Wednesday 1 June 2011

ESSEX SENIOR LEAGUE SEASON IN REVIEW - 2010/11

                            HOME           AWAY           TOTAL
                            W  D L  GF GA  W  D L  GF GA  P  W  D  L  GF GA GD  PTS
1.  Enfield 1893            10 4 2  35 13  13 0 3  48 14  32 23 4  5  83 27 +56 73 
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2.  Stansted                12 3 1  35 12  10 6 0  46 13  32 22 9  1  81 25 +56 72 #
3.  Witham Town             9  4 3  40 19  11 4 1  42 21  32 20 8  4  82 40 +42 67 *
4.  Bethnal Green United    9  4 3  26 14  8  2 6  33 21  32 17 6  9  59 35 +24 57
5.  Southend Manor          11 1 4  32 17  5  4 7  26 30  32 16 5  11 58 47 +11 53
6.  Barking                 6  3 7  27 23  9  1 6  25 21  32 15 4  13 52 44 +8  49
7.  Burnham Ramblers        8  2 6  40 26  6  4 6  27 24  32 14 6  12 67 50 +17 48 
8.  Eton Manor              6  5 5  32 28  5  5 6  27 28  32 11 10 11 59 56 +3  43
9.  Hullbridge Sports       5  5 6  25 29  5  5 6  23 24  32 10 10 12 48 53 -5  40
10. London APSA             6  2 8  14 25  6  2 8  13 17  32 12 4  16 27 42 -15 40
11. Mauritius Sports Assoc  5  2 9  25 33  6  3 7  28 29  32 11 5  16 53 62 -9  38
12. Basildon United         5  3 8  21 29  5  1 10 24 37  32 10 4  18 45 66 -21 34
13. Takeley                 6  3 7  26 30  3  4 9  22 43  32 9  7  16 48 73 -25 34
14. Bowers & Pitsea         4  4 8  23 43  4  4 8  18 29  32 8  8  16 41 72 -31 32
15. Barkingside             5  1 10 25 42  4  3 9  26 36  32 9  4  19 51 78 -27 31
16. Sawbridgeworth Town     6  0 10 23 38  4  1 11 15 37  32 10 1  21 38 75 -37 31
17. Clapton                 1  6 9  16 43  2  3 11 21 41  32 3  9  20 37 84 -47 18 

# denotes deducted 3 pts
* denotes deducted 1 pt
Starting from the bottom of the table upwards, Clapton, had to wait until New Years Day to get their first league victory when they beat Barking 1-0 at the Old Spotted Dog. The Tons went on to win only two other matches both of which were away from home at Mauritius Sports Association (0-1) and at Barkingside (1-3).

Despite losing one more game then Clapton, Sawbridgeworth finished a comfortable 13 points above the East London side. That is because the team from Crofter's End either won or lost all of their games aside from one draw (1-1 against Hullbridge Sports) on the final but one game of the season. They won as many games as the only side who drew against them at Lower Road who finished in ninth place.

Barkingside, who in finishing third from bottom, had their worst season for a number of years. This was down to an incredible losing run of 14 games from 5th March to 18th April. In between 2-1 victories at Burnham Ramblers and at home to Bethnal Green United they scored only 9 goals, let in 42 goals and didn't score in 8 of the 14 games.

Moving up the table Mauritius Sports Association had their best season since joining the Essex Senior League in 2007. Last season's basement dwellers finished in a respectable 11th place.

At the top of the table it was a race between last season's title winner's Stansted and Enfield 1893 FC who were playing their first season at Goldsdown Road. Despite losing five matches to Stansted's one it was 1893 who finished as title winners. This seems down to two reasons - The amount of drawn games the runners-up had (nine) to 1893's total of four and the three point deduction Stansted had. Had this not of happened it would of been two titles in a row for Terry Spillane's team.

FOR THE RECORD - THE STATS 

        MOST WINS           LEAST WINS    LEAST DEFEATS  MOST DEFEATS              
HOME -  Stansted     - 12   Clapton - 1   Stansted - 1   Barkingside & Sawbo - 10  
AWAY -  Enfield 1893 - 13   Clapton - 2   Stansted - 0   Clapton & Sawbo     - 11 
TOTAL-  Enfield 1893 - 23   Clapton - 3   Stansted - 1   Sawbo               - 21

        MOST DRAWS                 LEAST DRAWS       MOST GOALS SCORED      LEAST GOALS SCORED
HOME -  E Manor & Hullbridge - 5   Sawbo        - 0  Witham & Burnham - 40  London APSA - 14 
AWAY -  Stansted             - 6   Enfield 1893 - 0  Enfield 1893     - 48  London APSA - 13
TOTAL-  E Manor & Hullbridge - 10  Sawbo        - 1  Enfield 1893     - 83  London APSA - 27

        LEAST GOALS CONCEDED    MOST GOALS CONCEDED     
HOME -  Stansted - 12           B&P Clapton   - 43     
AWAY -  Stansted - 13           Takley        - 43
TOTAL-  Stansted - 25           Clapton       - 84 


* Eton Manor and Hullbridge Sports drew the most games (10) but in their two games between the two sides Hullbridge won both by 3-1 and 4-0.

* London APSA despite finishing 10th scored only 27 goals. They did have a good defensive record with only the top four beating their 42 goals conceded.

* Stansted had an incredible run of their first 28 league games unbeaten. Their fantastic record was ended when Hullbridge Sports recorded a 1-2 victory at Hargrave Park on 9th April. It can be extended to 32 matches if you include the end of last season when Tiptree United beat the Airportmen 2-1 on the 10th April 2010. They were just one day shy of going a full year unbeaten in the league.

* Southend Manor lost 7-1 at Barking on the 25th September but then went on a run of twelve consecutive victories in the league. It was thirteenth time unlucky for the Seaside team when 1893 won 0-2 at Southcurch Park on Tuesday 1st February.

* Where you one of the famous five people in the recorded attendance at The Terrance MacMillan Stadium on the 11th December. The East London derby between London APSA and Bethnal Green United drew in only a car load of fans to watch 0-3 victory for the away side.

* The Essex Senior League has always been one of the lowest supported Step 5 leagues in the country due to raft of Premier League, Football League and other non-league sides in or near to the County. Only 1893 recorded an average in three figures thanks mainly to the 234 highest crowd in the game billed as the 'title decider' against Stansted. Take away that figure and their average falls from 104 to 95.

* APSA's total aggregate league crowd of 275 for their league season of 16 matches was only 41 less than the game at Goldsdown Road between 1893 and Stansted.

* Bowers and Pitsea had the second worst win record at home with only Clapton behind them. One of the four wins at The Len Salmon Stadium was the most important one of the season for their fans as it was against local rival's Basildon United. 124 people saw B&P win 2-0 over United on Wednesday 1st September, United evened things out on New Years Day when 108 people saw B&P lose 1-0 at Gardiners Close. B&P's other home victories came over Sawbridgeworth Town, Barkingside and Southend Manor. The top three sides found it a very happy hunting ground recording 2-7 (Stansted), 0-5 (1893) and 1-7 (Witham Town) wins on their league visits.

* Congratulations must go out to Stansted who had a fantastic run in the FA Vase. Starting with a home victory over their local rival's Takeley (2-0) in the First Round they went on to beat Eton Manor (3-1 at home), Stanway Rovers (0-1 away) and Bodmin Town (1-4 on a memorable and very long away day trip to the South West of England) to qualify for the Fifth Round Proper. Gateshead based Dunston UTS came down to Essex and returned home to the North-East with a 0-2 victory played in front of a crowd of 430 people.

ATTENDANCES 

LOWEST         - 5   - London ASPA  v Bethnal Green United - Saturday 11th December 2010
HIGHEST        - 234 - Enfield 1893 v Stansted             - Saturday 16th April 
BEST AVERAGE   - 104 - Enfield 1893
LOWEST AVERAGE - 17  - London APSA

With Enfield 1893's promotion and no team's coming down from the Ryman Division One (North) following Waltham Forest's reprieve it looks as if the Essex Senior League will be played with just 16 teams for next season. The cold end is unaware of any teams applying to join from the Essex Olympian League but there is an as yet unconfirmed rumour that Sporting Bengal United will transfer across from the Kent League during the summer. This would make sense as it would cut travelling costs for the club who share the Mile End Stadium with Bethnal Green United. Local derby games against BGU, Barking, London APSA, Barkingside, Mauritius Sports, Eton Manor and Clapton would hopefully pull in a few more spectators.

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