Greenwich Borough confirm three-year groundshare deal at Holmesdale

Saturday 13th June 2009

GREENWICH BOROUGH have today confirmed that they have finalised an agreement with Holmesdale to groundshare their Oakley Road ground for the next three seasons, writes Stephen McCartney.

The future of the south London club has never looked rosier, as a new board has been appointed and the club can now look forward to another season playing Bulmers Cider Kent League football.

The club were destined to be booted out of their modest Harrow Meadow ground in Eltham this summer by landloards Greenwich Council, who plan to build homes on the site.

But the club have been given a new lease of life with the groundshare deal at Dalers’ Bromley Common based ground and a new board.

Mr Devon Hanson BED (hon), the headmaster at the Woolworth Academy School, has been appointed the club’s new chairman and Mr Kevin Marley has been appointed vice-chairman.

Mr Ted Ellis (director) and Miss Samantha Firkins (treasurer) have also been appointed, with the previous board stepping down.

Steve Firkins has decided to remain at the club in his dual roles of secretary and first team manager and he will be ably assisted by Bill Walton with Gerry Cox (coach) and Eddie Clintworth (physio).

Greenwich Borough were quick to thank Holmesdale’s Ray Tolfrey (chairman) and Mark Hayes (secretary) for their time and effort for making this possible.

“Everybody knows the situation with Greenwich’s ground,” Firkins told www.kentishfootball.co.uk this lunchtime. “As soon as we knew (we were being asked to leave) we got onto a few connections, i.e. Ray at Holmesdale and came up with some sort of plan and financial situation and got the right people involved to get the club going forward.”

Speaking about the club’s new chairman, Mr Hanson, Firkins said, “He’s a headmaster at Woolworth Academy School in south London. I’ve known Devon for quite a number of years and he’s a good footballing person and loves the game and wanted involvement.”

He added: “Kevin Marley is a business man who has put most of the money up for us. He’s a good friend of Billy Walton, my assistant, and we just got our heads together and came up with a plan.

“When I first took over last year it was just going downwards, there was no investment. Shaun Howard, he kept the club alive last season. He’s got to take a lot of credit for that but it needed a new direction and fresh blood.”

Firkins, meanwhile, says the groundshare deal at Holmesdale suits all parties involved.

“It was always our first choice,” he said. “There wasn’t many options anyway.

“When we played Holmesdale the latter part of the season I got speaking to Ray (Tolfrey). I’ve known Ray for a number of years and he mentioned he was looking for a possible groundshare so that was our first choice.

“It’s a nice comforting ground, it’s a welcoming club and I think we needed something like that.”

Firkins also revealed that groundsharing Beckenham Town’s Eden Park Avenue was also discussed.

Putting his secretary hat on, Firkins thanked Kent League officials for their support.

“We’ve been in close contact with the Kent League with Denise Richmond and Roy Vinter and they’ve encouraged us, helped us and assisted us as much as possible so we owe them gratitude for their support and the KCFA as well,” he said.

“We’ve had our acceptance for the FA Vase, unfortunately we won’t be allowed in the FA Cup this season as we haven’t played in the Vase (last season), hopefully we can re-apply (for season 2010-11).”

Greenwich Borough surprised many last season by finishing their campaign in third place in the table - just seven points behind promoted champions VCD Athletic.

And with a new board in place and a much better ground to play their home games, hopes are high for another good campaign.

“We’ve actually started already, we’ve had a couple of sessions to get back into it,” revealed manager Firkins.

“We’ve got a few concerns with injuries that the players played with. We’ve had a few new faces come in, not that many, people are on holidays having a rest from football. We’ve been doing a little bit here and there, keeping the boys together.”

Having finished their first season together so well, it would be a crying shame had Firkins decided to quit the club.

“It was always going to be a case of seeing what was happening,” he explained. “We knew the situation with Greenwich, it would be a shame to see what we did last year fold and blow away.

“Following the last game against Deal Town, a couple of us put our heads together and said give it a couple of weeks. We made the initial approach and had a meeting with Holmesdale, they laid their cards on the table and they gave me two weeks to come up with the finances and after probing about and various phone calls we got Kevin and Devon involved.”

Firkins added: “It’s the right move for the club, even if we hadn’t moved, a lot of money would have had to be put in at the ground to maintain our premier status. Unfortunately that wasn’t going to happen.

“Now it’s all done, we’re looking forward to it. Hopefully we can maintain our second half (of last season) form and at least try and keep in the realms of the top five.

“We finished well, we’ve set ourselves a benchmark, we’ve got to keep that mark.

“I’m keeping the majority of the players, a couple of them had severe ligament problems. I’ve got the same squad as last year. One of them (midfielder Kevin Sefaah) has got a trial at a Conference club but he’s still out for 3-4 weeks (with a medial ligament damage to his knee) so he’s out for 3-4 weeks so that might not happen.”

Visit Greenwich Borough’s website: www.greenwichboroughfc.co.uk

Visit Holmesdale's website: www.holmesdalefc.co.uk