Image by Hornchurch.
Hornchurch Vs Weymouth
National League South, Hornchurch Stadium, Saturday 23 November, 15:00 GMT
Welcome back, Terras fans!
We don’t know about you, but this game cannot come soon enough.
After our dazzling display in Weston-super-Mare which saw us enter the third round of the Isuzu FA Trophy, we had fellow Londoners Welling just around the corner.
However, a bout of early-Christmas weather saw the game called off and our players unable to capitalise on our cup crusade.
But with today’s game just a few days after our foiled fixture, our next opponents are newcomers Hornchurch.
Their first season in England’s sixth tier has seen them prove somewhat of a surprise package, as they have picked up five wins and 20 points in 16 league games.
Yet we are slowly sliding up the table, our appearance at rock-bottom now being a mere distant memory.
Now we are just four points off safety in 22nd place, our should-have-been opponents Welling occupying the last spot before the drop zone, with an extra game played too.
With two wins in our last five, and no losses in-between, the opportunity to climb further up the mountain awaits…
PREVIOUS RESULTS
If fans were hoping for a fixture rich in heated history, you may need to look elsewhere.
What you might find instead is a total of three games played between these two sides, the last being in the final qualifying round of an FA-Cup fixture in 2008.
Though Stuart Beavon opened the scoring for us in the ninth minute, it was not enough to prevent The Urchins swimming away with a ticket to the first round proper after biting back with two goals of their own.
The only other times these two teams have crossed paths came in the inaugural then-Conference South during the 2004/05 season, where the wins were shared.
The Urchins crawled their way to a 2-1 win during the campaign’s first month, in a game where Steve Claridge took charge and ultimately only lasted another six weeks after this result.
Though we would claim revenge the following March as we, now led by Garry Hill, defeated the East-London team 2-0.
But in the eyes of some, those two results may be deemed null and void for a number of reasons…
HORNCHURCH HISTORY
The question of where Hornchurch’s history starts is a tricky one, the reason being that one could give three answers as to when it all began.
The first founding of the club took place in 1881, before being a founding member of the Essex Football Association the following year.
At the time they did not play at their current long-term home, instead being based in a crenellated mansion, Grey Towers, later occupied as a base camp by the New Zealand Contingent during the First World War.
If that wasn’t an indicator of how long ago this was, Hornchurch had yet to even develop its own suburbs, at this time being a mere “village with scattered groups of houses” surrounding it.
Football at this point was very much in its infancy, so much so that the Hornchurch players had still not understood the offside rule by the time they entered the 1882/83 FA Cup.
Facing Great Marlow at home, they appealed for offside following the visitors’ first goal, but not until after they’d already kicked off to resume play.
Unsurprisingly, The Urchins lost the game and were dumped out of the competition in the first round.
But not knowing basic rules would soon be the least of the club’s worries, two years later accumulating a massive debt of £22!
A little before the times of oil tycoons and oligarchs, it seems.
Though however big or small this total seems to the modern fan, it was a sum of money that the club could not pay off, thus ensuring that a new side, Hornchurch Wanderers, was formed.
Although no one at the time would know, this would eventually be a further sign of things to come.
A NEWER ERA
Over 40 years after the “original” Hornchurch was founded, a new club, Upminster Wanderers was established in 1923.
This latest outfit was a different team to the Hornchurch Wanderers that had been formed following the period of bankruptcy, and is considered to be the true founding of the current Hornchurch side.
After “playing in parks for 15 years,” they then slowly climbed the football pyramid, culminating in a promotion to Isthmian League Division One North ahead of the 2002/03 season.
This was the point where they appeared to go from strength-to-strength, getting promoted for a second successive season (where have we seen that before?), before reaching the FA Cup First Round for the very first time in their history.
They were able to achieve this thanks to “the financial support of The Carthium Group,” who reportedly gave Hornchurch a “six-figure playing budget.”
That was until they went bust in November 2004.
Top of the league at the time of the sudden crisis, The Urchins’ administration saw them begin to rapidly sink down the table as a mass clear-out of their squad was ordered.
But it didn’t stop there, as even manager Garry Hill headed for the exit door.
Luckily for Garry, there was a club who had just lost their manager and was in desperate need of a replacement with 10 games remaining.
That club, of course, was a special one in Dorset.
Garry stayed in our dugout the following campaign, where he took us back to the fifth tier of English football after nearly two decades of hurt, when a 2-0 win away to Bishop Stortford on the penultimate match of the season sealed our league-champions status.
We were now in April 2006, where we were experiencing euphoria on a “magnificent day” in Hertfordshire.
Meanwhile, Garry’s old club were back at square one.
NEW LIFE FOR THE URCHINS
November 2004 saw Hornchurch appear on-course to finish top of the sixth tier of English football.
A year on, however, had left them starting anew three divisions below the league they had previously looked to win.
Once again under a different name, the newly-reformed “AFC Hornchurch” wasted no time ascending up the pyramid, earning themselves a spot in the Isthmian League Premier Division ahead of the 2007/08 season as a result of two successive promotions.
The next five years then saw repeated despair for the Havering hopefuls, even losing to another rebranded side “AFC Wimbledon” in the play-offs in one campaign, but their play-off-final win versus Lowestoft Town in 2012 finally saw them back in the league that had eluded them for the best part of a decade.
It was a long time coming for the club, who went under administration again in 2009 before being saved.
But, as we’ve already seen, chaos never seems to stop creeping up on this side, who then saw themselves drop two divisions down to the Isthmian League Division One North by 2015.
After which began another continuous conquest through the leagues, with success starting at the end of the 2017/18 campaign, when the soon-to-be-renamed Hornchurch FC were crowned champions.
Now back in the Premier Division, they then won the FA Trophy for the first time in 2021, after defeating Hereford 3-1 in the final.
At last, were we finally seeing Hornchurch reap true rewards?
Their consistency suggested very much so, finishing fourth and second in the next two seasons, albeit with more heartbreak courtesy of Cheshunt and Aveley in the play-offs.
But if their gradual ascent suggested anything, surely they would be champions next year, right?
They were.
In all honesty, the season failed to appear that it would end any other way, particularly after the club began a 17-game unbeaten run at the start of the campaign under the guidance of former-Millwall legend Steve Morison.
But even after Morison left for Sutton United in January, the group showed no signs of slowing down under McMahon’s leadership.
Unsurprisingly, skipper Ryan Scott said he was “hungry for more” after his side’s celebrations.
His words appear to have rung true this season, as they sit comfortably above the relegation zone on 20 points.
In the words of Mark Molesley, they are “riding on the crest of a wave” right now.
But as he also said, “we’re in good form ourselves,” as we look to go 10 games unbeaten for the first time since Mark’s first spell in charge in 2020.
If there’s ever a time not to face the mighty Terras, it’s now…
HOW TO FOLLOW
We are pleased to announce that commentary will be provided by Ben Ashelford this afternoon; click HERE to access his in-game thoughts.
