Newport County v Carshalton Athletic

FA Trophy 3rd Round
Tuesday 7th February 2012

The Town

Carshalton is a pleasant location with a village feel, set in a river valley on the outskirts of the London Borough of Sutton. The heart of the village is home to Carshalton Ponds which is surrounded by attractive houses and is watched over by the ancient church of All Saints, which dates back centuries and Anne Boleyn's Well which is found close by. The High Street is where a good selection of shops can be found, together with restaurants, a welcoming tea room, and pubs which have stood the test of time. It has an interesting history and dates as far back as the Iron Age, where, from its small agricultural beginnings which saw Roman Invaders settle close by, the village grew. The arrival of the 18th Century saw the continued harnessing of power that the River Wandle provided for the Mills which remained, and a heady scent filled the air with the onset of the 19th Century with the harvesting of Lavender which still continues today. The Heritage Trail entices walkers to take a stroll around the village which unveils its past, there's the wide open space of Grove Park to explore, and with the close proximity of the City Carshalton is perfectly placed.
 

Directions

You should know the way by now!

Club History

Carshalton Athletic traces its roots to two separate teams playing in the area of Wrythe Green in Carshalton in the early twentieth century. Whilst the club's history is dated to the formation of Mill Lane Mission in 1905 it also recognises the importance of officials, players and supporters of Carshalton St Andrews in its history. Mill Lane Mission was organised by the Mill Lane Mission recreational facility for teenage boys and began playing friendlies in 1903. They were formally registered with the Surrey County FA in September 1905 and continued to play only friendly matches until 1906 when they joined the Croydon & District League Division 2A. During 1905 and 1906 discussions were held with Carshalton St Andrews over amalgamation. Carshalton St Andrews was formed in 1897 by the vicar of St Andrews, Revd. C.W. Cleaver and began playing in the Surrey County Herald League. In 1902 they were promoted into the Southern Suburban League Division 2 West. They agreed to fold and amalgamate with Mill Lane Mission in 1906 but did not formally do so until they had honoured their remaining obligations at the end of the 1907/08 season. Meanwhile, Mill Lane Mission registered their name change with the Surrey F.A. and began playing under the name Carshalton Athletic F.C. in 1907. The first ever match under this name was on 7 September 1907 at home on the Wrythe Green recreation ground in a friendly against Westbrook. After the name change the club went on to win successive promotions in 1908, 1909 and 1910 which were rewarded with election to the Junior Division of the Southern Suburban League. During this time the club put out a reserve side and a midweek Carshalton Wednesday side (many different clubs set up these sides to play after the shops had shut 'early' on Wednesdays) and these two sides both performed well - the reserves winning the Croydon and District League Division 2A in 1909 and Carshalton Wednesday were runners up in the inaugural Surrey County Midweek Cup. Before the outbreak of the First World War further success in both league and junior cup competitions was achieved. In 1913 the club won the Suburban League Division 1 West and the following season added the Suburban League Division 1. East title to this. In the same period they also won the Surrey Junior Cup, Surrey Junior Charity Cup and the Croydon Charity Cup and were runners up in the London Junior Cup. The outbreak of the war curtailed this period of success and the club went into a period of suspended animation during the war as its home ground was given over to agricultural use. Following the reformation of the club on 31 March 1919, and after playing on a number of different grounds, Carshalton Athletic finally moved into their new (and current) home in Colston Avenue during the 1920/21 season. This was built as a memorial to those members of the club who lost their lives in the War. The interwar years were otherwise relatively uneventful. The only silverware the club won was the Surrey Intermediate Cup, in 1922 and 1932. In the league, the club remained in the Southern Suburban League, finishing as runners up in 1922 before becoming founding members of the Surrey Senior League in the 1922/23 season. At the same time the club gained Football Association senior club status and this allowed Carshalton Athletic to enter FA national competitions and county senior cups for the first time. With the upheavals of the Second World War in Europe over, preparations for the resumption in football at Colston Avenue began 1945 with applications made to join the London League (senior side) Surrey Intermediate League (reserve side) and to enter the London Senior and Surrey Senior cups. The club did not apply to enter the FA Challenge Cup or FA Amateur Cup because facilities at the ground were not up to standard for these competitions. The club did make it a priority to improve the standard of the ground and facilities to make them suitable for the higher reaches of the amateur game but all this work had to be funded and carried out by volunteers as the local District Council were unwilling to help support these improvements. Fortunately it proved possible to find volunteers and donors to enable this work to be carried out. The work on the ground proved to be needed the following season as Carshalton Athletic were elected into the Corinthian League, which had been set up in the previous year, for the 1946/47 season. Several years of indifferent league form followed with only minor highlights in cup competitions, although the club continued to grow as evidenced by a record attendance of over 8000 for an FA Challenge Cup 3rd round qualifying tie against local rivals Tooting and Mitcham United. Behind the scenes the club was taking steps to improve the clubs chances on the pitch including hiring a coach for all sides for the first time but the club committee ensured that they retained the final say in selection decisions. A far better period began with the first match Carshalton Athletic played against a team from overseas at the start of the 1952/53 season. Hengelo from the Netherlands were the opponents in what was to become a regular friendly fixture over following years. Carshalton went on to win the Corinthian League title by 3 points from Hounslow Town at the end of the season and the reserve team finished second in their league, 2 points behind Uxbridge. The 1953/54 season brought further success as Carshalton Athletic retain the league title, finishing 2 points ahead of Edgware Town, although cup success was still proving elusive. This was rectified somewhat in the 1954/55 season as the club reached the final of the Surrey Senior Shield and the quarter finals of the FA Amateur Cup for the first time in their history (this was also the first year in which two Corinthian League teams reached the quarter finals). The 1955/56 season was unremarkable on the pitch but did see further advances around the ground as Carshalton Athletic's success of recent season was reflected in the size of the supporters club with over 2000 members. It was also the club's last appearance in the Corinthian League as the summer of 1956 saw election to the Athenian League. For the next 17 years the club competed in the Athenian League with very little success never really threatening to win the league, and finishing at the bottom of the table twice (1959/60 and 1960/61 seasons). Their best performance coming in the 1963/64 season when the club managed to finish the season in third place. Around the ground floodlights were finally erected on six pylons in 1967. Limited cup success was achieved. A first appearance in the Surrey Senior Cup final came in the 1957/58 season, although Dulwich Hamlet won the final 1-0 and it would be another 31 years before Carshalton Athletic appeared in the final again. There was also success in the FA Amateur Cup as the club reached the quarter finals for the second time in 1959/60. In the same season the club won the Southern Combination Cup for the first time, after losing in the final the previous season. In the summer of 1973 Carshalton Athletic finally achieved a promotion of sorts when they were elected as founder members of the newly created Isthmian League Division 2. The first two seasons proved to be a struggle and in their third they just missed out on promotion finishing third in the league. Three years of struggle paid off in the 1976/77 season when promotion to the Isthmian Premier Division after finishing as runners up in the league in a year in which they also won the Surrey Senior Shield. After promotion in the league the club entered another period of struggling in the league, not finishing in the top half of the league until the 1987/88 season, and this was accompanied with the start of years of upheaval in the organisation of the ownership and running of the club both on and off the field. The best that could be offered to supporters in this period was a solitary cup run as the club reached the second round proper of the FA Challenge Cup for the first time before losing 4-1 to Fourth Division Torquay United. Over this period Carshalton Athletic had a succession of 8 different managers and it was only the final appointment of Billy Smith in August 1986 that began to turn the clubs fortunes around. The first Billy Smith era lasted for nearly 9 years and was the most successful period in the club's history. During his time in charge of the club twice reaching the 1st Round Proper of the FA Challenge Cup, winning the Surrey Senior Cup three times in four years and reaching the final 5 times in 7 years, recording its highest ever placing in the league at the end of the 1988/89 season and winning the London Challenge Cup in 1991. This period came to an end when Billy Smith left to take charge of Kingstonian. The next four seasons saw the club use five managers. John Rains produced an extremely successful side in the first season. Carshalton Athletic having their best FA Trophy run for many years while also challenging for the Championship title, before dropping away at the end of the season. The following season Robins appointed Tony Jennings to the Colston Avenue hot seat after John Rains moved onto Sutton United, but Carshalton never really gelled under his management and he left in November. Towards the end of the season, with the club facing a relegation battle, Carshalton Athletic appointed former player Chris Kilby, who had been coaching at Banstead Athletic, to manage the club. The club eventually reached league safety and also the Surrey Senior Cup Final but lost to Crystal Palace. In the 1997/98 season the club reached the FA Cup First Round Proper again but as on previous occasions failed to draw a Football League side at home.  Carshalton achieved a creditable home draw with Stevenage Borough before losing the replay. A slump in form after Christmas caused Kilby to resign and towards the end of the season the club appointed Ian Dawes as their new manager. Ian Dawes barely lasted four months in charge and following a 6-0 thrashing at home in the Fourth Qualifying Round against Salisbury City also resigned. With the side a long way adrift at the bottom of the table Gary Bowyer took over as player manager guiding the club to eventual safety in the league and the final of the Surrey Senior Cup where they lost to local rivals Sutton United 3-0. Gary once again saw the club to safety the following year, on the last day of the 1999/2000 season with a 3-0 win over Aldershot Town. The summer of 2000 was hectic and confusing. The sale of the club twice in a matter of weeks in conjunction with the destruction of the club house in an arson attack and the sacking of Gary Bowyer as manager. The eventual new owners, Steve Friend & Barry Gartell, brought in Tony Rains as manager and, although briefly threatened by eviction from the ground, began to reorganise the club's finances. However by December and with 8 successive defeats that saw Carshalton drop into the relegation zone, Tony Rains was sacked. After considering a number of applications for the job, Steve Rogers was promoted from the Reserves to take charge with Paul Smallwood as his assistant, but the change did little to avert Carshalton Athletic's relegation to Division 1 after 24 years in the Premier. At the end of the season Steve Rogers was told he was relieved of 1st team affairs and the search for a new. Manager was begun and in June Frank Murphy, formally of Hendon and Dulwich Hamlet, was appointed to spearhead the club's return to the Isthmian Premier. This did not prove to be easy and in December he was sacked because the team were not progressing in the league. Graham Roberts was appointed in his place to try and restart a promotion push. This was not achieved in his first season in charge but the following season, 2002/03 the club won the Isthmian Division 1 South title to gain promotion to the Premier Division. Unfortunately the costs associated with the push for promotion and internal differences between the chairman and manager led to a budget cut and the departure of Graham Roberts. Billy Smith was appointed as manager for a second time in June 2003 and the club eventually ended the 2003/04 season in 7th which was enough to clinch qualification to the new Conference South. With the failure of the £12 million rebuilding project, which was withdrawn from the planning permission process due to local residents' objections (see Grounds below), Steve Friend resigned from the chairmanship of the club and passed the club into the ownership of the Board of Directors who jointly took on the responsibility of reducing the clubs debts, while maintaining football at Colston Avenue. With the changes off the pitch, and the changes in finance, Billy Smith struggled with the squad the following year, lost his Assistant George Wakeling to Bromley and decided to resign early in 2005. Jimmy Bolton who was coaching the senior side was appointed Manager and he brought back in former club goalkeeper Les Cleevely (Walton & Hersham assistant manager) as his Assistant. They managed to secure the Robins place in the Conference South, with a 4-1 win on the last day of the season away to Eastbourne Borough. The 2005-06 season, the club's centenary season, was not a successful one. Despite some impressive performances against Conference National winners Accrington Stanley in the FA Trophy and against Conference South winners Weymouth, Carshalton Athletic were relegated on the last day of the season to drop back down to the Isthmian Premier League for the 2006/07 season. Carshalton finished mid table in 06/07 but the following season 07/08 saw disappointing early results and as a result the manager Dave Garland left the club in October 2007. First team coach Hayden Bird was then appointed to take the helm.
Hayden made some high profile signings and there was a noticeable commitment to playing attractive, passing football but the Robins still faced another nail-biting fight for survival in the Isthmian League Premier Division. With just 7 games to go the club was purchased by Paul Dipre who injected sufficient funds to strengthen the squad in an effort to avoid relegation. It went right to the wire and, miraculously, last day results elsewhere fell perfectly and Carshalton’s home win over Tonbridge Angels was enough to secure their Ryman Premier status. The season 2008/09 was the first full season under new ownership. The reserves and junior sections were axed in favour of a new academy and junior section, buildings and facilities were upgraded, staff and personnel were changed and at the end of this season the club modernised its badge and changed its playing colours (from Maroon) back to the Robin's original colours of red. In the first full year of Dipre's ownership the first team enjoyed its most successful season in Ryman Premier, getting to the playoff finals against Staines FC and being just one penalty kick away from promotion. Alas the penalty was missed and the Robins faced another season in Ryman. Over the next three years Paul Dipre renewed every area of the club and its infrastructure. Unlike those before him his investments were not solely targeted at the first team budget. He considered the community side of the club to be its lifeblood and so his efforts was also directed at the juniors, youth, community and academy. He assembled a strong management team with ex-Robins marksman Alan Walker as Chairman, Frank Thompson as General secretary, Ian Hazel as Director of the new Academy and Paul Williams Director of Youth & Juniors. On 1 September 2009, manager Hayden Bird resigned as the club's first team manager. On 10 September the club announced the appointment of former Carshalton player Francis Vines as Bird's permanent replacement. In 2009, the newly formed U16s and the new academy teams both won the Surrey Midweek cup. Francis Vines replaced most of Hayden's squad with his own players but results were poor and by Christmas it looked like the Robins were going to face a relegation battle. On 17 February 2010, Francis Vines was removed and Hazel was made caretaker-manager. 2010 saw the U18s retain the Surrey County Cup and reached the first round proper in a showcase fixture against Rushden Diamonds at Nene Park. Shortly before the 2010/11 season Mark Butler was placed in charge of the club. After a promising first half of the season the results went bad. After Christmas they progressively got worse with every week that passed. In March, Mark Butler was sacked and the owner Paul Dipre relinquished his duties as reserve manager to take on the first-team manager's job. He saw through the remaining 6 weeks of the season to hold the teams position in 13th place. Questions were raised by the fans about the new manager's experience and contacts at Ryman level, many doubted whether he would be able to recruit good players. Meantime, by mid 2011, the club's development program had seen it grow to become one of the biggest community clubs in the UK with 34 teams and 2000 members. The club could boast three academy venues, 4 girls teams, 29 junior teams, a senior ladies team, the biggest soccer school in the UK and a thriving social side. Pre-Season 2011 - First team manager Paul Dipre strengthened the squad with some high profile signings and promised to return the style of football back to a more attractive one. He went on to deliver some good pre-season performances including a victory over league 1 Charlton and the club's first victory against Sutton United in six years.



Previous Meetings

The last meeting in the FA Trophy 2nd Round in February 2006 saw County lose 2-1 away at Carshalton. The sides met a few times in the newly formed Conference South with County winning the last encounter at Spytty Park 4-1 in August 2005.

The Verdict

County will be buoyed by their excellent win away at Gateshead and there are signs that County manager is starting to stamp his character on the team with several players in and out during the January transfer window. County have Trophy ambitions this season despite their perilous league position but will not expect an easy ride against a Carshalton side that beat Lincoln City in the last round. Carshalton gained an much needed win last week and despite having injury concerns I expect them to keep it tight and look for sucker punch. It wont be straightforward but I predict a 2-0 home win