|
If you have a fond memory (or maybe several) about anything to do with Langney Sports - be a particular match, goal, or player - I would like to hear from you. I’ve got quite a few of my own but I’d like to hear from you too.
Please email me.
Having said all that, here is one of my favourite memories to set the ball rolling, originally published in the matchday programme a few seasons back, and also on Nomad-Online ...
My favourite Langney goal
 Favourite goals are invariably the spectacular efforts (like Ronnie Radford’s for example)….but surely none was more significant than John Snelgrove’s great winner at Burgess Hill on that rainy April evening back in 2000. Memorable? Certainly, but even the great Ginger God himself admitted that it was a bit of a mis-kick.
For my favourite all-time Langney goal however – and believe me, I spent a long time sifting through the memory banks to come up with this – we must cast our minds back to Priory Lane and the 1997/98 season: Saturday 13th September to be precise, and the visit of Ryman 1st Division side Leatherhead in the 1st Qualifying Round of the FA Cup (and before any sad anorak corrects me: yes, I know it was the ICIS League back then).
Langney had been on the wrong end of an 8-3 mauling by Leatherhead in the FA Cup back in 1993/94 (a late Mick Green hat-trick giving the final scoreline a modicum of respectability), and this visit wasn’t expected to be much different. As a spotty adolescent and no doubt wearing a Parka, I had been on the touchline at Fetcham Grove in December 1974 when the “Tanners” beat mighty Colchester in the 2nd Round proper of the FA Cup, so there was also a faint emotional attachment to the Surrey club as well.
But back to my ‘goal of all-time!’
The game was just over an hour old and Langney were unfortunate to be trailing by a goal to nil, courtesy of a rather dubious penalty decision 57 minutes into the match.
Once again, it looked as though Langney were destined to make the habitual early exit from the FA Cup. On 67 minutes, however, the whole game was turned on it’s head by a moment of brilliance from wing back Simon Kibler. Picking the ball up on the left on the half-way line, just in front of the Peter Fountain stand, ‘Kibs rode two burly challenges before swinging a curling shot from all of 35 yards into the top right corner of the Leatherhead goal.
From that moment on, Langney never looked back: a Syd Harman penalty seven minutes from time sealed a memorable victory, and carried Langney into the 2nd Qualifying Round for the first time in the club’s history. After the game Steve Richardson was quoted as claiming Kibler’s strike “a definite goal of the season”. Well, I didn’t always agree with Rico, but he was definitely right on this occasion!
The “Gazette” the following Wednesday ran the headline “Sports Special” with the sub-title “Kibler’s Cracker Seals FA Cup Glory”.
In case you’re wondering how I can remember all this: it’s easy – I’ve got the match report printed on the back of a t-shirt … yes, really!
David Bauckham
Pictured: Simon Kibler, now teaching in the Midlands
|
|
