Matt Pole is joined by Sussex sport guru Steve Bone and a very special guest.
Steve and Matt are joined by Chichester City coach Darin Kilpatrick.
Dabba, as he is widely known, has been a coach at Chi for the past five years - a spell in which they have had a notable FA Cup run in which they reached the second round in 2019 and played at Tranmere live on BT Sport, and moved up the non-league pyramid to their present place in the Isthmian premier division.
Steve and Matt are joined by Chichester City coach Darin Kilpatrick.
Dabba, as he is widely known, has been a coach at Chi for the past five years - a spell in which they have had a notable FA Cup run in which they reached the second round in 2019 and played at Tranmere live on BT Sport, and moved up the non-league pyramid to their present place in the Isthmian premier division.
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SportsTranscript
00:00Welcome to another episode of the Sussex Non-League Podcast where we take a look at all the latest
00:05goings on at grassroots football across the county. I'm Matt Powell. On this edition I'm
00:11joined by Sussex Sport guru Steve Bone and a very special guest. Steve and I are both
00:15delighted to be joined by Chichester City coach Darren Kilpatrick. Dabba, as he is widely
00:20known, has been a coach at Chai for the past five years, a spell in which they have had
00:24a notable FA Cup run in which they reached the second round in 2019 and played at Trammere
00:28live on BT Sport and moved up the non-league pyramid to their present place in the Isthmian
00:33Premier Division. Before that, Dabba spent around two decades at Bognor as a player and
00:38then for many years as manager, assistant manager and coach. During this time, the Rocks
00:42rose to the National League South and reached the FA Trophy semi-finals amongst other achievements.
00:46Dabba, thank you very much for joining us. How are you getting on?
00:49I'm absolutely honoured to be on and thanks very much for having me. I'm doing great.
00:54I'm busy.
00:55Likewise.
00:57Absolutely. Yes, Bognor's a podcast and we must start by asking you about the good start
01:01to the season in Chai City you've had, following promotion via the playoffs to the Isthmian
01:05Premier. How have you found it so far?
01:09Challenging. I think the first thing to answer that question to really is that it's strange
01:18about Graham. I think that's one of the hardest things that I've definitely had to cope with.
01:26I'm not too sure the rest of the staff, Miles and Dan or anyone else, but I've really struggled
01:34without him. To have those moments without him has been challenging. He was so supportive.
01:42He saw things on the side that not a lot of us saw as well and he was a master of substitutions,
01:52which isn't one of my stronger points. I think that's one of the biggest things to say before
02:00we even talked about the league. I'd say the absence of Graham Gee is insane at the football
02:06club. However, the players are dealing with it ever so well and they've adjusted well.
02:15He was the gatekeeper really to the majority of those players and him and Miles and Danny
02:20both brought most of those players to that football club. So, yeah, I think that's the first
02:27point of call. I think, to say how are we finding it, we go week by week, as Steve probably knows
02:35from dealing with me the past 20 years as well. Nothing's changed with that. It's strong, it's
02:41physical, it's powerful. Your team gets redlined every week. Absolutely redlined. You're into
02:51the eights and nines on the redline if you had a rev counter. You don't get really much
02:58time to breathe. I think they're the hard moments and then especially when you get like a
03:06Saturday and a Tuesday or even the Saturday and the Monday games and there's no easy games in
03:11this league. So, yeah, to say how have we found it, I would just say extremely challenging,
03:16exactly what we expected and we will just keep trying to learn and develop and get better and
03:23better. I know that some people say they're all cliches but they're not. That's what we've got
03:28to do because we've got some young, young players in that team that have done ever so well to come
03:33through and what they've done. So, yeah, it's a case of now I feel because it's so strong and
03:43so powerful and so relentless, we have to be doing things slightly different to what other teams do,
03:50especially in our style of play. We believe in what we do and we'll stay with it because it's
03:57the only way we know what to do and it's got us to where we are. To get those strong, physical,
04:04powerful players in, they cost a lot of money. One thing we don't have certainly is a lot of money.
04:13Debra, at the point where you got promoted last season through the playoffs, start of May,
04:18were the players and staff quite daunted at the sudden realisation that you were going up to
04:24step three or did you embrace it and just take it as a great opportunity to go on growing the club
04:30and growing those players as individuals? That's a great question, Stephen, and to answer that
04:36honestly would be, I would say I don't really know. I can only go on what my gut says. I think
04:42on the run-in, the run-in was like the club was starting to prepare just in case.
04:53I don't think anyone's prepared for what we did. No-one expected that. We could feel it with the
05:04momentum, with G being ill, we could see it happening. Whether or not we were ready for it,
05:14I don't think so. I think it's like, are you ever ready to get married?
05:26People say, are you ever ready to have kids? Yes or no. Everyone's different and
05:31I think there's no good or bad timing for it. I think the club are just adjusting now
05:38and I have to say they're doing it ever so well. I speak with Miles and Danny Potter regularly on
05:44this and it's slow and steady wins the race in our opinion. Maybe we're not ready to go into that
05:51league as a club but whatever Guy and Belly and the rest of the backroom staff are trying to do,
06:02they've done it ever so well and there's still so much more to do. We've got people at the club
06:07that are unsung heroes that are doing things behind the scenes, building work to help us
06:14and supplying things for the first team, i.e. ice baths etc. with Sammy. It's fantastic what
06:21they're trying to do and pull together as a club. If you wanted a yes or no answer,
06:26I'd probably say no, they're not ready. However, they are trying their hardest
06:33to make it as competitive as we can to be at that level.
06:38You've certainly been very competitive so far at this level. I'd be interested to know whether
06:43or not you've found the step-up in quality between the Isthmian Premier League and the
06:47Isthmian South East. Has there been that much of a gap between the two? Because
06:51from what we've seen from you so far, you've certainly equipped yourself very well at this
06:54early stage of the season. Two things on that. It's a long season
07:02and it all matters where you are at the end of the season. That's the most important thing.
07:08We're really focused on that and that links back to going week by week.
07:15There's a difference. If you make a mistake,
07:22if you made out of five mistakes, they would punish you on, say, two.
07:27If you make, say, out of five mistakes, they punish you out of four.
07:34Especially Slough at the weekend. They caught us coming out and it's in the back of your net
07:41within one pass. I would say that I think there is a massive difference in fitness,
07:48in quality. That's not to say that the South East, I'm just saying that there is definitely a difference.
07:55You mentioned Slough there. Your FA Cup run did unfortunately come to an end
08:00against Slough Town. You've kind of touched upon it there, but how did you find two
08:03back-to-back games against the top National League South side?
08:09Firstly on that, I would say two great games. Slough, an unbelievably great club from what
08:20we've experienced within the past two games. The manager was excellent in every way,
08:28the way he conducted himself in both games. We built a lovely relationship with them.
08:34They were strong, physical, tactical. They were everything about our Conference South team.
08:40To go back-to-back on a Saturday and a Tuesday was extremely difficult.
08:47But again, the recovery process that the club and we've all put in place,
08:51and thanks to the donation of the ice bath, we've got an incredible team behind the scenes
08:59again that Danny's put together. They're the unsung heroes again, patching up the players,
09:03getting them ready. Without them, we wouldn't be where we are as a club at the moment again.
09:14We found that extremely, extremely difficult and the pace of the game.
09:18I think the first quarter of an hour was probably the hardest press that we've ever come up against.
09:23To be fair, both games, they put us in a full Nelson all the time.
09:28We tried to wriggle out and we did on many occasions, but they caught us on a couple.
09:33I think that's the next thing. I spoke to a good friend
09:37last week about this. I think our next stage is how to get out of these hard situations where
09:43the team are pressing us extremely high and hard, and our next movement's in front.
09:48We know what it looks like. It's just getting the time to train it and getting it right.
09:57David, can we ask you, sorry, I've got the dog barking in the background. I wanted to ask you
10:00about a couple of your other football hats, if you like, that you've worn over the years. You
10:06have been involved for some time with the England colleges set up. Tell us a little bit about how
10:11that came about and what it involves and what your involvement is now.
10:17Yeah, I've been involved with the ECFA, I think this is my 12th year, 11th or 12th year. Maybe
10:26even a little bit longer in the background staff, but yeah, as a manager. Yeah, I think I've been
10:32running at the manager for around six years, seven years now. It arrived when I first came to the
10:39college of Chichester, and then we had the teams that were playing regularly in the ECFA, the top
10:46leagues. The standard was extremely high there. They were the days of Mickie Dimitro and Omar,
10:52Tommy Broadbent and a few others. Yeah, there was a good friend of mine now, Simon East,
10:59that was the manager then. I just slowly got involved and volunteered and went in and helped
11:06out. Then a couple of positions went on and went for some interviews. I didn't get one,
11:13but got another. I got the assistant of the seven teams when we ran them and then built my way up
11:21to the 18th manager. So just a steady progression through the system,
11:27which has been an incredible experience. Each year we go to Rome,
11:32and some of the teams bring out their full under-18 national teams.
11:39One year Romania brought their full 18s team out in preparations for a tournament.
11:45In fact, in that team we had lots of Oli Pierce. I think Ricky was the year after,
11:53no, two years after. They're just insane experiences. Some of the teams that go
12:00are new. The quality has been brilliant to see and to learn from. To give the players
12:06these experiences is fantastic. From an education point, they go to Rome, they stay in a hotel,
12:13they play, say, three or four international matches. For the first time in 11 years,
12:20we made it to the final last year. It's always been one of my goals and ambitions to win that.
12:25However, we fell just short on penalties, which broke all of our hearts. That's football,
12:30the highs and lows again. But yeah, we actually got to the final but fell just short.
12:37So yeah, incredible experiences for everyone in the national teams. But they do take a lot of
12:42your time. Half-terms, you're at trials, then you've got games. With the non-league system
12:49on a Saturday, then you're in with the national team on a Sunday. Then you're back to work on
12:53the Monday. Those games roll on to 15, 16 days non-stop. So they do take their toll
13:01on what you're trying to do. But incredible, incredible what they've done with the UCFA
13:08the past five years and how far it's come in developing players. I think the latest one we
13:14had was Nanni. Jack Nunn went to a club in Italy. He got taken this year. So it's been
13:25brilliant in Serie A. Do you ever get a day off from football?
13:31Try to, Steve. There's something that's not often talked about, I don't think, on any interviews or
13:38podcasts is the barrier that we face, especially how difficult it is for families. Because we're
13:46away such a long time, it's hard. So Louise and my family, they are used to it. I get that. But
13:55it's still very, very difficult. So I speak on behalf of all the managers and coaches and
14:01backroom staff that dedicate a lot of their time to this for very little reward, by the way. Very
14:07little. And they give a lot of time and effort and action to their football club and are proud to do
14:16it. So I think, yeah, we do, Steve, but very, very rarely. An example of that was these group of
14:24players at Chichester at the moment. Because we got back in about 1.30 in the morning on Wednesday
14:29morning back from Slough. And then you're in at work. We've got people up on routes. We've got
14:34teachers. We've got people on diggers. You name it. And they're in at work at 6.37 the next morning.
14:41So we actually, for the first time, we gave them Thursday off for the first time.
14:46And then there was some that wanted to come in for recovery. And then some turned in. So we went
14:52in last night, and I wanted the night off. And I said to Miles, I can do with it. But 12 players
14:57wanted to come in. When I see that, it inspires me. I'm like, I'm going in to be with them.
15:06And I think that epitomises the group of players that we've got
15:12and their attitudes towards wanting to get better.
15:17Also, just wanted to ask you a little bit about your days before Chichester. Obviously, you spent
15:20about 20 years, I think it was, at Bogner as a player and coach. Just tell us a little bit. I
15:26mean, it's difficult to answer quickly, but a little bit about the Bogner days and about maybe
15:30some of the people that have inspired you as a player and more recently as a coach in your
15:35sort of football journey so far. Yeah. All right. The club in itself means a lot to me. I'm a Bogner
15:44fan. You don't spend 20 years at a club and not still have a love or a passion for it. Of course,
15:50I do. It's been good to me. I've been good to it. I still walk in and out of Asda, Sainsbury's,
16:00and I live in Worthingway. And people still stop me and say hello, especially if I go over to Bogner,
16:06you get stopped and say hello. And it's wonderful. It's a great football club. There's only one
16:12person really to speak about is Jack. And I know there's Simon and everyone that does so much
16:19behind the scenes, but Jack has made the football club what it is. Yeah, so I still have an
16:26incredible relationship with Jack. I don't speak to him as often as I used to, but he's still like
16:31a second father to me. And I know he's always there. And if I needed something, he would be
16:36there. I always describe him as the character. You broke down on the 25th at four in the morning and
16:43you phone Jack and you say Jack had broken down. He goes, where are you? You say I'm on the 25th.
16:49He goes, all right, I'll be there in an hour. I think that's the best way to describe him
16:55and what he's done to the club, in my opinion. That's just my opinion. It's fantastic. He's
17:01built it. He's built it and he's built it. And yeah, so yeah, incredible times there.
17:06But don't ever forget some extremely low times as well, which needs to be addressed. When Jack
17:15was ill, we basically were playing the college team. Yeah, I remember it. Remember that, Steve?
17:22Two relegations in successive years, wasn't it? Or two in three years.
17:28Try not to remind myself of that, Steve, but thanks for reminding me.
17:32It was nothing to do with you.
17:36Those moments have made me stronger as a coach and as a manager in those times. Managing is not,
17:42stay in your lane. That's not me. Managing is not me.
17:46But I had to do it because he was ill and look after his club for him.
17:52But yeah, they were difficult times. But then Jamie came on board and then we started to build
17:59again and build again and build again. And they made some good signings. And then we got the
18:03chemistry right between us and the managing and the coaching. And we brought some good players in
18:08on not a lot of money. And that atmosphere and that cohesion is the same as what I'm feeling
18:15with the Chichester team now. Same thing. I bumped into, I spoke with Sammy a couple of
18:24months ago and we were just saying the same thing. It was us against the world in those days.
18:29By the way, it was a limited wage bill. And what those players did in those days for Bob was
18:33incredible. Becky and Tuck and all those boys and guys, it was fantastic. So we've only a few
18:40lone players as well. There's only a few. We try to go as local as we can. But yeah, good times and
18:45bad times. But yeah, some really, the semi-final, the trophy, incredible. Always wanted to win the
18:53senior cup but never got it. Always fell short on three different occasions with them. And the
18:58promotions as well, which were lovely moments. Well, we're now going to take a look at how clubs
19:06are getting on across the non-league pyramid, but we will come back to you, Dabra, in a bit.
19:09And we're pleased to say that we have clubs flying high in both the National League South and
19:13Eastbourne Premier. Starting with the National League South, Steve Bone, how are Eastbourne
19:18Borough and Worthy getting on? Yeah, both have had decent starts to the season, actually.
19:23Eastbourne Borough, second in the league at the moment. I think they've only lost once.
19:29And we were talking about them pre-season, weren't we, as probably title contenders. There's a lot
19:34of effort and a lot of money, to be blunt, that's gone in there. The squad has been built up under
19:39Adam Murray. And they've started as they mean to go on, really, in second place. They had a setback
19:45last weekend when they were knocked out of the FA Cup. We should just mention, I don't think we're
19:51going to come on to the FA Cup otherwise, so we should just say that a few of our teams went out
19:55of the FA Cup last weekend, but three are still in. Worthing, Hastings and Horsham, we wish well
20:01in the next round. Eastbourne Borough are one of the clubs who are out, though. That brings me nicely
20:06to Worthing. You look at the table and you think, oh, they've been up and down so far, but actually
20:13they've played all but one of their games so far away from home because of ongoing work at
20:17Woodside Road. They've also got game in hand on pretty much everybody else because there was a
20:22midweek when they didn't play. I think, again, because of the work at the ground. So they're in
20:27quite a good position. If they were to win their game in hand, they'd be up around the playoffs.
20:31Just brought in Mo Fowle from Crawley briefly, who you would expect to score goals at that level.
20:39So I think in different ways, both Worthing and Eastbourne will be happy with the starts they've
20:43made and keen to move on from where they are now.
20:48Yeah, absolutely. Dabo, you mentioned working with Ollie Pearce, and he was scoring goals for
20:54fun last season at Worthing. As you've coached him, how proud are you of his goal-scoring
20:59exploits last year? Is any of that a surprise to you? Because he could not stop scoring, could he?
21:05It's no surprise to me. I promise you that. Absolutely no surprise. His movement,
21:13his awareness, his resilience when he misses to go, I'll get another one,
21:20has always been great. To be fair, when he went to Worthing, Adam really took him to another level as
21:27well. We're all massive parts of his journey. But yeah, extremely proud, which is great to see him.
21:37I've only sent him the odd text over the past couple of months, which was to try to let him
21:43get on with it. But no, extremely proud of him. But it doesn't surprise me, I promise you.
21:49And I think York City are top of the National League at the moment, aren't they?
21:52So, Adam Oli and Joe Felix, obviously, all doing rather well up there, like the Northern Air, clearly.
21:59Yeah, they do. I like it in the middle of winter when it's minus 10 up there.
22:07I'll be wanting to come back then.
22:09Yeah, you don't see the sun again until March or April. Yeah, all fun games now. But yeah,
22:15we're going to move on to the Eastmere Premier, which features Dabner's Chichester City, and we
22:18have three Sussex clubs in the top 10. And who are those early runners and riders from Sussex at
22:22step three, Steve?
22:23Yeah, so Lewis continue to lead the way in the Eastmere Premier. Top of the table with five wins
22:30in a draw. They did drop their first points last weekend away to Karl Scholten. But very good start
22:35for them, which I don't think many people outside the club expected. And maybe some people inside
22:41the club didn't expect either, because it was a very much a new start with a new manager, Craig
22:45Nelson, a lot of new players, but they've done well. The other two Sussex sides in the top 10
22:52are Horsham, and who's the other one, Dabber? You don't look at the league table, do you,
22:57Dabber, during the season? So Chichester, I can tell you if you didn't know. So Horsham,
23:04as we've spoken about on here before, expected to be strong and have a good go at promotion.
23:09They're doing okay so far, and they're still in the cup, as we've said. Chai in mid-table,
23:15which is a very good position to be in at this stage. Three wins, three draws so far, I think,
23:19off to Wingate tomorrow. The two surprises, really, are that Hastings and Bogner are both
23:25struggling a little bit at the moment. I mean, again, we should say it's early days. There's
23:28plenty of time for them to move up, and I think both of them will. Bogner have struggled in the
23:35league and cup, actually, because they had a bad 4-0 defeat at home to Margate last week in the cup.
23:41Hastings started well with a couple of wins, haven't won in the league since, but we'll be
23:46looking to come back. When we move on to our games of the weekend, at the end of the podcast,
23:52we'll be mentioning two of those sides in that division, where I will be anyway.
23:57Whitehawker, the other team from Sussex in the bottom half, they're a little bit above
24:02Hastings and Bogner, actually. So work to do for those, but plenty of time to do it,
24:07so there won't be too many alarm bells ringing just yet, I don't think.
24:12I think, Steve, sorry, Matt, I think we need to be clear, and I'm not sticking out for Bogner,
24:19but to lose six of your first team players that would regularly start on your team,
24:25to lose two of your regularly starters would cripple any team. And what everybody forgets
24:31is that it's not that you just lose those players, it's that you end time put square
24:37pegs in round holes, because you're moving other players around out of their position
24:40to cover other positions. So I think sometimes, you've got to be careful what I say, but the
24:47uneducated eye or the local fan, which I do appreciate, they get frustrated, it's enough
24:52hard to lose two of your players, let alone fives and sixes of them. So, yeah.
24:57Yeah, and one of those players they've lost is Craig Robson, who is probably the
25:01first on the team sheet if he's fit, so...
25:03In my opinion, he's the best setter in the whole league, Steve, in my opinion.
25:09And he's out, could be out for the season, so that's a huge blow for him.
25:12Yeah, definitely.
25:13And it's only early days as well, isn't it? Nothing's won in September, is it?
25:19Meanwhile, in the Eastman South East, we have seven sides flying the flag for Sussex,
25:23but who leads the way for our county in this division, Steve? And how have Newport, Eastbourne
25:28Town and Stemming Town both acquitted themselves so far at this level?
25:32Yeah, the Eastman South East is one that is very hard to assess at this stage, because
25:37they've had such a stop start beginning to the season in terms of league games played.
25:43There are some teams in that division who have played sort of seven, six or seven games,
25:47and there are quite a few that have only played three, even though we're about
25:50six weeks into the season. Lansing, for example, they're on the bottom,
25:55but they've only played three games, so it seems harsh to sort of judge them just yet.
25:59Burgess Hill are, I think, the ones to watch from Sussex in that division.
26:05I think you said it, they were another team that we talked about in pre-season as having
26:08a good chance. You know, they've signed some good players. They've signed some
26:13Step 3 players to play in Step 4. They've signed people like Ben Pope and Hamish Morrison.
26:20And they're starting to put some results together now, a good 3-2 win against Littlehampton
26:26in midweek. So, yeah, that doesn't surprise me to see them doing okay.
26:30Stenning and Eastbourne, the two sides that came up from the SCFL Premier last year,
26:34they've both picked up their first wins, which I think is important. You don't want to go
26:38too long before getting your first win. They've had defeats as well. Again, it's very early days.
26:44I think if we talk again here in a month's time, we'll have a much better idea of how those two are
26:49going to do. But they can take a lot of heart from how other clubs from Sussex have gone up from
26:55SCFL Premier into the Eastbourne South East. You know, Lansing, Littlehampton, Broadbridge Heath,
27:02they've all gone up. And people have wondered, you know, is that going to be a big step for them?
27:05And it is a big step. And they've survived. And of course, before those, I mean, 2019,
27:12Chichester City went up into Eastbourne South East, which I think, Dabo, was pretty much when you
27:17went there. And Chichester have always, you know, all the time they were in that division,
27:24really held their own and never looked like going back down. So, there's some inspiration
27:28from other clubs that the new boys can take up there. Absolutely. And Dabo, obviously,
27:33Chichester were in the Eastbourne South East last season. How difficult is it to get out
27:38of that division? I remember last season Ramsgate were absolutely running away with it, weren't they?
27:43And then they came unstuck in the semis, didn't they?
27:46Extremely difficult. Absolutely. You know, yeah, we went there on a mid-block and held it well
27:56and counter-attacked and got, little Mo got a great goal. But if honestly, if we were to play
28:03Ramsgate 10 times, I'm not too sure how many times we'd have beaten them that year.
28:07In a one-off game, we were, we rode a little bit of luck, but we also created a little bit,
28:14we played some good football at times. But yeah, listen, it's tough to get out of that league
28:19because there's two or three clubs financially backing the clubs there. And that's what makes
28:24it really hard. Absolutely. And in the division below, in the SCFL Premier, two sides remain
28:31unbeaten and quite remarkably, Steve, both sides are near neighbours. Who leads the way in this
28:35division and who occupies the lower half of the table? That's right. And without blowing our own
28:41trumpets too much, the two teams at the top are two that we did talk about as being contenders
28:47this season, Hassox and Hayward Heath. Both unbeaten so far. Hassox are top by one point
28:55from Hayward Heath. They have played a game more than Heath. But yeah, both did okay last season.
29:02Hassox actually finished just above Hayward Heath last season. I think they were fifth and
29:06sixth last year. We all thought they'd have a good go this year. And that's how it's working
29:11out so far. Crawley Down as well, Crawley Down, Gatwick are up there. They've had a couple of
29:16defeats, but they're in third place and not too far behind. The other end of the table,
29:23again, teams have only played, we're talking about teams who have played eight games and
29:27actually aren't that many points behind sort of mid-table really, but Little,
29:31Common are down there, Vondinians are down there, Shoreham and Eastbourne United are down there.
29:35You certainly wouldn't expect Eastbourne United to stick around down there for much longer.
29:39They're showing signs of recovery. So it'll be interesting to see how it pans out. Again,
29:44we'll know a lot more about who's going to prosper and who's going to struggle
29:50in a few weeks, in another month or so, I think.
29:53Absolutely. It's only September, isn't it? And Dabo,
29:55what are your memories of Chichester's time in the SCFL Premier?
29:58Very little, if I'm honest. I remember playing against them as a player. It was always,
30:07well, gumshielding and tin hat on and let's go to battle. I think the club's evolved quite a bit
30:18since then, but yeah, it was always a hard place to go to. Never used to feel comfortable playing
30:23there in the old days. I'm sure clubs still feel the same these days, Dabo. Don't you
30:28worry about that. And finally, in the SCFL Division One, we also have one unbeaten team,
30:33but they aren't top of the league, are they, Steve? Who leads the way at this early stage?
30:38You are correct. Seaford Town are still top at the moment. Seaford have lost one game. They've
30:44won seven, drawn one, lost one so far. They were the team who lost to Wick in the playoffs at the
30:49end of last season. So we thought they would do quite well and so it's proving so far. Forest
30:55Row are the only unbeaten team in that league. Five wins, three draws from their eight, so they're
31:00not too far behind. They're in third and Billingshurst have had a very good start to the
31:04season. Won six of their eight games so far, so they're in second. Those three, they've got a
31:10little two-point gap between. You've then got a big group of teams, you know, right down to 10th,
31:16who are pretty close to them. Other end of things, Montpelier Villa, yet to get off the mark points
31:22wise. They'll be looking for a win soon to change that. You've then got Copthorne, who I think we
31:29might hear something about later. Allfold, Oakwood and Salsey down there. Again, Salsey are another
31:35team you wouldn't expect to be down there. I've followed them quite closely for a while and
31:40I'm sure they'll be top half before too long. But yeah, early days and I think quite a few of those
31:46sides are involved in the FA Vars this weekend, so good luck to any of them who are as well.
31:51Absolutely, and as customary for our non-league podcast, Steve and I will each pick our game of
31:56the week, where we select a fixture involving a Sussex club that we think you should keep an eye
32:01out for. Steve, I think you've already kind of alluded to it, but which game have you gone for
32:04this week? I'm going to go for the big Sussex derby in the Isthmian Premier Division tomorrow.
32:10Lewis, I'd have to think who's at home, but it is Lewis at home to Hastings tomorrow. So it's
32:16first against 16th, but I think it'll be a lot closer than the league positions would suggest,
32:22and I wouldn't be surprised to see Hastings get something down there. I think it'll be a good
32:27feisty game between the neighbours. A few in either camp have played for the other camp and
32:34Danny Blore will be looking forward to going head-to-head with Craig Nelson down there.
32:38Absolutely, it should be a great game and I've gone for Copthorne v Sutton Athletics,
32:43or in the FA Vars second qualifying round. It is the first FA Vars match in Copthorne's history,
32:48so all the best to them. I think they're playing on Saturday at Horsham's Ground,
32:53so best of luck to Copthorne. I could have had about 30 guesses at which game of the week you
32:59would go for and I would not have gone for Copthorne. I just hope we haven't cursed them,
33:05Steve. I just hope we're not having next podcast where we're talking about a Sutton Athletics 7-0
33:09win over Copthorne or something like that. It will be. I will have cursed them like I appeared
33:14to have cursed AFC Upfield Town with my prediction in SFL Dijon 1, but never mind.
33:19And Dabba, finally for you, just in case people don't know, what are Chichester City up to this
33:23week? We're away at Wingate, like I say, just take week by week. We're away at Wingate, so
33:31just trying to get our head around the analysis stuff last night and tonight. Yeah, it's always
33:36a good surface up there. So, just another red-lined team ready for tomorrow, getting them
33:42ready. Yeah, it's just going to be another day in the Eastman Premier for us that's extremely
33:47difficult. Absolutely, and best of luck, Dabba, and then best of luck for the rest of the season
33:52at all at Chichester City. And don't forget, sussexworld.co.uk and our newspapers are the
33:57best place to get your Sussex non-league coverage. Thank you both very much for joining us today.
34:03Thank you very much, Dabba, and thank you for listening and or watching. We will see you when
34:06we see you. Matt, could I just, just before we leave, could I just say a wonderful thank you to
34:12all the people that do things behind the scenes at the Football Club. Like I said earlier, unsung
34:17heroes, the support mechanisms we've got, like with our coaching, well, Dean Wilkins has been
34:22outstanding for us, helping us and always at the end of the phone and all the people that are doing
34:29all the building and everything. We really appreciate what they do and we're extremely
34:33lucky to have those support mechanisms and we thank them and with a lot of love. Absolutely,
34:39brilliant. Thank you very much for your time, Dabba, and thank you very much, Steve. Yeah,
34:43we'll see you all when we see you. Cheers, Dabba. Thank you very much. Thank you. Bye.