On Sunday 19th May, Stratford Athletic played the final game of their first season in the Hackney & Leyton League. An emotional morning ended in a 4-1 defeat to Walthamstow Village, with Alex Bocking netting the team's last goal of the 2012/13 season. The opening day seems a lifetime ago, but it was only last September that the lads pulled on their red jerseys for the first time.
It all began with a defeat to the typically physical Walthamstow Village. Manager Mike Earll's first eleven were beaten by two quick-fire second half goals, despite playing well for the majority of the match. It was a game of positives and negatives, with Elliot Greening scoring a debut goal but Will Winthrop suffering a serious injury that would see him miss the next seven months of action.
The veteran stopper stepped into the role of Assistant Manager as the Reds picked up their first point a week later, away at Regents Park Rovers. Two stunning goals at Mabley Green were cancelled out by Ryan Bishop and Greening as Athletic celebrated their first draw of the year.
Stratford followed that up with two hard-fought victories. A 4-3 win against close rivals Shoreditch spurred the team on to a 6-5 win the very next week against Highams Park. A debut hat-trick for Tymal Mills was the highlight of the six-point fortnight.
Both the Dickie Davies and Jack Walpole Cup competitions proved too much for Earll's team as October rolled into November. A late goal saw NLM FC sneak a 1-0 win on the Marshes, while Mile End were worthy 6-3 winners at Mabley Green.
Bad weather conditions wreaked havoc on the winter fixtures, with water-logged pitches limiting Stratford to a single league fixture in November. Pete Stanley deputised in goal with Deacon out injured while Elliot Greening scored a candidate for goal of the season when his peach from the halfway line spurred Stratford on to rescue a 2-2 draw against Florist Arms. Will Pruce nodded home the dramatic late equaliser.
The Christmas period was a series of ups and downs. Athletic lost to Newham on a frozen pitch at the start of December, then beat Shoreditch 2-1 in an intense local derby at Victoria Park. Six members of the senior team then demonstrated their footballing prowess in an indoor training match in East London. Deacon, Greening, Reece Smith, Matt Wall, Fred Stanley and Connor Venus showed the youth team how to play the Stratford way under the watchful eye of Charles Lambert. The joined the rest of the team to crash out of the Jack Morgan Cup a week later in the last game of 2012, losing 5-1 to Jay Cubed.
When they returned in the New Year, Stratford earned a resounding 5-1 win over Delta Athletic. Olly Kelly poached his first goal of the season as a skeletal team dominated their opposition. Only a week later, they lost to Angel & Crown as the gaffer was forced to shuffle the squad.
February was a busy month for the Reds, which opened with Tim Reynolds scoring a wonder goal in a 3-3 draw to Wenlock Arms. A double-header with City Flyers ended in a 5-1 loss and 3-1 win for Athletic, then they were eliminated from their final cup tournament after losing to Division Four side Maynell. Deacon then saved a penalty in Stratford's 3-1 win over Florist Arms, a game that also saw another smash-and-grab goal from Mr Kelly.
Alex Bocking snatched a late goal as Stratford beat Regents Park 1-0 in March, collecting their first clean sheet of the season in the process. Then in Easter week, they staged a famous comeback against FC Walthamstow, with Greening and Fred Stanley scoring goals to bridge a two-goal deficit.
They couldn't repeat their heroics after the Easter break however, as they lost to the same team by a single goal. In late April, Winthrop made a triumphant return to the team, keeping a clean sheet in a 2-0 win over Wenlock Arms.
Stratford finished the season with a downward spiral in May. They lost all three of their final games to Angel & Crown, Delta Athletic and Walthamstow Village. But the season has brought the team together, they have finished in the top half of the Division Three table and might be looking at a second spell in the H&L League. See you next season, maybe.
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