Tanners 1 - 4 Lewes

Leatherhead must be held to account for a heavy loss today as Lewes cashed in with 4 goals.

One recent departure that will will be sorely missed is Dan Gallagher, after his long stretch at the club. His honesty and commitment to the club has never been in doubt. His absence left a gaping hole in midfield.

This game certainly wasn't stolen by Lewes and we now sit sadly at the bottom of the league. Lewes took an early lead when they helped themselves to an early goal on 9 minutes. The ball was bundled into the net again on 26 minutes and we went into half time 2 down. It was enough to make you keep returning to the tea bar throughout the game.

Lewes plundered 2 more goals in the 2nd half and probably felt robbed when we scored a consolation goal. It started to rain and got rather chilly but not bad enough for hands to be put in other people's pockets.

We have won a huge amount of FA Cup money in the past couple of seasons. It would nice to keep some of this loot when we play Lewes again next week.

Lewes are coming

Our old friends, Lewes, come back to the Grove today for this league encounter.

Hopefully futures have been considered and we have all the resignations done and dusted for the week.  Some good news is that International Clearance has been received for one player to make their debut.

Kick off at 3pm.  I'm considering to go... 

Travelling Tanners

Looking at the other teams in the league, this fixture has now been upgraded to "local derby".  Looking at the league it has also been upgraded to "must win". 

We travel to Carshalton Athletic today, a team that have won the last two games and scoring seven goals in doing so.

Kick off at 3pm.  Good luck fellas.

Tanners 1 - 2 Enfield Town

Second half blues and absent friends.

If all our games ended at half time we'd have 8 points and be 4th. As it is we have 2 points and we're 5th bottom. That's a mystery for Nikki to solve and hopefully quite quickly. 

More of a mystery is the curt statement announcing the departure of Richard Brady. No best wishes. No thanks for the promotion and many years of service. No mention of the FA Cup run. Will the long suffering members ever find out the truth......based on recent history probably not.

Enfield Town are coming

After a disappointing last minute equaliser at Folkestone (a match report I now see will be assigned to the "draft folder" forever) we continue to search for our first win.

This happens at home with the visit of Enfield Town tomorrow, a side that lost 4-1 to Horsham...

Kick off at 3pm.  Good luck Tanners.

Travelling Tanners

Leatherhead search for their first win against Folkestone Invicta this weekend.  Conditions are not forecast to be the best, certainly not a day to have hopes of much play at Lords for example.

Our hosts have two wins to their name, beating Worthing and Cray Wanderers already.  No easy task for us then...

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

Tanners 2 - 3 Haringey

The omens were not good as on arrival to the club house we quickly saw the curry was late while a frantic Richard Bligh tried to locate the mildly spiced buffet.  Haringey arrived at the Grove, armed with cake, in reasonable numbers given it was a mid-week game and the distance etc.

I did manage to sneak in a plate of "seconds" so waddled around to the pitch just in time to see the ball strike the hand of Haringey player in the box.  This was far to early for the ref' to make such a decision and you would need to wait about 15 minutes for the game to bed in before getting a penalty for this... On 17 minutes the ball struck Jerry's hand and a penalty was awarded.  0-1.

It was a shame as Leatherhead were on top and were showing good promise.  Leatherhead continued to press for a goal and got it on the stroke of half time when a clumsy challenge brought a penalty to Leatherhead and DSane continued his scoring run.  1-1.

Second half was a very different affair though and despite Nikki's claim of a bright opening 5-10 minutes I thought he had it right before he corrected himself of the time scale being in seconds.  We failed to respond to the increased effort from Haringey and they made us pay.

The first goal came from a ball into the box that was not cleared but placed into the path of a striker who was afforded enough time to pick his spot. 1-2.  Not too long after we conceded again, a header from a corner.

The game appeared all over when Dan Gallagher calmly volleyed a ball into the side netting to set up a finish to the game we barely deserved.  That finish nearly came when Jerry, pushed up front, was free in the box with the ball at his feet.  Striking the ball, while falling backwards, it went just wide and Haringey survived the scare.

Folkestone away Saturday...

Haringey Borough are coming

The team many thought (hoped) would win the league last year, come to the Grove tonight with a win already under their belts. 

The away fixture to North London, last season, will go down with many as one of the highlights of the campaign and showed just how important players like Travis are to our chances... and he is back!

Curry plates up at 6.30.  Kick off at 7.45.  See you there.

Horsham 1 - 1 Tanners

I was expecting a bit more from the trip to Horsham, although holidays and replacement bus services may have reduced the crowd a little. 

On getting there it had a feel of a big game that only comes from parking a five minute walk from the ground.  On entering, the atmosphere was lively but I was expecting t see grown men cry upon entering their new stadium.

On the pitch and Leatherhead can be reasonably content.  This time last year, we were given a sound thrashing at the hands of a newly promoted side but this time we more than held our own.

There was a patient composure to our build up play and in the first half I would say we, overall, controlled it.  Our goal came from a DSane penalty which was won through a challenge where the ball appeared to be won but at the expense of taking out the striker.

DSane could have double his tally but for the intervention of Ekpiteta who struck, albeit a powerful shot, while lying on the ground.

Horsham then struck.  We fell asleep and the ball was worked into the box and slipped into the back of the net, beating Zak at his near post.

Second half and Horsham really did compete.  We headed off of the line at least once and saw the ball less in dangerous positions.  Jerry had two great chances to take the lead.  A powerful volley going just wide of the right post and a glances headed even closer to the left.

Just as I thought we deserved more, Zak pulled off a miraculous save to justify the honours being even.  On to Tuesday's curry night...

Travelling Tanners

So, here we go again.  Another season starts following, result wise, a disappointing pre-season.  However, let's cheer ourselves up the glorious sound that is the NEW GROUND KLAXON.

Tomorrow we travel to our old friends Horsham.  A team that drifted down the leagues and even out of Horsham due to their ground sharing arrangements.  That is behind them as they join us in the Isthmian Premier League in their new ground.

Parking advice has been given and we should aim to park in the RSPCA and take a shuttle bus.  There is also a Park & Ride opposite and details can be found here.

Kick off at 3pm.  See you there!

Farnborough Town are coming

Leatherhead take in Farnborough in a round of strange exhibition games; two games lasting 60 minutes each.  To accommodate this they kick off at 2.30.

A pity, as after our first win in the week it would be good to set ourselves out again but I doubt a settled side will be played today.

Good luck fellas.