With the games coming thick and fast as we head into the business end of the season, I decided to pick Leatherhead FC as my choice for a Proper Football Awayday for The Tanner's big Isthmian League South Central clash against Kingstonian FC in what was a 6 pointer with the home side making a late charge for the playoffs coming up against the K's who were 2nd in the league behind already crowned champions Farnham FC with the chasing pack breathing down K's necks.
Leatherhead is a lovely town in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, with the River Mole flowing through the heart of it, and The Tanner's Fetcham Grove ground is just a short 15-minute walk from the train station.
On arrival at the ground, you are met by a very impressive entrance above the turnstiles that says 'Welcome To Leatherhead FC', and they definitely made me and my mates feel welcome on the day!
The club who were formed in 1907 have been playing at Fetcham Grove since 1946, a very picturesque ground with a capacity of 2,000 with 3 covered stands with banked terracing and plenty of seats, after paying £12 to get in and buying an excellent programme for £2 and the obligatory half-time raffle tickets (still yet to ever win one!) it was time to go in and join the rest of the fans which included an impressive following from the visitors.
Check out a montage of photos here;
I have to say the facilities were excellent and you can see the club are putting in lots of effort to give the fans a great matchday experience with a new Fan zone along with a very smart clubhouse and bar.
FIRST HALF
The K's started off on the front foot and soon took a deserved lead on 6 minutes with a new loan signing from AFC Wimbledon, Junior Nkeng causing all sorts of trouble for The Tanner's defence and looked like they would be out of sight by halftime, but Leatherhead started to grow into the game and worked out the K's weaknesses and had turned the game around by the interval and could've been well in front if not for a wonder save from the away keeper!
HALF-TIME
It was time to sample the food from the Tea Bar, which had loads of choices, and it didn't disappoint, with the very tasty 'Tanners Burger' hitting the spot!
SECOND HALF
The second 45 was a cagey affair with Leatherhead protecting their 2-1 lead, but in the 6 minutes of added-on time at the end of the match, the game exploded into life with 2 more goals! But who scored them?
FULL-TIME
What a game! A massive 3 points for Leatherhead, but a 3rd defeat in a row for The K's, whose fans you could sense were very disgruntled with their recent form.
I got chatting to a Leatherhead supporter after the game and it only turned out to be the match winners dad, Mike Everitt who kindly agreed to come on camera followed by his son Matthew who scored the 95th minute winner!
We always like to contact clubs before we visit them to see if we can interview some of the people behind the scenes but as this was a last minute thing I'd left it to late, BUT, I have to say the people at Leatherhead were amazing on the day and gave me their time at such short notice and it was a pleasure to speak with Mick Sullivan, a director at The Tanners and a former manager.
At Proper Football one of the things we like highlighting the most is the role football clubs have in the community, so when I saw a fella with a Leatherhead hoody with Community Officer on it I made a beeline for him!
His name was Dave and I hadn't realised I had already briefly spoken to him earlier in the day, probably because he was dressed up as a swan in the club mascot uniform and was playing the part of Swannell The Swan! aptly named after legendary Leatherhead goalkeeper John Swannell.
Dave went on to tell about what he and the club do in the community.
Every club needs someone like Dave!
It was an absolute pleasure to visit Leatherhead FC, not only to see an enthralling match but to meet so many nice people and witness a club doing things in the right way.
We wish them all the best going forward and fingers crossed they make the playoffs!
You can watch the extended highlights of the game here on the excellent Leatherhead FC YouTube channel that also has loads of other great content and is well worth subscribing to.
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