This time last year Andy and I were trying to come to terms with the fact that the club would be playing in Combined Counties Division One this season.

We started this term with only 4 1st team regulars from last season, so a new look Chessy team in a new division. To be honest I didn’t really know what to expect from Division One as the majority of my playing career was in the Premier Division. I wasn’t surprised to find that the standard of players, grounds, pitches and officials were considerably worse than in the prem. But we had to deal with the situation we found ourselves in.

As well as setting all of the lads personal targets this season, the team had one main target…..Promotion! Whether that is as champions, runners up or in third place.

Our league form wasn’t great at the start of the season with mixed results, a 3-2 defeat to CROYDON ATHLETIC on the opening day wasn’t in the script. A 3-1 win away against SANDHURST TOWN wasn’t long celebrated as we went down 3-2 against FARLEIGH ROVERS in our next game. We picked up a 3-3 draw away to BEDFONT & FELTHAM in early September but after a 5-2 home defeat to EVERSLEY & CALIFORNIA we found ourselves in the bottom 3! A FA Cup run of 4 games and 3 in the FA Vase was a pleasant distraction but we needed to start picking up points in the league. A decent October saw us draw 2-2 with BANSTEAD ATHLETIC which was backed up by a 2-0 win against CROYDON ATHLETIC and a 3-2 win over CB HOUNSLOW. A November of postponements saw us play no league games, December we lost to FARLEIGH ROVERS 2-1……Half way through the season we were still down at the bottom of the table struggling to get any sort of a run going with a mixture of postponements and cup games. The turn of the New Year….we had 10 games in hand over some of the teams in the league. We needed to start winning games, and quickly! An 8-0 win away at SHEERWATER in early January was exactly what we needed, the 2-0 defeat to our tenants and league whipping boys EPSOM ATHLETIC wasn’t! More postponements followed due to continuous rain fall. Back to the football after the rain stopped two and a 5-0 win against EPSOM ATHLETIC followed by a battling 2-1 win away at COBHAM, another little break before we thumped ASH UNITED 8-2 away. 3 wins in 3 games found ourselves slowly but surely climbing the table. A 1-0 win at home against promotion hopefuls WORCESTER PARK was sandwiched between two unjust defeats to STAINES LAMMAS. Our promotion hopes seemed a million miles away following the latest defeat to STAINES LAMMAS, we had to pick ourselves up and go again. The real season changer was when we travelled to ALTON TOWN in mid march, 1-0 down at half time the lads took a bit of a telling off in the break, we managed to win 3-1! Games now coming thick and fast, a 4-0 thrashing of bottom of the league SANDHURST TOWN, another battle and 1-0 win at home to COBHAM. We then travelled to EVERSLEY & CALIFORNIA, a tricky mid week game but we ran out 3-0 winners with a fantastic display! A huge 1-0 win away at promotion rivals BANSTEAD ATHLETIC saw us leap frog our opponents into 6th place! Our next two games against CB HOUNSLOW and WORCESTER PARK were labeled as ‘must not lose’ games, and that is exactly what we did, we drew both games 1-1 and kept our promotion hopes alive. Bank holiday Monday we beat Dorking 3-2 followed by another close 4-3 win against SHEERWATER. 4 games to go…….we destroyed ASH UNITED once again, this time 10-1 the score. A 2-1 win away at DORKING saw us move into 5th place. Our second to last game of the season we entertained 4th place BEDFONT & FELTHAM, 2-0 down with 17mins remaining, we won 4-2 and moved into 4th position. Our win in hand with a BANSTEAD ATHLETIC 3-2 win over WORCESTER PARK we knew that a win in our final game would see us pip WORCESTER PARK to the all important 3rd place! If anyone doesn’t know, we beat ALTON TOWN 5-3 at home infront of 387 people and gained promotion back to the Combined Counties Premier Division.

Considering mid way through the season we were bottom of the league, to finish the season the way we did was an amazing effort from everyone involved! We won 11 and drew 2 of our last 13 games and only lost 3 in 2015. We also finished the season as the highest scoring team in the league, notching 89 times in only 30 games!

This season is my first full season as manager of Chessington & Hook, there have been lots of ups and downs, lots of nervy times, too many sleepless nights, but they all get over looked by the good times, the belief in this squad has always been there and I am proud to say that I have been part of this historic season in the clubs history. I wouldn’t change anything that has happened over the last 9 months and wish I could go back and do it all again…..wait, we do! Next season!! I hope there is a lot more to come from this amazing bunch of lads and brilliant football club, the future looks bright.

UP THE CHESSY!!

Woodsy