Although the 2019-20 season has now been declared as “null and void”, at least as far as non-league football is concerned, it can still be interesting to take a look back at how each team performed stats-wise.
Where the Hoops are concerned Derek Hares’ side played a total of 37 competitive matches during the truncated campaign, winning 15, losing 14 and drawing eight. Our biggest wins were by two 4-1 margins, both at home, against K Sports in the league and Oxhey Jets in the FA Vase.
The Hoops’ biggest defeat was 6-2 at Sheppey Utd in the league when, incidentally, two of Sheppey’s goals were scored by their “ace” marksman, Dan Bradshaw, who finished the campaign with a total of 49 goals and it will be very interesting to see whether he’s still at Sheppey next season.
As for the Hoops, our top scorer with a total of 13 goals was Ben Chapman followed by Connor Coyne with 12 and two players on six, Sam Wilson and Billy Munday. Sam of course missed a large chunk of the season through injury and would no doubt have been challenging Ben for the “Golden Boot” if he had been available more often.
The Hoops’ averaged 1.54 goals per game in the league (37 goals in 24 matches) while conceding an average of 1.66 per game (40 goals conceded), thus producing an overall “goal difference” of minus three which is the sort of figure you would expect from a team finishing in 11th place in the table.
The highest place the team achieved during the season was eighth following the 3-0 away win over Canterbury City on December 28th, while our lowest position was 14th after the 5-3 defeat at Welling Town on September 7th.
In cup competitions, meanwhile, the highlight of our whole season of course was the team’s terrific run to the last 16 of the FA Vase for the first time in 20 years before eventually losing 2-0 at Consett.
Where individual appearances are concerned goalkeeper James Tonkin tops the list. James missed only one of our 37 matches in all competitions and performed consistently well throughout the campaign, winning several “man of the match” awards and he also picked up the added accolade of being chosen in Kent Online’s “Team of the Season”.
Finally, the unlikely “icing on the cake” was James scoring the winning goal in the penalty shootout in the FA Vase replay at Binfield.
His total of 36 appearances was two better than Ben Chapman’s, with Connor Coyne and Billy Munday in joint third place with 33. The Hoops used a total of 27 players during the season and picked up three red cards and 46 yellow cards.
The Hoops’ increased average home attendance this season of 187 was the 48th highest across all the Step 5/6 leagues in the country, according to the “NonLeagueMatters” website.
Jersey Bulls, playing their first season in the Cherry Red Combined Counties League, led the way with an average of 697 followed by Stockton Town with 493 and Consett, Deal’s conquerors in the FA Vase last 16, in third place with 439.
In the Southern Counties East League the Hoops’ enjoyed the fourth highest average attendance in the Premier Division behind Chatham Town (405), Tunbridge Wells (265) and Sheppey (261).
