Fletching traveled to East Grinstead based outfit Dormansland Rockets for a last day promotion decider as nearest rivals East Court met Ardingly in the late kick off. After last weeks disappointing result at home to AFC Ringmer, The Archers were keen to finish with a win, but whatever the outcome knew they would have to put in a good performance, as fourth placed Rockets had only lost once at home all season. The starting line up was unchanged from the week before, with Donnelly stepping up to the bench for the unavailable Mark Dann.

In sweltering heat on a very good playing surface, Fletching looked to get amongst the hosts and started the better, with Roberts causing some early trouble down the right hand side. For once Hyland was enjoying a lot of space in behind the front two of Burchett and Lucey, as he began finding the strikers feet with some deft touches. Fletching broke the deadlock when Holford sent Roberts through on the right where he drilled a low, hard ball across the box for Lucey to slide home at the far post. It was a deserved lead for the visitors, but uncharacteristically The Archers took their foot off the gas and allowed Rockets back into the game. The equaliser came after some sustained pressure from the hosts, the ball finding its way to the Rockets midfielder who was lurking well outside the area, before firing a pile driver past Pat ‘Minty’ Philips. With manager Clive Hyland away on holiday, it was left to his assistant Darren Wolvey to rouse the team and Fletching were to answer back in emphatic style, as two goals inside three minutes gave them a healthy lead. First Duff, who was enjoying a lot of possession on a tricky, sloping left hand side, linked up well with Hyland, who then put a delightfully measured through ball with the outside of his boot for Burchett to race onto and slide under the advancing keeper. The same combination worked again two minutes later, when Hyland received the ball from Roberts in acres of space, and delivered an inch perfect ball that Burchett dispatched with aplomb.

The visitors were readying themselves for a second half rally from the Rockets, but they put the game to rest only minutes after the restart. Holford curled in a free kick deep from just inside the Rockets half, which found a huge gap in the hosts defence as they went to sleep, allowing Lucey to steal in at the far post and nod past the keeper for his second of the game. This seemed to take the sting out of Dormansland and the game became a scrappy midfield battle with Fletching happy to defend their lead, as several cards were shown, mainly born out of frustration. Wolvey and Neil ‘Nails’ Bradford were sweeping everything up in front of the back three of Cork, Funnell and Holford, who looked assured as ever at the back. Cronin, Unwin and Donnelly were all introduced to the game as Dormansland almost pulled one back when a stinging long range effort came back off the post. Lucey and Burchett both went close to completing their hat tricks but it wasn’t to be, as Fletching ran out 4-1 winners after an impressive performance.

View From The Dancefloor with Billy Elliot (a.k.a Chris Hyland)

With the news filtering through that East Court had won at Ardingly, it looks as though Fletching may have just missed out on promotion for the second year running. Despite this, it has been a very successful season, including our best ever league run since we reformed in 1998, where we won twelve out of thirteen games. Third place and two cup quarter finals aren’t a bad return, but we hope to do better on all fronts in the next campaign. It took the Tangerine Machine a while to get going this season, which in the end cost us dear as their was just too much ground to make up on AFC Ringmer & East Court. However, after another good performance at Dormansland, we hope to hit the ground running next season, especially with new signings such as Neil Lucey bedding in so quickly and performing very well. We now have a very settled team with a tried and tested tactic, so there is no reason whatsoever why we can’t bring back some silverware to The Recreation Ground next season.

Team: Phillips, Holford, Funnell, Cork, Bradford, Wolvey, Hyland (Unwin70), Roberts (Cronin 62), Duff (Donnelly79), Lucey, Burchett.