Gents, before we delve into the larry and cheerful part of the season review, I’d like to start off with the low point of the season. Tommy’s passing in February was tragic and a shock for us all. Tommy was instrumental in creating this team; he was a brilliant people person that helped us forming a very strong bond over the years and he will be dearly missed. Let’s raise a glass to Tommy one more time and show our appreciation for everything he’s done for this team and the club.

That brings me to the person that Hamish and I would like to explicitly thank for everything he’s done this season, but especially around Tommy’s passing. Sam has been an absolute rock, assuming Tommy’s responsibilities and keeping everything around the club working as smoothly as it could. I cannot stress enough what an amazing job Sam did this year – Sam, absolute superstar.

Now on to the season, and apologies that we’re already 2 minutes into this speech. What a season it was – the Invincible Season. League and Cup winners. Even Pep has never won the South West London Double.

21 Matches
20 Wins, 1 Draw
88 goals scored, 25 conceded, including 7 clean sheets. Most of those conceded came when Diego wasn't available and a field player had to go in nets.
What a run we had.

If someone asked me what the recipe for success was, and maybe what was different this season compared to the last one, I’d say the availability of players and everyone’s commitment. A very strong spirit of comradery and friendship carried us through the season. It may also have helped that we had a hot transfer period in the second half of last season and the start of this season. Griffin, Cansfield, Boxer and Diego have been tremendous additions to the team – on and off the pitch, and that really showed this season.

If I think about the season, we’ve been operating in three modes:

Sometimes we played really good football – for example, absolutely dominating the cup final and going up 5:0 in the first half will live on in my memory for a very, very long time.

Sometimes we just had to battle through the game and get a result. Often that coincided with playing on Fishponds... Home against Wandsworth Borough comes to mind, but also the 2 games against River Green. Tight games, but we edged it in the end and were patient. Also, turns out Harmer has got a left foot.

Sometimes we also needed a little bit of luck this season. You need a bit of luck to stay unbeaten. Probably the most luck we had all season blessed us when we could recover the kit we had borrowed from Cass and his team after days of desperate searching. We’re now happy to come clean about it but it wasn’t fun in the beginning when we realised we had left it somewhere between clubhouse and various pubs during Tommy’s farewell evening. All good now, and hopefully no trust issues to come from this…

Finally, I just want to say thank you to Sam, Martin, Brooksy and the other captains for such a great comradery and spirit in the club this year. It jelled really well and has been very enjoyable for Harmer and myself to be part of it. Congratulations also to the 3rd team for their stellar season, really impressive to win the League as newly promoted side. I also would like to ask for a round of applause for Alex Turner for a decade of pacing down the right wing. Turner has decided to hang up the boots, but has committed to regular beers with the boys after our home games. So we will miss him on but hopefully not off the pitch. You’ve been a true friend to all of us – and an absolute nightmare to all refs in South London. Thank you for that, buddy.

Now on to the Players’ Player of the Season. There were mainly three players that people voted for, but this guy ran away with it, deservedly. An honourable mention goes to David Cansfield, who hoovered up in midfield anything and anyone. Unbelievable first season, and you were just shy of a few votes to win it. The person who took it outperformed on every measure – scored the most goals, assisted the most, and had the most MoM wins. He’s a versatile winger, a clinical striker and our finest transfer signing in years. Congratulations to our very own American boy, Griffin Godsick!

Finally, we got the Manager’s Player of the Season. Besides Harmer, who scored 22 goals this season, and Griffin, this year’s winner completes the magical triangle attack. He scored 13 goals and assisted for 11, and he probably washed the kit and took the balls about the same number of times. He has played every single game this season and his work rate on the pitch is second to none. He’s always super committed to this team and to his performance on the pitch, he’s genuinely a really nice guy and his footballing ability exceeds mine by a magnitude that is off the chart. He came joint 2nd with Cansfield on the Players’ votes, so this award goes to Jimmy Walker who will be celebrating this achievement in New York tonight.