With a player trial completed and pre-season training underway we have booked a series of eight friendlies ahead of the new season kicking off. Five games are at home which, as has been the case in recent seasons, is Edenbridge Recreation Ground on Lingfield Road. There will be trips to Wallington, Rochester and a very familiar Church Road in Whyteleafe. The games are all in July and here is the schedule:-

1st Tuesday H 7:30pm - Sutton Athletic at Nomads FC, Four Elms Road, Edenbridge
5th Saturday A 2pm - Sutton Common Rovers at Hannibal Way, Wallington
8th Tuesday H 7:30pm - Bridon Ropes
12th Saturday H 1pm - Horley Town
12th Saturday A 3pm - Rochester United at Rede Court Road, Strood
15th Tuesday H 7:15pm - Hollands Sports
19th Saturday A 3pm - AFC Whyteleafe at Church Lane, Whyteleafe
26th Saturday H 1pm - Oakwood

Before giving some background to these games the FA have already issued the round dates for all of their cup competitions for the 2025/26 season. This coming Friday they will be confirming all the clubs that have entered the competitions and confirming the exemptions from early rounds as a result of performances last season as well as sorting out the numbers entered in each cup. You may recall that our recent good run in the FA Vase earnt us an exemption from the two qualifying rounds to enter at the First Round. The early rounds dates are also clear of any league fixtures – two rounds for the FA Cup and three for the FA Vase. The draws for the first two rounds of all competitions will be made on Friday 4 July.

The FA Cup usually comes along early in the season but this time our season will open with the FA Cup whereas last season we had played two league matches the week before. So our kick off will be on Saturday 2 August in the Extra Preliminary Round and if we are successful the Preliminary Round follows on Saturday 16 August. Remember that matches will go to a replay if they end in a draw without extra time. Replays will have extra time and penalties if required.

The FA Vase starts on the August Bank Holiday weekend on Saturday 23 August with the First Round Qualifying. The Second Round Qualifying is 20 September and the First Round Proper is 18 October. The games are decided on the day with no extra time before penalties – only the final has extra time.

Looking at our friendlies, Sutton Athletic have nothing to do with Sutton in London but come from Sutton at Hone just east of the M25 on the banks of the River Darent in Kent although their ground is west of the M25 on the edge of Hextable. They play at our level in the SE Counties Premier Division and had their best finish of eighth last season having won promotion to the division via a play-off in 2022.

Sutton Common Rovers do have a connection as they play in the London Borough of Sutton with a ground share at Carshalton Athletic having been a tenant at Whyteleafe recently. Promoted from the Combined Counties to the Isthmian South Central Division on points per game post Covid in 2021 they had a rocky two seasons. In 2022 they were reprieved from the relegation play-offs and in 2023 beat our neighbours Crawley Down Gatwick in the play-offs. They had a solid fourteenth place finish in 2024 but were relegated to the Combined Counties Premier Division South last season. The match is being played at their own ground at Hannibal Way, Wallington on the former Croydon Airport. The road name refers to the four engined biplane airliner the Handley Page Hannibal that was flown from the airport by Imperial Airways in the 1930s and follows the convention of naming roads in Roundshaw and on the old airport after aircraft, aviators and aircraft companies - roads built more recently are named after birds. The majority of the airport was actually in the Borough of Beddington and Wallington but the good councillors frowned on this new flying lark so let it be named Croydon Airport.

Bridon Ropes play in the SE Counties Division One and finished mid table last season. They play in Charlton and were founded as a works team for British Ropes based at the Charlton Ropeworks. The wire ropes that secured the Mulberry Harbours used for the D Day landings in June 1944 were made there. The company became Bridon Ropes in 1990 following a merger and the club followed suit. The works closed in 1995 while the company has since been bought by a Belgian company with plants in the North and Scotland but the name survives as a brand of wire rope.

We know Horley Town well from having played at their ground for a season and from facing them for two seasons in our league a few years back before they were moved back to the Combined Counties Premier Division South. They finished in ninth place last season. We are fielding a second team on 12 July playing at Rochester United who play at Rede Court Road, Strood and are in the SE Counties Division One finishing eighth last season having made the play-offs the season before.

Holland Sports are a local side based in Hurst Green who play in the Mid Sussex Premier Division, which is the same level as our SCFL Division Two, where they finished sixth last season. Following them is a trip to the newly promoted AFC Whyteleafe following the farcical ending to the Combined Counties Premier Division season that saw them crowned champions as Jersey Bulls and Redhill were docked points. They have reached the Isthmian South East Division where they were when the old Whyteleafe FC folded. The game is at our second shared ground from last season at Church Road. Our final friendly is against Oakwood who provided us with a home for the start of last season and for our U23 team. They finished twelfth in our Division One last season.