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Ashford promoted to step 4


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YYYEEEEEESSSS!!!!!!

 

I couldn't bring myself to go to Hartley Wintney due to nerves. I sorted out a 1.00 kick-off in Milton Keynes to keep my mind occupied but it got called off at 10 am this morning! I ended up shopping (yes, for shoes at one stage) with my wife and her sister and niece instead. They then came back for coffee afterwards, so I had to go into the shed to find out today's result. I'm surprised I didn't break any glass with my jubilant yell!

 

After the promotion refusing heartbreak we suffered five seasons in a row in the 90's due to ground grading, there's some sort of karma in that we've gained our first promotion for 16 years due to another team failing the grading. Sincere commiserations to Hartley Wintney for not going up, and congratulations to them on a wonderful season. Also, hard luck to Camberley Town for achieving a points total which would have easily won this division last season on a points per game ratio but only buys third place this time round.

 

As for us, the management and team put "Horleygate" to bed with an excellent end-of-season run in. You couldn't better it. For everyone to pick themselves up and finish the season in such style and with such determination astonishes me and makes me proud. I bet Pinchy's smiling down at us.

 

The season's had a few frustrations, some anger (Knaphill away as well, anyone?) and some sadness, but on the whole it's been a hugely enjoyable and entertaining season. These lads have matured so much since the last campaign. It's been a pleasure to see them bloom. I really hope to see you all back at the RPS next season.

 

Never liked the FA Vase anyway. it's back to the Trophy!

 

Well done, everyone, WELL DONE! So proud.  THE ASHFORD!  :Dance:

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CONGRATULATIONS ASHFORD !

 

I hope all goes well next season.

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Think Horsham will get a Ryman South spot.

i wouldn't put any money against Southern League.

 

Ashford' s promotion will leave Hartley, Camberley, Epsom as early favourites to go up next term, who knows how W & H will fair. If Abbey get promoted they have a young team that plays football.

Sneaky feeling Bedfont Sports might ruffle a few feathers..

 

This is all conjecture we will know more this time next year.

 

Just a few games to be played now I hope all the players have a good break

 

Training starts in about 8 weeks

Edited by Tel
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It's a bit surreal being so far away from it all but so, so proud of everyone for getting over the line.I listened to the Radio Wey commentary on Saturday and spent the whole game convinced I was about to be sick. In some ways, today was even worse, as I could do was keep staring at my phone for updates from Hartley and Camberley on Twitter. I haven't stopped smiling since the result came through!

 

A lot of other stuff has been flying around on Twitter too; is this what being a "big club" is like? We seem to have been a real target for some of the CCL fraternity, especially this season, but, as Oscar Wilde said, "the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about".

 

Barring some sort of geographical gymnastics, we will be back in the Southern League next season, in the Central Division, alongside Egham Town. Chris C is right; Horsham will go into the Ryman South and we will take North Greenford United's place in the Southern, although they will probably end up in the Spartan South Midlands.

 

There are some good clubs and good people in the CCL and it is such a hard league to get out of because of that, which makes promotion a massive achievement. Well done to all involved but this is where the hard work starts; we must build on this and do as well as we can at Step 4.

 

Congratulations to Hartley Wintney on deservedly winning a championship they controlled for most of the season and commiserations to Camberley Town, who could yet end the season with two Cups and had such a wonderful FA Vase run but faltered right at the end in the face of a fearsome fixture schedule.

 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some rather nice red wine to enjoy!

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Hi guys, just like to pass on my congratulations on getting promotion. Well deserved and couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people. Enjoy the summer and see you next season

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Thanks to the above posters for your well wishes.

 

I made a mistake in my post yesterday – and I was sober! The club actually achieved its first senior promotion 16 seasons ago. We then achieved two more promotions on the pitch plus another through a divisional re-shuffle to reach the Ryman Premier. Back then, you needed to win four promotions from the single division Combined Counties to reach the Ryman Premier, whereas now it’s just two steps either way.

 

Personally, I think we’ve left the Combined Counties at just the right time. If you take the other teams in this season’s top four, add Walton and Hersham, potential dark horses in Knaphill and some useful teams promoted from Division One, plus all the local derbies we would have encountered, I reckon next season’s Combined Counties Premier will be the strongest and most competitive yet.

 

By the way, my remark about the FA Vase was meant in jest. I love the competition and think it’s a real shame that the ground grading rules (e.g. you must have floodlights) have robbed a lot of teams / leagues / picturesque grounds the chance of appearing in the competition in the future. Our lack of progress in the Vase for the last two seasons was simply down to our playing two excellent sides who deserved to beat us.

 

I wonder how Tommy Brunton feels this morning? He looked slightly worse for wear in the clubhouse last night!

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I've noticed a strange parallel which then goes off at a different tangent.

 

22 seasons ago, in the Combined Counties, we won 31 league matches (out of 40) and finished runners-up, 10 points behind the champions. Unlike that occasion, we've gone up!

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Ah, St. Ives Town, where we played during that 20-match losing streak and, in one of his first games in charge, the locals taunted Guru with the chant of "You're getting sacked in the morning". Makes promotion after those dark days feel even sweeter.

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CONGRATES  to all Players and staff at Ashford on winning Promotion.

Looking forward to watching Ashford team next season.

 

( I'm a bit late with the congrats because I'm hoping for a double celebration as my first team I have supported all my life, are one game away from reaching Premier League, and the nervousness is really bad and be even worse on Saturday, some times I just hate football  :wacko:   )

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CONGRATES  to all Players and staff at Ashford on winning Promotion.

Looking forward to watching Ashford team next season.

 

( I'm a bit late with the congrats because I'm hoping for a double celebration as my first team I have supported all my life, are one game away from reaching Premier League, and the nervousness is really bad and be even worse on Saturday, some times I just hate football  :wacko:   )

 

Ah, Robin, I feel your pain, because I had that nervousness last Saturday and again on Monday! However, I'm also hoping for a double celebration on Saturday... albeit at your club's expense. My "second" team is Middlesbrough; my dad was from Teesside and my cousin started his professional career at the Boro. I'm relaxed about it though, because Ashford have got the job done.

 

He's a spooky thing about this promotion; the 1-0 win at Epsom & Ewell happened ten years and one day after the 1-0 win at Brackley Town which secured our last promotion, to the Ryman League Premier Division. I realised that when I sat down to type up the 2005-06 season and looked at the results from that particular campaign.

 

Brackley went into that game in second place, but Ashford's win meant they were promoted instead of the home side. This caught the League officials at the game unawares; they had brought the trophy for the division runners-up with them, but only had red ribbons to tie on it!  The travelling contingent improvised, with a spare pair of socks from the kitbag.

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Never realised that about the League officials and the ribbons. Cheeky b##tards! There was also the matter of Ashford having to change shirts at very short notice. At our place, the ref allowed our tangerine and white striped shirts and Brackley's red and white hooped tops but, at Brackley, we were made to change into Brackley's yellow away shirts just before kick-off and we then changed into the proper shirts to receive the trophy.

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