Rumour Tuesday

This weeks rumour is pretty vague and that we are about to sign an exciting pacy winger. So exciting is he that it has been kepted hush enough for his name to remain a secret! As rumours go, it is pretty weak so...

Rumour Rating - 4/10

Work Party

Tomorrow brings the mother of all work parties. We need to hit the pitch with shock and awe tactics by laying down 30 tonnes of top soil in a morning. Those with barrows and spades are very welcome or those who just want to work on the callus's on their hands can turn up too!

It is always a good way to spend a Saturday so we hope to see as many of you down there as possible. Work party starts at 9am...

Lavender Moves On

Danny Lavender has decided to move on and ply his trade at promoted Walton & Hersham and I am sure we wish him luck at his new club. Here is what he wrote to all us fans...

"I have left Leatherhead after 3 wonderful years and over 200 games. I thought it was time too move on and with the opportunity of playing at a higher level i thought it was the right time.

I am going to be playing for Walton and Hersham. I honestly have to say that it was a hard decision and I would like to wish Dave, Barry and the Boys all the best for next year and I honestly feel that they will win the league next year and that would make me very proud.

I would like to thanks all the fans as well who have been great with me and I would like to personally like to thank Gerald Darby of whom i have allot of time for. No doubt you will see me next year cheering on the boys when i haven't got a game.

Dave has told me the doors is always open so you never know.

Up the Tanners
Lav"

Risky Business

Why not unwind after a good days work moving soil (work party details to follow shortly) with some live music!? Risky Business are playing their best rock covers at the Grove this Saturday with an 8pm start. They have played at the Grove before and went down very well.

Free entry so see you there!

Rumour Tuesday

This weeks rumour is a sort of anti-rumour and that Dave Harlow is going nowhere this summer. Despite some strong sources saying he is off to Farnborough I have heard from several others that he is staying put.

Rumour rating - 9/10

Poll Result

At long last I have got round to updating the poll, part of the delay was due to the result as we were firmly behind Horsham but as we know unfancied Bromley took the prize.

This weeks poll. As you know summers where the year is odd (ie 2005 etc) are rubbish with no major football tournament to look forward to and ultimately be disappointed by. So this weeks poll looks at what else you are looking forward to (I have excluded the tour of the US!).

Congratulations Barry!

Just a quick maessage to the Barnes family as our joint manager became a grandfather while the rest of the team were living it up on tour.

Official Site Update

After a bit of a break the Official Site is now up to speed with the last match report, details of who won what at the player awards and some new exciting news that is hot off the press. It appears there are two Lips in town these days...

Men At Work

Work continued in earnest on the famous Leatherhead pitch as approximately a dozen supporters turned out to lay new turf. Scientific methods never seen outside NASA research facilities were used to help create the perfect playing surface in the goal area. No doubt this will help our goal poachers no end!

Further work continues in two weeks time and all hands are welcome!

Promotion Issues Sorted...

The FA have "resolved" who gets promoted by bottling out of a tough decision and allowing all to come up. You can read in detail who goes where HERE.

The teams that will be joining us are;

Ramsgate
Lymington & New Milton FC
Walton Casuals

This means a couple of nice trips and another local rival into the pot...

Work Parties

Just a reminder to let you know there are two work parties planned for May and they are;

14 May - new turf
28 May - top soil & seeding

If you can make it, can you bring what you can in the way of wheelbarrows, spades etc. Anyway they start around 9am and refreshments will be provided!

What Does It Mean To Us?

The promotions have been decided so it now only leaves the FA to decide who plays where next season (meeting on the 11th). Tony Kempster has dsiplayed his latest guess on his site but if you're lazy here it is. Confirmation on who we will be playing will be posted on the 12th!

Ashford Town (Mx)
Banstead Athletic
Bashley
Beaconsfield SYCOB
Bracknell Town
Horsham
Burgess Hill Town
Burnham
Corinthian-Casuals
Cray Wanderers
Croydon Athletic
Dulwich Hamlet
Fleet Town
Kingstonian
Leatherhead
Marlow
Metropolitan Police
Molesey
Newport IOW
Tooting & Mitcham
Uxbridge
Whyteleafe

Horsham 1 - 3 Bromley

Our man James Baker was at today's game

The match started before the kick-off with both the Horsham andBromley hardcore exchanging chants over the pitch. It was clear thatthe Bromley massive had turned out in numbers and throughout the matchthey were the more vocal of the two team's support.Over a thousand people had crammed into Queen Street by the time thewhistle blew for kick-off. The Hornets sported a very flat 4-4-2formation and the Ravens played with what seemed to be a 5-3-2 packingthe midfield with players.

It was a scrappy start with neither team managing to string more thana few passes together. The deadlock looked set to be broken whenHorsham Top-scorer Jamie Taylor knocked the ball past his marker andwas barged to the floor in the box. The referee pointed straight atthe spot. Lee Carney stepped up confidently and struck a medium pacedshot to the left of Andy Walker. But the goalkeeper got across quicklyand palmed the ball away. Carney was visible dejected.

It soon became apparent that the organisation of the Horsham back lineleft a lot to be desired. They lacked pace and their marking wassuspect. Bromley's number nine Mark Tompkins was looking very sharpand was played behind the Horsham back four on more than one occasion.On the third occasion Horsham's luck was out and Tompkins' short crosswas tapped in by the stocky Wade Falana. 1 - 0 Bromley.

Horsham attempted to catch the keeper off his line at the kick-off,but the shot sailed well left and the Bromley keeper took his timewith the kick-off; a theme that was to continue throughout the matchwith tensions running high from the Horsham Bench.

Towards the end of the half, Lee Carney made an attacking foray intothe Bromley half and was promptly chopped down has he tried to switchplay back to the right hand side. A well-worked free-kick saw the ballplayed into the Bromley box and after a couple of deflections itsat-up nicely for Taylor who hit his 27th goal in 42 caps this season.

1 - 1, the second half was shaping up to be very interesting.In the dying minutes of the first half, Bromley wing-back Allan McLeodreceived the ball on the left wing and launched a hanging right-footedcross into the box. The ball drifted and curled towards the goal and ascrambling Luke Burton failed to prevent it from dropping below thebar. 2 - 1 to Bromley. Seconds later the half ended; a very wearylooking Horsham team made their way back to the changing rooms.....

The second half began, and it soon became clear that the Horsham teamhad run out of ideas. Bromley were pressuring them on every part ofthe pitch, and with their 5-3-2 formation they were outnumbering thehornets in all areas.John Westcott, the Horsham player of the year swung in a deliciouscross which was weakly headed wide, and thus ended the only creativityof the second half for the hornets.

The Bromley fans ruled the roost in the second half confident thattheir team were to be victorious and this was capitulated by a hardand straight free kick from Colin Luckett which should have been savedby Burton but wasn't and Bromley were 3 - 1 up. The writing was on thewall.

Horsham centre-back Eddie French was stretchered off around about the80 minute mark leaving the hornets with 10 men and premiershipfootball for the Ravens next season.

Full Time---------------Horsham 1 (Taylor)Bromley 3 (Falana, McLeod, Luckett)

Collectors Corner

There have been some Collectors Corners, but this has to be the mother of them all. Probably one of the rarest items I have ever seen on eBay.

Click HERE to see the item.

Business As Usual

The key message from the end of season party would be we will be keeping all of our players from this season! Marc Charles-Smith and Dave Stevens have both signed contracts to keep them at the Grove while all the others have agreed to come back.

The pre-season looks to be interesting to, with Barry and Dave drawing up a hit list of 12-14 players to be invited for trials.

More details of pre-season friendlies will be posted on the official site as and when they are confirmed.

Now the hard work starts for the webmaster, as I have to find enough bits of news to get us through the long boring summer until the friendlies start. No doubt Rumour Tuesday will be the death of me but I am relying on stories from Spain to help me out there...

Poll Result

The Hey Jude anthem won by a mile with both "Barry’s Too Old For Shorts" and the Chairman’s choice "Wes Will Tear You Apart" coming joint second. There was very few votes for Dante’s song…

This weeks poll… what else could it be about?