Met Police 4 - 2 Tanners

Leatherhead beaten on the road but not without a fight.  Leatherhead soon found themselves two goals down but Flack struck back to make it two one.

Not soon after Hutchings blazed wide after being through on goal and then when finding the target saw his effort ruled out by the officials.  If Leatherhead were upset by having a goal ruled out they were even more incensed when a poor decision allowed The Met to make it three... then going on to make it comfortable with four.

Tommy was not to be denied a third time, scoring to make the scoreline slightly more respectable but the game was won.

No trip to Sutton then!

Travelling Tanners

Wednesday night is Quarter Final Night in the Surrey Senior Cup and we travel to our old friends Met Police.

From my understanding the winner will go onto to face either Godalming or Woking before the mouthwatering prospect of another trip to Sutton for the final.  What a fine choice of ground that is Surrey FA...

Directions can be found here.  Kick off at 7.45.

Tanners 4 - 0 Walton Casuals

A frustrating game from a personal view point.  Due to trips to A&E I missed the opening 30 and last 10 minutes which was exactly where all four goals were scored but in between I saw enough to know it was a solid performance today.

Tait got his first goal for his new club by bursting through Walton's rather open defence and finishing with confidence.  Soon after Coyle headed home from a free kick.  The cheer from the car park was spectacular!

Second half and the Tim Henman-esque ref missed a rather obvious decision of a back pass which, had the keeper left it would have left Tommy through on goal.

According to some, Leatherhead have become a team of moaners and this was certainly on show today.  There was plenty to moan about though as Walton gave a good physical account of themselves and with so many ex-Tanners out there (Maan and Andrews to name but two) it may have been a bit more heartfelt than usual.

Late in the game Blackman scored, beating the 'keeper from outside the area with a powerful shot.  Liam Wright rubbed salt into Walton's (and mine come to think of it) wounds by firing into the roof of the net at close range after one of those goal mouth scrambles that so rarely bare fruit

Leatherhead hold onto forth place but see four sides just three points behind so plenty of looking over our shoulder to come...

Walton Casuals are coming

A flurry of snow in the air is forecast but hopefully we can welcome Walton Casuals to The Grove tomorrow.

Walton Casuals are starting to find their feet and creep up the table.  They have only lost twice in the last seven games and throw in our recent (let alone home) form and this could be a tricky encounter.

Kick off at 3pm.  See you there!

Faversham 1-0 Tanners

Just one point from nine since we outclassed table topping Maidstone at a ground we would have hoped for more... i.e. away in Kent.

Leatherhead certainly looked up for it.  New signing Tait fluffed his opening lines by missing from close range.  Tommy appeared to have put the same pair of boots he wore at Maidstone and missed a sitter in the second half.

Fear not though as we were pretty much in control until a freekick was flicked on and prodded home for the home side.

Second half and Leatherhead still had their chances albeit making slightly heavy weather of it.  The breakthrough never came though and now we look off the pace.

Walton Casuals at home Saturday anyone?

Travelling Tanners

Tonight Leatherhead travel again into Kent in the hope of getting three points.  It has been two disappointing results in the league since THAT win at Maidstone.

Faversham are having a good season.  While they have played two more games they have the points on the board to put them in third.  They also have a striker equal to Tommy Hutchings with 11 goals.

Kick off at 7.45.  Unofficial directions can be found here.  Good luck fellas.

Folkestone 2 - 0 Tanners

A crushing defeat for Leatherhead where they would have hoped for more given who we have beaten recently on our travels.  All in all it was a disappointing display losing to two unanswered goals against a side who played the majority of the game with 10 men.

Leatherhead are struggling at the moment.  Without the target man that is Bradbrook who hold up and links play so well for us at the moment we appear to lack any kind of direction.

Folkestone capitalised on this opening the scoring on the half hour.  Moments later an incident saw Folkestone's Stevenson see a straight red.  Leatherhead somehow managed to be less effective against ten men and conceded again three minutes before the break.

Second half and Folkestone stood strong and maintained their two goal lead throughout leaving us with two disappoint results in a row.

On to Tuesday and the prospect of playing another high flying side in the shape of Faversham.

Travelling Tanners

Tomorrow we travel to Folkestone a ground where we have "enjoyed" some memorable games.  The last minute goal in the league one year and a crushing penalty defeat another.  Folkestone seem to know what to expect from us and label us "away specialists" in their prematch build up.

Folkestone are pushing up the league and could well fancy a spot in the play-offs themeslves although losing their hitman Stuart King couldn't have helped.

Directions can be found here.  Kick off at 3pm.  Good luck fellas.

Game off

No point even getting someone down to look at the pitch.  The rain and snow has not stopped since Sunday so tomorrow's home game against Folkestone is off.

Keep looking for news of when it is rescheduled.

Tanners 1-1 Three Bridges

Three Bridges and a funeral.  A killer of a game which offered little other than, from a home perspective, a moment of brilliance from Tommy Hutchings.

Three Bridges could not have come to The Grove with much confidence but a complete lack of pressure on the ball afforded the visitors time in possession for that to grow.  On the ball Leatherhead were little better without the target man of Broadbrook to aim for the ball was given away.

The space that we allowed Three Bridges told early on when Touray tapped in after we failed to clear a set piece.  At least the response from Leatherhead was mercifully swift.  A long ball (and there were plenty of those) was chased by Tommy who rounded the keeper but still had plenty to do as his touch took him wide of the goal.  His Aguero-esque finish was placed to perfection.

Second half and it was little better.  It was if the work ethic of Le Tissier, who the players had been in the audience of the night before, had seeped into the majority of the team.  If a goal was to come it was only likely to be from Tommy.

Three Bridges were there for the point but a spell on 80 minutes saw some last ditch tackles and a smart save from Young prevented us from ending up on the losing side.

Maidstone could only manage a draw.  To Folkestone and they come (weather permitting) Tuesday!

Three Bridges are coming!

Three Bridges come to the Grove for the first time that I can remember.  A team that is not enjoying life in this division.  They haven't won a game since 10 November last year but held out for a credible draw against Burgess Hill only last Saturday.

Kick off at 3pm.  Only two deep behind the far goal please.  See you there.

Tanners 2 - 1 Lingfield

I was worried about this game.  Memories of South Park last season came flooding back and after our weekend win you could forgive the players for feeling a bit flat.  That said it was not the case with a bright opening 30 minutes.

Flack had the first chance.  A through ball left him one of one with ex-Tanner O'Hara who was beaten on the edge of the box only for him to hit the side netting.  This was the story of his half until he went off injured.

Hutchings though was in a scoring mood and free from the pressure of Saturday he made no mistake.  Two quick goals made it 2-0 and seemingly comfortable.

Second half and we were cruising.  So much so Kev Terry was subbed due to "injury" and on came Richard Brady.  This is where it all started going wrong for us.  The mercurial Boosey picked up the ball, waltzed into the area, fed in their striker and it was 2-1.

Brady in the dying seconds missed a sitter and should have really been booked for time wasting.

2-1 it ended.  Met Police next round...

Lingfield are coming (thus travelling)

No new ground for me tomorrow as the threat of another game being cancelled means the game is swapped to The Grove.  Seeing our home v away form I sense foul play and some ground staff with hoses but we have to accept the decision I guess.

Surrey Senior Cup action it is then tomorrow as we entertain Lingfield.  They play in the Sussex County league but at least this competition gets them out to see civilisation.

Kick off at 7.45pm.  See you there.

Maidstone 2 - 3 Leatherhead

Leatherhead can be pretty pleased with their performance on and off the pitch today.  On the pitch Leatherhead could have been well clear with Tommy missing a hat trick of clear chances with perhaps the occasion (and the history of the last game) getting to him.

It was after his second chance where he nutmegged a defender with ease to be clear on goal only for his shot be be pulled wide that Maidstone launched a swift attack from the goal kick.  A surging run down the left, cross in to be met by a powerful volley into the back of the net.

On the stroke of half time Leatherhead finally got a breakthrough with Smart seeing enough of the goal on the left to place his shot into the bottom right corner.

One all at half time and some American style half-time entertainment took place while we moved round for somewhere to stand.  It was here the trouble sort of started.  The new ground is almost too small for the crowds they now attract (with some supporters that never made it to Sittingbourne not knowing how to behave when met with opposing supporters) so there was nowhere for us really to stand.  It was all Maidstone so we had to squeeze in where we could.  Throw in beer being sold and this is a recipe for disaster for our over excited friends.

Back to the game and again Maidstone took the lead.  They looked dangerous going forward and again it was from a fine move up the pitch they got their second.  While they were good going forward at the back they were poor and we were exploiting it with some good spells of pressure.

Even going 2-1 I fancied our chances and a series of corners proved too much as Bradbrook headed in to make it 2-2.  Within ten minutes we were again applying some pressure and this time it was Neil Jenkins who found space to fire at goal and their 'keeper was second to the task and in the goal went.

Leatherhead jubilation when all of a sudden a half filled glass of beer was lobbed out our players.  The small group of fans in front of us (whose banter lacked the intelligence of that of the first half) could not take losing.  On the final whistle the empty glasses were turned on us and while we made our feelings known I am pleased to say we maintained our dignity while those big time charlie fans lost theirs.

I thanked him after the game but one of their own fans had to physically restrain one of these shandy drinking fans and got a pint of beer over his head for his troubles.  Maidstone will need to look at this as selling beer and not keeping such "supporters" a safe distance from travelling supporters is going to be an issue.

It didn't spoil it.  It was one of the best games I have been to probably been to since the play-off final and if we could just crack our home form we could perhaps dream of such games to come...

Travelling Tanners

This is it.  The big one.  A state of the art new ground to welcome us when we face table topping Maidstone United.  The last time we met we left that game feeling a little hard done by so, armed with favourable away form when compared to home, we go for revenge.

I tell you who I think will be influential.  The authoritative Neil Jenkins, who has brought so much class since his arrival...

Bollard free directions can be found here.  See you there!  Prepare yourself for the wall chants...