Last Season

1st Team

A new season brought a new regime, with myself, Mark Wells and John Delaney forming a new management team for the 1st team. The first season was never going to be easy, notwithstanding the unenviable task of following in the footsteps of previous long-serving manager Ian Corner, particularly with the 1st team having won their first silverware for several years. Nevertheless, we set about pre-season with enthusiasm, optimism and new ideas, which the 1st team squad embraced and proceeded to work hard in some enjoyable sessions. The hard work put in by the players was rewarded with some fine performances in friendlies, notably a 2 - 1 loss to Ryman League side Met. Police, a 1-0 win over Essex Senior side Sawbridgeworth Town and a 1-1 draw against Stansted, which bode well for the coming season.

The season started with an away trip to White Notley, the scene of the 1st team's last game the previous season when they won the Denny King Cup. 1 - 0 up with 15 minutes remaining, a missed penalty was to be rued as Notley equalised with 5 minutes to go. In hindsight, this match was an example of the 1st team's season, not being consistent or clinical enough when it mattered. A draw at home to newly promoted Galleywood followed, again Epping led twice in the game. The first win came at home to Bishops Stortford Swifts, in one of the best footballing performances of the season. After a good win over Shell Club away in the divisional cup, the month ended on a downer with the home defeat to Frenford Senior.

October was a mixed bunch, with a fine victory at home over eventual cup winners and league runners-up, Kelvedon Hatch and another great away win at current league champions Harold Wood Athletic. However, there was also one of the worst performances of the season with the home loss to Canning Town, although we were missing three influential players in JT, Dave Costello and Leon Rolle. We were really unlucky away at White Ensign, who were to go on and win the league, conceding their winning goal in injury time.

There wasn't much league action in November, with a sole 1-0 win over Manford Way, but we did progress in both the County and the Anagram Records Cup.

December saw the start of the bad weather, with postponements against Mountnessing and Takeley. We also went out of the Anagram Records Cup to a very strong Stony Stratford Town side from the Spartan South Midlands League. However, the highlight of the first half of the season was the away win at Tilbury (after much negotiation over where and when the game was to be played!), where the lads put in one of their best performances, trouncing the Ryman League North's reserve side 4-1.

2007 arrived with a home game against the league leaders (and eventual champions) White Ensign. The game was in doubt up to the last minute due to the adverse weather, but the ref gave the green light for the match to start. This was arguably the 1st team's performance of the season as they steam-rollered Ensign 3-0.

Global warming then had its impact on Eppings season with weeks of cancellations due to the weather conditions. When we did eventually return to action we had the infamous County Cup game against West Bergholt, a match which we really should have won and didn't and which will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. We then went out of the Senior Division Cup away to a very good Potter Street side, although to be honest we were missing keys players and had two on the bench recovering from illness.

It wasn't until mid-March that we returned to league action with a fine 1-1 draw away to Frenford Senior, with Richard Hilson scoring probably the goal of the season with his 25 yard volley. We should have won the game comfortably but the lack of matches in the preceding weeks showed and tiredness set in. This was also the time when we lost key defender Dave Costello for virtually the remainder of the season. A comfortable home win over Roydon then followed, but our remaining league ambitions were effectively killed off with the back-to-back away defeats to Canning Town and Kelvedon Hatch. The Canning Town game we were unlucky in and should have got something from the game, but the major blow was losing Nick Godwin for the remainder of the season with a broken arm. Kelvedon Hatch, we gave away two comical goals defensively and never recovered.

April saw us begin a decline of fortunes which we never recovered from. We won away at Swifts, then lost narrowly away to Galleywood two days later with a weakened side through injury and unavailability. We then had a ridiculous schedule of 4 games in 8 days, with a win over Roydon followed by a draw at Manford Way (another game we should have won). We went to Takeley where we lost an eventful game in injury game, another game we should have taken something from but the guys looked jaded and it was clearly a game too far. There were also defeats and poor performances against both Harold Wood and White Notley, although it has to be said we fielded weakened sides due to injuries, suspension and unavailability, both matches seeing us only have 12 regular players named due to the player shortage within the club and trying to accommodate both reserve and 3rd team sides, the latter of whom were striving for promotion (lessons to be learned there!).

It was now looking like we couldn't wait for a long season to be over. We faced Mountnessing at home at the start of May and were on the end of a comprehensive beating against a very strong and experienced side. Again, we were missing key players but it was really men against boys. We fielded another weakened side at home to Takeley and again paid the price of not being able to take chances after starting well, eventually being beaten 3-0.

Our last game of the season saw us travel to Mountnessing on FA Cup Final day. Again, we were missing almost a complete back four but we ended up putting in our best performance for many weeks. Again chances went begging, Hilson and Rolle being the main culprits, and we paid the price when Moutnessing snatched the win with 5 minutes remaining following an unfortunate error by JT.

Overall, a season that at one point promised much, finished disappointingly. The lack of strength in depth in the 1st team squad and beyond was evident in the last couple of months, when we lost key players to injury and suspension and couldn't replace them. We weren't helped by a ludicrous fixture schedule at times but having said that, there were games we should have won and were unlucky (Canning Town, Takeley and Manford Way) and there were those that we should have won but played poorly (White Notley and Harold Wood). Two more victories out of these games would have seen us finish 6th, which would have been the highest league position that Epping would have attained since being in Senior Division One. I also felt we could and should have gone all the way in the County Cup, but we shot ourselves in the foot.

The highlights were the County Cup game at Tilbury and the home league victory over eventual league winners, White Ensign. Both games were played in atrocious conditions where we had to show a different side to our game and battle for the wins, something we didn't always do. For two thirds of the season we were in the hunt and playing well and I don't think it was any coincidence that our down turn in performances coincided with the loss of key defenders Dave Costello and Nick Godwin and also influential midfielder Danny Hopkins.

From my point of view there's a lot of positives and encouraging points to take from the season and something to build on for next season.

Neil

Reserve Team

The reserve team had a very good season; but it could have been so much better. Led by Sam Shepherd the team were just that, a team. The mixture of youth and others with some years under their belt blended well. Early season domination in matches did not glean the reward the efforts of the team deserved. On many occasions though the fitness and desire levels of the team shone through when late goals earned the side points. It was in October when the team suffered their first defeat. It was against Ryan away and Epping had the best chances but were unable to convert (even from two yards) - it was one of those days. The next defeat did not come until well after Christmas against Harold Wood (the eventual champions). At this game the team were unsettled by the break in to the changing room but they learnt from the experience. In the space of a few weeks a couple of defeats killed their chance to win the league. Better concentration and who knows what could have happened. The side saved their best performance until last when they played White Ensign away and beat them 5-2 with some exhilarating free flowing football. In what was Andy Grey's retirement season he held his own very well; but special mention should go to James Kelly the scorer of 16 goals and winner of Player of the Year. Also to Dean Harper chosen by his fellow players as their Player of the Year who was outstanding at right back.

In the cups the team performed well but injuries in important games meant that below strength sides met the challenge and the team went out in extra time to Harold Wood in the League Cup and Hannakins Farm in the County Cup. Nevertheless, the team progressed to the best League finishing position that the reserves had attained for many a year. - Thank you to you all.- Phil.

3rd Team

Hopes were high as we started the 2006/07 campaign with a good mix of experience, young and ageing (Jerry Albright and Neil Lawson) players. Previous seasons had seen the 3rd team start well and this was no exception as we hit the season running. However an early slip up against E2V when a number of key players were missing due to Bullys Stag in Brighton was to prove costly later in the season.

By Christmas the league looked to be a 5 team race and this quickly reduced to 3 as Writtle and Ferrers faded after dropping too many points. This coincided with 2 of our best performances as we beat Ferrers by 5 goals in consecutive weeks in both the cup 1/4 final and then the league. This left the title race to be fought out by Rayleigh, Byfleet and ourselves. We looked to have taken the upper hand when we went away to Rayleigh and handed out a comprehensive 4-1 mauling with old stagers Bulled and McGowan rolling back the years and the Rayleigh keeper claiming perhaps we had reinforced our forward line! Little did he know that it was a month before the veteran forwards could walk properly again after the game.

As a league and cup double looked to be achievable, the curse of losing players through injury and various other reasons hit us hard. However we managed to continue to scrape victories by the odd goal, often against the run of play as the players fought for their lives to maintain our goal, Higley in midfield and Albright, Lawson, Dower and Wilkinson proving magnificent in defence.

The dream of cup glory and indeed winning the league faded as we lost twice to bogey team E2V in the semi and in the league (I'm still scratching my head to analyse how we lost 3 times to them). However we still had promotion to play for and it would be a test of character for the players to maintain a top 2 finish. Rayleigh visited the Hill with a completely different side and gave us a comprehensive pasting and prompted ex 1st team coach Tracy Wilkinson to comment that they had players who would have enhanced the 1st team! I'm not quite sure where they got the players from? but now is not a time to be cynical.

So a long hard season came down to a very wet May bank holiday double header with Byfleet with us looking for 1 win to leave us needing just 1 point from our final game against City colts on the last day of the season. With the Byfleet right back letting it slip that they had players from senior football playing and Epping with only the bare 11 for a double header, our prospects didn't look too good. However we battled like never before and on the 2 occasions we got the ball in the Byfleet box we managed to score. If we had lost by double figures I would have had to accept a fair result! A fantastic effort by the players who gave up their Holiday Monday. We lost the 2nd game but duly won our final game 4-0 to claim the 2nd promotion spot.

Well done to the boys and we can look forward to a new challenge in the higher division next season!

Niall