Angmering celebrate centenary in style

They clinched the championship with a 5-0 win at Upper Beeding and now boss Stuart Smith is hoping that they will be able to go up into County League Division 3 next season – after back-to-back promotions.

Angmering won Division 1 last season, in Smith’s first season in charge, and the club have now won the Premier Division in just their second campaign in the top flight.

Smith said: “It was a fantastic performance on Saturday and a great day.

“We’re hoping to go up into County League Division 3 now. We had an inspection on the ground done by the County League this week and know what we have to get done by May 31 to be able to go up, which is all achieveable.

“We lost our first game of the season to Newtown, who had won the title for the last three seasons, but we should have won the game.

“I said to the players afterwards that if they’ve won it the last three years, then we’re good enough to win it ourselves and we’ve been unbeaten in the league since that day.

“There’s been a lot of good performances. Michael Hendrick, our left-winger, has scored 17 goals.

“Michael Sayers has been phenomenal and our two central midfielders, Dan Swain and Lee Barnard, are proven County League players, but all of the players have been really good.

“It’s a fantastic achievement in our centenary year to win it.

“The club had only been in the Premier Division once before and got relegated straight away.

“This was our first season back and we’ve now had back-to-back success. We’ve got seven or eight players who live within a stone’s throw of the ground, which gives us good solidarity, too.

“If we don’t get up into the County League, I’ll definitely still be here next season and we’ll try to defend our title and have a more sustained run in the Intermediate Cup.

“I’d also like to thank our chairman Bob Hales, secretary Carl Blatch and clubhouse manager Tasha Coomber.”

Angmering still have two league matches to play and also meet County League Division 3 side Hurstpierpoint in the semi-finals of the Vernon-Wentworth Cup on May 11.