenty of reasons for Leatherhead fans to be cheerful because they are far from doomed. Below are three such reasons for the Green Army to raise a hopeful smile once again.

Reason 1: Hendon 2006/7

Greens fans (Hendon, not Leatherhead) will not thank me for returning to that bleak late summer and early autumn of 2006 when we began the season like a staggering tramp after a week on intravenous White Lightning. After 11 league games we were sat bottom of the league with just 2 points and 7 goals scored. We’d also been knocked out of the FA Cup, FA Trophy, London Senior Cup and League Cup in that time, leaving us with just 2 wins from 17 matches in all competitions. Following the FA Trophy defeat at home to Ramsgate on Saturday 21^st October, Gary McCann tendered his resignation. A number of players weren’t up to standard, Dean Thomas, Dwane Williams, Nas Richardson to name but 3. One player had proven himself to be of the necessary standard elsewhere but couldn’t motivate himself to be arsed in a green shirt, stand up Jermaine Hunter (actually, don’t bother, it’s probably too much effort). Other players went through a very steep learning curve. Jamie Busby, Craig Vargas, Lee O’Leary, Wayne O’Sullivan, Rakki Hudson for example who dug in and improved quickly.

Ross Pickett: Kick Started Hendon's 2006/7 season

Thankfully, Macca’s resignation was rejected and he was advised to think things over. The general feeling I got around the terraces was that in spite of everything, he was still very much the right man for the job. Suffice to say, Gary was in the dugout the following Saturday at Walton and Hersham having undergone a change of heart and the side responded with their first league win of the season thanks to a couple of Ross Pickett goals. 

A pair of Dean Green penalties a week later brought a second league win and the great escape was on. In came Brian Haule, Belal Aite-ouakrim, Marc Leach, Darragh Duffy, Davis Haule and of course, Bontcho returned.The last 31 league matches saw 52 points picked up, a total that would have seen the side finish 4^th had the first 11 games been ignored. There was the famous win at home to AFC Wimbledon, 1 of only 2 defeats they suffered in the league in the 2^nd half of the season and the season ended with a 6 match unbeaten run and a finish in the dizzy heights of 14^th, 19 points ahead of Worthing, who filled the final relegation spot that season.

Reason 2: Bedford Town 2001/2

Bedford Town had ended the 2000/1 season on a high achieving promotion to the Premier Division of the Ryman League for the first time in their history. They began life in 2001/2 not so much with a whimper, as a great piercing scream for mercy losing their first 7 matches, all of them by the odd goal. 1-0 defeats, 2-1 defeats and a couple of 4-3 thrillers for good measure as well.

On September 11^th 2001, thoughts on the terraces of Claremont Road were less on the easy 3 points on offer as Hendon took on Bedford in both side’s 8^th match of the season than events unfolding over in America. Paul Towler’s 40^th minute header from Paul Johnson’s corner that thundered in off the underside of the bar was celebrated mutedly. Afterall, this was all in the script. We remained a goal to the good until the 72^nd minute when a free kick was diverted past David Hook into his own net by Lee O’Donnell (yeah, I’d forgotten all about him as well) before Nando Perna broke clear 10 minutes from time and claim what turned out to be a winner for the visitors. If I’d felt flat before the game had even started, I had been well and truly punctured all over by the time Chris Sparks trudged off the pitch in the last minute having been dismissed for dissent. Bedford used this 2-1 success as a springboard to picking up 45 further points throughout the season and finishing 17^th, a comfortable 8 points above Hampton & Richmond Borough who suffered relegation.

Reason 3: Kingstonian 2009/10

1-3, 3-5, 1-6, 0-5. No, I’m not speaking to you in binary, or any other digital language. This was the sequence of results Kingstonian suffered in their first 4 matches of 2009/10, their first season back following promotion from Division 1 South. 4 games, 4 defeats, 5 goals scored, 19 conceded. Talk about out of their depth. Games against Ashford Town, Harrow Borough, Aveley and Dartford. Who would be next to benefit from the most generous defence in Non League Football?

Saturday 29^th August 2009, Kingstonian traveled to Vale Farm with no fewer than 7 new signings in their ranks after major surgery undertaken a couple of days before by Alan Dowson. Five of these new faces started, a further two were named as substitutes. In spite of this, there was no doubt that it would take time for the new faces to bed in, for the team to settle. Hendon would still take full advantage. Bobby Traynor opened the scoring four minutes before half time for the visitors who had been in pretty much complete control up until that point. Second half substitutes Simon Huckle and Karl Beckford added to that first half strike to give the away side not only their first points and clean sheet of the season, but also the launch-pad from which they ended up contesting a controversial Play Off Final against Boreham Wood at the end of the season.

So you see, there is plenty of hope remaining for Leatherhead this season. Nothing is decided at the end of August, nor the end of September – nor even at the end of October. If the worst happens and come the 29^th October, Tanners fans arrive at Vale Farm still winless then arrive in good heart. History is on your side. Our first win of 2006/7 came on 28^th October. Bedford and Kingstonian both got their first wins away at Hendon.

Omen.