Horley Town

Horley Town FC is a non-league football club from the Surrey commuter town of the same name, which is located just north of Gatwick Airport around twenty miles south of London. The club were formed in 1896 as Horley FC, before they merged with Gatwick Rovers in 1908.

For the best part of eighty years the club competed in local competition, adding Town to their title in 1975, before moving from the Surrey Senior League to the London Spartan League in 1978. Three years later 'The Clarets', playing at The Defence which was named in memory of those who lost their lives defending the country, moved to the Athenian League.

After the Athenian League was disbanded, Horley joined the Combined Counties League in 1984. The club left that competition between 1996 and 2003 to play in the Surrey County Senior League before rejoining the former. At the same time Town moved into The New Defence, which was located next to the towns rugby club and sports centre.

Horley were demoted to Division One owing to ground grading issues in 2006, but these were soon corrected with the team winning promotion back to the Premier Division a season later. Town continued to build its youth structure with teams from the under sevens age group upwards representing the club.

The club continued to maintain their place in the Premier Division, weighing in with a seventh place finish at the end of the 22016-17 season.

Horley Town FC will play in the Combined Counties League Premier Division in the 2017-18 season.

My visits

Thursday 25th October 2012

After finishing work for the weekend I had alighted at Redhill station and visited the towns' club, before taking a walk and a number 100 bus which dropped me off on Court Lodge Road, virtually outside the ground. 

I was in a good mood as this was on the way to my hotel where I'd spend the night before heading to Germany for four days of football, sightseeing and socialising. I couldn't see the point in wasting opportunities, so visiting the two extra grounds was a no brainer.

The ground was through the leisure centre car park next to the rugby club. The gates were open with the groundsman working on the pitch and a gent coming out of the clubhouse who gave me permission to click away.

The New Defence was a neat functional venue with some hard standing going all the way around the pitch along with plenty of turf. The clubhouse was upstairs in a two storey building with changing rooms and other facilities below. A roof overhang gave shelter to the seating at the front. There was another small cover for standing spectators behind the goal by the turnstiles.

I went on my merry way, nearly getting lost in the warren of little streets in the housing estate. Eventually I went back to the original bus stop and following a tour of the perimeter of the airport I alighted at the Ibis Hotel to check in for the evening.

Dorking 4 Epsom Athletic 5 (Friday 1^st August 2014) Combined Counties League Division One (att: 150)

Studying the Non League Paper for future possible fixtures, I was delighted to see that the opening Combined Counties fixture of the season had been arranged for Yorkshire Day. After completing some very handy overtime at work on my usual day off, I enjoyed a fine tea and a beer at baker Street and a cat nap in the sun of Grosvenor Square before catching the train south to Redhill.

The no.100 bus dropped me outside The New Defence within twenty minutes, where I paid my £6 admission which included an A4 sized free glossy programme. It was a very warm and humid evening, following the fashion of the previous few months. To cool down I sampled a pint of Fosters for £3 in the upstairs bar, where patrons were watching the Commonwealth Games.

The ground hadn’t changed since my previous visit, and I decided to have a walk to the far side. The match got off to a very lively start with Athletic wasting two glorious chances before The Chicks went ahead. Richard Wetton had a good shot saved, but for some reason Epsom ‘keeper Dominic MacKenzie failed to pounce on the ball, allowing Glen Wright to finish. Within eight minutes Epsom were level as Robbie Burns was left unmarked to chest down a clever pass and finish neatly.

MacKenzie pulled off two amazing stops, while the profligate defending continued on twenty nine minutes as Epsom striker Wayne Cathcart bulleted home a header unmarked at the near post from a corner. I joked with a couple of visiting fans and a member of the Dorking coaching staff that the game could easily end 5-5 at the rate it was going.

Before the interval the scores were level as MacKenzie clumsily brought down a forward to concede a penalty which Kieren Lunn calmly put away. I caught my breath with half of cider in the relative cool of the clubhouse during the break.

The action quickly cranked up again upon the restart. Within three minutes Cathcart restored Epsom’s lead with an identical goal to his opener, much to the annoyance of custodian Hodel Murphy.

MacKenzie in the opposing net suffered a real goalkeeping nightmare a minute or so later. He came out to collect full back Zach Powell’s seventy yard free kick, only to let the ball bounce over him and trickle into the empty net. I was sat down by then and shared in the loud laughter with all around.

The hilarity increased. It appeared Murphy felt sorry for his fellow goalkeeper as he completely misjudged a long cross from the impressive Taylor Mollatt to allow Burns to tap into the unguarded goal. Athletic made it 5-3 when Cathcart completed his hat trick from the penalty spot.

Dorking were not finished as they found a second wind following a couple of substitutions. Lunn scored his second of the game to make it 4-5 as his weak shot beat the slow diving Mackenzie. The Chicks continued to pour forward and had one goal disallowed by the excellent referee Stefan Malczewski, as well as hitting the post.

Epsom held on for a victory in a game that had been a credit to the competition and non league football in general.

At full time I walked around a mile instead of waiting for the bus before catching it back to Redhill station. A train arrived soon after allowing me to get back and toast the day with a couple of pints before closing time back in Kingsbury.

To read more about Dorking FC, and see more images, click here.