Lyndhurst Football Club & County Football
12 May 2009

Lyndhurst gained County status in 2004 when we were founder members of the Hampshire 2004 League.
This League came about because of a handful of stalwarts who dug their heels in after the Wessex League were greedy and took most of the old Hampshire League Clubs into their fold.

A few of the old Clubs realised that they would be kicked out within two years so the 2004 League was formed.

Lyndhurst were at that time playing in the Southampton Premier League and along with a couple of other Clubs took the opportunity of County Football.

Our 1st Manager at County level was Andy Tipp who had been with the Club for 2 years as assistant to Dave Elgram who had resigned due to personal issues after leading the Club to Southampton Senior League Cup success and the promotion to County status.

Andy was only in charge for one season but, in that season the Club experienced it's finest hour.
The team finished 5th in the League and could have probably mounted a serious title challenge but for the distraction of the Southampton Senior F.A Cup, which is played at Southampton F.C'c ground St Mary's.
Andy openly admitted his target was to reach the final.
With all the so called "big boys" now playing Wessex football the feeling locally was that there was never a better time to reach the show piece Final.

Andy's rotation policy paid off and Lyndhurst Football Club lifted the Cup 2 - 1 v a very plucky Locksley Sports F.C
Lyndhurst were 1 - 0 down but, the longer the game went on the more one sided the contest became.
Ben Harrison equalised for the Foresters and with extra time on the horizon Wayne Allen fired the winning goal.

Unfortunately what should be the Clubs finest hour is also our biggest embarrassment.
The Cup was badly damaged at the post match celebrations.
Lyndhurst Football Club held their own internal investigation but, the truth of what happened that night never came out.
The Club were heavily fined and banned from the competition for 2 years.
Chairman Melvyn Farmer had not alternative but to ask Andy to resign or be sacked.
Andy walked away from the Club with most of the squad.
The Committee then turned to ex manager & committee member Dave Elgram to take the job again.

Dave declined the offer but approached an old player from his Sunday days, Dean Peacock who was running a Southampton based side AFC Bassett.

Dean folded AFC Bassett and took over the Lyndhurst job in the summer of 2005.
He brought with him some ex Lyndhurst Players and quite a few promising youngsters.
5 players had remained loyal to the Club after Andy and majority of their team mates had left, so, body wise we were in a strong position. What we lacked was experience.

Dean resigned after 3 pre-season games and 1 week before the start of the new season.
In his defence it has to be said that he lives a very hectic life due to work and family commitments. Dean has strong beliefs on how people should conduct themselves and took his appointment seriously. Unfortunately he felt that he was not getting back what he was putting in and decided his personal life was more important than his football.

Lyndhurst F.C applauded his ethics and bore him no ill will. Indeed he signed that season and was a key member of what was a very good season.

Melvyn once again turned to Dave Elgram who took the job on only because of the time scale involved with the start of the season.
He approached Gary Hawkins who was to be Deans NO.2 after fulfilling that role at Bassett.
Gary was talked into the job, and so it was that a new look Lyndhurst Football Club took shape on and off the pitch.

The 1st game of the season was a 5 - 0 home defeat at the hands of Netley Central.
Dave & Gary told the squad it would take them 6 wks to get the Team up to the standard required for the League.
Effectively they had to use their next month of fixtures as their pre-season.
The target was half way by Christmas and top 6 by the end of the season. Both targets were reached along with the Quarter Finals of the League Cup.

The 06-07 season was approached with a good deal of enthusiasm. All of the players from the last season had re-signed and every one felt that the squad was good enough to push for honours.
The League was a priority but, it was in the League Cup that success was nearly gained.
We sat comfortably in 4th place when we met Sorting BTC in the Semi-Final of the League Cup.
It was with regret that we had to play the game without two of our most influential players at the time. Pete Hurst and Dean Peacock respectfully were both missing due to family commitments.
We lost the game 2 - 1 after leading with 15 minutes left on the clock. Fair play to Sporting who were an older squad of players who drew on years of experience to grind us down.

League results suffered after the defeat and we ended the season in a disappointing 8th place.

That Summer saw Lyndhurst F.C hold it's very own version of musical chairs.
Firstly the management team of Elgram & Hawkins stepped down. Both Dave & Gary felt that they had taken the present side as far as they could.
Chairman Farmer advertised the position. There were 4 applicants. Club Secretary Lee Renyard was one of the applicants even though he had no previous managerial experience.
Melvyn decided to give the job to Lee even though 2 of the other applicants were better qualified.
Shortly after appointing Lee, Melvyn resigned due to family commitments and Dave Elgram was elected Chairman.

The Club left the 2004 League and were founder members of the revamped Hampshire Premier League.
Step 7 status was the carrot being dangled. Most of the teams were from the old Wessex 3 who had jumped ship on the old Hampshire League 2 years previous and for petty political reasons were not prepared to join forces with the 2004 set up.

Clubs like Colden Common and Clanfield who are never going to progress to the Wessex League with their present facilities, were not prepared to join forces with Clubs like Mottisfont and Netley Central. The former who had easily been the best side in Hampshire for two years.
However because of the petty polotictions the new League looked the best bet for any Club looking to progress.

Our 1st season in the new League was an unmitigated disaster.
Most of the previous seasons squad left, unable or unwilling to work with Lee.
For his part he worked hard to generate interest in the Club but, had to rely on old players who were well past their best.
The newly reformed reserve section of the Club had a healthy squad of players but, all bar 1 was willing to play for the 1st team.
We finished 4th from bottom and looked like we were going to lose our best players.
The committee had a meeting an decided to release Lee from his 1st team duties and again asked Dave Elgram to take over.

Dave made it clear that if he was to take over there would be no player power within the Club. Players would play where they were told or leave.
The committee appointed Ian MCcrindle as Reserve team manager on Dave's recommendation and Gary Hawkins joined with his Youth Team from Townhill Emperors.

With a proper structure in place old players rejoined the ranks.
Dave made it clear that mid-table would be success this time round, however because of some decent early results some of the squad had other ideas.
A top 6 finish was on the cards but, after suffering defeat to Team Solent in the Quarter-Finals of the Southampton Senior F.A Cup the team imploded and went on a run of 5 straight defeats. There was a squad meeting after an embarrassing defeat away v Paulsgrove and things improved. Indeed we only lost 2 of our last 8 games beating our nemesis Team Solent and drawing with new Champions Colden Common.

We ended up 10th but, with one more victory would have finished 8th. The season has been a success though.
For the 1st time in the Clubs recent history we have 3 teams at the Club with 40 odd players all with the same goal.
TO PLAY 1ST TEAM FOOTBALL.

Tenth will not be good enough next time around. Lyndhurst F.C has to go to the next level. Over the next 2 seasons the 1st team must look to the top half dozen places in the League.