Gabriel Odunaike was one of Dillon’s strike partners in our promotion season from Step 4 in 2017/18, and now he is one of those in orange, putting the players through their paces, having returned to the club in a player-coach capacity this summer. 

​“It feels good to be back,” he told us. “I’m part of the management team this time, so it’s a new experience, but it’s good to be back. The first two sessions have been great so far – we had a good first session on Tuesday, with like 40 players, and we are going to try our best to narrow that down because we want to get the squad looking nice and trim, so we can focus on the play. With the style of play we’re going to have this season, we want to keep the ball, we want to pass the ball and get our identity back again. 

“We’ve got some familiar old faces, and some new faces, and we’re going to see if we can get them working together and create something with them.” 

Gabs made sure his connection to the club was on full display, wearing a Fiel Londres cap he picked up from our London Brazilian supporters during his previous spell with Casuals.  

“Yes, definitely – showing the love!” he said. “I need to see them again and see if I can add some more to the collection, maybe a hoodie or a t-shirt, or something!” ​

On behalf of the Committee at Corinthian-Casuals, we’d like to say thank you to all our fans.

Despite the torrid season that we have recently endured, winning just five matches all season, Casuals placed sixth highest in average home attendances in the Isthmian South Central – a stark contrast to the 21st placing in the league table. We also attracted the sixth highest individual attendance figure in the division when 416 of you joined us in our 2-3 thriller against Leatherhead in April.

It's a testament to the support this club has seen grow over the years. Last season’s average home attendance was higher than the promotion-winning season in 2017-18!

In fact, despite finishing bottom of the table and suffering two relegations in two seasons, Corinthian-Casuals fans have continued to stay loyal to the club, supporting through thin and thinner. The Isthmian League reports that our attendance figures dropped less than 10% in comparison to the Isthmian Premier Division season before - a loss that can easily be attributed to differences in away support from Step 3 and Step 4 clubs, many of whom have little to no fanbase.

Our travelling contingent was also praised on many occasions, not least as an example, Badshot Lea who tweeted “Your away support is second to none. Singing all afternoon, no matter what the score!”.

From the bottom of our hearts, we’d like to thank each and every one of you who come and support the Casuals. We’re happy to announce that we’ve dropped our admission prices and season ticket costs for the season ahead. Not only are we reflecting the lower level that we're playing, but also acknowledging you, the fans, as our most important feature of the club. Adult admission will now be £10 with concessions at £6 (Over 60's/Disabled/Students/Under 18's) and Under-13s just a quid.

Season tickets are now available at the lower cost of £150 per adult and £100 per concession. Season tickets entitle you to entry to all 19 Corinthian-Casuals Combined Counties Premier Division South home fixtures as well as the Premier Challenge Cup and County Cup matches, although they do not include the FA Cup or FA Vase.
This equates to just £7.90 per game for Adults and £5.25 for Concessions.

To order your tickets, click here.

We are sure that this season will bring back the good times at King George’s.

​Words: Dominic Bliss

The Corinthians and the Casuals lost more than 100 former players between them during the First World War. Indeed, the number of young men who were killed in conflict between 1914 and 1918 was so high that the Englishmen born in the 1880s and 1890s became known as the Lost Generation.

Those who survived were left with the memories of the horrors they had witnessed and the hardships they had experienced at the front. Yet they still had responsibilities when they returned to civilian life after the war; they had families to sustain, industries to rebuild and institutions to revive.

Unsurprisingly, membership of both the Corinthian Football Club and Casuals Football Club dwindled, and very few players from the 1913/14 season returned at the end of the war. On top of that, the split between the amateur and professional Football Associations in 1907 had prompted many public schools to switch their focus to rugby union. In short, it was becoming harder and harder to source amateur footballers of a decent standard.

The people who stepped up to keep sports clubs like ours going in those difficult days deserve as much recognition as those who sparkled during the gilded age of amateur football two or three decades earlier. Casuals were grateful for the determination of pre-war captain M. Morgan-Owen for calling a meeting in April 1919 at which it was decided the club would continue, and the search for a new team began. Among those who came back from the war and returned to the football pitch was Henry Francois Dubuis, or ‘D’ to his team-mates.

H.F. Dubuis was one of the new faces recruited by the Casuals in 1919 and became one of the most significant figures of the inter-war period, playing 134 games and scoring 32 goals, from almost every position on the pitch. He also acted as Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer over the course of two decades’ service.

A little over a year ago, the club received an email from Dubuis’ son, Giles, who had read that we were building a club archive. His reason for getting in touch was twofold – he wanted to discover if we could give him any new information about his father’s playing days, but he also wished to donate some of the treasured items that ‘D’ had kept from his time with the Casuals.

Over the weeks and months that followed, we pieced together a remarkable life story, and discovered just how big a part Dubuis had played in reviving and sustaining the Casuals during that era.

“‘D’ was one of the oldest and staunchest members of the club,” stated his obituary in the Corinthian-Casuals newsletter in 1955, “and during the shaky years after the 14-18 war, it was ‘D’, with Percy Sargeant’s assistance, who kept the club alive.”

Dubuis was only 22 when the war ended. In fact, he had just come to the end of his schooldays at Ardingly College, in Sussex, when the war broke out, and he immediately signed up for a Commission. His father was Swiss and his mother was French but ‘D’ was British born and raised, and his mother put her signature alongside his on the commission form due to the fact that he was only 18, when the official age to join the armed forces was 19.

Dubuis was in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, first at Gallipoli and then in France, where he served with the 3rd Battalion and met Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves.

At Gallipoli he contracted malaria. In France he was wounded by shrapnel. At one time he was near Albert, where he told Giles he was “bloody lucky” to survive. He was one of the fortunate ones who returned to England not just alive but in good enough shape to play elite-level football after four years of war.

He did so at a testing time for Casuals, who struggled for players and finished bottom of the Isthmian League in 1919/20, his first season with the club, during which we played our home games at the Essex County Cricket Ground in Leyton. In his first three competitive fixtures, Dubuis played in three different positions across the forward line as we lost 8-1, 6-0 and 5-0 to Dulwich Hamlet, Ilford and Woking respectively. Thankfully, better years followed during his time here.