News & EventsLatest NewsCalendar
Match Preview

Match Preview

sam surbey3 Apr 2018 - 19:07
Share via
FacebookTwitter
https://www.hernebayfootballcl

South Park Preview

So here we go again and hopefully we can get this game played at the fifth attempt. It was originally scheduled for Saturday 11th November 2017 but was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, and then again on Tuesday 12th December 2017 the pitch was covered in snow causing a second cancellation, and for a third time on Tuesday 16th January 2018, rain again being the problem. Number four was in the diary for 15/03/2018 and, you guessed it, a waterlogged pitch caused the cancellation.

South Park Football Club was formed in 1897 and immediately became founder members of the Redhill & District Football League along with other local clubs Godstone, Meadvale and Reigate Priory Reserves. 2001 saw Reigate Town Football Club move to South Park and the clubs merged to became known as South Park & Reigate Town Football Club. For the 2003/04 season the club reverted back to its original name of South Park Football Club. In 2006 the first team were promoted from the Crawley & District League to the Combined Counties Football League Division One. As their new changing facilities were being built, played their home matches at Cranleigh. In their first season in the Combined Counties League the team finished in seventh place in the league. Subsequent league placings were 12th, 14th, 6th and in 2010/11 the Sparks gained promotion to the Premier Division with a third-place finish.

They were in no mood to hang around at this level and after ending 8th in 2011/12 and 4th in 2012/13 they finished their 2013/14 season with a 1-0 home win over Windsor which ensured that they defeated every team in the division at least once and gaining 104 points, the highest total in the Combined Counties League Premier Division since Merstham in the 2007/08 season. This also won them promotion to the Isthmian League Division One South.

In their first two seasons in the Isthmian League they finished 14th and 11th and Herne Bay had the perfect record against the Sparks, winning all four of the encounters. Last campaign proved to be a different story, although Bay extended their unbeaten record to five games with a last-minute leveller from Stuart King in the 1-1 home draw in March. A month later and Herne Bay had begun a slippery slide down the table having lost three and drawn one of their last five fixtures. In the trip to Surrey, for the penultimate away game of the season, on the half hour Umaku Mansaray was pulled to the ground in the box and Mark Lovell levelled from the spot, his 24th goal of the season. The home side went on to win 3-1 to end the season in 8th.

This time out the Sparks started at a sprint, top after two games, third after seven, but have slipped down since. They have won just once (against strugglers Ramsgate) in their last eight games, with one draw and six defeats the other results. One of those losses was at Winch’s Field nine days ago when goals from Jake Emery 2, Miles Cornwell and Tom Carlton gave Bay a 4-1 win. On Saturday they went down 1-0 to a 90th minute Carshalton Athletic goal.

They currently sit in 14th place, three positions and seven points behind Herne Bay and the Sparks have played three less games.

South Park play at Whitehall Lane, South Park, Reigate, Surrey. RH2 8LG. 66.7 miles from Winch’s Field. Estimated journey time 1 hour 24 minutes. They are in 21st place in the Isthmian South attendance table with an average of 93 (high 146, low 62).

Further reading