Ask the Historian If there is anything you'd like to know about the history of the club, a certain statistic, or details about a particular player, just drop me a line at: richard.c.lambert@gmail.com I will try my best to answer all questions and will list them here for reference. Q: 19/12/24 On Tuesday 17th December we benefitted from what was a fifth own goal this season, but is this a record? A: Five own goals in one season actually equals a club record, previously set in 1993/94 and repeated in 1996/97. Seeing as we have only just crossed the half way mark for the campaign, it is fair to suggest that this season may well end up beling our "luckiest" in that area! Looking back through history we have now "scored" 134 own goals that I am able to trace, although there are very few scorers I am missing, so I am fairly happy with this information. Additionally, we have never had two own goals in any single match. Yet! Q: 12/10/24 A few supporters have asked me whether we have ever had a similar run of 2-2 draws in our history. We recorded our fourth consecutive 2-2 draw at home to Fleet Town on 12th October 2024. Additionally, what is our longest sequential run of any result. A: This one is a nice straightforward one to answer. We had never before even had three consecutive 2-2 draws, let alone a FOURTH one! Looking back we have only had eight previous occasions in history where we had a pair of "Desmonds", the last of which came in 2010. It is a very unusual result. When looking back at our longest sequence with the same result, my mind instantly thought back to the 1982/83 season when we had five straight goalless draws, which of course, contributed greatly to Steve Chapman's club records for clean sheet minutes, both in total and at home. This is indeed the club record. We have had eight "triples", the first of which was a run of three straight 2-3 defeats back in 1948, but this 2-2 run and that 0-0 run are the only times we have exceeded that number. Q: 04/12/23 Thanks to former player Elvin Box for asking whether our 1974/75 team was the best in club history. A: This one a difficult one to answer. How do you quantify the quality of one team against another in varying areas of history? The first way to answer this is by League record. If you convert all seasons to a three points for a win format, then the 1974/75 season was our most successful League season in history with a points per game record of 2.75, due to winning all of our matches, apart from two draws with Malden Town and a loss to Frimley Green. When you throw in a League Cup Final win and a Charity Cup Final appearance, not to mention the FA Vase Final appearance at Wembley Stadium, it's hard to argue against it being our best season in history. However, we had other successful eras. In the mid-1920s we had three seasons in a row with a points per game record over 2.00 and one of those contained a League and Cup double also. In the 1932/33 season we finished off with eleven wins in a row including a 5-0 win over Isthmian League Woking on their own ground to win the Surrey Senior Shield and later that year reached the First Round of the FA Cup, so it could be argued that both of these teams were very good too. I will also throw in our 1984/85 team that finished in 13th place in the Isthmian League Premier Division; our highest ever finish in the football pyramid, some three levels above the Surrey Senior League we had bossed ten years previously, or the 1983/84 team that contained Steve Milton, Paul Harding and Murray Jones, all of whom went on to play professionally. As a result, I don't really have a definitive answer. I think on balance, the 1974/75 team just gets my vote, but it's nice to report that we have actually had a lot of success over the years! Q: 30/05/23 Thanks to Phil Harris for this one too. "Why are Epsom called the Salts? Who introduced the title? A: This one is far more recent that most people would realise. It's easy to think that as a Spa town, we'd have had this for decades, but it actually came to pass during our brief two year period of playing home matches at Merstham. The match programme I edited had a number of contributors back then and one of them was a chap called Alan Carter. He felt, and I agreed, that calling us "the Blues" was a bit dull and calling us "the EE's" was also a bit suspicious due to the perceived reference to drugs! He wrote an article in the match programme suggesting a few possible ideas for a new nickname and the most popular of these was the Salts. I publicised it within the match programme along with another long-serving supporter Steve Dyke and the rest is history, although Alan gets the real credit here. He no longer attends club matches, but hopefully he still looks in from time to time! It is often easy to work out when someone became a supporter, by their choice of nickname. Although there is no one alive now who will remember the original and fairly unimaginative nickname of "the Town" but certainly supporters from the 70s regularly use the "EE's" term. Personally, I usually use "the Blues", sometimes "the Yellows" although if we are in red I'll just shout "c'mon Epsom"!! Q: 30/05/23 Thanks to Phil Harris for this one. "Why do Epsom have blue and white hooped tops? A: To answer this we need to go back to the summer of 1991. We had just been relegated to the Third Division of the Isthmian League and our Manager Adrian Hill, who had returned for a second spell in charge in March 1990 decided that we were quite a small and young team and as a result he felt that putting us in hoops would make us look bigger. Now, someone may have suggested this to Ada, or it may have been solely his idea, but it replaced the all blue kits we had been wearing since the mid-sixties and has been in use ever since. Q: 28/03/23 It is well known across regular supporters that I hate our red kit. It may look nice, but our club colours for over a hundred years have been blue and you wouldn't see Chelsea or Everton using one, not to mention the near riot at Cardiff City when their owner tried changing things. However, it has recently been mentioned to me that some people see it as a "lucky" kit so I thought I'd have a look into the stats to see if this statement was true. A: We first wore the red kit competitively on the opening day of the 2020/21 season when Rob Hendry put us ahead at AFC Hayes, only for us to lose to a 90th minute fluke cross, not a great start! We have in fact worn it competitively on eight occasions in the last three seasons, including the recent draw at Mile Oak, winning four, drawing one and losing three of the matches for a points per game figure of 1.63. However, our playing record over that time as I write this is: Played 96, Won 53, Drawn 11, Lost 32 which equates to 1.77 points per game. To summarise, it is therefore not a lucky kit, it is in fact a below average kit, and to be honest, I'm quite pleased about this as I much prefer us in our traditional colours! Q: 09/01/23 Thanks to Phil Harris for this question. Stevenage defeated Aston Villa in the FA Cup this weekend and I'm sure I watched us play Stevenage back in the sixties. Can you provide some details please? A: Phil is absolutely correct about this as we hosted Stevenage on 16th September 1967 at West Street in an FA Cup tie, which the visitors won 3-1 in front of an attendance of 400. This is not the only time we have played Stevenage though. That original club folded at the end of 1967/68 before being replaced by Stevenage Athletic and then reforming in later years as Stevenage Borough, eventually renaming themselves back to Stevenage FC in deference to the original club name as they joined the Football League. However, on their way up we met them in a pair of Isthmian League matches during 1986/87. We were unfortunate to lose to a thunderbolt in the final ten minutes on our only visit to Broadhall Way on 25th October 1986 as the hosts won 1-0 and we actually led 2-0 at home in the return fixture on 14th March 1987 but ended up having to settle for a 2-2 draw, despite a Stevenage player being sent off with the score at 2-1 to us. We went down by just one point that season and it is this result that I look to when wondering where that one extra point may have come from! Q: 08/01/23 Thanks to my partner Alice for this question. On Saturday 14th January we are due to visit Arundel with the return match coming seven days later. Have we ever had consecutive League matches in our history prior to this? A: It might be hard to believe if you are under the age of 60, but this has actually happened on 56 previous occasions! The reason why it has happened so often is because in days gone by, Christmas fixtures would often see local teams paired together home and away over the Christmas period, most frequently against Carshalton Athletic or Dorking. This is not the only reason though and in the sixties we would often open up our fixtures with two matches against the same team. In 1961 we met Erith & Belvedere home and away. Bizarrely, we also played them at the end of the 1960/61 season, making this the only occasion in our history with three consecutive fixtures against the same team! Consecutive fixtures have happened quite rarely in more recent years and has only happened twice previously in the 21st Century; once in February 2002 against Croydon Athletic, losing one and drawing one, and most recently in January 2006 when we played Chertsey Town, winning one and drawing the other contest. Worryingly, our chances of winning both matches against the same team are very slim, as we have not done so since December 1960; a total of 22 "double fixtures" since then. This does not bode well for the upcoming pair of matches against Arundel, but all sequences have to end sometime! Please see the table below which shows all 56 occurrences of consecutive fixtures. NOTE: Due to poor weather these consecutive matches did not take place. Q: 29/10/22 We are unbeaten in twelve completed league matches, is this a record? A: The answer is no. However, our club record is not that far away and sits at eighteen league matches, set unsurprisingly back in our great 1974/75 season. We also have three runs of fifteen, set in 1928, 1938 and 1978. We also have four other runs of thirteen which were achieved in 1926, 1927, 1932, and 1981. Finally, we have a club record for consecutive wins which is also twelve, set between November 2012 and February 2013 Q: 20/10/21 Our 6-0 win over Oakwood was the second match in a row that we have won by at least six goals. Has this happened before? A: This has happened before, but only once, way back in January of 1926. On 26/12/1925 we defeated Reigate Priory 8-0 in a League match at West Street and followed this up with a 6-0 home win over Leyland Motors in the League Cup on 02/01/1926. Q: 12/02/19 Our 5-1 win over Godalming Town means that we are unbeaten in 10 matches. When did this last happen? A: This run is the seventeenth time we have achieved a ten match unbeaten run in all competitions; the last of which came not long ago on 15th March 2017 when we also achieved ten matches unbeaten before losing narrowly at home to Champions elect Hartley Wintney three days later. If we were to extend this to eleven, it would only be the eighth time we have reached that mark, which we last reached on 28th December 2015 at Horley Town before losing at home to Ashford Town (Mx) in the Combined Counties League Cup on 4th Jan 2016. The record run is a surprisingly achievable 14 matches unbeaten, set in 1937 with an Amateur Cup replay win over Banstead Hospital on 9th October 1937, before the run was ended by Sutton United in the FA Cup seven days later. In 1927/28 we went ten matches unbeaten, losing against Summerstown in the Surrey Senior Cup before then producing another ten match unbeaten run! Our record for consecutive League wins is 12, set in 2012/13 and for consecutive wins in all competitions, it is ten, set at the same time, and also in 1926/27. We currently have four straight wins in all competitions and last time we exceeded that was of course, earlier this season with five. Six wins in all competitions last came in 2016/17 and we have won five straight matches on 51 previous occasions. Q: 22/09/18 Our 3-0 win at FC Deportivo Galicia means that we have scored at least three goals in our last five consecutive matches. When did this last happen? A: A bit like the question below, this has happened more often than you might think but it is still fairly rare. We have actually done this on eighteen previous occasions in history, the last time was a five match run from 2nd February 2013 until 23rd February 2013. It is however just the second time this Century that we've done it. If however, we were able to score three times against Bagshot on Tuesday it would be the first time we had managed this feat on six straight occasions since between 28th September 1974 and 9th November 1974, when the run was bookended by two nine goal tallies! We have achieved this six match feat on nine previous occasions. We also have a seven game run in 1950/51, but this pales into significance against a ten match run in 1956/57 and our club record run of twelve in 1926/27! NOTE: We completed this a third time this Century in October of 2020. Q: Sept 18 Our 6-1 defeat at Lingfield at Whyteleafe was followed by a 6-0 win against AC London. Have we ever had a six goal turnaround before? A: It?s happened more times than you would think, but not for a while. It has happened on a remarkable TEN occasions, most of which were before the War, although it did happen three times post war; the last of which came when we were defeated 6-2 by Leatherhead on 14th March 1964, only to respond in our next match two weeks later with a 7-2 home win over Wokingham Town. Both fixtures were Athenian League matches. In the interests of balance, the reverse situation has happened to us on five occasions also, the last of which came also in 1964, after we defeated Marlow 7-1 in the F.A. Cup on 5th September, only to crash 7-3 at Harlow Town in the Athenian League just seven days later. There are a couple of other instances worth reporting. On 12th December 1925 we lost 8-2 to Redhill in the East Surrey Hospital Cup at West Street but two weeks later in our following match on the Boxing Day we defeated Reigate Priory 8-0 in the Surrey Senior League. This is the only time we have seen an eight goal swing. Finally, on 26th December 1945 we lost a Friendly Challenge match 9-2 at The Old Spotted Dog ground against Isthmian League giants Clapton, responded well three days later with a 7-0 win over Carshalton Athletic, but then lost our next match on 5th January 7-3 against Walton & Hersham in a London League match! There are other odd occurrences. We defeated Grays Athletic 10-1 in a League match on 10th February 1934 only to lose 6-3 seven days later to the same team!! Also on 4th December 1937 we beat Royal Naval Depot Chatham 10-1 in the London League, only to concede seven the very next day in a friendly Challenge match at Dunkirk! The heavy Channel crossing on the Saturday night probably had something to do with that!! Q: Sept 18 Following our matches at Whyteleafe against Lingfield and AC London, have we ever played consecutive away matches on the same ground v different teams? A: The answer to the first one is amazingly, yes! On 25th January 1997 we defeated ground sharing Southall 3-2 at Silver Jubilee Park, home of Kingsbury Town and then on 8th February 1997 we defeated Kingsbury 3-1 on their own pitch. Unlike our recent matches with Lingfield and AC London there was a home match in between the two away games, but that?s just splitting hairs! Q: 13/01/18 Our 2-1 win at Godalming Town included two goal scorers, Marlon Pinder and Kyen Nicholas, who scored on their debut. When did this last happen? A: This has only happened on nine previous occasions in history! Our last occurrence came on Saturday 22nd August 1987 when Clive Gartell and Gary Greenaway both scored in a 4-3 win over Met Police at West Street. Greenaway scored the late winner in this match from 25 yards on a very wet day that caused abandonments in other parts of the country! The other eight matches are: 4th December 1979 Gary McDonald and Barry Rowan scored in a 3-0 home win over Dorking in the Southern Combination Cup (McDonald went on to become an actor appearing in EastEnders). 21st August 1965 Jimmy Wand and Alan Cox scored in a 3-3 home draw with Herne Bay in the Athenian League Division Two. 20th March 1965 Maurice Griffiths and David Grinrod scored in a 2-3 home defeat to Harlow Town in the Athenian League Division One. 19th August 1961 Jim Punter (2) and Jim Sheehan scored in a 3-5 home defeat to Erith & Belvedere in the Corinthian League. 6th October 1951 Ron Lomax and legendary striker Bill Goddard scored in a 2-4 away defeat to Chesham United in the Corinthian League. This is the only other time where the feat has been achieved away from home. 19th May 1951 Danny Coghlin and E.Hill scored in a 3-3 home draw with Surbiton Town in a match to mark the Festival of Britain. 17th October 1931 J.Williamson and Bernard Marlow (2) scored in a 7-1 home win over Hendon in the London League. Billy Williams scored the other four against a club that had no connection to the current Hendon we know. 29th August 1931 W.Graham, Tommy "Tot" Winship and Tommy Dunne a future Welsh Amateur International all scored in a 6-0 home win over Godalming in a Challenge friendly to start the season. This remains the only time that THREE players have scored on their debuts! Q: 14/11/17 Our 3-0 win over Farnham Town was our first League win of the season at the 16th attempt. Is this a record? A: As you might expect, we have had worse seasonal starts, but actually only one, and that didn't end well! Some people might think back to 2003/04 when we went a club record thirty matches without a win, but forget that we defeated Corinthian Casuals in just the second match of the season. We have had seven previous occasions where we have had to wait until at least the tenth League match of the season to register our first win and 2017/18 comes in at number two on that list, behind the 1986/87 season when we defeated Tilbury in our 18th match of the season, following it up with a win over Maidenhead United. However, there was no happy ending as all three of those teams (including Finchley) were relegated at the end of the term as we came third from bottom. In terms of the latest date in a season when we registered our first league win, the 1986/87 season win over Tilbury occurred on 22nd November 1986, but in 1963/64 we won a League match at the 12th attempt against Wembley (after 11 previous losses) and this occurred on 7th December 1963. However, we finished bottom that season. Of the eight occasions where we had to wait until at least the tenth League match to record a win, we finished in the following positions - 1963/64: 14th/14, 1964/65: 16th/16, 1966/67: 12th/16, 1970/71: 16th/16, 1984/85: 13th/22, 1986/87: 20th/22, 2006/07: 17th/22 The conclusion to draw from this is that it is possible to get out of trouble as we did in three of the above seasons, but the odds are still against us, so let's hope we can follow this win up with some more! Q: 07/10/17 Our 6-2 loss at Knaphill was the fifth time this season where we have been beaten by four or more goals. Is this a record? A: It is not a record, but with five defeats having happened already, it is fair to say that we are well on course to get close to it. Incredibly, we have had at least five "four goal" defeats on eighteen previous occasions! Our club record number of defeats is ten, set in 1945/46 and matched in 1963/64 and 1970/71. In the latter two years we finished bottom of the table but were spared by re-election. However, the last two occasions where we had at least five losses have resulted in relegations; 2003/04 and 1986/87. We have on only one occasion previously suffered five defeats by this stage of the season, back in 1970/71 when our fifth "four goal" defeat came on 3rd October. NOTE: By the end of this season we had equalled the club record with ten and of course went down with only Farnham Town below us. Q: 21/08/17 We lost 5-0 at Sutton Common Rovers. When did we last lose two consecutive League games by five goals? A: The last time this happened was in the 2003/04 season when we lost 8-0 to Walton & Hersham at Stompond Lane and then 5-0 at Horsham two weeks later. It has actually happened on nine previous occasions. The other years were: 1968/69, 1967/68, 1966/67, 1964/65, 1960/61 1950/51 (twice), and the club record set in 1945/46 when we lost three matches by five or more goals. It was nearly four straight matches but we were only beaten 7-3 in that fourth match! Q: 21/08/17 We lost 5-0 at Sutton Common Rovers. When did we last lose our opening three League games of a season? A: The last time it occurred was at the start of the 1994/95 season when we lost to Camberley Town, Canvey Island and Bedford Town. It has actually happened on seven previous occasions including 1994/95. The other years were: 1978/79, 1970/71 (nine losses), 1964/65 (six losses), 1962/63 (five losses), 1958/59 (five losses), and the club record set in 1963/64 when we opened up with 11 straight league losses! We have never before conceded four or more goals in our opening three League games, and the 16 conceded breaks another low mark of 13 set in the opening three matches of 1964/65. Q: 15/08/17 On Tuesday against Chertsey Town Ben Hayward came on as a substitute but had to be substituted by Cristian Castell. Has this ever happened before? A: This was in fact the ninth occasion when it had happened. A table showing the previous eight is listed below. Q: 15/08/17 When we were beaten 7-2 by Chertsey, we conceded six goals in the first half. Is this a record? A: It's not a record, but fortunately it is a rarity. The last time we conceded six in the first half was on 5th December 1936 at Finchley when we trailed 6-0 at half time, only to draw the second half as we did against Chertsey for a final result of 1-7. The last time we did this at home was earlier that same year when losing 6-7 at home to West Norwood in a friendly challenge match on 22nd February 1936. Ray Mason scored all seven for the visitors as we trailed 3-6 at half time. We also did it once pre-war and somewhat surprisingly during our League and Cup double season of 1926/27 when Woking defeated us 8-3 at West Street in the Surrey Senior Cup, this time with S.Perryman scoring seven goals. This was 6-1 at the half. The last time we conceded seven goals came on 18th August 2007 against Crowborough Athletic in the F.A. Cup when they thumped us 7-1 at Merland Rise. Have we ever conceded six goals in the first 31 minutes before? Never, although Woking scored their six in the first 35 minutes. NOTE: We conceded seven goals one more time at Bedfont Sports on 4th November 2017. This remains the last time we did this as I write (Oct 2021). Q: 07/03/17 One of the more unusual stats we have at the club relates to Win Ratios. This basically is calculated by dividing the amount of winning matches a player played in, divided by the total number of matches played. So who is our best player, statistically? A: You could argue that by being in a good team like ours has been in recent years, your stats would be higher and this is true, but not everyone's stats are the same, even in a good team. Our top three regular players are: Craig Hastings at 57.83%, Matt Ferdinando at 57.43% and Rhys North at 57.14%. These are impressive figures, especially when you compare them against recent legends like Kyle Hough who sits on 50.82%. The best player (minimum 10 matches) in recent years was Bentley Graham with 61.11%. Anyway, here is a table showing all current players at the squad as at the end of the season. Enjoy the bragging rights Craig! Q: 07/03/17 On 7th March 2017 we defeated Bedfont & Feltham 4-1, recording an aggregate victory of 13-3 for the two League encounters. Is this a record for the highest aggregate? A: Maybe unsurprisingly the answer to this is no, but it is twenty years since this happened and the occurrence is much rarer these days. The aggregate winning margin of ten goals has been achieved on seven previous occasions, the last of which came against Tring Town in 1995/96 when we won 11-1 at home, yet drew 1-1 away! This is the only occasion where we have recorded a winning margin of ten or more goals without winning both matches. In addition, we have three 11 goal winning margins: 11) Whyteleafe 1974/75 - H3-1 A9-0 - Surrey Senior League 11) Chesham United 1956/57 - H8-2 A5-0 - Corinthian League 11) Guildford City Reserves 1937/38 - H5-1 A8-1 - London League Incredibly though, we also have the following: 12) Cobham 1974/75 - H9-0 A4-1 - Surrey Senior League 12) Reigate Priory 1926/27 - H7-0 A7-2 - Surrey Senior League 13) Dorking 1956/57 - H9-0 A4-0 - Corinthian League 13) Vickers 1926/27 - H7-2 A8-0 - Surrey Senior League And finally: 18) Weybridge 1926/27 - H10-0 A8-0 - Surrey Senior League In the interests of balance I have also looked at our losing aggregates. On just eight occasions we reached the minus ten mark, or worse, most recently against Walton & Hersham in 2003/04. 10) Windsor & Eton 1970/71 - H0-4 A0-6 - Athenian League Division Two 11) Walton & Hersham 2003/04 - H0-3 A0-8 - Isthmian League Division One South 11) Lewes 1967/68 - H0-1 A-10 - Athenian League Division Two 11) Eastbourne 1963/64 - H0-5 A0-6 - Athenian League Division One 11) Hounslow 1950/51 - H0-5 A1-7 - Corinthian League 12) Grays Athletic 1950/51 - H4-7 A1-10 - Corinthian League 13) Letchworth 1963/64 - H3-7 A0-9 - Athenian League Division One And finally: 15) Chelmsford Reserves 1947/48 - H2-3 A0-14 - London League Q: 07/03/17 On 7th March 2017 we defeated Bedfont & Feltham to record our 17th League match without defeat at High Road. Have we ever had a run of this size before? A: The answer to this is yes, but not often and we are getting close to the record! We have two previous runs of 17 unbeaten home League matches. 1) between 30/01/1937 and 18/04/1938 inclusive 2) between 06/11/1999 and 26/02/2000 inclusive Additionally though we have three longer runs. In 1926/27 we had a run of 18 unbeaten from 26/12/1925 until 19/03/1927 inclusive (including the whole of 1926 unbeaten) In 1974/75 we had a run of 18 unbeaten from 04/01/1975 until 31/01/1976 inclusive (including the whole of 1975 unbeaten) In 1982/83 and 1983/84 we had a run of 24 unbeaten from 15/01/1983 until 25/02/1984 inclusive (including the whole of 1983 unbeaten) If we were to avoid defeat in our next home match against Champions elect Hartley Wintney, we would match our second longest run in club history. Not bad for a team with a better record away from home for the last six seasons since 2009/10! If we could get past a team of their standard, then who knows how long we could keep the run going! Whilst looking I also delved into home League winning runs. On three occasions we had eleven match winning runs in 1933, 1935 and 1949 but our club record is a winning run of 17 set in 1926/27 which included wins in every single match played in 1926. Quite impressive! NOTE: The unbeaten run ended at 17 against Hartley Wintney by a goal to nil. Q: 06/12/16 Thanks to Nigel Pond for this one. On 6th December Daryl Cooper-Smith and Charlie Clark-Gleave both played in the starting line up for our club. Have we ever had two double barrelled surnames in the squad before? A: Incredibly the answer is yes! In the entire history of the club we have had just eight players with a double barrelled surname, but on 17th December 2005 both Andy Amfo-Brobbey and Julian Appiah-Koduah played for us at Ware in the Isthmian League Division Three. The game did not end well for us with a 7-0 defeat. We also had a couple of occasions during 2006/07 when Amfo-Brobbey was paired with John Baah in the starting eleven, on 9th September 2006 at CB Hounslow United in the League Cup and on 12th September 2006 at Ash United. John Baah had been a youth team player for us and was formerly known as John Oppong-Baah before taking his mother's surname. The pair also played in the next three matches with Baah coming on as a substitute in each case, but we were a poor side and were also dealing with the immediate aftermath of Dave Wilson's death on 14th September 2006 and didn't win any of those five matches either! Which brings us to this season and Charlie's debut on 23rd August 2016 when he and Daryl first played in the starting eleven and we defeated Abbey Rangers 7-1 at home. Charlie made a couple of entrances as a substitute but either Daryl wasn't playing or we didn't win, and of course both were in the starting eleven against Chipstead on 6th December 2016. Our list of eight players is as follows: Mick Talbot-Butler - Debut 6th January 1951 - Born 1931 - Son of a pre war Vice-Chairman Fred, Michael played in a few games but was living near Manchester when I last heard from him just before his 80th birthday in 2011. Made 4 first team appearances with 1 goal John Oppong-Baah - Debut 12th April 2004 - Born 24/02/1987 - First played for our Youth team on 20th August 2003 and was still known by both surnames at the time of his debut. Made 13 first team appearances, 11 of which were as a sub but did not score. Andy Amfo-Brobbey - Debut 10th December 2005 - Born 10/06/1985 - Andy was a very speedy striker, often played down the wing, although was more successful through the middle. Was a stalwart for the Reserves for a few seasons with an excellent scoring record. Made 49 first team appearances with 8 goals. Julian Appiah-Koduah - Debut 17th December 2005 - Born 05/11/1981 - This was Julian's only first team match for us and he didn't stay with the club that long. Nick Taylor-Greaves - Debut 10th March 2012 - Born 06/04/1981 - Nick played for us briefly following an injury to Adrian Jones and did not rejoin, preferring to play for Chessington & Hook United where he famously made a double save of a twice taken Kyle Hough penalty. He also played for Guildford City where in fact he played against us in November, but by now he was known simply as Nick Taylor. Made 9 first team appearances. Carlton Murray-Price - Debut 8th March 2014 - Born 28/04/1987 - Carlton joined on loan from Chipstead and made a great start for the club, scoring four goals in his first three matches for us, including two in a big win a South Park. Unfortunately he didn't score for us again and left the club before the end of the season. Made 8 first team appearances with 4 goals. Daryl Cooper-Smith - Debut 3rd January 2015 - Born 05/03/1990 - Now our highest appearance maker and goal scorer of all double barrelled surname players, Daryl is having a fantastic season after much of last year was affected by suspension. Made 60 first team appearances with 45 goals as I write this. Charlie Clark-Gleave - Debut 23rd August 2016 - Born 16/08/1991 - Charlie joined us from Tooting & Mitcham United but has been unfortunate with injuries. Now fit and hoping to get more game time. Made 4 first team appearances as I write this. In addition to our double barrelled surnames, we have Fred De Vries (40s), Martin Dos Ramos (90s) twelve O's (most notably Pat O'Connell) Vic Le Grand (50s, Dave Le Grice (60s) a couple of Vans, Arjan van Sliedregt (80s) and Julian van Gelder (2000s) one N' in Philip N'gbale, and one Kim, Tae Hun Kim (2012)!! Q: 26/11/16 On 26th November Daryl Cooper-Smith scored his twentieth goal for the club before the end of November. Is this a record? A: In our entire history, there have only been 19 occasions where a player has scored 20 goals before Christmas. Kyle Hough was the last to achieve this before Daryl on 28th December 2013. However, scoring 20 goals by the end of November has only been done on eight occasions; the last of which was by Tommy Tuite on 13th November 1976. The person to reach 20 goals earliest in the season was Bill Goddard who had twenty on the 1st November 1952 in just the club's twelfth match of the season, on his way to setting a post war club record of 54 that season. Reg Marlow reached twenty in the club's tenth match of the season but this wasn't until 6th November, back in 1926 on his way to the club scoring record of 65 goals. Here is a list of those achievements, 19 in total, by 15 different players. Q: 24/09/16 Thanks to Steve Dyke for this one. On 17th September Matt Smith scored his first goal for the club in many years. Is this a record length between scoring for us? A: There are two ways to answer this question. 1) Longest time between goals and 2) Longest time between goals while continuously a member of our club. Many players have played and scored for us before leaving and then returning later in their careers and scoring again. To answer the first part of the question Matt sits in ninth place with his gap of four years, six months and 14 days (1659 days) between goals for us. The top three, all of whom had a spell at other clubs, are as follows: Tony Boorman - 3,947 days between 10/05/85 Bognor Regis Town (A) and 29/02/96 Southall (H) Reg Walker - 3,055 days between 22/04/53 Slough Town (A) and 02/09/61 Letchworth (A) Mick Simmonds - 2,219 days between 11/09/54 Dorking (A) and 08/10/60 Slough Town (A) To answer the second part of the question Matt sits in fourth place for players who have given continuous service to the club. The top three are as follows: Ernie Watkins (fourth overall) - 2,212 days between 27/10/51 Worcester Park (A) and 16/11/57 Molesey (A) Jack Parr (sixth overall) - 1,988 days between 27/09/30 Whyteleafe Albion (H) and 07/03/36 Eton Manor (A) Tommy Winship (eighth overall) - 1,715 days between 04/03/33 Bostall Heath (A) and 13/11/37 Tilbury (A) Here is a list of those players, forty in total, with a gap of over 1,000 days between goals for us. Q: 29/08/16 Daryl Cooper-Smith has scored eleven goals in our first eight matches. Is this a record? A: It isn't a record but it is a rare occurrence and the achievement puts Daryl in an elite group. He is the first player to do this since Tommy Tuite also reached 11 goals in season 1974/75. However, even that mark has been beaten before by six other players! These are: Reg Marlow - 19 goals in 1926/27 Billy Williams - 12 goals in 1932/33 Leslie Marlow - 13 goals in 1933/34 Jackie Pullen - 12 goals in 1935/36 Sid Faggetter - 12 goals in 1950/51 Bill Goddard - 12 goals in 1952/53 Daryl does have a club record to his name though, as he is the only person to have reached double figures by the end of August. Congratulations Daryl! Q: 03/08/16 On 2nd August we had two hat trick scorers. When did this last happen? A: This was the first time we have had two hat trick scorers in a match since 28th August 1979 when we won an Isthmian League Cup tie against Corinthian Casuals by seven goals to nil with the scorers being Tommy Tuite and Roy Beswick. The last time we did this away from home was on the 8th April 1933 when we defeated the London League club Hendon (no connection to the current team) by seven clear goals in a League match at the Welsh Harp Ground in Kingsbury when Leslie Marlow and Tommy Dunne were the scorers. Additionally, Daryl Cooper-Smith's hat trick was almost certainly the 300th in club history! I am missing a handful of scorers over the years, but not many, and I suspect this figure to be correct. Q: 03/08/16 On 2nd August we scored nine goals in the second half of a match to defeat Bedfont & Feltham 9-2.Is this a club record? A: The answer to this is YES! In fact, there were a few new records set yesterday. We had only ever scored nine goals away from home once before, but in terms of second half scoring we had never scored nine before, home or away! Also, eleven goals in an Epsom away match marks another record, while eleven goals all in one net is another record, beating the mark of ten set in a 5-5 home draw with Bostall Heath in 1938/39. Q: 05/04/16 On 2nd April Rob Hendry became our sixth different goalkeeper this season. Is this a club record? A: The answer to this is very nearly! Our six keepers this season, Michael Eacott, Adrian Jones, Alistair Turpie, Daryl Cooper-Smith, Dan Dean and now Rob Hendry, is a mark only reached in six other seasons. They are 1949/50, 1960/61, 1979/80, 1987/88, 1994/95 and the record breaking post war season of 1945/46 when we had seven. It is certainly the first time we have required the use of six keepers since 1994/95 when Trevor Jones opened and closed the season between the posts, but during the year Keith Jones, Kevin Robbins, Dan Robinson, Mike Erlebach and outfield player Tim Tweedy all made appearances. Q: 05/04/16 On 2nd April we scored five goals away from home in a League match. This is the fourth time we have done this all season. Is this a club record? A: The answer to this is also, very nearly! This mark equals the figure set by our 1974/75 team, but sits one match short of our club record set in 1926/27 when we did it on five occasions: Weybridge (8-0), Godalming (5-2), Addlestone (5-0), Reigate Priory (7-2) and Vickers (8-0) and went on to win the Surrey Senior League title. This will be the first season that we have completed such an achievement but not gone on to win a title. NOTE: Since the date of this question we scored at least five on two more occasions (AFC Hayes 7-0 and Chessington & Hook United 6-1) to set a new club record. Q: 05/04/16 On 2nd April we completed our second league win this season over Guildford City both of which were by four clear goals. When did we last do this? A: This hasn't happened for 13 seasons and has only happened 16 times previously in our history, four of which happened in 1926/27!! More recently, it is only the fourth time in the last forty years that we have done this, completing the achievement twice in the 2000/01 season against Camberley Town and Clapton, and more recently against Chalfont St Peter in the 2001/02 season. We have done this twice against two teams, Carshalton Athletic and Chesham United, although this recent win has ensured that we have now done this against Guildford City's first team AND their old Reserves who played in the London League with us during the 1937/38 season! A list of the 17 occasions in history are listed below. You will note that none of those teams finished in a top half position in the League, although the recent win against Guildford occurred when they were in the top half. Q: 21/12/15 We have a Hall of Fame for appearances and goals scored but not for clean sheets. Which keeper has most clean sheets for our club? A: I can confirm that there is now a Hall of Fame for clean sheets and this will show you that the top dog is Dave Hyatt, who recorded 101 clean sheets in his 409 matches for the club. Both our current keepers are on the list which covers everyone with at least five clean sheets and Michael Eacott has 17 whilst Adrian Jones has 7. Hopefully they will keep climbing the list this season. Disclaimer: There are a few clean sheets attributed to keepers that may have been injured during the game and I have been unable to remove all of these without checking each of our 840 clean sheets. Additionally, there are three clean sheets where I do not yet have the name of the keeper. Q: 28/11/15 Thanks to regular supporter Tony Coome for this. On Tuesday 24th November at Bedfont Sports we drew 2-2 which was our third consecutive away league draw. When did this last happen and have we ever drawn more than three? A: Firstly, the last time we had three consecutive away league draws was back in March 2007 when we drew at Dorking (2-2), Egham Town (0-0) and Cove (2-2). Secondly, if we had extended the sequence to four at Colliers Wood United it would have been the first time we had done this since 1932 when we set a record of five. On no other occasion have we managed more than three draws. Q: 26/11/15 On Tuesday 24th November at Bedfont Sports we had two players and our Manager and Assistant sent off. Has this, or anything similar happened before? A: Regrettably, this is the first time that we have even had three, let alone four members of club staff dismissed in a single game. In terms of Managers being sent off, Adrian Hill was the only one previously dismissed and that was arguably for mistaken identity at Harlow Town on 19/03/83 when we lost 2-0. In terms of players, this is the eighth time in history that we have finished with nine players due to sending offs. This is however the first time we have come away from one of these games without losing. Every cloud, eh!! The seven previous occasions were: 01/11/97 - Cowes Sports (A) F.A. Vase - 2-5 25/08/98 - Abingdon Town (A) Isthmian League Cup - 1-2 22/09/01 - Abingdon United (A) F.A. Vase - 0-2 23/09/02 - Carshalton Athletic (A) Isthmian League - 0-2 03/11/07 - Bedfont Green (H) Combined Counties League - 1-2 14/09/10 - Guildford City (H) Combined Counties League - 1-5 22/01/11 - Molesey (A) Combined Counties League - 0-3 Q: 26/04/15 In scoring at Frimley Green Matt Farrell has found the net in both the opening and closing games of our season. Has this happened before? A: My first thought was that this wouldn't have happened very often. After all, a player would need to have been in the squad for the start and end of the season, and we would have had to score in both the opening and closing games in the first place. However, this has occurred on eleven previous occasions, one of which was not that long ago. Robbie Burns was the last to do this in 2009/10 but you have to go back to the previous century for the next instance when Tony Boorman did it in 1997/98. Before him we had Steve Milton in 1984/85, Tommy Tuite (three times) in 1977/78, 1974/75 and 1973/74, Bobby Musto in 1954/55 including the winner in the Surrey Senior Shield win over Carshalton Athletic, Geoff Collins (whose life would end tragically in World War Two) in 1938/39, Jimmy Jones (twice) in 1937/38 and 1936/37 and finally Fred Watts in 1927/28, including two on the final day when we clinched the London League title at Grays Athletic. So Matt joins a very elite group of players and is only the second player after Tuite in 1973/74 to do it in his debut season. Congratulations Matt! NOTE: In 2016/17 Daryl Cooper-Simth also joined the club, scoring three at Bedfont & Feltham in the opening match of the season and then scoring in our League Cup Final defeat at Westfield. Q: On Tuesday 24th March we extended our unbeaten record to seven league games. What is our longest unbeaten run? A: Thanks to Alex McKay for this question. There are two answers to this: 1) An unbeaten run in all matches 2) An unbeaten League run In terms of an overall unbeaten run, we have had runs of ten or more on fourteen occasions, although only twice since 1981 and only six times post-war. Our longest run is one of fourteen matches from 26th March 1937 (a 2-0 win at Tooting & Mitcham in the London League) to 9th October 1937 (a 3-2 win over Banstead Hospital in the Amateur Cup. The run ended with a 4-2 home defeat to Sutton United in the F.A. Cup. We have had three sequences of thirteen matches, in 1931/32 (including that famous win at Ipswich Town), in 1974/75 (a run that ended with our defeat to Hoddesdon Town in the F.A. Vase Final), and in 1981/82. The longest run contained within one season is the 1974/75 run of thirteen. In terms of a League unbeaten run, many will recall our twelve match winning run from 2012/13, but League runs are slightly easier to achieve and we have actually had runs of ten or more on 21 occasions. Our longest League run is one of eighteen matches from 4th January 1975 (a 3-0 home win v Chobham) until the final game of the season on 22nd May 1975 when we defeated Whyteleafe 3-1 at home in the Surrey Senior League championship campaign. We were so good that season that we were unbeaten in our first ten before losing 2-0 at home to Virginia Water and then putting together the eighteen match run. We have had three other runs of 15 in 1927/28, between 1936/37 and 1937/38, and 1977/78. Q: On Tuesday 3rd March we drew for the first time in 27 games. When did we last do this? A: Our last draw was Lyndon's last game in charge, at home to Frimley Green on 13th September 2014 when we had a penalty saved in a goalless draw. The last time we went this long without a draw was way back, and was a sequence of 38 games from Eastbourne (H) (1-1) on 23rd December 1961 until Dorking (H) (1-1) on 1st December 1962. We have had many sequences in the twenties; most notably one of 26 set just two seasons ago which was matched in 1964. However, this latest run was the fourth longest in history, beaten only by the one above; another of 28 set between 18/10/52 and 22/04/53, and the club record of 49 which was set between 17th December 1938 - a bizarre 5-5 draw at home to Bostall Heath (when we led 5-0 at half time!) and 2nd March 1946 when we drew 1-1 at home to De Haviland in a London League match. Q: On Tuesday 3rd March we had a very low attendance of 23. Have we ever had a smaller one? A: This is a difficult one to be completely certain of, as attendances are very hard to come by until the late eighties and are patchy even then. However, in the past, attendances were traditionally much, much higher so I can't believe we would have had an attendance of just 23 back then. There is also the other issue relating to how a crowd should be counted. Should it be paying attendance, or spectators present including concessions, officials etc. This is quite significant when discussing low attendances. We appear to have had 26 matches with an attendance recorded as below 30, 23 of which were away from home. Of those 23, seven were at Southall's temporary home venues of Harefield United, Tring Town, Kingsbury Town or Yeading, and four were at Clapton. Of the seven home attendances, the Hanworth Villa match was the joint third lowest in club history, matched by Flackwell Heath (H) on 17/12/94, although this match was played at Chalfont St Peter as landlords Banstead Athletic had a match that day. The 23 present witnessed a fantastic overhead kick by Stuart Miller that day and I remember it well! The two lower attendances were on 1st March 2008 when we defeated Cobham 2-1 at Merland Rise in front of 19 people and our worst was for a Surrey Senior Cup tie with Westfield (4-2) on 23rd October 2002 also at Merland Rise and recorded, despite being members of the Isthmian League Division One South at the time! Just for the record, our lowest home attendance at West Street was 48, recorded twice against Hertford Town (Associate Members Trophy - 10/12/91 W3-2) and Kingsbury Town (Isthmian League - 07/03/92 W2-0) Our lowest recorded attendance of all time was one of 13 when we visited Southall at their temporary home of Tring Town on Tuesday 3rd October 1995 for a 1-1 draw in the Isthmian League Division Three and yes, I was one of those present, but there's no truth in the rumour that they waited for me to arrive before they started!! Q: On Tuesday 24th February we let a 2-0 half time lead become a 2-4 defeat. When did we last concede four goals in a half? A: The last time we did this was on 27th April 2013 when we trailed Cove at home by 2-1 at half time but lost 6-1. The last time we did this away from home was that infamous day at Chessington & Hook United on 10th December 2011 when we led 4-1 but drew 5-5 in the end! The last time we led at half time, only to concede four goals and lose the match was on 1st May 2010 at Farnborough against Badshot Lea when we only had Lyndon Buckwell on the bench and he had to play a full hour in our 4-1 defeat. The last time we had a TWO goal lead at half time only to concede four goals and lose was on 27th January 2010 in a Surrey Senior Cup tie against Walton & Hersham when we lost 5-4 after extra time. The last time we had a two goal lead at half time only to concede four goals and lose inside ninety minutes was at Cove on 3rd March 1993 when we led 2-0 and we even extended this to 3-0 before somehow losing 4-3. I remember it well as it was that famous day when the Grand National didn't start! Incidentally, for all the scaremongers out there who bang on about 2-0 "being a dangerous lead", this was the first time we had lost after holding a two goal half time lead since a wild 3-5 defeat to Aveley on what was generally regarded as the worst day of weather we ever had at Merland Rise, and this was way back on 21st December 1996. So, not very frequent then! Q: It has been well documented that both Kyle Hough and Robbie Burns have never scored a home hat trick for us. Neither did Mark Jarman, while Dale Marvell's were all at home, So which striker last achieved both? A: When you go back before Kyle and Robbie you usually think of Steve Hill and Tommy Tuite, but there were actually two players since our great eighties partnership that often get overlooked. The last player to do this was Andy Webster, who scored four hat tricks in season 1991/92; two at home and two away. Hertford Town (3-2) on 10th December 1991 and Royston Town (4-1) on 7th January 1992, both of which were in the Associate Members Trophy. The away ones were at Hornchurch (3-1) on 18th January 1992 and then at Cove (3-1) on 21st March 1992. Unfortunately Webster suffered a knee injury and never played for the club after this season. In fact I can't trace him playing anywhere else after this. Before him, Brian Perkins also did this in 1987/88 with two home hat tricks and one away. The last player to score home and away hat tricks in the League was Steve Hill who did it in the space of three days; at home to Hitchin Town (3-0) on 3rd November 1984 when we recorded our first ever win in the Isthmian League Premier Division and at Leytonstone / Ilford (5-1) on 6th November 1984. NOTE: I am pleased to report that on 21st March 2015 Kyle Hough became the latest member of the home and away club with a hat trick at home to Badshot Lea! Since then on 23rd August 2016 Daryl Cooper-Smith also scored one at home to Abbey Rangers to go with a couple of away hat tricks scored at Bedfont & Feltham and Worcester Park during 2016/17 to become the latest member of the club. Q: On Tuesday 16th December, three different players named Matt scored for us. Has this, or anything similar ever happened before? A: Yes, it has but only happened twice before and with the name Andy instead of Matt. On Saturday 8th November 1997 we defeated Southall 6-0 at Merland Rise. In addition to Kevin Webb, we had Andy Rawlinson (2), Andy Nimmo (2) and Andy Boxall all scoring for us that day. Then on Saturday 28th March 1998 we defeated East Thurrock United 7-2 at Merland Rise. Again Kevin Webb scored with Boxall (3), Nimmo (2) and Rawlinson all scoring again! Q: On Tuesday 16th December, we had Alex McGregor sent off against Spelthorne Sports. This was the third game in a row where we had a player dismissed. Has this happened before? A: Regrettably, yesterday set a new record in club history with players being sent off in three consecutive matches for the first time ever. In fact we had only suffered two consecutive red cards on four previous occasions: Tony Hoy on 06/10/92 v Thame United and on 10/10/92 v Bracknell Town (A) David Jones on 20/09/94 v Oxford City (A) and Graham Meakin on 24/09/94 v Lewes (H) Phil N'gbale on 23/09/06 v Sevenoaks (H) and on 30/09/06 v Chertsey Town (A) and of course our recent pair of sending offs before this one. NOTE: Since this was written, we have incurred a fourth straight red card when Dan Dean was dismissed against Windsor on 3rd January 2015 to set a record that will hopefully never be broken. Q: On Tuesday 16th December, Matt Ferdinando nearly scored a hat trick, with his goalbound shot being cleared off the line. His would have been the first at home for nearly six years. Have we ever had to wait so long previously? A: Unfortunately yes! The record for gaps between home hat tricks is currently six years and 131 days between Joao Tome scoring four at home to Flackwell Heath in a 4-2 win on 8th September 1998 and Luke Gay's hat trick in a 5-2 win at home to Camberley Town on 25th January 2005. We had seven hat tricks away from home during that spell though. Just behind this is a spell of six years and 76 days from H.E. Hook's hat trick in our 4-3 win against Eton Manor on 26th August 1939 and Gordon Brogdale's four in our 12-0 win over Acton on 10th November 1945. This was of course largely affected by World War Two. Our current run is five years and 333 days and this will exceed the club record if we haven't had a home hat trick by the end of this season. (see below) Our longest run (excluding wartime) without a hat trick at all was three years and 59 days from a Simon Hatton hat trick in a 4-2 win at Ash United to the aforementioned hat trick from Luke Gay on 25th January 2005. The only calendar years without hat tricks are: 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2011. NOTE: I am pleased to report that on 21st March 2015 Kyle Hough ended our wait with a hat trick at home to Badshot Lea! The wait had been six years and sixty one days! Since then on 23rd August 2016 Daryl Cooper-Smith also scored one at home to Abbey Rangers. Q: On Tuesday 2nd December, we played Camberley Town for the third time on the same date (winning all three games). Has this happened before and if so, which team have we played most times on a certain date? A: You might think this is a rare occurrence at first. However, we have met the same team three times or more on the same date on an incredible 18 occasions! The full list is enclosed below, but to summarise, we have done this against thirteen different clubs. Have we played more than three games on the same date? Yes, on five occasions, with the record being SIX meetings with Dorking on Boxing Day, winning four and drawing two of the matches. Christmas meetings were of course the most regular dates, with us having met Carshalton Athletic on 25th December (x4), 26th December (x5) and 27th December (x3). We have also met BAnstead Athletic four times on 27th December. Excluding Christmas dates the record is four times on the same date, which brings me back to our friends Camberley Town. On 18th September we have played them four times, oddly enough though, not winning any of the four meetings, with just two draws to our credit. We have perfect records on 2nd December v Camberley and on 30th April v Maidenhead United. However, on 26th October we have lost three times out of three to Redhill and on 27th December, to Carshalton Athletic! Q: On Tuesday 18th October, Kyle Hough scored his fifth hat trick for the club. Who last scored this many for us? A: Just to answer most people's thoughts, Robbie Burns only scored three for us. Further back, both Andy Boxall and Andy Webster got four, which brings us to the inevitable answers Tommy Tuite and Steve Hill. Hill scored nine hat tricks for us, placing him joint seventh on the list, but of our two strikers, he was with us most recently, so technically he is the answer. Tommy Tuite does have the most number of hat tricks for the club with an incredible 33!! Kyle's hat trick was our ninth since January 2009, all of which have been scored away from home! Our last home hat trick was scored by Dale Marvell who scored all three in the first half against North Greenford United. In fact18 of our last 21 hat tricks dating back to 1998 have been scored away from home. Weird! Here they are: NOTE: Since I wrote this Kyle Hough notched a home hat trick against Badshot Lea on 21st March 2015 and then on 23rd August 2016 Daryl Cooper-Smith scored one at home to Abbey Rangers. Q: On Tuesday 7th October, we had four players in the line up named Matt. Has this ever happened before? A: We have never had four Matts or Matthews in a line up before, but we have had a few occasions where four players of the same name have played for us; this being the first time for over thirty years that it had happened. This was a tricky one to work out, as I started by searching for initials and of course some players may have had the same name but were known by others, for example William and Bill, or in other cases where players used their second name e.g. Ray Chenery played for us for many years but was actually Leslie Ray Chenery. After negotiating most of these hurdles I was able to identify 22 definite occasions and a further 14 possible occasions, (where I don't have everyone's full name) when this has happened before: The majority of the twenty-two definite's came in the early eighties when on sixteen occasions between 1st March 1983 and 25th October 1983 we had four Steves in the team; Steve Chapman the keeper, Steve Hill, Steve Delaney and Steve Milton. In fact all four were on duty in the Southern Combination Cup Final at Walton & Hersham on 16th August 1983 when we lost on penalties after a 1-1 draw a.e.t. Going further back there were four occasions when we had four Johns between 8th April 1967 and 25th April 1967; John Wood (former Assistant Manager), John McNaught, John Hare and John Mann. We also had another four Johns out against Chertsey Town in a Surrey Senior Cup tie there on 14th November 1959; John Ryan, John Fennell, John Birch and Johnny Blizzard. The earliest example for certain was four Tommy's in a challenge match on 21st April 1937 when Tommy Delventhal, Tommy Rochester, Tommy Dunne and Tommy "Tot" Winship took the field. There are ten possible examples of George in the late twenties, maybe four Jacks in 1931, four Roys in 1946 and four Fred's in 1924 with the possibility of FIVE Reginalds on 21st March 1931 against Erith & Belvedere. One further note: on 14th January 2012 and again three days later we had a club record of SEVEN players with the same initial who were in the line up, although in both cases Alex McGregor came on for Ali Dewar, so there were only six on the field at one time, which was also the case on New Year's Day 1955 when the initial was a B! This record of six was also equalled at Camberley on 25th October 2014 when Mark Jarman joined all four Matt's and Michael Eacott in the starting line up. Yes, maybe I should get out more!! The examples are shown below. Q: On Tuesday 5th August, Lionel Mutima made his debut for the club against Raynes Park Vale. Have we ever had another Lionel playing for our first team? A: The answer is yes, but not for a long time. On 28th February 1948 Lionel Hanton made his debut for us. He was a Dorking lad, born on 9th February 1921 who had played for his local club both before and after his time with us. He made 21 appearances over that season and the next, scoring six goals in that time. He died in Brighton in December 1992 at the age of 71. Q: Our opening League match at Farnham Town contained six players who made their debuts, when did this last happen and what is the record? A: In answering this question, I need to take the first match ever played out of the equation, or fairly obviously we'd have eleven players making their debut, a figure that is tough, if not impossible these days to beat. Going back, Lyndon has given six debuts on one day twice before, on 6th August 2011 at Cove (won 2-1) and at home to Colliers Wood United (lost 1-2) on 14th August 2007. This number has only been beaten six times in history, all of which were post war, and the club record is nine, set on two occasions: 1) 8th September 1945 v Woking (H) - F.A. Cup - Lost 1-8 - This was the first match back after World War Two so as you'd expect, many new faces appeared with only Maurice Gill and Tommy Temlett appearing for us before the enforced break. However, the nine debutants didn't do very well and the following week, another seven played their first game, (losing heavily again!) although one of the few to keep his place was Ernie Watkins and he would go on to make over 400 more for us up until 1960. 2) 9th March 1982 v Hampton - League - Lost 0-2 - This was the first match in charge for Adrian Hill, following the Pat O'Connell walkout, and despite losing, it was a competitive match, notable also for the debut at the club of Alan Pardew! The other four dates were as follows. a) 15th September 1945 v Fords Sports (H) - Friendly - Lost 3-8. See above. (7 debuts) b) 1st September 1973 v BAC Weybridge (H) - Surrey Senior League - Lost 1-2. - This was the first match in charge for Pat O'Connell and notable for the debut of Tommy Tuite. (7 debuts) c) 27th March 1982 v Croydon (H) - Surrey Senior Cup SF - Lost 0-4. Following the player walkout in February 1982 we had to field a scratch side for this match due to eligibility restrictions as players needed to be signed for 28 days. To make the eleven up we had some Youth team players and even striker Steve Hill went in goal, despite having a stress fracture of his shin! (8 debuts) d) 22nd August 1987 v Met Police (H) - Isthmian League - Won 4-3. Ricky Kidd's first full season in charge ensured a number of new changes. Incidentally this is the only match out of all those listed that we actually won, and we were only ahead for the final ten seconds of the match after trailing three times and requiring a late strike from Gary Greenaway to put us ahead against a team that would only lose once more in the League that season. (7 debuts) NOTE: We also had six debuts against Banstead Athletic on 6th August 2017. Q: Our friendly against Farleigh Rovers is at Surbiton Town, but what do we know about Surbiton? A: Surbiton Town may not be well known these days, but were actually big enough to be a Surrey Senior League team back in the fifties. They even entered the F.A. Cup in 1950/51, losing 2-1 in an extra-preliminary round tie at Imber Court to Met Police. We have met them on six occasions, one friendly, (which was an official match back then) two Surrey Senior Cup matches and three Amateur Cup ties. They never won any of the matches, and indeed we defeated them 10-0 on one occasion, but they did force a replay in the Surrey Senior Cup of 1951/52, before we edged through in the replay by four goals to three. We have played at Riverhill, as it was then known, on three of those six occasions, although by the time of the above Amateur Cup tie in October 1955 they were unable to take a gate and had to switch to West Street with disastrous consequences. They actually had a very well known player at one point in Dave Hermitage, who joined us from Surbiton in August 1955. He even scored four times in the 10-0 win over his old club. After a couple of seasons of success, he joined Sutton United in 1958 playing for them in the Amateur Cup Final of 1963. He eventually became Sutton's Chairman in the nineties but started off at little old Surbiton! Q: In your Q & A below this you advised of six goalkeepers that had been sent off for Epsom. Who were they? A: As advised below, we have actually had six and they are listed here. 14th February 1987 - Gary Dodd v Grays Athletic (H) - Won 2-0 15th November 2003 - Dave Hyatt v Walton & Hersham (A) - Lost 0-8 1st May 2004 - Dave Hyatt v Horsham (H) - Lost 0-3 14th April 2010 - Paul Borg v Guildford City (A) - Lost 1-2 18th February 2012 - Adrian Jones v Horley Town (A) - Lost 1-3 24th September 2013 - Kieran Campbell v Wembley (H) - Lost 0-2 Q: Nathan Ayling scored a goal and played in goal during our 5-1 win at Frimley Green on 15th April 2014. Has this happened before? A: Yes it has, but never in these circumstances, as we have on three occasions had goals scored by goalkeepers themselves. Some of you will remember Dave Hyatt scoring in our 3-1 home win against Raynes Park Vale in the Surrey Senior Cup on Wednesday 27th September 2000 at Merland Rise. The keeper that day by the way was Gary Brigden, now an official at SCR and all round top bloke. Prior to this, our regular keeper in the seventies Chris Page, scored a penalty against Wandsworth in a 5-0 Surrey Senior League win on Thursday 8th May 1975, while our regular keeper throughout much of the early thirties Jack Forster also scored a penalty in an F.A. Cup Preliminary Round tie at home to West Norwood (won 5-1) on Saturday 17th September 1932. In addition we have some outfield players who have scored goals for us at other times who would occasionally start matches between the posts. Ian McTear, Dave Mollatt, Ricky Kidd and Tim Tweedy have all done this at some point, but none did it in a match they also scored in. We have now had 19 occasions in our history since the introduction of substitutes where a goalkeeper has been replaced through injury, starting with Alan Parrott who came on for the injured Ian Kirby on Saturday 28th August 1967 with John McNaught going in goal, and like John, many of those players who went in goal in situations like this have scored for us over the years, but none scored in that particular match. In the pre-substitute days I have identified four other occasions where a player went in goal for an injured player, but none of those players scored in those matches. My final check was for sent off keepers. We have had six sent off in our history, dating back to our first, for Gary Dodd on 14th February 1987 in our 2-0 win over Grays Athletic at West Street, but none of the six replacements scored in those games either. As a result Nathan Ayling joins our three keepers as a member of a very rare club. Congratulations! Q: Carlton Murray-Price has scored in his first three matches for our club. When did that last happen and has anyone done better? A: The last player to do this was Adam Pero, who scored in his first four matches for the club in the 2006/07 season. His fourth game was Lyndon's first in charge, a 3-0 win at Bookham on 4th November 2006. In addition to Pero, I have identified just 15 other players who have done this, so Carlton has joined a really elite group here. Players who have also scored in their first three games are as follows: Adrian Toppin 2000/01, Ben Forey 1995/96, Steve Hill 1981/82, Ted Stafford (4 goals) 1966/67, Frank Vernon 1959/60, Reg Carter (4 goals) 1958/59, Tim Higgins (4 goals) 1958/59, J.Kinsela 1938/39 and E.G. Matkin (6 goals) 1929/30 Players who have scored in their first four games in addition to Adam Pero are: Edward "Taz" Arnall (6 goals) 1962/63, W.H.E. Webber (6 goals) 1947/48 Now we get to the real record breakers: Gordon Cairns - five goals in first five games 1955/56 and Tommy Millard - five goals in first five games 1958/59 Billy Williams - eighteen goals in his first eight games 1931/32 and top of the list Johnny Bangs who scored a hat trick on his debut v Maidstone United and went on to score in his first ten matches for the club, registering twenty-three goals in that time! Best of luck Carlton! NOTE: Carlton never scored another goal for us, finishing on four goals from his eight appearances for us before leaving. Q: We recently scored four goals in three consecutive games. When did we last do this? A: Not that long ago actually, it was back in the 2009/10 season when we defeated Molesey (A) 4-0, Bedfont (A) 4-2 and Ash United (H) 5-1. Had we also scored four against South Park to extend the run to four matches, it would have been the first time the club had done it since 1974/75 season when we did it for six games in a row, which is the joint club record. Other four game runs (or more) were in 1952/53 (5), 1938/39 (4), 1932/33 (4 twice), 1931/32 (4) and 1926/27 (6 and 4) . It would therefore have been only the third time since World War Two that we had a four game streak like this. Oh well, maybe next time! NOTE: Since I wrote this in 2014 we have done this on a fourth occasion in April 2016 when winning 5-1 at Guildford City, 4-1 at home to Badshot Lea and then winning 7-0 at AFC Hayes. Again the fourth match was beyond us as we lost 2-3 at home to Camberley Town. Q: Carlton Murray-Price scored on his debut for us on Saturday against Colliers Wood United. Who last did this? A: The last player to do this was one of our "one cap wonders" David Jones, who was the third player with that name to represent our club, Dave saw a lot of service in the Reserves but only made one appearance for the first team. In fact, he only really got about twenty minutes as a substitute but that was enough for him to score our fifth goal in a 5-1 home win over Ash United on 23rd March 2010. He and Carlton are the only players to have achieved this feat under Lyndon's tenure. Going back just before this we had three others in quick succession. Saturday 14th October 2006 - Adam Pero v Guildford City, Russell Newbury who scored on his one and only appearance in a 4-4 draw at home to Raynes Park Vale on Tuesday 22nd August 2006 and Phil N'gbale against Clapton on Saturday 18th March 2006. Phil remained the last player to have scored on his debut for Epsom & Ewell away from home until Matt Farrell did it on 2nd August 2014 at Farnham Town, while the last player to score twice on his debut was Jamie Goodwin in our 6-1 win over AFC Newbury in the F.A. Cup at Merland Rise on Sunday 28th August 2005. So if you're still with me, I know what you are thinking. Has anyone scored a hat trick on their debut for Epsom & Ewell? Of course, but you have to go back quite some way! Here are our nine hat trick debut scorers: Jim Honeywood v Reigate Priory - W 5-0 - Surrey Senior Cup - Saturday 17th October 1970 - Finished with four goals for the club in 42 appearances. Ian Skinner v Eastbourne - W 6-3 - Athenian League - Saturday 5th November 1966 - Never scored again for the club. Bobby Russell v Erith & Belvedere (A) - W 3-2 - Corinthian League - Saturday 7th March 1959 - Scored within two minutes of debut and hat trick after 35 minutes. However, never scored again for the club. Johnny Bangs v Maidstone United (A) - L 3-5 - Corinthian League - Saturday 15th September 1956 - Went on to score 53 goals this season despite joining in mid-September and finished with 86 goals in just 77 appearances. H.Wigham v Crystal Palace 'A' (H) - W 9-2 - Friendly - Saturday 7th March 1959 - Palace sent a very weak team and didn't visit again for some time as a result. Wigham didn't stay long either! H.E.Hook v Eton Manor (H) - W 4-3 - London League - Saturday 26th August 1939 - The only game we played that season before closing down for World War Two. The game was goalless at half time! Fred Stenning v Grays Athletic (H) - W 5-1 - London League - Saturday 10th December 1938 - Fred joined from Cobham and actually scored a hat trick in his next appearance too, in the famous 5-5 home draw with Bostall Heath seven days later, where we led 5-0 at half time! Billy Williams v Carshalton Athletic (H) - W 3-1 - London League - Saturday 26th September 1931 - This phenomenal goal scoring machine was a former professional at West Ham and scored at a greater rate than any of our strikers with 73 goals in just 48 appearances! Reg Stimson v Godalming (H) - W6-1 - Friendly - Saturday 31st August 1929 - Reg flitted between here and Sutton United and scored eleven goals for us in that first season in 29 appearances. However, he made a further 60 appearances over the next few seasons without scoring at all! Finally, pride of place goes to Don Ralph who made his debut on the opening day of the season 31st August 1946 against Post Office Engineers in a London League match and scored four times in our 5-1 win at West Street. NOTE: Since I wrote this in 2014 four more players have scored on their debuts for us. Matt Farrell as advised above, Rob Hendry v Windsor on 8th August 2015, Jordan Gallagher v Gravesham Borough on 7th August 2016 and finally Matt Price on 23rd August 2016 in our 7-1 win over Abbey Rangers. Q: We played Old Hamptonians on 4th March. Have we ever played a team with "Old" in the name before? A: Actually, yes we have. Before we became a Senior status team in 1924 we played Old Suttonians on six occasions as members of the Sutton & District League Premier Division from 1920/21 to 1922/23 winning two, drawing two and losing two. As a Senior team we then played them twice more in the Surrey Senior Cup, in consecutive seasons as it turned out. On 16/11/1968 we defeated them 3-1 at their home venue of Bourne Way in Sutton and the following year we met them on 1st November 1969 at West Street, requiring extra time to progress 2-0 after a goalless 90 minutes. As an aside to this, our Reserve team met Old Suttonians Reserves in 1920/21 while members of the Sutton & District League Division One, and we met their first team in a friendly on 2nd December 1922, losing 1-0 at the Horton Hospital Grounds. They then met Old Fransiscans in a friendly on 6th December 1924, winning 7-0 before meeting the Old Suttonians twice more in Surrey Intermediate Cup ties, all at home, winning 9-1 on 10th October 1931 and 8-0 on 14th October 1932. Finally, we defeated Old Norcollians 7-1 in a Surrey Intermediate Cup tie on 2nd November 1935. Neither our Youth Team, nor our 'A' Team have played any teams of this nature. Q: We defeated Farnham on the 11th January which was the first time we had played on this date since 1989. Is this the longest gap? A: To answer this, you need to ignore August and May dates as we have frequently failed to play on those dates. I will look at September to April exclusively. As a result, there are actually four dates where we haven't played anyone for over twenty five years! The longest break is maybe unsurprisingly on Christmas Day and we last played on that date in 1954, while Christmas Eve comes next with no matches since 1960. The other two are more of a surprise. We last played on New Year's Eve way back in 1988 and on New Year's Day, a traditional fixture slot hasn't seen an Epsom team take the field since 1987! With the removal of 11th January from this list, there are eight further dates that we haven't played on during this Millennium and the next furthest back date in line is 1993. Yes, following that memorable 5-3 win over Kingsbury Town at West Street we have not played on that date since! Q: We've won a lot of games in the calendar year of 2013. How do we compare against previous seasons? A: In the calendar year of 2013 we have won 34 matches. However, we fell just short of the club record as in both 1981 and 1975 we did even better, winning 35! However, we have won more games in recent years as we have obviously played more matches each year since the introduction of floodlights at West Street in 1977. So how do we compare as a win percentage? Overall, this was the 10th best year in terms of win percentage, with 1927 being our best with 29 wins from just 41 matches - 70.73%. This is followed by 1933, 1956, 1926 and 1928. Surprisingly, even 1974 and 1975 aren't even in our top five, although they are in eighth and ninth respectively, just ahead of 2013 with a win rate of 61.82%. Incidentally our worst year was 1971 with just 4 wins in 36 matches - 11.11% and our dreadful relegation year of 2004 actually came above eight others, including 2006! Finally, I do have one new Club Record to report thanks to our win over Horley Town. This year we have recorded five League match winning streaks on three separate occasions. NEVER before have we done this, with 1927, 1928, 1939 and 1975 being the only other calendar years with two such runs. 2013 was also the only calendar year containing two separate eight match winning runs. Quite a year! Q: What is our record since we joined the Combined Counties League? A: Our full record in the Combined Counties League (inc Chertsey Town 15/08/17) is Played 462 - Won 215 - Drawn 89 - Lost 158 F856 A713 GD +143. Win rate 46.54%. Our full League record in history (inc Chertsey Town 15/08/17) is Played 2,883 - Won 1,189 - Drawn 547 - Lost 1,147 F5,322 A5,099 GD +223. Win rate 41.24%. More club stats are now available from the front page menu. Q: Jake Downs made his debut for us recently, but have we ever had another first teamer called Jake? A: The answer to this is NO. Jake Downs is the first ever Jake to make an appearance for the First team. We've had other Jakes in Youth or Reserves, most recently Jake Little who played for the Youth Team in 2011/12 but that's as far as they went. Q: I see the Reserves scored 12 goals this week. When did they last do this? A: I can confirm that the Reserves have hit double figures on just nine previous occasions, and the last time they did this was back on 26th October 1974 when the first team were called in for a Reserve fixture and battered unfortunate Westfield 10-0 on their own patch! We have hit ten on four separate occasions and eleven goals on four separate occasions, but the only other time we scored twelve was back on 25th September 1920 when we defeated Ewell Reserves 12-0 at Epsom Recreation Ground (better known now as Alexandra Rec) in a Sutton & District League fixture. Q: Alex McGregor seems to score a lot of goals from distance. How many has he scored from outside of the penalty area? A: I have been fortunate to witness all twenty of Alex's goals for the club through his 180 appearances, and can confirm that he has actually scored more goals for us from outside the box than inside! Eleven of the twenty, including the last six, have been from outside the area, while the other nine (including one close range header at Horley) were inside. This must be some sort of club record, as I can't believe anyone else that has scored so many for us could have a higher ratio than 55%. Alex is also close to holding another club record outright as he sits on 48 substitute appearances. The club record, held by Ricky Dymond in the nineties is also 48. NOTE: As I write this in August 2017 three players have now passed Dymond's mark. Dale Marvell is on 49, while Mark Jarman is at 51. However, Alex McGregor does now hold the record with 59! Q: We scored seven goals at AFC Croydon Athletic recently. When did we last score seven goals? A: The Salts have scored six times quite a bit in recent years, but the magnificent seven has eluded us for a while. The last time we actually did this was on Saturday 28th March 1998, when East Thurrock United visited us at Merland Rise for a home League fixture. You have to go back a long way to find the last time we scored seven goals away from home to Monday 28th April 1980 when five goals from Tommy Tuite and two from Roy Beswick enabled us to win the Southern Combination Cup Final 7-2 against Hampton, on their own ground at Beveree. We did score seven times against Frimley Green in the same competition in January 1982, but although this was an away tie, the match was played at West Street. The last time we scored more than seven goals away from home was way back, again on a Monday evening, 21st April 1975, just two days after our appearance at Wembley Stadium, when we travelled to Whyteleafe's Church Road ground and won 9-0. This is a club record score away from home. NOTE: On 2nd August 2016 we won 9-2 at Bedfont & Feltham to equal our record away score! Q: We have just won our sixth away League game in a row. When did we last do this? A: You would think this was a rare achievement, and indeed it is. However, we also did it last year during our club record run of League victories. We also did it in 2000/01 and in 1925/26. Have we ever beaten the mark of six? Yes, but only once, back when our 1974/75 team opened the season with nine away League wins in a row. That is the new target. NOTE: We never reached the target of nine, as we lost our seventh match 3-0 at Farnham Town. However, in 2015/16 we won our final seven away league matches in a row and extended this to eight with our 9-2 win over Bedfont & Feltham to start 2016/17 but fell at the ninth hurdle when losing 2-1 at Windsor on 13th August 2016. This mark is our second highest in history. Q: We always seem to be drawn in the First Round of the League Cup. Have we ever received a bye? A: We have been drawn in the First Round of the League Cup every year since 2007/08. In other words, for seven years in a row. This is quite a bizarre occurrence, as the odds of being drawn in the first round are usually only around 40%, so to have it happen for seven years in a row is extremely unlucky and the odds of this occurrence are just under 500/1! Coincidentally, the recent win at Horley was the third year in a row that we have won our first round tie 3-2, having been drawn away from home, following wins at Farnham last year and Knaphill two years ago. It was also the fourth year in a row that we were drawn away in the First Round! NOTE: In 2014/15 we finally received a bye to the Second Round! Q: Is this our best start to a League season? A: Not quite. Our best League start came in 1974/75 when we started with nine straight wins. Currently our goal difference is not as good as it was back then. Ours is F17 A3 but back then it was F31 A2 and the ninth game was won 9-0! As fixtures stand, two home wins over Chessington & Hook United on Saturday 14th September and Wembley on Tuesday 24th September would set a new Club Record. NOTE: Unfortunately we lost both of those matches so our 1974/75 record remains unbeaten! Q: What is our record winning run? A: Our record winning run was set as recently as last season when the club registered ten straight wins in all competitions and twelve straight League wins. Both broke the previous records which were set in the thirties. Q: Which players have played the most games and scored the most goals in the club's history? A: Our record appearance holder is Graham Morris with 658 appearances from his debut on 18th August 1990 at Petersfield United to 1st May 2004 at home to Horsham. He was a regular in our team, usually at left back and was frequently Captain. Our record goal scorer is Tommy Tuite who scored 391 goals in 582 appearances following his debut on 1st September 1973 at home to BAC Weybridge until his final game for the club on 28th April 1987 at Basildon United. Tommy had two seasons away at Carshalton Athletic where he scored 50 goals in the division above us, so who knows how many more he could have got for us at the lower level had he stayed.