Looking Back at Season….1992/93 (Part One)

Dipping back into the archives at another memorable Southern Football League season, beginning with the Premier Division.

In 1991/92, Dover Athletic were beaten to the Southern League Premier Division title by a six-point margin by Bromsgrove Rovers.

The following campaign, manager Chris Kinnear`s men finally made it to the GM Vauxhall Conference.

Dover`s promotion had hardly been in doubt throughout the season, and their final winning margin of 13 points tells the story.

There were hiccups, of course, but in general the Whites were in command of the division.

After finishing second in 1991/92, Kinnear made a few changes to his squad.

Out went players such as the long-serving Lennie Lee, Tony Rogers, Leroy Ambrose and Kenny Dyer, who had all played a major role in the revival of the club over the last few years.

In came younger legs like striker Nicky Dent, who was signed from Southern South Division side Poole Town for an £8,000 fee, north-east striker Steve Cuggy from Maidstone United, influential midfielder Russell Milton from Hong Kong side Instant Dict, another forward Steve Warner from Dagenham and skilful midfielder Corey Browne – a future England semi-professional international – from Fulham.

Attendances were consistently decent at Crabble, averaging around the 1,300-mark, and a lot of work went into making the ground suitable for the Conference.

There was no doubting the fact that Dover`s record in the Southern League over the previous six seasons especially made them worthy champions and they would go on to enjoy six seasons at the top level of non-League football before returning to the Southern League in 2002.

Dover had a number of rivals for the title during the season, but, in the end, it was Cheltenham Town who picked up the runners-up prize.

The Robins` marvellous recovery after relegation from the Conference the season before was a great tribute to all at the club, but especially manager Lindsay Parsons.

He had a very young squad of players at his disposal, and many thought they would take a season or two to find their feet before making a serious challenge for a return to the Conference.

However, that was to prove to be only a couple of seasons away.

In 1992/93, players like goalkeeper Alan Nicholls, midfielders Andy Tucker, Lee Howells and Christer Warren – later to be sold to Southampton for £40,000 – all had to grow up very quickly in the tough and competitive Southern Premier Division.

Equally important contributions were made by Parsons` more experienced players such as Kevin Willetts, Anton Vircavs, Bob Bloomer and Steve Brooks, while striker Jimmy Smith again showed his worth.

Parsons also shelled out £10,000 to bring in another forward, Jason Eaton, from neighbours Gloucester City, and his partnership with Smith went on to become prolific.

Corby Town`s title challenge came as a bit of a surprise, but the Steelmen were consistent and, but for a 0-0 draw at home to Trowbridge Town on the final Saturday, would have pipped Cheltenham to the number two spot.

Manager Elwyn Roberts built a squad which possessed a good mix of experience and youth.

Perhaps the sale of leading scorer Matt Murphy to Oxford United for an initial £20,000 just after the New Year cost the Steelmen any real chance they had to seriously challenge Dover for the title, but deep down, Roberts must have been delighted with the campaign as a whole.

Although Corby were doing well and playing an attractive style of football, the locals didn`t seem too impressed, and attendances were disappointing to say the least.

Maybe the fact that the Rockingham Triangle ground is out of town had an effect.

Hednesford Town manager John Baldwin would probably have settled for a fourth-place finish following their promotion from the Midland Division, just two points adrift of Corby.

Although Baldwin remained faithful to the majority of his promotion-winning squad, he did make some very important signings.

Striker Henry Wright was a great success after arriving from former Midland Division rivals Stourbridge during the summer of 1992, as was winger Tyrone Street, who joined from another Midland Division outfit, Bilston Town.

But arguably the signing of striker Mark Hallam from a Boston United who ended up being relegated from the Conference at the end of the season, made one of the biggest differences to Baldwin`s side, especially having lost the services of prolific scorer Steve Burr to Stafford Rangers.

Trowbridge Town manager John Murphy did an excellent job on limited resources at Frome Road and the former Cheltenham Town boss deserves great credit for leading them to a fifth-place finish.

His squad remained fairly stable throughout the season with successes being midfielder David Webb, whose goals were important and brought him to the attention of bigger clubs, strikers John Freegard and Keith Knight and former Yeovil Town centre-back Paul Thorpe.

At the time, a proposed move to a new stadium was on the cards which it was hoped would help attract bigger crowds – their average being around the 400-mark.

Sad to note though that this didn`t happen, and the club folded just five seasons later!

What promised to be THE season for Crawley Town turned out to be very disappointing.

The arrival of manager Steve Wicks, the former Chelsea and QPR centre-half, heralded talk of promotion, and the signings made looked to be good enough to make that talk become reality.

However, Wicks resigned after he was asked to cut his wage bill and long-serving physio Dave Haining took over until the end of the season when the club appointed Ted Shepherd, someone with vast knowledge of the non-League game.

A finishing spot of sixth, but some 26 points behind champions Dover showed how big a job Shepherd had on his hands, and it would take another eleven seasons – and eleven managers including caretakers - before they managed to get out of the Southern League and into the Conference.

Like Hednesford, Solihull Borough boss Ralph Punsheon would have been reasonably satisfied with his team`s first season as a Southern Premier outfit, especially as it came only two seasons after leaving the Midland Combination.

They finished seventh but strangely only on alphabetical order as they ended up with the same points and exactly the same number of goals for and against as Crawley!

Players like strikers Chris Burton, the previous season`s `golden boot` winner for the Midland Division, and Recky Carter proved they could score regularly at the higher level and bagged 44 between them in 1992/93.

The 91/92 player of the year, goalkeeper Darrell Houghton, also excelled and with Boro.

Burton Albion made a slight improvement on the previous season, although manager Brian Kenning would have been slightly disappointed that his talented squad didn`t make more of a challenge for the honours.

The Brewers have the facilities and support and tradition to be a Conference club, but it would take them another nine seasons – and then via the Northern Premier League – before they eventually did.

Kenning did have to fend off a good deal of interest in several members of his squad from higher-level clubs, with Karl Payne, Allan Davies, Paul Gretton and Darren Brain all catching the eye.

Bashley, the go-ahead little Hampshire club, again enjoyed a good season under the shrewd guidance of former Fareham Town boss Trevor Parker.

The picturesque Recreation Ground saw some great games, not least the defeat of eventual champions Dover.

Parker had some terrible injury problems to contend with but, unlike many clubs, he didn`t turn to the `loan` system but scoured the lower leagues and came up with some gems in the guises of Paul Smith, Paul Bailey, Darren Elmes and Sean Docherty.

Due to financial problems, Dartford folded at the start of the season, so only three clubs would be relegated.

It must have been a bit galling for Moor Green to have finished in a relegation position whilst their tenants, Solihull Borough, finished in a comfortable position in the table.

But a reprieve arrived in the shape of Salisbury finishing as runners-up in the South Division and because their ground was deemed as unsuitable for the Premier Division at the time, it meant only VS Rugby and Weymouth went down.

Financial problems crippled VS Rugby, causing a significant cut in their wage budget and also the departure of their long-serving and well-respected manager Jimmy Knox.

Experienced players moved on, whilst keeper Mick Martin, who replaced Knox, also departed and joined Worcester City as a player.

The new man in charge, Ron Bradbury, needed all his experience gained at the likes of Atherstone United and Tamworth to keep the playing side going but, in the end, relegation became almost inevitable.

However, Valley bounced back under Bradbury to reclaim their Premier Division place the following season as they finished runners-up to the emerging Rushden & Diamonds.

It was very sad to see a big club like Weymouth struggle in such a way that they won only five games and finished a whopping 13 points behind second-bottom VS Rugby.

A Conference club just four seasons before, the Terras were dumped straight back down to the South Division after just one season back in the top-flight.

The sacking of manager Len Drake and the subsequent problems filling the post didn`t help Weymouth`s cause.

But former Sunderland stalwart Len Ashurst agreed to help out after former Welsh international winger Leighton James had originally taken the job only to have a change of heart at the last minute.

Ashurst brought in a few more experienced players, plus one or two `unknowns` like Robbie Pethick, who went on to play over 350 League games for Portsmouth, Bristol Rovers and Brighton & Hove Albion, and Ian Drewitt.

Unfortunately, their arrival was too late to alter the situation, and, in the end, Weymouth finished well adrift of the rest.

But look where Weymouth are today, and they are an example of how things can be turned around, even if it takes time.

(Midland Division featured tomorrow).