Bury Town               2          ??

Erith & Belvedere   7          Malcolm 10 55 65, Battram 32 62, Leslie 71, Handford 84

Southern League Southern Division, 2 January 1993

Continuing the series counting down the 100 most memorable games in our history.  Today, our record Southern League away win, coming from the most gloriously unpredictable team we’ve ever had.

There’s not a great deal of information surviving on this game, I wasn’t there and I’ve never seen a full match report on it.  Saturday 2 January 1993 was a bad day’s weather and our trip to Bury St Edmunds was a risky undertaking – in the end it was the only game that went ahead all day in frozen East Anglia.

“We took a gamble and played three at the back,” said manager Harry Richardson.  “We didn’t play John Glover because you could have eight at the back and you wouldn’t have been able to defend on a pitch like that.  It worked a treat.”

Paul Malcolm hit three with Paul Battram (two), John Leslie and Phil Handford adding the rest.  The Suffolk side didn’t score until the closing stages, by which time Deres led 6-0.

Two days later we had another notable win, only 1-0 but it was against Sittingbourne, who were going through the Southern Division like a dose of salts.  They had had an invincible season in the Kent League in 1990-91, and on this occasion John Palmer’s 52nd-minute goal followed by a heroic rearguard handed them their first defeat in 14 games and one of only four league defeats they would suffer all season.

Our first game of 1993 was the start of a bizarre three-month period during which we recorded our biggest away win, home defeat, away defeat and home win in our eleven seasons in the Southern League so far.  On 19 January we had a calamitous 6-2 home defeat to Ashford Town, of which manager Harry Richardson simply commented “what can you say, the keeper’s had a nightmare” – and sure enough keeper Kevin Foster was off to Chelmsford straight afterwards.  On 6 March we were hammered 8-0 at Fareham Town, and on 27 March we beat Canterbury City 6-1 at home.  The mudpatch goalmouth of winter had dried to sandy ridges, and I recall the Canterbury keeper’s expression as John Leslie made it 3-0 after six minutes!

Deres: Jerry Parsons; Ricky Pearson, Paul Hennessy, John Hunt, John Palmer, Phil Handford, Graham Brenton, Paul Malcolm, John Leslie, Paul Battram, John Docker.