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Travel Advisory

16/11/2023

Access to the ground is currently restricted due to major building/road works in the Tolworth Area.

Hook Rise South between Tolworth Roundabout and King George’s Field is CLOSED.

To access to the ground in Queen Mary Close, please use the following route:

Exit Tolworth Roundabout onto A240 Kingston Road towards Ewell.

At the set of traffic lights just past Tolworth Station (with the LIDL head office on your right) turn right onto JUBILEE WAY.

Stay on Jubilee Way leading into Cox Lane for about 1/2 mile until you see a Tesco Local on your right. Take that right hand turn into Oakcroft Road.

Follow Oakcroft Road to the end and turn right into Hook Rise South, Queen Mary Close is the fourth turning on the right.

See you there!

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Casual Trailblazer

13/10/2023

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Corinthian-Casuals FC Women currently sit in 3rd place in the Greater London Women's Football League Division 2 South & Central.
We spoke with team captain Sophia Demetriou, ahead of tonight's Cup game against Guernsey at the stadium.

Words: James Shaw
Photos: Finlay Batey & Stuart Tree

This season Corinthian-Casuals opened the doors for women to play football for the club for the second time in its 141-year history.

From 2002 until 2008 an exciting and successful Casuals women’s team won three promotions and a League Cup, beating Tottenham Hotspur in the final. Sadly, recruitment and infrastructure problems proved too much for the team to overcome and the women’s section was forced to withdraw from the league prior to the 2008/2009 season.

On the 3rd of May this year Dean Gaynor was appointed manager of the newly formed Women’s club and on the 6th of June, the first set of players joined the team in the first open trial.

One of the joiners that day is club captain Sophia Demetriou, who will lead Casuals out against Guernsey in the cup this Friday at the King George’s Arena.

“I was with a teammate from a previous club, and we came across Corinthian-Casuals being advertised in Tolworth, and I went along to the very first trial.” Sophie explained.
“I started playing football at Under 8’s for Beecholme Belles, the only all-female football club in the area at the time. I was there for 10 years. After that, I signed for Kingstonian Ladies and played there for 3 years before signing for Sutton United Women where I played and captained the Under 21’s and the Under 23’s. I am now playing for Corinthian-Casuals and have the honour of captaining this team.”

It can be daunting playing for a team that reformed only five months ago - not everything will go according to plan - but Sophia sees many benefits from being a completely new outfit.

“Playing for a brand-new team means that we as players and our management staff can contribute ideas from the beginning to help shape and mould the team into something we know will be successful. I think the main difference with playing for Casuals compared with other clubs is the fact the team is brand new. We started from scratch and have seen the team grow and develop from a few players in the park for the first session to a close to full squad training at good facilities and playing some of our matches in the stadium. Knowing you have been part of this from the start gives you a sense of motivation and drive to keep building because you know how much hard work has gone into making the club what it is today.”

At a time when Women’s football is in the ascendancy, representing a Women’s club at any level is great for the community, Sophia believes this club has additional global and historical significance.

“I think any club that is promoting women’s football and offering opportunities for us as females to get involved in the game at a high level and represent a club of this stature is inspiring. We recently had a video sent to us by the Corinthians Female Team in Brazil wishing us the best for the season. We sent one back to them which was reposted and the following we have now received from our sister club has been immense. I think this is inspiring for us as players to see these connections and for younger female Casuals teams to aspire to progress within the club too.”

This season has started well with three wins out of five games: 6-2 against Tooting Bec in the first game and two 1-0 wins against Hounslow CB and Wandsworth, the first game at the King George’s Arena.

“Considering we started from scratch I think we have done respectively well. We have played five games and won three but I think the more important thing to focus on here is the progress we have made as a team. We have recruited new players we are starting to understand how we best play the game and that is showing in our football. We attracted a great crowd at the home game in the stadium, and we are proud of that.”

Sophia is helping the club build on the early season success with a longer-term focus on the construction of an institution for the community.

“My hopes and aspirations are to be a leader within the team, the voice of the players and to be an asset to my teammates on the pitch. I would love to use these platforms available to us to be able to reach out to younger female players to encourage and inspire them to get involved in the game. I think there is still a stigma around women’s football and if we can try and eradicate that one young player at a time then that would be a personal goal of mine.

“Anyone who has been on the rollercoaster of a journey that most of us women footballers have been on will understand the highs and lows. From being banned as a game for women by the FA in 1921 and then being allowed again as recently as 1971 to the most recent Euros win. If we can keep expanding and growing the game at the rate we are going now it will be something to look forward to. More can be done such as visibility, promotion, and opportunities. It needs to be shown as frequently as possible and be as readily available and accessible to gain traction. Using merchandise is a great way to promote the game and, as we have seen recently, we are still struggling with that.

“Opportunities are the biggest one for me, let’s break down the barriers and let young girls and boys understand this is a game for all.”

Sophia’s personal aspirations go together with the club’s - success on and off the field is the aim.

“Our hopes for the team this season are to be as successful as we can be and improve on our performance. We understand we need to work hard and put in effort if we want to see results. It is always a bonus to win silverware for the club and to be successful in the league so I will add that to the list too. We want to attract players to our club to join the team and feel a part of the community we are building.”

Sophia has a wonderful rapport with her manager and cannot speak highly enough of Dean Gaynor.

“Dean is a great character, his personality is very warm, very approachable, very encouraging, very positive, all around he is a very good manager.”

Ahead of the cup tie against Guernsey Sophia wants everyone to know that the Casuals is more than a club, it is a pillar to its community, and everyone is welcome.

“Corinthian-Casuals welcomes players with open arms into an inclusive and community-based club environment. We have a great set of players here at the women’s team and a sense of belonging this early in the season.”

With everything in mind, Sophia is very excited to play her first cup game for the Chocolate and Pinks at the stadium, a great occasion for Corinthian-Casuals Women’s football.

“With the cup games, it brings a little bit more excitement, it’s a knockout so you don’t get another chance. Guernsey at the King George’s Arena, we are looking forward to it, we got a big crowd last time we were there, it was great, and we got a good vibe off that. It gave us a boost, to know that we will get that extra support.”

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Casuals Women Move Up To 3rd Place

1/10/2023

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Following Sunday's 1-0 win away at Wandsworth Borough, Corinthian-Casuals FC Women are now in third place in the Greater London Women's Football League Division 2 South & Central.

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Club Statement

2/9/2023

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Dear Members and Supporters,

Some of you may have seen a recent article regarding a previous volunteer with the club, Mr Guy Brew. We can confirm Mr Brew was placed under an FA ban in March 2019, at which time he stepped down from his role at the club.

Due to confidentiality laws regarding the investigation of police complaints there were no details provided to us regarding the reasons for the ban. The FA ban allowed him to attend matches, but not to be involved in any club administration, and this has been 100% implemented and upheld by the club.

Since that time there have been no updates or further information provided to us and, until the recent publication of the news article, we were not aware of the nature of this case or even that it was an ongoing matter. Despite this we upheld the ban as we had not been informed of any change.

We take the safeguarding of our supporters seriously and can state categorically that we dealt with this unpleasant matter completely and exactly as instructed by the Football Association.

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From Last Place to the First Round: How Billy Smith’s Side Defied the Odds and Achieved FA Cup Success.

21/7/2023

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by Zac Welshman

The dawn of each new season has always bought with it the same familiar emotions; wide-eyed optimism, nervous excitement, and gripping uncertainty to name a few. Most seasons though rarely meet the giddy expectations that fans and players concoct during the summer months. Imagined league titles become relegation dogfights, and fabled cup runs last just 90 minutes. Football rarely delivers. Occasionally though, things fall into place, and for the Corinthian-Casuals side of 1983-84, managed by Billy Smith - an icon of south London’s non-league scene who spent his days working at the New Covent Garden Flower Market - their fantasies became reality as FA Cup triumphs led to the first round proper and the glamour of the football league.

The side in question, defined by its industriousness and unity, also happened to contain three of the club’s most famous alumni. Tony Finnigan, a former England youth international whose career was revived at the Casuals before he enjoyed top-flight success at Crystal Palace and Blackburn Rovers. Alan Pardew enjoyed a successful playing career in the First Division/Premier League which paved the way for a lengthy managerial career. And Andy Gray, the last man to have represented both the Corinthian-Casuals and the England team, with a professional career spanning 14 years and three countries, and who upon returning to the club as first-team manager this season, will be looking to emulate Smith’s success.

There are parallels to Smith & Gray’s appointments. Both took the job without experience in first-team management, and each inherited squads in need of a lift. Smith, appointed in 1981, was greeted by a team that had gotten used to losing, finishing bottom of the Isthmian League Division Two table for three successive seasons, collecting just 51 points and conceding a mammoth 251 goals across that time. For Gray, who returns to the club on the back of its relegation to the Isthmian League South Central Division, the picture looks far less bleak with a group of players likely capable of pushing for promotion, but there is doubtless work to be done and pride to be restored under his supervision.

It remains to be seen what Gray’s inaugural matchday squad will look like when the season kicks off on 12 August, but it is unlikely to be as raw as Smith’s was. After deciding to clear house in pre-season, Smith culled the existing first-team squad and only Bobby Armitt, who joined the club as a schoolboy in the late 1970s survived. With little to work with, a summer of creative recruitment began and goalkeeper Chris Chapman was bought in as tough tackling defender Colin Coldspring signed from Sunday league football. Striker Bernie Merron and utility man Paul Rulton, made up the rest of the notable signings as a new-look Casuals side achieved a sixth-place league finish in their debut campaign.

And as the 1982-83 season added the youthful flair of Finnigan, Pardew, and Gray, expectations began to rise. An eighth-place finish that year might have disappointed then, but for Smith’s new starlets, development was key. Speaking to the team behind the Broadway to Brazil podcast in 2021, the three recounted their formative years under Smith.

“Billy was a motivator and, to any player, he never said more than a sentence. I really liked him, that was my kind of management – he was a hard taskmaster, but if you had quality, he expected you to show quality.” Finnigan noted. For Pardew, who joined as a stick-thin 21-year-old, it was the lessons he learned from his teammates that stuck with him throughout his career.
“It was a real eclectic mix of rough and ready types, lots of banter, and you had to hold your own. It stood me in good stead for later in my career to put up with various jibes that were flying about the dressing room.”

In Andy Gray’s case, though, it was his time as a teenager under the watchful eye of assistant manager Ron King that stood out.
“He [King] used to look after me very well – nice guy. He kept me focused and he was a good motivator. I used to work for him, as it goes, as a stencil cutter for Displaycraft in Brixton Hill, but he used to let me get away with liberties because he knew that I had a chance, so he just kept me on the straight and narrow.”

After a forgettable 1982-83 season, Smith’s vision was fully realised in the following campaign. An impressive six wins from their first eight league games signalled the intent, but it was in the FA Cup that his side’s quality really shone through. A routine 2-0 victory over Camberley Town took the Casuals past the first qualifying round on 17 September, and two weeks later, Southall was dispatched in front of just 52 spectators. Isthmian Premier Division side Bognor Regis came next, but their league status meant little as the Casuals secured their first real scalp of the competition in a 3-1 victory.

By the time Merthyr Tydfil arrived in Molesey for the final qualifying round on 29 October, the cup run had gained traction and with the prize on offer for the winners, Pardew told of the bubbling atmosphere before the game:
“I seem to remember a lot of market boys were following us at the time, and Merthyr were a tough team, with a tough group of fans, and it was very boisterous and aggressive.”

The Casuals ran out 1-0 winners on the day as Pardew scored the only goal, a self-defined “scrappy old tap-in” that sealed the result and with it, an FA Cup first-round appearance for only the second time in the club’s history, and the first since 18 years. Emblematic of the get-your-hands-dirty attitude that filtered through the squad, after crowd trouble followed the match and a clubhouse window was smashed, Pardew was able to put his glazing skills to good use and aid in the restorations.

“Well, I did repair the window. I think they smashed up a little bit of the internals, the fruit machines or whatever was inside. But yeah, I got the window job. We had to make do and mend in those days.”

With Casuals in the hat and the first-round draw made, Fourth Division side Bristol City was confirmed as the opposition. Playing five leagues above Smith’s side and in search of a promotion themselves, Finnigan remembered the media attention as fans counted down the days before the big day.

“That’s all we spoke about all the time leading up to it, and at the games prior to it. I remember no one could believe it, and it was a massive story in the South London Press, because I used to buy that paper every week.”

As the Robins descended on Dulwich Hamlet’s Champion Hill ground on 19 November, 52 spectators became 2216 raucous Casuals fans, all desperate to witness a giant killing live. But in the mid-November haze, there would be no fairy tale victory. The Casuals played out a heroic 0-0 draw, summed up by Coldspring playing on after receiving four stitches to the head and earning his side a clean sheet, meaning a reply was needed and the cup run was still alive.

The rematch at Bristol City’s Ashton Gate would be one step too far for Smith’s team as they lost 4-0, with Gray admitting the players were just “too tired” by the time of the replay. But for the supporters and players of the 1983-84 season, the achievement was in making it this far, Smith and his side had defied expectations and earned their place in club folklore.

An admirable fifth-place finish in the league followed, the highest of Smith’s time at the club. But when changes to the Isthmian League’s rules on ground sharing came into effect the following season, the then nomadic Casuals resigned from the league, a decision that signalled the end of Smith’s tenure as he departed for Dulwich Hamlet, taking many of his players with him. His three-year spell at the club is still remembered by many as a golden era of the modern years, and despite a premature exit, Smith is considered a Casuals legend.

For Gray, who briefly joined Smith at Dulwich Hamlet before earning his move to Crystal Palace, there is a chance to pick up where he left off and spot the next class of exciting young Casuals talent. Speaking to the club during pre-season preparations, he noted what he would be looking for in his players.

“Anyone I look at, I’ll see myself in them. The attitude, and the way that they conduct themselves, hunger and a fire in his belly so you can just look in his eyes and know ‘yeah’ when he goes onto that pitch this is a different animal.
The gauntlet is there for me to say to somebody ‘Surpass what I did, then you’ll be okay.’ It’s a simple brief to anyone with aspirations of getting into the professional game, do better than me. That’s your yardstick, simple as.”

The Casuals 2023-24 FA Cup campaign will begin in the first extra preliminary round on 19 August, with either Tunbridge Wells or Uxbridge as opponents. For the players it will be a chance to test their metal in knockout football, for Gray, it will be an opportunity to repeat history, this time from the dugout.

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Travel Advisory

Casual Trailblazer

Casuals Women Move Up To 3rd Place

Club Statement

From Last Place to the First Round: How Billy Smith’s Side Defied the Odds and Achieved FA Cup Success.

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