PREMIER DIVISION
P W D L GF GA Pts 09/10 08/09 07/08
1 Leiston 42 29 8 5 97 39 95 3rd 7th 9th
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2 Dereham Town 42 25 9 8 88 42 84 10th 4th 4th
3 Wroxham 42 24 8 10 85 52 80 8th 5th 3rd
4 Wisbech Town 42 21 13 8 77 49 76 11th 16th 12th
5 Mildenhall Town 42 22 7 13 66 50 73 6th 11th 5th
6 Norwich United 42 20 10 12 85 49 70 15th 19th 15th
7 Stanway Rovers 42 18 13 11 83 52 67 5th 9th 7th
8 Haverhill Rovers 42 18 11 13 58 55 65 12th 21st* 10th
9 Hadleigh United 42 18 9 15 83 72 63 18th 2nd (D1) 5th (D1)
10 Woodbridge Town 42 18 8 16 70 84 62 19th* 18th 17th
11 CRC 42 15 12 15 73 59 57 2nd 2nd 13th
12 Kirkley & Pakefield 42 16 9 17 59 62 57 4th 6th 6th
13 Brantham Athletic 42 15 6 21 86 79 51 3rd (D1) 8th (D1) 1st (#)
14 Great Yarmouth Town 42 13 12 17 73 80 51 1st (D1) 5th (D1) 11th (D1)
15 Ely City 42 13 10 19 58 62 49 9th 14th 2nd (D1)
16 FC Clacton 42 13 10 19 57 71 49 2nd (D1) 7th (D1) 10th (D1)
17 Walsham-le-Willows 42 9 19 14 65 72 46 13th 10th 16th
18 Felixstowe & Walton United 42 11 11 20 55 84 44 7th 12th 8th
19 Newmarket Town 42 10 11 21 45 89 41 16th 1st (D1) 21st
20 Wivenhoe Town 42 6 14 22 48 76 32 20th* 17th 22nd (@)
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21 Histon Reserves 42 7 10 25 50 132 30 17th 13th 19th
22 Debenham LC 42 7 8 27 56 107 29 14th 3rd (D1) 9th (D1)
* denotes finished in relegation places but not relegated
# denotes title winners in the Suffolk and Ipswich League. Brantham Athletic won the league by just one goal to near neighbour's Capel Plough. Both teams let in 27 goals but it was Brantham who scored 64 to Capel's 63 who celebrated.
@ denotes Ryman Division North
Leiston become the latest team to move up from the Eastern Counties League after Lowestoft Town and Needham Market have made successful transitions to the Ryman League in the last few seasons. How well The Trawlerboys and The Marketmen have performed show what a strong step five league the Eastern Counties Premier Division is. You can add to them Bury Town and AFC Sudbury whom have moved up and been successful over the last few years. Soham Town Rangers have also made themselves at home at Step 4 in the Zamaretto Central Division since being champions in 2007/08.
Another pointer is that Hadleigh United (in finishing 9th this season) are the highest placed team promoted from Division One over the last three seasons. Next below them is this season's 13th placed Brantham Athletic who moved up from the Suffolk and Ipswich League in 2007/08 and gained that respectable finish in their first season back in the Premier Division since 1995. Will the club located on the Suffolk/Essex border finish higher next season?? Their highest finish was in 1982/83 when they finished fourth.
Dereham Town were front runners for a while but that was only down to the amount of games in hand Leiston had due to their fantastic FA Cup and Vase runs. The Victory Road club will no doubt be up the top and challenging in the Ryman Division One (North) next season. The cold end has already written about Leiston here.
Wroxham, who dominated the Premier Division in the 1990's winning the title no less than six times, and again in 2006/07, finished in third place with Wisbech Town gaining 4th spot. The cold end expects The Fenman (as Wisbech Town are known) and The Yachtsmen (Wroxham) to be right up the top of the league for the 2011/12 season. Wisbech moved into a new stadium in 2010 (The Tom Woods Beer Fenland Stadium) and have gradually moved up the league over the past few seasons. Could 2012 be the year they move back up to Step 4 of the non-league ladder having last played at that level in 2001/02 when they were relegated from the Southern League Eastern Division. They also had the highest average crowd in the division (235) and the highest crowd of the season (405 v Wroxham - 21st August 2010) .
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| Wisbech Town - Will they be title contenders in 2010/11? |
Haverhill Rovers, another club to recently move to a new ground in 2011, finished in eighth place. They have been members of the league since 1964.
Down at the bottom of the division it was Debenham LC (the LC stands for "Leisure Centre" which apparently will be dropped for the forthcoming season). The Hornets, in their first season at Premier Division level finished a respectable 14th place last year, but with only seven league games won out of forty two they finished bottom of the table this season just behind the reserve side of Histon FC. Debenham were only formed in 1991 (as Debenham Angels) and have made a rapid rise through Division's Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One and the senior division of The Suffolk & Ipswich League prior to promotion to the ECL in 2005. Long serving manager Mel Aldis has left the hot-seat at The Leisure Centre and has been replaced by Rob Allum who had previously spent three seasons in charge of Suffolk and Ipswich side Framlingham Town.
Finishing just above the relegation zone are Wivenhoe Town who have struggled since being relegated from the Ryman Division One (North) in 2008. There then being a comfortable 9 point gap to Newmarket Town.
Premier Division Top Five Goalscorers - 2010/11
GAMES GOALS
Ollie Mann Brantham Athletic 35 41
John Sands Mildenhall Town 37 31
Danny Beaumont Dereham Town 42 27
Ben Newson Stanway Rovers 40 22
Josh Mayhew Hadleigh United 36 20
Glancing at the top goalscorers in the Premier Division for last season shows that Ollie Mann of 13th placed Brantham Athletic ran away with the title with 41 goals in just 35 league games. As this article shows the 21 year old ex Ipswich Town youth tean player is one of the league's hottest prospects attracting bids of £10,000 from several unnamed non-league clubs. Numerous football league scouts have watched him and he has also played a trial game for John Still's Dagenham and Redbridge. If anybody knows a good player at this level it would be the Dagger's boss. His 41 goal tally included five hat-tricks!
In the runner-up position was 24 year old John Sands (ex of Cambridge City, Ely City and Lakenheath) of Mildenhall Town. Dereham Town will miss the goals of Danny Beaumont (third place) next season as he has signed for UCL side Kings Lynn Town.
Ben Newson who scored 22 goals for Stanway Rovers is the twin brother of Needham Market's Sam Newson. Sam joined the Marketmen from Rovers last summer after topping the scoring charts in the league last season.
Another name to remember for the future is Hadleigh United's Josh Mayhew. The target man scored 17 goals for struggling Woodbridge Town in season 2009/10 and continued his good from for his new club this season. He is only 20 years old and hopefully has a big future in the game.
Premier Division Top Crowd Statistics - 2010/11
HIGHEST CROWDS
405 - Wisbech Town v Wroxham - Saturday 21st August
337 - Woodbridge Town v Haverhill Rovers - Saturday 9th October
LOWEST CROWDS
24 - Histon Res v Kirkley & Pakefield - Wednesday 13th April
32 - Great Yarmouth Town v Histon Res - Saturday 11th December
HIGHEST & LOWEST AVERAGES
235 - Wisbech Town
55 - Histon Res
Some random facts about the Premier Division Season 2010/11 - * Walsham-Le-Willows were king of the draws notching up 19 out of the their 42 league games. The most they drew in a row was five in August and September including a 4-4 home draw against Newmarket Town.
* Leiston only lost two games away from home which were the final two games of the season when the league title was wrapped up. They lost to Kirkley and Pakefield and Dereham Town.
* The title winner's lost three home games. On the opening day of the season Wisbech Town won 1-3 at Victory Road but then an incredible run of 36 games unbeaten saw them crowned champions. CRC and Dereham Town then recorded victories at Victory Road along with a 1-1 draw at Wivenhoe Town and the two away defeats detailed above.
* Fan's of Wivenhoe Town and Felixstowe and Walton United only had three victories each to celebrate at home. At Dellwood Avenue wins against Great Yarmouth Town (5-2), Histon Res (4-2) and Debenham LC (6-2) were recorded over the season. Supporters at Broad Lane saw wins against Debenham LC (2-1), Histon Res (2-1) and Norwich United (4-1). The Dragon's wins all came quite early in the season meaning they are now on a home winless run of 13 games.
* It was a bad year for both Histon's first team (relegated from the Blue Square Premier) and their reserve side who conceded the most goals in the division. Their net was breached 132 times in 42 games with just three cleans sheets recorded in those games. Two games away from home finished 8-0 at Kirkley and Pakefield and FC Clacton.
The new season kicks off on Saturday 13th August with the question being which team will possibly be the next Lowestoft Town, Needham Market or Leiston??? The league (including Division One) has a very lively discussion board/forum which can be found here.
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